Ethiopia or Eswatini
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
| Ethiopia | Eswatini | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | 4 years | — |
| Partner can work | — | no |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | difficult | — |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | — | — |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 848 · estimate | $ 341 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 29,6 | $ 21,1 |
| Life expectancy | 67.6 | 64.26 |
| Homicides/100k | 8.51 | 13.68 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 3.7 | 1.8 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Ethiopia — 17, Eswatini — 18. Types present in both: work, study and investment. Eswatini adds: family and retirement.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Ethiopia: fees range from 32 to 1,002 USD. Routes with a published decision deadline: 10; the shortest is 3 days. Eswatini: fees range from 600 to 6,000 SZL. Routes stating an income threshold: 1; the lowest is 5,000 SZL a year.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Eswatini after 10 years; the other country publishes no term. Citizenship: Ethiopia after 4 years; the other country publishes no term.
Ethiopia in brief
Immigration Proclamation No. 354/2002 defines nine visa types — including business, immigrant, student, tourist and transit — issued by the Authority for Security, Immigration and Refugee Affairs; some are available through the evisa.gov.et e-portal. No separately named "investor visa" was found in law: the Ethiopian Investment Commission directs investors to the general business visa, valid from 30 days to 12 months. The law introduces the status of a temporary or permanent residence permit, but the conditions for moving between them and the number of years of waiting are not defined in the text of the law itself — they are assigned to separate Regulations, unavailable in open sources this session. Naturalisation on the general ground requires domicile and at least 4 years' residence in the country, knowledge of one of the nations' and nationalities' languages, a lawful source of income, no criminal record, and renouncing prior nationality (Ethiopian Nationality Proclamation No. 378/2003); for spouses of Ethiopian citizens the period is reduced to 2 years from the marriage with at least 1 year of residence. Dual nationality is not permitted by law: voluntary acquisition of a foreign nationality is deemed a voluntary renunciation of Ethiopian nationality. For persons of Ethiopian origin in that situation, a separate status is provided — the Yellow Card (Proclamation No. 270/2002), granting a broad range of rights and privileges without nationality itself; a decision on the application is made within 30 days, and the card is valid for 5 years. The Constitution establishes land as the state and common property of the country's nations, nationalities and peoples: it may not be sold or otherwise alienated by anyone, including citizens, and private investors receive only a right of use on lease terms. Importing pets requires a permit from the relevant agency under the general agricultural regulation (Animal Health and Welfare Proclamation No. 1376/2025) — an import permit, an international veterinary certificate, and entry through a designated crossing point — but the specific quarantine period and antibody-titre requirement for dogs and cats are not defined in the open text of the law. The country has been landlocked since 1993 and lives by its own calendar, running 7–8 years behind the Gregorian one. The five cities in this reference guide are Addis Ababa (the capital, at an elevation of about 2,355 m), Dire Dawa (the second-largest city and a railway hub), Mekelle (administrative centre of the Tigray region), and Lalibela and Gondar — two stops on the historic tourist route with UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Eswatini in brief
Eswatini runs to extremes in both directions. **Unemployment at 34.2 percent is the highest in this guide**, youth unemployment at 54.33 is third highest, and the Gini coefficient of 54.6 is the third highest figure — though it dates from 2016 and is flagged as stale. And at the same time **natural threats here are almost absent**: overall hazard is 1.8 out of 10 on INFORM, the seventh lowest among 168 countries — there is no sea, so no coastal hazard and no tsunami at all, earthquakes are 0.1, flooding 1.8, cyclones 0.2, and only drought at 4.7 is appreciable. Life expectancy is 64.26 years, health spending 296.05 dollars per person per year, water access reaches 80.37 percent of the population, and PM2.5 stands at 16.75 micrograms per cubic metre. Homicides run at 13.68 per 100,000 and road deaths at 24.7. On the World Bank scale, control of corruption is −0.79, rule of law −0.86, government effectiveness −0.78 and political stability −0.73 — appreciably better than most of its neighbours in this part of the guide. A one-bedroom in Manzini rents for 134 euros a month, among the lowest in this guide. The immigration framework is described by three Ministry of Home Affairs documents, and the ministry publishes all three itself: the Act of 1982, the Regulations of 1987 and the service charter. The Act sets ten classes of entry permit, A to J, and nine of the "useful" classes carry the condition "of benefit to the country" written into their very definition. The employer must confirm that the vacancy was advertised at full page, and during the assessment the localization department checks that the skill is not available inside the country. The charter prints the standard step by step: up to thirty minutes to lodge the documents, up to three days for vetting by the police and the localization department, one day for the committee, one day to issue the outcome — about five days for a temporary permit. For a visa: five minutes to receive it, two days for police vetting, one day for approval. Settlement is class J, and the road to it is unusual: ten years of continuous residence AND a completed "Khonta" under Swazi customary law — the act of pledging allegiance to a chief — AND proof that the person applied for citizenship and was not refused. A class J holder, like the class I person of independent means, loses the permit on taking up any employment, paid or unpaid. Family runs through the dependant's pass, which a citizen of the country may also request; the pass expires thirty days after the dependant takes up employment. What is not in this data: the processing time for a citizenship application — the charter states outright that the Citizenship Board determines it after going through each application. The procedure for bringing in cats and dogs is described neither by a national source nor by other countries' veterinary authorities. City populations are not given: no official source separating the city from the region could be found.
Other comparisons
Ethiopia or… Nigeria · Rwanda · Tunisia · Algeria · Tanzania · Kenya · South Africa · Angola
Eswatini or… Gabon · Madagascar · Sierra Leone · Uganda · Zambia · Lesotho · Mozambique · Republic of the Congo
More on each: Ethiopia · Eswatini. 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.