Benin or Togo
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 | Togo | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | 3 years | — |
| Partner can work | — | yes |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | no trouble |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | — | — |
| Residence permit fee | 250 000 XOF | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 332 · estimate | $ 283 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 28,9 | $ 30,6 |
| Life expectancy | 60.96 | 62.94 |
| Homicides/100k | 1.13 | — |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 3.1 | 2.4 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Benin — 8, Togo — 12. Types present in both: work and study. Togo adds: 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. Togo: fees range from 5,000 to 800,000 XOF. Routes with a published decision deadline: 12; the shortest is 5 days.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Benin after 6 years; the other country publishes no term. Citizenship: Benin after 3 years; the other country publishes no term.
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.
Togo in brief
Togo is a country with weak institutions and moderate natural risks: political stability −0.81, government effectiveness −0.80, control of corruption −0.66 and rule of law −0.63 on the World Bank scale from −2.5 to +2.5. Life expectancy is 62.94 years, health spending 59.6 dollars per person a year, basic water access reaches 64.8 per cent of the population, and mean PM2.5 stands at 34.33 micrograms per cubic metre. Road deaths run at 22.7 per 100,000. Natural risk is 2.4 out of 10 on INFORM overall, with flooding at 3.0. The immigration framework, by contrast, is transparent and published in full by the authority itself: law No. 2022-005 and its implementing decree sit in the “Lois & Règlements” section of the Directorate General of National Documentation, and the law appears as an issue of the Official Gazette. The residence card becomes compulsory after six months and, by the law's own definition, itself confers the right to paid or unpaid employment: the country has no separate work permit as a document. The spouses and descendants of a card holder live on the same conditions as the holder. A visa decision comes within five days at most, a residence card in 30–45 days. What to watch for: penalties for missing deadlines are published and high by local standards — a million CFA francs for staying more than six months in a year without applying for a card, half a million for working without a card or an entry authorisation. Neither the law nor the decree names any condition for the five-year privileged card, so the period to permanent status is empty in the data.
Other comparisons
Benin or… Nigeria · Rwanda · Tunisia · Algeria · Tanzania · Kenya · South Africa · Angola
Togo or… Gabon · Madagascar · Sierra Leone · Uganda · Zambia · Eswatini · Lesotho · Mozambique
More on each: Benin · Togo. 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.