Iraq or Oman
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
| Iraq | Oman | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | — | 15 years |
| Partner can work | — | — |
| Parents | — | difficult |
| Pets | no trouble | difficult |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | no | — |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 608 · estimate | $ 799 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 18,0 | $ 29,9 |
| Life expectancy | 72.42 | 80.25 |
| Homicides/100k | 9.46 | 0.14 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 5.7 | 4.8 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Iraq — 29, Oman — 25. Types present in both: work, study, family, investment and talent. 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
Iraq: the fee is 100,000 IQD wherever it is published. Routes with a published decision deadline: 3; the shortest is 1 days. Oman: fees range from 10 to 500 OMR. Routes with no fee: 3. Routes with a published decision deadline: 14; the shortest is 1 days.
Beyond the first permit
Citizenship: Oman after 15 years; the other country publishes no term.
Iraq in brief
Iraq scores very low on governance and very high on water-related hazards. On the World Bank scale, which runs roughly from −2.5 to +2.5, political stability is −2.06 — eighth from the bottom among the 173 countries with data — rule of law is −1.36, control of corruption −1.21, and government effectiveness −1.10. Life expectancy is 72.42 years, health spending 333.29 dollars per person per year, basic water access reaches 98.41 percent of the population, and the mean PM2.5 concentration is 49.47 micrograms per cubic metre. Road deaths run at 21.5 per 100,000. Unemployment is 15.48 percent, and 32.01 percent among young people. Overall natural hazard is 5.7 out of 10 on INFORM: flooding 9.6, drought 7.5, earthquakes 5.1, coastal hazards 4.6, with no cyclone or tsunami exposure at all. The immigration framework is published as Law No. 76 of 2017 and was translated into English by the Ministry of Justice itself. One feature defines it: **there is no permanent status in the country**. An ordinary residence card is issued for no more than one year and renewed year by year as many times as the grounds persist; the maximum is a three-year renewable card, granted only on six enumerated grounds, among them 15 years of continuous residence, six years under a contract with the government, scientific and cultural service, study at a religious seminary, and business or investment. Marriage to a citizen leads to that same three-year card, not to a separate family status. There are eleven visa categories, each with precise periods, and two of them — visiting and tourist — expressly forbid working anywhere in the country, whether paid or unpaid. Duties fall on the receiving side too, on short clocks: an employer notifies the authority within 48 hours of hiring a worker and of that worker's departure, a hotel within two days of arrival and departure, and whoever brings a foreigner in to work must post financial guarantees or a return ticket. What is not in this data: the law sets no standard for deciding an application — it fixes only the appeal periods (15 days to object, 30 to answer) and counts the waiting time as legitimate residence. City populations are not given: no official source separating the city from the governorate could be found.
Oman in brief
Oman is built as a country for a long stint of work rather than for settling: there is no permanent residence at all, and the most on offer is the investor residence permit of 5 or 10 years, relaunched in August 2025, starting at 250,000 Omani rials. It does, however, let you bring a spouse, children and parents with no limit on age or number, which is rare in this part of the guide. Citizenship remains a distant prospect: the 2025 law cut the period from 20 years to 15, but it requires fluent Arabic with reading and writing, renunciation of the previous passport, and allows 36 months for a decision. The government's own service page still describes the old 20-year rule — a discrepancy worth keeping in mind. The country's strengths are measurable: homicide at 0.14 per 100,000, control of corruption at +0.51, life expectancy of 80.25 years and no personal income tax. Against that: heat above +45, desert dust in the air, cyclones on the coast and a difficult process for bringing pets.
Other comparisons
Iraq or… Taiwan · South Korea · Japan · Thailand · Kazakhstan · Lebanon · Uzbekistan · Malaysia
Oman or… Azerbaijan · Philippines · Bangladesh · Kuwait · Mongolia · People's Republic of China · Sri Lanka · Singapore
More on each: Iraq · Oman. 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.