Papua New Guinea or Solomon Islands
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
| Papua New Guinea | Solomon Islands | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | — | — |
| Partner can work | — | no |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | difficult | — |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | — | — |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 308 · estimate | $ 781 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 21,6 | $ 37,9 |
| Life expectancy | 66.26 | 70.69 |
| Homicides/100k | 9.34 | 3.73 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 6 | 5.3 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Papua New Guinea — 45, Solomon Islands — 31. Types present in both: work, study and family. Papua New Guinea adds: investment, talent and retirement.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Papua New Guinea: fees range from 40 to 1,700 USD. Routes with no fee: 10. Routes stating an income threshold: 2; the lowest is 25,000 PGK a year. Solomon Islands: fees range from 100 to 1,500 USD. Routes with no fee: 13.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: both after 5 years.
Papua New Guinea in brief
Papua New Guinea carries one of the highest seismic risks in this set and the lowest access to water. On INFORM its overall natural risk is 6.0 out of 10, of which earthquakes 9.2, tsunami 7.1, coastal risks 6.3 and floods 4.6. Basic access to water covers 53.3 per cent of the population, lower than in any other country in this guide. Life expectancy is 66.26 years and health spending 85.15 dollars per person per year. The air, by contrast, is clean: mean PM2.5 concentration is 14.11 micrograms per cubic metre. On the World Bank scale from −2.5 to +2.5, government effectiveness stands at −0.90, control of corruption at −0.80, political stability at −0.65 and rule of law at −0.57. Road deaths run at 14.9 per 100,000; the homicide data is old, 9.34 per 100,000 for 2010. The unemployment figures — 2.57 per cent overall and 3.79 among young people — reflect the structure of a labour market that is almost entirely informal and subsistence-based, not the absence of a problem finding work. The immigration framework is unusual in the balance of what it publishes. Visa categories are described in words but almost never in numbers: the authority makes the validity of a visa depend on the applicant's circumstances and invites enquiries for details. Only the maximum lengths of stay are published — 60 days on the visitor visa and 30 on the business visa, both single entry. The work permit and the work visa, meanwhile, are brought into a SINGLE application lodged by the employer through the sponsor portal rather than by the worker. Permanent residence, by contrast, is set out in detail and with figures: seven classes — chief executive of a large company, business owner, doctor or educationist, missionary, retiree over 55, spouse of a citizen, adult child of a citizen doing voluntary work — and in all seven the qualifying period is the same, five years; what differs are the income and asset thresholds. What this data does not contain, and why: the authority publishes no processing standards for any category. Importing cats and dogs is difficult not because of vaccinations but because of the route: an import permit from the Chief Stock Inspector is mandatory, and the import goes via Australia with quarantine there, whose duration is set by the Australian side. City populations are not given: no official source separating city from province could be found.
Solomon Islands in brief
The Solomon Islands have high natural hazards and, unusually for this part of the guide, positive governance figures. On the World Bank scale, political stability is +0.75, rule of law +0.15, control of corruption −0.14 and government effectiveness −0.87. Overall natural hazard is 5.3 out of 10 on INFORM and entirely tectonic: tsunami at 7.8 — the sixteenth highest figure among 168 countries — earthquakes 7.1, coastal hazards 6.8, cyclones 3.6, and no river flooding at all. The air is very clean: PM2.5 at 9.77 micrograms per cubic metre. Life expectancy is 70.69 years, health spending 111.36 dollars per person per year, and basic water access reaches 71.61 percent of the population. Road deaths run at 11.2 per 100,000. The internet is the fifth most expensive in this guide: 90.39 dollars a month. National utility bills run at 257.67 dollars a month, and a one-bedroom in Honiara rents for 516 euros. The immigration framework is described by the authority in unusual detail: for each of more than twenty visas it publishes the fee, a separate online fee, the visa's validity, the maximum period of stay and the right to work. Distinguishing the last two is essential: on the tourist visa the visa is valid for 30 days from arrival, while a stay of up to 150 days is allowed. Three features shape a foreigner's experience. First: the right to work comes not from the visa but from a PERMIT issued by the Commissioner of Labour — on the long-term work visa the maximum stay is set by that permit rather than the visa, and even a permanent resident does not acquire the right to work automatically. Second: the application is lodged while the person is OUTSIDE the country, repeated on every visa page. Third: the authority publishes no processing time and says so outright — "we do not guarantee a specific timeframe". Permanent residence comes after FIVE YEARS of continuous lawful residence on other visas, costs 1,500 dollars — the most expensive document in the catalogue — is valid five years and is renewable; the five years are proved through visa history or a Border Management System record number. A citizen's family receives a visa of its own for 300 dollars with a stay of up to two years, but work on it requires separate authorisation. What is not in this data: the procedure for bringing in cats and dogs is described neither by a national source nor by other countries' veterinary authorities. The conditions for citizenship were not read on this pass: PacLII, which holds the laws of Oceania, is closed behind a Cloudflare check. The city's population is not given: no official source separating Honiara from the province could be found.
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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.