The draw for the qualification stage took place on 8 April 2015, immediately after the announcement of the host nation,[2] originally scheduled at 12:30 UTC+2 at the Marriott ‘Zamalek’ Hotel in Cairo, Egypt,[3] but delayed to 15:00.

[5] However, the ban was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, allowing Morocco to enter the tournament.

[6] Morocco had sought to postpone the tournament because of the outbreak of Ebola in Africa but their request was rejected by CAF.

[6] For seeding, the teams were ranked using CAF's own system which were calculated based on the team's performance in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying tournament, the three most recent editions the Africa Cup of Nations, and their qualifying campaigns.

If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order:[10] The qualifiers started with the first matches played in the FIFA international dates of 8–16 June 2015.