Do France passport holders need a visa to visit ET?

French (ordinary) passport holders need a visa for Ethiopia. The recommended route for a short tourist stay is the official Ethiopia tourist eVisa, applied for online before travel at evisa.gov.et. A visa on arrival is also technically available to EU citizens at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, but the eVisa is the safer, government-promoted channel and avoids airport refusal risk. France is not visa-exempt for Ethiopia. Ethiopia operates an all-electronic visa system via its official portal (evisa.gov.et), and citizens of all countries (including France) are eligible for the tourist eVisa. The standard tourist eVisa is single-entry, valid for 30 days of stay, currently costing around US$62 (a 90-day option has historically been offered at around US$152, but availability has fluctuated; the 30-day product is the consistently available standard). Applications are submitted online with a passport bio-page scan and a passport-style photo; approval typically takes about 3 business days. Critically, eVisa (and visa-on-arrival) holders MUST enter Ethiopia through Addis Ababa Bole International Airport (ADD) — entry via any land border or other airport is prohibited and leads to refusal. Passports must be valid for at least 6 months from the arrival date. While AU member-state citizens get visa-on-arrival with no preconditions, and EU citizens including the French may obtain a tourist visa on arrival at Bole, Ethiopia actively encourages travelers to obtain the eVisa in advance to avoid airport queues and the risk of being turned away, so the eVisa is the recommended verdict. Note: an EU Council restrictive visa measure against Ethiopia from 2024 was lifted in May 2026; this concerned Ethiopians applying for Schengen visas and does not affect French travelers going to Ethiopia.