Legal arrangements of Foreign Citizens setting out the respective rules of entry, residence and leaving the country, their rights and guarantees

There was recently been published in the Official Gazette No 105, Series I, of 31 December 2014, Decree No. 108/2014 of 31 December 2014, adopting the Regulation of Law No. 5/93, 28 December, laying down the Legal arrangements of Foreign Citizens setting out the respective rules of entry, residence and leaving the country, their rights and guarantees.

There were introduced in the new arrangements, some important elements that were not in the previous one and that, given its importance, we began to consider:

a)      Visa for investment activities

The aforementioned Decreeintroduced a visa for investment activities, which is granted to an investor, his representative or investing company attorney for implementation of investment projects, approved the Council of Ministers, equal to or higher than 50 (fifty) million dollars.

b)      Work Visa

Pursuant to the Decree No. 108/2014 of 31 December 2014, as in the previous Arrangements, a work visa is granted to foreign citizens by Diplomatic and Consular missions in Republic of Mozambique and is intended to allow entry in the national territory to the holder thereof for the purpose of pursuing temporarily a paid job or not in the interests of the State or on behalf of a third party.

Meanwhile, there were added to the arrangement of granting award work visa, some conditions and requirements for the use thereof which are (i) the term of use of the visa, which increased from 30 to 60 days thereafter, (ii) it was supplied to visa the singularity of the validity, allowing the holder thereof multiple entries and stay until the expiry of the validity of the contract, (iii) there has been clarified the issue of a work permit to only enable the holder to devote himself exclusively to the employer entity who applied for.

As stated above, there were added over the previous Arrangements, conditions for granting a work permit, which we state below:

i)                    The need to submit a work permit if the applicant seeks to exercise professional activity;

ii)                   Document with evidence enabling him to exercise the profession for which it is authorized;

iii)                 Medical certificate;

iv)                 Evidence guarantee accommodation arrangements in Mozambique;

v)                  Guarantee for possible repatriation of foreign citizens, as well as the household thereof, translated into cash value corresponding to the price of return ticket to the country of origin deposited in the name of the Immigration Service. This Guarantee is returned at the end of the employment relationship, and to this purpose the refund should be requested within thirty days prior from leaving the country;

vi)                 The visa at the border is granted ony to those citiozens from countries that do not have diplomatic or consular representation in Mozambique;

vii)               The visa at the border does not allow the holder to get residence and work permit;

viii)              To the foreign spouse and minor children or handicapped of the foreign citizen holding a work visa is granted a temporary stay visa which is valid for one year, renewable on until the end of the ground which ordered its grant;

ix)                 The validity of the criminal record certificate to attach to the process, when required, shall be 1 year, opposed, at 6 months of the previous arrangements.

There was also added a specific condition to foreign employees intending to provide activity within the mining industry, a condition which lays down that before submitting the visa application to the diplomatic missions, there must be made an application addressed to the Minister who oversees the area of Immigration, together with the work permit and the opinion of the Minister of Mineral Resources.

c)       Temporary Stay Visa

The Decree No. 108/2014 of 31 December 2014 introduces a temporary stay visa to the foreign spouse and minor children or handicapped of the foreign citizen holder of a work permit.

The above decree sets that the temporary stay visa shall be issued by diplomatic and consular missions of the Republic of Mozambique and must be used within sixty days following the date of grant and allows the holder thereof multiple entries and stay for a maximum period of one year, renewable on until the end of the ground which ordered its grant.

This new arrangements repeals the previous one which provided the need for the foreign spouse and minor children and handicapped of the foreign citizen holding a work visa to obtain a residence permit that allows his/her stay in the country,since with the grant of a temporary stay visa the holder may stay in the Mozambican territory for a period of one year, renewable on until the end of the ground which ordered its grant.

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