Brunei entry requirements: visa-free days, E-Arrival card and customs

Who can enter without a visa, and for how long

Brunei's Ministry of Foreign Affairs sorts every nationality into visa categories on its central list at mfa.gov.bn: categories A and B apply for a visa at a Brunei mission abroad, C can buy one on arrival, and D enter without one.

Canada is the one row where Brunei's own pages disagree, 90 days on the ministry's central list and 14 days at its embassy in Washington, so plan on 14 days, the shorter figure Brunei states.

The visa-free periods are for visits. A longer stay, or a business or professional visit, needs a visa even on a 90-day passport. For any nationality not in the table, look up its category on the ministry's list; the first-trip guide puts these rules beside the rest of the trip planning.

The E-Arrival card, step by step

Every foreign visitor who passes immigration, by air, by sea or overland, fills in the E-Arrival card before arriving. It is free, online at imm.gov.bn, the Immigration Department's portal, and each traveller, children and family members included, needs a card of their own; you can fill in one for someone else if the details are theirs. No deadline is published, but the UK advises doing it before you travel, as airlines may ask for it at check-in; if you forget, you can register on your phone at the immigration post. Travellers who stay airside in transit and do not pass immigration need no card.

The Immigration Department's guide to the card takes you through it in order: register an account with your e-mail and a one-time password, choose Travel Cards and Create Travel Card, then enter your identity details, general information and your arrival and departure data, including where you will stay. At the end you receive a reference number; carry it printed or on your phone. You can update or cancel a card if your plans change.

Complete the Health Declaration Form too, before or on arrival.

Passport, stamps and overstaying

Your passport should be valid for at least six months after the day you arrive, undamaged and with no missing pages; that is UK advice for British passports, and Brunei asks the same six months of visa applicants. The UK warns that a passport outside these conditions can mean refusal of entry and detention, and that a passport reported lost or stolen is refused. Dual nationals should enter and leave on the same passport, and Brunei does not recognise the dual nationality of Bruneians.

Make sure your passport is stamped when you enter, and check the stamps before you leave a land border post. Never overstay: the penalties include detention and caning. The visa-free categories publish no onward-ticket rule; Category A visa applicants must show a return ticket and accommodation.

From the age of 9 months, a yellow fever vaccination certificate is needed if you arrive from a country with a risk of transmission or after more than 12 hours in transit through an airport in one, and a polio vaccine in some circumstances.

Customs: alcohol, cigarettes and cash

Alcohol is not sold in Brunei. Non-Muslim visitors aged 17 and over may bring in two bottles of liquor of 1 litre each, or up to twelve 330 ml cans of beer, declared to customs on arrival, and the next import is allowed only 48 hours after the last. The liquor is for your own use in a private place, such as your hotel room, and may not be given, sold or passed to anyone else. Keep the liquor declaration form with any unfinished alcohol.

Tobacco has no duty-free allowance: every cigarette you bring in must be declared and pays BND 0.50 in excise duty, so a packet of 20 costs BND 10 at the border. Some drug offences can carry the death penalty, and signs at the border posts warn of it.

There is no limit on the cash you bring in or take out, but BND 15,000 or more, or the same value in foreign currency, goes on a CBNI declaration report, handed to Customs on arrival or to Immigration before you leave; an incomplete or false report can bring a fine of up to BND 50,000, up to three years in prison or both. Declare goods in the Customs.BN app before you land or at the customs check in the terminal.

Arriving by air at Brunei International Airport

Brunei International Airport (BWN) is the main gateway, about 15 minutes' drive from the centre of Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), with Royal Brunei Airlines' network and flights from Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta and Manila. Immigration checks your passport and E-Arrival reference; customs follows, with the declaration channel for alcohol and cigarettes.

Taxis at the rank charge fixed fares by hotel: BND 20 to most hotels in and around BSB from 06:00 to 18:00 and BND 25 from 18:00 to midnight, and BND 25 and 30 to the downtown hotels such as The Brunei Hotel and Radisson. Dart, the local ride-hailing app, picks up arrivals at the P2 car park with a fixed BND 3 airport surcharge on the app fare; Grab does not operate in Brunei.

By road from Miri: the Sungai Tujuh border

Sungai Tujuh, in Belait district, is the main road crossing to Sarawak and the one Brunei Tourism calls the most convenient, with Miri just across the line. BSB to Miri is about 160 km by road with two border posts, so allow half a day. No bus timetable for the run is published online; the airport's fixed taxi list prices it at BND 160 to the Sungai Tujuh border and BND 200 to Miri.

Leaving Brunei, you pass Brunei's exit control and then Malaysian immigration, with a Malaysia Digital Arrival Card (MDAC) filed online beforehand. Sabah and Sarawak keep their own immigration control, so you are stamped in and out there even if you come from elsewhere in Malaysia. Brunei's land posts normally open from 06:00 to 22:00, with longer hours announced around Hari Raya, so time a drive to arrive before 22:00. Coming the other way, from Miri, file the E-Arrival card before you set off. The Brunei from Sabah and Sarawak itinerary times the drive with two nights in BSB.

From Limbang and Sabah, and the Temburong Bridge

The other land crossings face Sarawak too. Kuala Lurah, in Brunei-Muara district, is a short drive from Limbang. Temburong, the eastern district, has the Ujung Jalan control complex on the road to Limbang and a temporary post at Labu on the road to Lawas; Brunei Tourism names these two for travellers coming from Sabah. The airport's fixed taxi list prices the Kuala Lurah and Labu borders at BND 60, Ujung Jalan at BND 80, and Limbang and Lawas towns at BND 120. By road from Kota Kinabalu the drive is about 260 km: down the coast through Beaufort and Sipitang, across the Sabah–Sarawak line at Sindumin and Merapok, through Lawas in Sarawak and into Temburong at Labu. That makes four border posts in one day, out of Sabah, into Sarawak, out of Sarawak and into Brunei, each with its stamps.

Between Temburong and the rest of Brunei there is no border any more. Since March 2020 the 30 km Temburong Bridge, the Sultan Haji Omar 'Ali Saifuddien Bridge, has joined the district to Brunei-Muara across the bay, so the drive from BSB to the rainforest stays inside Brunei. Our Ulu Temburong guide covers the day trip.

By ferry from Labuan to Serasa

Boats from Labuan, a Malaysian federal territory off Sabah, cross Brunei Bay to the Serasa ferry terminal near Muara, which has its own immigration and customs. The Maritime and Port Authority lists arrivals at Serasa from Labuan at 10:20, 11:30, 14:55, 16:30 and 18:00, and departures from Serasa to Labuan at 08:30, 09:30, 12:30, 13:00 and 16:40. No operator publishes fares or Labuan departure times online, so buy the ticket at the terminal. File the E-Arrival card before you board in Labuan.

From Sabah, the direct ferry from Kota Kinabalu to Labuan is suspended until further notice, its Kota Kinabalu terminal says, so the sea route starts at Menumbok, about 150 km from Kota Kinabalu by road, with a boat to Labuan and a second one to Serasa.