Libyan law requires visitors to acquire a visa invitation letter from
an approved Libyan tour operator, or a Libyan travel agent, or a Libyan company
in order to obtain the visa. The normal procedure is to book your holiday or
tour with your chosen Libyan tour operator in order for them to provide you with
the invitation letter required for the Libya visa. Some people think that
Libyan tour operators will not give you a visa or an invitation letter unless
you book an expensive holiday with them just to make more money. This is not
true.
Libyan (old) law stated that only your Libyan-government-approved tour operator
can provide you with a Libya visa, and that once you are inside the country a
representative from that tour operator must accompany you during your tour. For
groups of more than four tourists the law also requires the Tourism Police to
accompany you. Both these requirements have been abolished
by the transitional government after the 17th of February uprising in 2011.
This however does not mean that you must book a group-holiday or an expensive-tour
in order to get the Libyan visa invitation letter. The tour operator is only
required to provide you with a visa, and the rest is entirely up
to you. The guide is now optional. You can camp or choose to sleep in a hotel
you like, buy and eat your own food, and drive your own car. There is no restriction
of freedom either, as once you decide what destinations you would like to visit
you can go anywhere within those specified destinations.
2012 Update:
After the recent changes in Libya, it is no longer required to book a holiday
in order to apply for the visa. The guide requirement has also become discretionary.
This means that we can provide visa services without the need to take part
in any of our
tours.
A copy of tourist visa approval
How can I obtain an invitation letter from temehu.com?
The easy way to obtain the Libyan visa: you do not have to have or see the "visa
invitation letter" at all. All you have to do is send us the following
details:
Full name and nationality.
Scan of passport's bio page.
Your profession.
The tour operator will then use the letter to apply for the appropriate
visa required. Once the visa approval (or the "visa reference
number") has been granted by the
immigration department in Tripoli, we can either use the visa approval to obtain
the Libyan Entry Visa on the day of your arrival (most of our visitors
opt for this option), or send you a copy so that you can take it
to the embassy to secure the actual visa stamp from the embassy.
To find out more about the
visa procedure, please see our
tourist visa page.
