Visas now required for Caymanians, Brits to enter Honduras

From tomorrow, 15 Aug., British nationals and people travelling on British Overseas Territories passports, including Caymanians, will require a visa to enter Honduras.

The Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently announced the change in the visa regime, which is being introduced in retaliation for Britain imposing a visa requirement last year on Honduran nationals entering the UK.

However, there is currently nowhere in Cayman where people can obtain travel visas for Honduras, as there is no Honduran embassy or consulate based here. Instead, it appears Britons and holders of Cayman Islands or other British Overseas Territories passports would need to apply to a consulate or embassy overseas to get a visa for Honduras.

When announcing its plan to impose the visa requirement in July last year, the UK government stated it was because of a rise in the number of asylum applications from Hondurans “who have abused the provision to visit the UK for a limited period as non-visa nationals in order to do so”.

It noted that in 2017 there were nine asylum applications from Honduran nationals. In 2022, there were 789 asylum applications, and in the first quarter of 2023 there were 275.

In its announcement last month of the plan to impose a reciprocal visa regime, the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the UK had put its visa requirement for Hondurans in place “despite the efforts made by our government through diplomatic channels”.

The visa requirement for Hondurans was put in place under Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government. Since then, a Labour government, led by Sir Keir Starmer, has been elected in the UK.

The Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in its statement, said it was confident that, with the entry of the new Labour government, an agreement could be reached to normalise the situation and reintroduce visa-free entry or other special arrangements “in order to strengthen cooperation and good relations between both nations”.

The visa requirement impacts the following people:

• Nationals of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Holders of British passports originally from other British territories, including the Cayman Islands
• Holders of British passports from the Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (Hong Kong) stating ‘British nationality’.

Travel agent Fiona Brander, of Travel Pros, said the change in the visa regime may come as a blow to tourism in La Ceiba and the Bay Islands, popular destinations for travellers from the Cayman Islands.

“I think it is terrible for the hotels and lodges in La Ceiba and the Bay Islands,” she told the Compass. “Plus, there are tons of backpackers that will now be affected.”

Brander says the new visa requirement may also have a knock-on effect on the Central America-4 Free Mobility Agreement, known as CA-4, which allows tourists to travel for up to 90 days between El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras.

Cayman Airways, which has flies direct to Le Ceiba in Honduras every Friday, issued a press release to advise its passengers of the change in the visa regime. It said its passengers should ensure they have all necessary travel documents, including visas, prior to arriving at the airport for check-in and document verification.

Passengers will be required to present proof of their visa to Cayman Airways staff, it said.

Cayman Airways has listed the following consulates or embassies where visas for Honduras may be obtained:

Panama City, Panama
Email: [email protected]

Havana, Cuba
Email: [email protected]

Miami, USA
Email: [email protected]

Dominican Republic
Email: [email protected]