Can EU citizens travel to Syria?

Checked 13 September 2026 against Decision 128 as reported in Arabic (eanlibya, 29 April 2026), In Your Pocket’s summer 2026 visa note, Scope’s 2026 fee bands, Against the Compass’s 2026 list, Laura Meyers (Laure Wanders, 8 September 2026), Irish DFAT (still current that day), the Italian MAE PDF (valid 12 August 2026), Spain’s MAE sheet (current 13 September 2026; last edit 23 April 2026), and the stamp already on Visa on arrival. This page is most EU passports. It is also Switzerland and Norway. Irish, Italian or Spanish: this is the hub. German, French and Dutch have their own URLs. If a practical detail below is wrong, tell us.

Do EU passports get a visa on arrival?

Yes. Cash at Masnaa from Lebanon, Nassib from Jordan, or Damascus airport when the airline boards you. About US$75, cash dollars. Decision 128 names France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Switzerland in the US$75 group. Scope and In Your Pocket put most of the Union in the same band, with Switzerland and Norway. Against the Compass: EU passports, including Switzerland and Norway, $75. Check the stamp before you leave the counter: 15 days or 30. A Belgian independent in September 2026 paid US$75, received 15 days, and extended in Damascus in about an hour. Independent travellers do this without a tour.

Germany, France and the Netherlands still advise against travel. That matters for Syria travel insurance and for consular help. It is not the stamp. Day-to-day notes are on Is Syria safe to visit.

What visa does an EU passport get?

Some ministry pages still point at a Syrian embassy — Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Madrid. We could not confirm those desks as a working tourist route in September 2026. In Your Pocket, summer 2026: Syrian embassies do not currently issue tourist visas. Spain’s MAE sheet, still current on 13 September 2026, still points at evisa.sy. We fetched that site this session: it returned an error. There is no form. Do not type a card there. A site that sells a sticker visa, a 90-day form, or an e-visa is not the packing. Carry US$75. The table is on Visa on arrival. Fees have been collected at land since 6 July 2025. Wikivoyage still writes that the air fee is not charged at land. Against the Compass’s 2026 fee list charges land, then an older line still says land is free. It was. Pay cash dollars.

Ireland and Luxembourg sit in the US$50 band in In Your Pocket and Scope, and with the US$75 EU band in Against the Compass and Guides. Decision 128 as reported this session names Italy and Spain in the US$75 group and does not name Ireland — unlisted is US$50. Carry US$75.

A German passport takes the same cash stamp as most of the Union, about US$75. Do not wait for a Berlin sticker, and do not travel on a Personalausweis. What is German — Reisewarnung, Krankenkasse, Elefand — is on Can Germans travel to Syria?.

A French passport takes the same cash stamp as most of the Union, about US$75. Do not wait for a Rue Vaneau sticker, and do not travel on a carte nationale d’identité. What is French — formellement déconseillé, Fil d’Ariane, CEAM — is on Can French citizens travel to Syria?.

A Dutch passport takes the same cash stamp as most of the Union, about US$75. Do not wait for a Brussels sticker, and do not travel on an identiteitskaart. What is Dutch — kleurcode rood, Informatieservice, EHIC-kaart — is on Can Dutch citizens travel to Syria?.

Irish, Italian or Spanish: this is the page. Do not wait for a separate URL. Irish DFAT asks three months on the passport; passport cards cannot be used. Pack the booklet. We still pack six months if you can. An Italian official sheet already names about US$75 at land and at Damascus or Aleppo. A Spanish sheet still points at evisa.sy. The desk is the tourist route.

Passport: six months left if you can. One blank page. Clean notes. A passport that shows travel to Israel may be refused. That fight is on the visa page.

Land or air?

The Syrian stamp and the airline boarding pass are different systems. There is no useful direct from most of the Union. Istanbul, Amman, Doha, or Beirut then land.

Land, for an ordinary EU tourist passport: form, cash, stamp. No tour. From Beirut: Beirut to Damascus. The Amman road is Amman to Damascus. Hours are on How to get to Syria. Turkey is not the tourist land door — Turkey to Syria by land.

Air: DAM can still issue the visa. Some airlines will not board you without a prior letter because their manuals lag. Confirm in writing. If they will not, do not argue Timatic at the gate. Change to Beirut or Amman. The board is Flights to Syria.

Insurance and cash

A high-street policy that follows your foreign ministry’s against-travel advice will not pay. Get Syria named in writing, with medical and evacuation, and that travelling against advice does not void it. The European Health Insurance Card is not this trip. The certificate is Syria travel insurance. Day-to-day notes are on Cash in Syria.

Consular help

There is no useful EU desk inside Syria. Call your own foreign ministry. Confirm the number when you pack. Do not plan on being evacuated.

If you also hold Syrian papers, that is a different desk — Dual nationality and Syria travel. This page is the EU tourist passport. Carry it when you fly home.

Later: the United States

If you later fly to the United States on this passport, a Syria stamp is an ESTA problem, not a Syria problem. Presence in Syria on or after 1 March 2011 makes you ineligible for the visa waiver. You still go. You apply for a visitor visa. Check the authorisation. That page is Will visiting Syria cancel my ESTA?.

If this fails

The airline will not board a visa-on-arrival passenger: Beirut or Amman and the land border. A site sells an e-visa, a sticker, a tour, a free land stamp, US$50 for Ireland, or US$125 for “the EU”: the stamp is the working tourist route. Carry US$75. German: Can Germans travel to Syria?. French: Can French citizens travel to Syria?. Dutch: Can Dutch citizens travel to Syria?. Irish, Italian or Spanish: this is the hub.

What this page will not tell you

Twenty-seven country names. A frozen consular telephone. That Berlin, Paris, Brussels or Madrid will staff a tourist visa this month. That the European Health Insurance Card will pay a clinic. That against-travel advice is the stamp. That a tour is required. Independent EU passports use these roads — Do I need a tour to visit Syria?.