Burundi or Kenya
Two countries side by side across the same rows as the full comparison. A dash means the value is missing: fields are not filled with guesses. about the data
| Burundi | Kenya | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | — | 7 years |
| Partner can work | — | no |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | — | no trouble |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | — | no |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 467 · estimate | $ 520 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 37,3 | $ 26,0 |
| Life expectancy | 63.82 | 63.83 |
| Homicides/100k | 5.65 | 4.65 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 3 | 4.2 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Burundi — 17, Kenya — 24. Types present in both: work, study, family and investment. Kenya adds: remote work, repatriation and retirement.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Burundi: fees range from 25 to 1,200 USD. Routes with no fee: 7. Kenya: fees range from 1,000 to 750,000 KES. Routes with no fee: 2. Routes stating an income threshold: 2; the lowest is 24,000 USD a year. Routes with a published decision deadline: 22; the shortest is 1 days.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Burundi after 10 years, Kenya after 7 years. Citizenship: Kenya after 7 years; the other country publishes no term.
Burundi in brief
Burundi is a country with weak institutions and expensive connectivity alongside very cheap transport. On the World Bank scale from −2.5 to +2.5, control of corruption stands at −1.46, political stability at −1.38, rule of law at −1.30 and government effectiveness at −1.01. Life expectancy is 63.82 years, health spending 28.14 dollars per person per year, basic access to water reaches 65.92 per cent of the population, and mean PM2.5 concentration is 35.69 micrograms per cubic metre. Road deaths run at 12.3 per 100,000 and homicides at 5.65 per 100,000 (2016 data). Overall natural risk is 3.0 out of 10 on INFORM: earthquakes 4.6, droughts 3.8, floods 2.6; the country is landlocked, so cyclone, tsunami and coastal risks are zero. The unemployment figures — 0.92 per cent overall and 1.68 per cent among young people — reflect the structure of a labour market that is almost entirely informal and agricultural, not the absence of a problem finding work. One distinctive feature of prices: a month of internet costs 65.28 dollars against utilities of 16.92 and a monthly transport pass of 25.37. The immigration framework is published by the authority in full and reads without intermediaries: the service catalogue of the Directorate-General of Migration sets out, for every visa, the required documents, the fee and the period of validity. The establishment visa is issued for two years and requires a deposit in a blocked account — 1,500 dollars for one person or 5,000 for a family. Permanent residence is granted on one of several grounds: ten years of uninterrupted residence with proven investments, substantial investment creating durable employment for nationals, or marriage to a Burundian citizen, where the marriage condition is asymmetric by gender. What this data does not contain: the authority publishes no statutory processing times for any service, and the rules for importing cats and dogs are described neither by a national source nor by the veterinary authorities of other countries.
Kenya in brief
Kenya admits foreign specialists through a system of ten classes of work permits (Class A-M), each for a different purpose — from mineral prospecting and agriculture to prescribed professions and religious activity — and, since 2024, through a separate digital nomad visa (Class N) requiring a confirmed minimum income of $55,000 a year from sources outside the country. Permanent residence on the general ground — holding a work permit — is reached after 7 years, the last 3 of which must be continuous residence in the country; the spouse of a Kenyan citizen becomes eligible for permanent residence sooner, after 3 years of marriage, but until then the accompanying spouse holds a Dependant's Pass, which does not carry the right to work. Naturalisation takes the same 7 years — by marriage or by permanent residence with knowledge of Swahili or a local language; former citizens by birth who lost their citizenship on acquiring a foreign one have a separate, faster route to restoration. The 2010 Constitution permits dual citizenship for citizens by birth. Nairobi is the region's largest technology hub: since 2007 it has hosted the African headquarters of Google, IBM, Cisco Systems, and General Electric.
Other comparisons
Burundi or… Nigeria · Rwanda · Tunisia · Algeria · Tanzania · South Africa · Angola · Gabon
Kenya or… Madagascar · Sierra Leone · Uganda · Zambia · Eswatini · Lesotho · Mozambique · Republic of the Congo
More on each: Burundi · Kenya. Build your own comparison — up to four countries
This material is for reference and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Visa rules, tax thresholds and prices change. Before deciding anything, check the official sources and consult a licensed professional in the relevant country.