Botswana or Cameroon
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
| Botswana | Cameroon | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | 10 years | — |
| Partner can work | no | — |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | no trouble |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | no | no |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 360 · estimate | $ 807 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 21,0 | $ 34,0 |
| Life expectancy | 69.29 | 63.97 |
| Homicides/100k | 12.98 | 6.76 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 2.2 | 3.5 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Botswana — 14, Cameroon — 10. Types present in both: work, study and family. Botswana adds: investment.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Botswana: fees range from 1,500 to 3,000 BWP. Routes with a published decision deadline: 13; the shortest is 7 days. Cameroon: fees range from 75,000 to 750,000 XAF. Routes with no fee: 1. Routes with a published decision deadline: 5; the shortest is 3 days.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Botswana after 5 years, Cameroon after 4 years. Citizenship: Botswana after 10 years; the other country publishes no term.
Botswana in brief
Botswana regulates labour and permanent migration through the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs): the official categories are the Work Permit (14 working days to process), the Residence Permit (30 working days), the Exemption Certificate, which exempts certain categories of foreigners from the Work Permit requirement (7 working days), and the Permanent Residence Permit, which requires a minimum of 5 years of continuous lawful residence — except for the investor category, to which this threshold does not apply; the official page gives the processing time both as "56 working days" and as "about six months". Ordinary naturalisation requires at least 10 years of residence in total and the last 12 months continuously before applying, and concludes with a mandatory renunciation of foreign citizenship; for spouses of Botswana citizens the threshold is reduced to 5 years of residence within the marriage. Dual citizenship is preserved without restriction only for those who acquired it by birth or by descent; those who acquire Botswana citizenship by registration, naturalisation or marriage must renounce their foreign citizenship, while citizens by birth/descent who simultaneously hold foreign citizenship must choose a single citizenship by age 21 or automatically lose Botswana citizenship. The import of dogs and cats is handled by the Department of Veterinary Services as an import permit: a valid rabies vaccination certificate and an inspection of the animal before the permit is issued are required — quarantine and rabies antibody titration are not among the listed requirements, and the permit is issued within 1 working day. The country's economy has historically relied on diamond mining and exports: in May 2026 diamonds accounted for 59.0% of all merchandise exports (Statistics Botswana). Access to basic water supply covers 91.77% of the population (World Bank, 2024), and the INFORM drought risk indicator is 5.4 out of 10 (2026). HIV prevalence among adults aged 15–49 is 15.7% (WHO, Global Health Observatory, 2024) — one of the highest rates in the world and a significant factor when planning health insurance and access to treatment.
Cameroon in brief
Cameroon is a country with very dirty air and a marked price gap between its two main cities. On the World Bank scale from −2.5 to +2.5, political stability stands at −1.56, rule of law at −1.25, control of corruption at −1.22 and government effectiveness at −0.80. Life expectancy is 63.97 years, health spending 79.10 dollars per person a year, and basic water access reaches 71.41 per cent of the population. Mean PM2.5 concentration is 55.6 micrograms per cubic metre, one of the worst figures in the sample. Homicides run at 6.76 per 100,000, road deaths at 10.6 per 100,000, and the Gini index is 42.2. Natural risk overall is 3.5 out of 10 on INFORM and almost entirely water-related: floods 6.7, droughts 3.4, coastal hazards 2.6, whereas earthquakes are at 0.1 and there are no cyclones or tsunamis at all. The immigration framework has been published by the agency in full and rests on a single rule worth grasping in advance: the right to work is conferred not by the residence card but by the visa. Only the long-stay visa opens the right to paid activity and to study, and it is also a mandatory condition for the residence card. The employment contract, moreover, is endorsed by the labour minister before entry. The agencies state the visa issuing standard differently: the foreign ministry says 72 hours after pre-registration and 24 hours under the expedited procedure, DGSN says no more than 48 hours. The residence card is valid for two years and is renewed twice, the resident card for ten years; under decree No. 2025/059 of 28 February 2025 it is obtained after the SECOND renewal of the residence card, whereas the former section of the DGSN site spoke of the third. There is also a direct route through marriage, but here too the agency's texts diverge: the new section writes “the spouse of a person of foreign nationality”, the former one “the spouse of a Cameroonian citizen”. In both documents the fee depends on the applicant's nationality rather than on the type of document, and a separate rate is set aside for the French. What is not in this data: the agency publishes a processing standard only for the visa, but not for the residence card or the resident card; city populations are not given, because no official source separating the city from the region was found. The rent gap between Douala and Yaoundé is taken from the source as it stands — it is reproduced across all the lines, not just one, and the source offers no explanation for it.
Other comparisons
Botswana or… Nigeria · Rwanda · Tunisia · Algeria · Tanzania · Kenya · South Africa · Angola
Cameroon or… Gabon · Madagascar · Sierra Leone · Uganda · Zambia · Eswatini · Lesotho · Mozambique
More on each: Botswana · Cameroon. 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.