Kenya or Tunisia
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
| Kenya | Tunisia | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | 7 years | — |
| Partner can work | no | — |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | no trouble |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | no | — |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 520 · estimate | $ 391 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 26,0 | $ 25,1 |
| Life expectancy | 63.83 | 76.71 |
| Homicides/100k | 4.65 | 4.69 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 4.2 | 4.4 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Kenya — 24, Tunisia — 33. Types present in both: work, study, family, investment and retirement. Kenya adds: remote work and repatriation. Tunisia adds: talent.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Kenya: fees range from 1,000 to 750,000 KES. Routes with no fee: 2. Routes stating an income threshold: 2; the lowest is 24,000 USD a year. Routes with a published decision deadline: 22; the shortest is 1 days. Tunisia: not a single route publishes its fee. Routes with a published decision deadline: 12; the shortest is 30 days.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Kenya after 7 years, Tunisia after 5 years. Citizenship: Kenya after 7 years; the other country publishes no term.
Kenya in brief
Kenya admits foreign specialists through a system of ten classes of work permits (Class A-M), each for a different purpose — from mineral prospecting and agriculture to prescribed professions and religious activity — and, since 2024, through a separate digital nomad visa (Class N) requiring a confirmed minimum income of $55,000 a year from sources outside the country. Permanent residence on the general ground — holding a work permit — is reached after 7 years, the last 3 of which must be continuous residence in the country; the spouse of a Kenyan citizen becomes eligible for permanent residence sooner, after 3 years of marriage, but until then the accompanying spouse holds a Dependant's Pass, which does not carry the right to work. Naturalisation takes the same 7 years — by marriage or by permanent residence with knowledge of Swahili or a local language; former citizens by birth who lost their citizenship on acquiring a foreign one have a separate, faster route to restoration. The 2010 Constitution permits dual citizenship for citizens by birth. Nairobi is the region's largest technology hub: since 2007 it has hosted the African headquarters of Google, IBM, Cisco Systems, and General Electric.
Tunisia in brief
Tunisia is a North African republic on the Mediterranean coast with a relatively low cost of living and a small share of foreigners in its population: the 2024 census puts them at 0.55% (66,349 of 11,972,169 people, INS). The five cities described show different sides of the country: Tunis, the capital and business centre with a UNESCO-listed medina and the ruins of Carthage inside its metropolitan area; Sfax, the second-largest city and the industrial port of the south; Sousse, the resort centre of the Sahel whose medina and ribat were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988; Hammamet, one of the country's oldest beach resorts on the Cap Bon peninsula; and Bizerte, a historic northern port beside the northernmost point of the African continent. Foreign workers face a branched system of work authorisations with several expressly described categories, including a simplified regime for companies covered by the 2016 investment law. Residence splits into temporary and ordinary: the temporary card is issued for no more than a year, while the ordinary one goes to a foreigner who has lived in the country for five uninterrupted years, to a foreign woman married to a Tunisian, to a foreigner with Tunisian children or one born in Tunisia, and it is valid for two years and renewable; Tunisian law knows no open-ended status. The right to ordinary residence is lost after an absence of more than six months without a return visa. The period to citizenship and the decision period for family applications remain unconfirmed: the nationality code could not be read in the primary source, and neither the law on the status of foreigners nor its implementing decree sets any decision periods. World Bank indices for political stability, control of corruption, rule of law and government effectiveness were all below zero in 2024 on the −2.5 to +2.5 scale, and youth unemployment exceeds 38%.
Other comparisons
Kenya or… Nigeria · Rwanda · Algeria · Tanzania · South Africa · Angola · Gabon · Madagascar
Tunisia or… Sierra Leone · Uganda · Zambia · Eswatini · Lesotho · Mozambique · Republic of the Congo · Burundi
More on each: Kenya · Tunisia. 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.