Pakistan or Tajikistan
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
| Pakistan | Tajikistan | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | — | 5 years |
| Partner can work | — | — |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | difficult | — |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | — | — |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 145 · estimate | $ 671 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 14,8 | $ 25,1 |
| Life expectancy | 67.8 | 71.93 |
| Homicides/100k | 4.33 | 0.89 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 7.4 | 4.8 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Pakistan — 22, Tajikistan — 23. Types present in both: work, study, family, investment and repatriation. 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
Pakistan: fees range from 200 to 400 PKR. Routes with no fee: 1. Routes with a published decision deadline: 9; the shortest is 1 days. Tajikistan: fees range from 20 to 100 USD. Routes stating an income threshold: 1; the lowest is 500,000 USD a month. Routes with a published decision deadline: 23; the shortest is 1 days.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Tajikistan after six months; the other country publishes no term. Citizenship: Tajikistan after 5 years; the other country publishes no term. Pakistan allows a second citizenship, Tajikistan does not.
Pakistan in brief
Pakistan is the world's fifth most populous country, with English-language official paperwork and a visible IT outsourcing industry in Karachi and Lahore. The work route has two steps: a mission abroad issues an entry work visa for three months — within 48 hours under the service's own rules and without security clearance — while an extension of up to two years with multiple entries is decided by the Ministry of Interior, where clearance is mandatory, as is a recommendation from the Board of Investment. The visa policy sets out a rule rare for the region: if the agencies do not answer within 30 days, the case counts as approved. The visa is issued to the worker and the family at once. The directorate describes no permanent residence for an ordinary foreigner: a long stay rests on renewing the visa. Citizenship is available on a closed list of grounds, and the list is asymmetric by sex — a foreign woman married to a Pakistani man is on it, a foreign man married to a Pakistani woman is not. Bringing in cats and dogs requires a prior permit from the agriculture ministry, while antibody titration is not needed. The background in figures: life expectancy 67.8 years (World Bank, 2024), homicides 4.33 per 100,000 (UNODC, 2024), average PM2.5 concentration 58.4 µg/m³ — almost twelve times the WHO guideline (World Bank, 2023). INFORM rates natural risks at 7.4 out of 10, with floods at 9.5 and earthquakes at 9.2 — among the highest values in the world.
Tajikistan in brief
Tajikistan is the cheapest country in this part of the guide: rent in Khujand is half that of the capital, and the capital itself is already low. Permanent residence is not tied to years of waiting — the law allows no more than a month for a decision on the application. Citizenship is formally available after five years of continuous residence, and a facilitated route applies for marriage to a citizen of the country lasting three years or more. The restrictions are significant. Dual citizenship is not allowed outside intergovernmental treaties, and a decision to grant citizenship can be revoked within five years of being made — this is an unusual rule and worth bearing in mind. Control of corruption at −1.22 and a seismic risk of 8.1 out of 10 are among the worst figures in the guide. One thing worth saying separately about what is not in this data: the language requirements for naturalisation and the rules for bringing in animals could not be confirmed against official sources, so they are left blank rather than filled in with paraphrases.
Other comparisons
Pakistan or… Taiwan · South Korea · Japan · Thailand · Kazakhstan · Lebanon · Uzbekistan · Malaysia
Tajikistan or… Azerbaijan · Philippines · Bangladesh · Kuwait · Iraq · Mongolia · Oman · People's Republic of China
More on each: Pakistan · Tajikistan. 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.