Botswana or The Gambia
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 | The Gambia | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | 10 years | — |
| Partner can work | no | — |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | difficult |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | no | — |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 360 · estimate | $ 122 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 21,0 | $ 19,2 |
| Life expectancy | 69.29 | 66.06 |
| Homicides/100k | 12.98 | — |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 2.2 | 2.9 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Botswana — 14, The Gambia — 6. Types present in both: work. Botswana adds: study, family and 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. The Gambia: fees range from 100 to 7,700 GMD.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Botswana after 5 years; the other country publishes no term. 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.
The Gambia in brief
The Gambia is very cheap and very poor at the same time. **A monthly transit pass at 6.55 dollars is the cheapest in this guide**, and a one-bedroom in Banjul rents for 80 euros with utilities at 26. And alongside that: health spending of 25.74 dollars per person per year — fifth from the bottom among 167 countries. Life expectancy is 66.06 years, basic water access reaches 87.1 percent of the population, PM2.5 stands at 38.27 micrograms per cubic metre (the twenty-fourth highest of 170), and road deaths run at 22.0 per 100,000. Unemployment is 6.52 percent, and 10.86 among young people. Overall natural hazard is 2.9 out of 10 on INFORM and almost entirely water-borne: flooding 4.6, drought 3.0, coastal hazards 2.5, tsunami 1.1, with earthquakes and cyclones practically absent. On the World Bank scale the governance figures are appreciably better than the regional norm: political stability −0.02, control of corruption −0.33, rule of law −0.39 and government effectiveness −0.54. The Immigration Department sets out the procedure in detail. A visa may be single journey, multiple journey (valid no longer than 12 months), transit, diplomatic (heads of missions only, and free) or short visit for 90 days; ECOWAS citizens need no visa. The service states twice that issuing a visa does not guarantee entry: the final decision rests with the officer at the port of arrival. There are two classes of residence permit: A — to live without gainful employment (students, retirees, short business visits) — and B, to live and work. The distinction by nationality runs through everything: an ECOWAS citizen obtains a permit after up to 90 days in the country, while a non-ECOWAS citizen must reside for up to 56 days after admission before a permit can be issued at all, and additionally receives an Alien Card. Fees run from 3,100 to 7,700 dalasi. Hiring is bounded by a QUOTA rather than a procedure: 80 percent of a workforce must be Gambians and 20 percent foreigners with skills unavailable in the country, and the Ministry of Trade administers it. Working without a residence and work permit is an offence. Family is arranged without a document of its own: the children and direct dependants of a permit holder are covered by that same permit, but on reaching adulthood must obtain one of their own. What is not in this data: there is no permanent residence in the department's catalogue, but a catalogue is not a law, and the Immigration Act itself is not published, so the number of years to permanent residence is left empty. The department publishes no processing standard for any of the seven steps of its own "processing cycle". The road to citizenship, by contrast, is published and long: seven years of residence from the date of marriage, or fifteen years by naturalisation. For cats there is no data at all — the British veterinary certificate for The Gambia covers only dogs. The city's population is not given: no official source separating Banjul from its area could be found.
Other comparisons
Botswana or… Nigeria · Rwanda · Tunisia · Algeria · Tanzania · Kenya · South Africa · Angola
The Gambia or… Gabon · Madagascar · Sierra Leone · Uganda · Zambia · Eswatini · Lesotho · Mozambique
More on each: Botswana · The Gambia. 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.