Iceland: visa and entry rules
What you need to get in, how long you may stay, and what an overstay costs
Iceland's borders: every crossing point
Airports 2
Iceland is an island and has no land borders.
All arrivals go through Keflavik airport near Reykjavik.
By sea there is the ferry Norrona from Hirtshals in Denmark via the Faroe Islands to Seydisfjordur. It is the only regular sea route, and it carries cars.
There are no internal border formalities, the whole island is a single country.
Driving to Iceland
The only way to get there under your own steam is the Norrona ferry from Denmark via the Faroes - there are no other land or short sea routes.
The practical option is to rent a car on arrival, and that is the standard way of travelling around the island.
Four-wheel drive is needed for the F-roads, the mountain gravel tracks that are open only in summer; driving them in an ordinary car is prohibited.
A Green Card is compulsory for foreign-registered vehicles.
Driving off the road onto open ground is forbidden by law and carries a heavy fine: the tundra takes decades to recover.
Travelling to Iceland with a pet
The rules here are not the common European ones and are among the strictest in the world. Iceland is not in the EU, and its veterinary requirements are tougher than those of its Schengen neighbours.
An import permit is required, arranged in advance with the Food and Veterinary Authority.
Quarantine is compulsory - on arrival the animal is placed in a state quarantine centre, at your expense, and this does not depend on how complete your paperwork is.
A rabies antibody test is required, along with a full set of vaccinations observing the waiting periods.
Preparation takes several months, so arriving with a pet on the spur of the moment is not possible.
Some dog breeds are banned from import altogether.
Overstaying your visa in Iceland
The violation is recorded across the whole Schengen area, not for an individual country.
The main consequence is a refusal of your next visa. The record stays in the system, and getting a Schengen visa afterwards becomes considerably harder.
An entry ban for a substantial overstay applies to the entire area at once.
Days are counted across the whole of Schengen. The typical mistake is to count the stay in each country separately.
What else to check before you go
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Entry rules change faster than anything else on this site, and they change without notice. We cross-check every page against several sources and state the date it was verified, but that does not replace the main step: before you travel, check an official source — the country’s consulate, its immigration service or its e-visa portal. Especially if more than a couple of months have passed since our check.