Cameroon or South Africa
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 | South Africa | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | — | 10 years |
| Partner can work | — | no |
| Parents | — | difficult |
| Pets | no trouble | difficult |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | no | 14 days |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 807 · estimate | $ 633 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 34,0 | $ 26,0 |
| Life expectancy | 63.97 | 66.31 |
| Homicides/100k | 6.76 | 39.72 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 3.5 | 3.9 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Cameroon — 10, South Africa — 24. Types present in both: work, study and family. South Africa adds: investment, talent and retirement.
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. South Africa: fees range from 425 to 1,520 ZAR. Routes with no fee: 2. Routes stating an income threshold: 2; the lowest is 8,500 ZAR a month.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Cameroon after 4 years, South Africa after 5 years. Citizenship: South Africa after 10 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.
South Africa in brief
South Africa builds its intake around scarce occupations: the Critical Skills Work Visa is issued for up to 5 years, but the occupation must be on the current list and the qualification must be assessed by SAQA with an NQF level stated. The constraints are the time limits and family: the processing standard for a spousal visa is 120 working days, work on it without a separate permit is not allowed, and citizenship comes after 10 years.
Other comparisons
Cameroon or… Nigeria · Rwanda · Tunisia · Algeria · Tanzania · Kenya · Angola · Gabon
South Africa or… Madagascar · Sierra Leone · Uganda · Zambia · Eswatini · Lesotho · Mozambique · Republic of the Congo
More on each: Cameroon · South Africa. 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.