The Gambia or Mali
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
| The Gambia | Mali | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | — | — |
| Partner can work | — | — |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | difficult | no trouble |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | — | no |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 122 · estimate | $ 352 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 19,2 | $ 19,9 |
| Life expectancy | 66.06 | 60.67 |
| Homicides/100k | — | — |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 2.9 | 4.2 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: The Gambia — 6, Mali — 10. Types present in both: work. Mali adds: study, family, investment and retirement.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
The Gambia: fees range from 100 to 7,700 GMD. Mali: not a single route publishes its fee.
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.
Mali in brief
Mali has the second-lowest political stability figure in this guide: −2.49 on the World Bank scale among the 173 countries with data. Government effectiveness is −1.29 (fifteenth from the bottom out of 172), rule of law −1.09 and control of corruption −0.98. Life expectancy is 60.67 years — seventh from the bottom out of 174. Health spending is 33.98 dollars per person per year, twelfth from the bottom out of 167. Basic water access reaches 86.36 percent of the population, with a mean PM2.5 concentration of 35.52 micrograms per cubic metre. Road deaths run at 20.2 per 100,000. Overall natural hazard is 4.2 out of 10 on INFORM, and unusually double-edged: flooding at 7.9 and drought at 7.4 together, while earthquakes are almost absent (0.1) and there is no sea at all — coastal, cyclone and tsunami exposure are all zero. Unemployment is 2.83 percent and 3.88 among young people: as with its regional neighbours, that describes an almost wholly informal labour market rather than ease of finding work. Prices are low: a one-bedroom in Bamako rents for 228 euros a month, with utilities at 54 and a monthly transit pass at 12.21 dollars. The immigration regime is published as a pair — Law No. 04-058 of 2004 and Decree No. 05-322 of 2005 — and together they set out the whole procedure. What defines it is a fork at the entrance: the Act divides foreigners into non-immigrants and immigrants by INTENTION rather than by occupation, and which one you claim determines your document. A non-immigrant gets a residence visa of no more than a year, renewable. An immigrant gets a resident card for five years — but the application for it is lodged within 15 DAYS of entry, so the choice must be made at once. There is no permanent status in the country: the Act's establishment section runs to three articles, and its maximum is that same five-year renewable card. It also lapses of its own accord if the holder has been away for more than six consecutive months. Marriage to a citizen gives a residence authorisation AS OF RIGHT rather than at the authority's discretion — provided the marriage is at least three months old. The same provision grants it as of right to citizens' children, to the dependent ascendants of a citizen's spouse, to the parent of a Malian child, and to the family of a resident-card holder. One feature is rare even for the region: residence is conditioned on a REPATRIATION GUARANTEE, and it applies even to nationals of countries with which Mali has freedom-of-movement agreements. The deposit equals the price of a ticket in the most economical class and is paid into the Treasury within 15 days of arrival; exempt are diplomats, officials and military personnel on mission, nationals of bordering countries travelling by land, tourists in their own vehicles, and students at Malian institutions. What is not in this data: neither instrument sets a processing standard — the Act's 27 articles and the decree's 74 were read in full, and while deadlines abound in them, every one is addressed to the foreigner or the carrier, none to the authority. The conditions for citizenship lie in the Nationality Code of 1995, which was not read on this pass. The city's population is not given: no official source separating Bamako from the district could be found.
Other comparisons
The Gambia or… Nigeria · Rwanda · Tunisia · Algeria · Tanzania · Kenya · South Africa · Angola
Mali or… Gabon · Madagascar · Sierra Leone · Uganda · Zambia · Eswatini · Lesotho · Mozambique
More on each: The Gambia · Mali. 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.