Mauritanian Visa

After a few years of distributing Visas to Mauritania in Casablanca, they have been given out at the Mauritanian Embassy in Rabat for the last two years. 1 Avenue de Normandie in the Souissi neighborhood. It used to be possible to get a transit visa at the frontier between Morocco and Mauritania but that has been discontinued since the most recent kidnappings and attacks against foreigners. You MUST get your Visa in Rabat. This will most likely change though.

You can walk to the embassy quite easily in about 45 minutes from the Rabat Ville train station.
Take Avenue Mohamed V (which becomes Ave Yocoub El Mansour) South until the roundabout outside the city walls. Bear right onto Ave John Kennedy and go SW for about 3 km past the embassy signs of Venezuela, and Senegal. At the interception of Ave Kennedy and Ave Imam Malek is a large CMH petrol station. On your left will be a small commercial center (with photocopier) followed by 3 banks. The first available right is 1 Ave de Normandy. If you pass the
Angolan Embassy you've gone too far.

For 3.5Dh bus 1 will take you to the embassy from near the train station and 2,4,8,21,43 and 44 will get you close. Get off if the bus tuns off Ave Kennedy. If you take a taxi as the driver to take you to SuperMarche Souissi. The fare should be less than 20 Dhs from Gare Rabat Ville. The Embassy is just across the street.

The office opens about 9h but this tends to vary. Be there before 11h. You need your passport, 2 visa photos, 340Dh (up from 200 two years ago)and a photocopy of the first pages of your passport. At the gate you'll be directed down to a little office. Fill out a straight forward two-page form in French, give an official the items mentioned above and come back later the same day 15h and 16h, earlier on Fridays. They did not ask for proof of financial support nor of onward travel.

A few hundred meters before the embassy on Ave John Kennedy is the Souissi Boulangerie and Patisieri with an attached restaurant. It is a classy joint with free wifi. A café noir cost 12Dh.