Benin or Namibia
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
| Benin | Namibia | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | 3 years | 5 years |
| Partner can work | — | no |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | difficult |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | — | — |
| Residence permit fee | 250 000 XOF | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 332 · estimate | $ 662 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 28,9 | $ 29,2 |
| Life expectancy | 60.96 | 67.52 |
| Homicides/100k | 1.13 | 11.21 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 3.1 | 4.1 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Benin — 8, Namibia — 8. Types present in both: work and study. Namibia adds: remote work and family.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Benin: fees range from 32,798 to 800,000 XOF. Routes with a published decision deadline: 6; the shortest is 1 days. Namibia: fees range from 600 to 20,000 NAD. Routes stating an income threshold: 1; the lowest is 2,000 USD a month. Routes with a published decision deadline: 7; the shortest is 7 days.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Benin after 6 years; the other country publishes no term. Citizenship: Benin after 3 years, Namibia after 5 years.
Benin in brief
Benin is noticeably calmer than the region's reputation suggests: 1.13 homicides per 100,000 people (World Bank, 2017 data — the authorities publish nothing more recent for the country), political stability −0.4 and control of corruption −0.24 on the World Bank scale from −2.5 to +2.5. The strong points end there: life expectancy 60.96 years, health spending of 46.5 dollars per person a year, basic water access for 69.6 per cent of the population, and mean PM2.5 of 39.66 micrograms per cubic metre — nearly ten times the WHO guideline. Road deaths run at 24.8 per 100,000. Natural risk is moderate overall (3.1 out of 10 on INFORM), but flooding scores 6.7. The immigration framework has been rewritten from scratch and simplified: law No. 2025-15 of July 2025 and the decree of March 2026 left two resident statuses instead of three — an ordinary card for three years and a privileged one for ten. Two rules are worth knowing in advance: silence from the authority at the end of the decision period counts as a refusal, and a visa refusal cannot be appealed at all — three days are allowed to leave. Fees for nationals of ECOWAS states and for everyone else differ by a factor of five or more. There is no separate work permit: the labour directorate endorses the contract with a foreigner, and that is the employer's obligation.
Namibia in brief
Namibia regulates labour migration under the Immigration Control Act 7 of 1993: a short-term work visa runs from 1 day to 6 months with no right of renewal beyond that period within a calendar year, an Employment Permit runs from 6 months to 2 years and is tied to a specific employer and position, and the Permanent Residence Permit is issued by the Immigration Selection Board at its discretion, with no statutory minimum period of residence. A digital nomad visa has been in place since 2022, with an income threshold of $2,000 a month and up and a stay of up to 6 months with no renewal. Naturalisation is possible after 5 years of continuous residence, but years spent on fixed-term permits, including a work visa, do not count towards this period (art. 5(3)(b), Namibian Citizenship Act 14 of 1990), and the applicant must renounce their foreign citizenship (art. 5(1)(g)); citizens by birth and by descent are not subject to such renunciation or deprivation (art. 4(8), Namibian Constitution). Between Namibia and South Africa, a simplified pet movement regime operates within the Southern African Customs Union; for other countries, the general procedure applies with an import veterinary permit. The country faces a structural water shortage: the INFORM drought risk indicator is 9.4 out of 10 (2026), and access to basic water supply covers 86.5% of the population (World Bank, 2024). Income inequality is among the highest in the world, with a Gini index of 59.1 (World Bank, 2015 data).
Other comparisons
Benin or… Nigeria · Rwanda · Tunisia · Algeria · Tanzania · Kenya · South Africa · Angola
Namibia or… Gabon · Madagascar · Sierra Leone · Uganda · Zambia · Eswatini · Lesotho · Mozambique
More on each: Benin · Namibia. 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.