Guinea 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
| Guinea | Eswatini | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | — | — |
| Partner can work | — | no |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | — |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | no | — |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 733 · estimate | $ 341 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 39,2 | $ 21,1 |
| Life expectancy | 60.9 | 64.26 |
| Homicides/100k | — | 13.68 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 3.7 | 1.8 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Guinea — 10, Eswatini — 18. Types present in both: work, study, family and investment. Eswatini adds: retirement.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Guinea: every route that publishes a fee charges nothing. 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: both after 10 years.
Guinea in brief
Guinea has the highest road-death rate in this guide: 37.4 per 100,000, first among the 169 countries with data. Life expectancy is 60.9 years — eighth from the bottom out of 174. Health spending is 59.33 dollars per person per year, twenty-eighth from the bottom out of 167. Basic water access reaches 74.19 percent of the population, and the mean PM2.5 concentration is 27.26 micrograms per cubic metre. Overall natural hazard is 3.7 out of 10 on INFORM and almost entirely water-borne: flooding 5.5, coastal hazards 4.9, tsunami 2.7, while earthquakes at 0.1 and drought at 0.7 are practically absent and there is no cyclone exposure at all. On the World Bank scale, control of corruption is −1.17, rule of law −1.15, political stability −1.04 and government effectiveness −0.89. Unemployment is 5.16 percent and 7.02 among young people — as with its neighbours, that reflects an almost wholly informal labour market rather than an absence of trouble finding work. The internet is among the most expensive in this guide: 81.01 dollars a month, eleventh highest, at a fixed speed of 19.23. The immigration regime is published as a pair — an Act plus its implementing decree, both dated 13 June 1994 — and together they set out the whole procedure. An entry visa is valid for no more than three months, and it may be granted or refused without reasons being given. Temporary stay runs to ninety days, extendable by another ninety. Those who remain are entitled to a Carte d'Étranger Résident valid from one to three years and renewable; renewal is applied for three months ahead. Salaried work in the private sector requires authorisation from the competent body for that activity and an endorsed employment contract, and the documents for it are to be brought along on entry. One feature most countries do not have: residence is not permitted at all without a REPATRIATION GUARANTEE — a deposit at least equal to the price of a return ticket, or a bank guarantee letter; failing to post it means expulsion. Diplomats, nationals of countries with reciprocity agreements, children under fifteen accompanying their parents, and privileged residents are exempt. The settled status is the Carte de Résident Privilégié, granted on one of four grounds, of which only one names a period in years: a business person whose activities are tied to national economic development, after ten years of residence. A Guinean's spouse, or a person with a Guinean parent, obtains the same status with no period at all. The card is issued after an administrative inquiry by the immigration service. What is not in this data: neither the Act nor the decree sets a standard for deciding on the resident card — all their deadlines are addressed to the applicant, and the only one on the authority's side belongs to a different procedure (the receipt on a temporary-visa extension is valid for three working days, after which the person comes in for the answer). The validity of the privileged card is named in neither instrument. The conditions for citizenship lie in the nationality code, which was not read on this pass. The city's population is not given: no official source separating Conakry from the region could be found.
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
Guinea 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: Guinea · 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.