Cameroon or Algeria
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
| Cameroon | Algeria | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | — | 7 years |
| Partner can work | — | — |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | no trouble |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | no | no |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 807 · estimate | $ 209 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 34,0 | $ 21,4 |
| Life expectancy | 63.97 | 76.47 |
| Homicides/100k | 6.76 | 1.38 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 3.5 | 3.4 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Cameroon — 10, Algeria — 28. Types present in both: work, study and family. The set of types is identical — the difference is in how many routes there are and on what terms, not in the types themselves.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
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. Algeria: fees range from 1,000 to 70,000 DZD. Routes with a published decision deadline: 3; the shortest is 2 days.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Cameroon after 4 years, Algeria after 7 years. Citizenship: Algeria after 7 years; the other country publishes no term.
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.
Algeria in brief
Algeria combines high seismicity and very high youth unemployment with cheap transport and fuel. On the World Bank scale from −2.5 to +2.5, political stability stands at −0.69, rule of law at −0.70, control of corruption at −0.59 and government effectiveness at −0.25 — governance scores noticeably better than most of the region. Life expectancy is 76.47 years, health spending 233.38 dollars per person per year, basic access to water reaches 92.42 per cent of the population, and mean PM2.5 concentration is 16.54 micrograms per cubic metre. Homicides at 1.38 per 100,000 are among the lowest figures in this set; road deaths run at 18.3. Unemployment is 11.63 per cent and among young people 29.44 — that is the defining feature of the labour market. Overall natural risk is 3.4 out of 10 on INFORM, and it is almost entirely seismic: earthquakes 7.9, floods 3.6, droughts 3.4, against coastal risks at 0.7, tsunami at 1.4 and no cyclones at all. Transport and fuel are cheap even by regional standards: a monthly pass costs 8.15 dollars and a litre of fuel 0.32. The immigration framework is published in full by Law No. 08-11 of 25 June 2008 in the official gazette, and it rests on a separation of three rights. Entry is granted by the consular visa: it is valid for up to two years, but the stay permitted on each entry is no more than 90 days. Residence is permitted by the resident card issued by the wilaya of residence, ordinarily for two years; after seven years of continuous lawful residence a ten-year card may be issued, and the same card goes to the resident's children over 18 living with them. Work is permitted by a separate document: a resident card is not issued to a salaried worker at all without a work permit, a temporary work authorisation or a declaration of employment, and the card cannot outlast that document. A thread running through the law is the principle of reciprocity: it is stipulated for consular fees, for appealing a refusal and for the age threshold alike. What this data does not contain, and why: the law expressly delegates to secondary legislation the procedure for issuing visas, the procedure for issuing the resident card and the conditions for family reunification — so no processing targets and no family timeline are to be found in it. City populations are not given: no official source separating city from wilaya could be found.
Other comparisons
Cameroon or… Nigeria · Rwanda · Tunisia · Tanzania · Kenya · South Africa · Angola · Gabon
Algeria or… Madagascar · Sierra Leone · Uganda · Zambia · Eswatini · Lesotho · Mozambique · Republic of the Congo
More on each: Cameroon · Algeria. 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.