←Bangladesh⇄

Bangladesh

Bangladesh · Asia · updated 25.08.2026

Bangladesh carries the highest natural risk in this set and some of the dirtiest air. On INFORM its overall risk is 8.1 out of 10, and it is high on every front at once: floods 9.9, earthquakes 8.9, coastal risks 8.9, tsunami 8.1, cyclones 7.9; only drought is low, at 1.9. Mean PM2.5 concentration is 69.25 micrograms per cubic metre. Even so, life expectancy is 74.93 years — markedly higher than in countries with comparable health spending (53.46 dollars per person per year) — basic access to water reaches 98.78 per cent of the population, and homicides at 1.76 per 100,000 are among the lowest figures here. Inequality on the Gini index is 30.9. On the World Bank scale from −2.5 to +2.5, political stability stands at −1.46, control of corruption at −1.10, rule of law at −0.96 and government effectiveness at −0.62. Road deaths run at 18.6 per 100,000. The immigration framework rests on two features. Issue and extension are split between authorities: the visa is issued by a mission abroad and extended by the Department of Immigration and Passports, and the document lists differ between the two — for extension, almost every work category adds a work permit and security clearance. The recommendation for work and investment categories comes not from the migration authority but from the investment bodies BIDA and BEPZA. Family is handled systematically: an F prefix on the principal applicant's category (FE, FPI, FN, FJ and so on), with the visa running for the same period as theirs. The authority publishes its processing standard in its citizen's charter: visa issue takes 3–30 working days depending on the category and conditional on a favourable investigation report. What this data does not contain, and why: no permanent status appears in the list of visa categories, and no investment-based permanent residence scheme could be found in accessible sources. The rules for importing cats and dogs are given from the British export health certificate, since no national source exists; two strict conditions follow from it — a mandatory import permit from the Bangladeshi veterinary authority and an outright ban on commercial imports of animals. City populations are not given: the latest census reports figures for agglomerations rather than for cities within their boundaries.

Some descriptions for this country are still Russian only: 86% translated. Numbers, prices and timelines are complete.

Entry

Entry rules depend on citizenship. Choose a passport to see the requirement for that one.

Work and visas

Visa types: How the system works: the visa is issued by a Bangladeshi embassy or high commission abroad, and extended by the Department of Immigration and Passports once inside the country. Categories are denoted by letters, and each has its own list of documents separately for issue and for extension. · E — specialists, consultants and employees in government, semi-government and autonomous organisations, on projects and with contractors. Issue requires an appointment letter and a recommendation from BIDA or BEPZA (the investment and export-processing-zone authorities) or from the relevant ministry; extension requires a recommendation from the employer, a work permit and security clearance. · E1 — foreigners engaged in the supply, installation, maintenance, supervision and training relating to machinery and software. Required are an invitation from the local customer, evidence that the importing organisation is genuine, and the contract between the foreign supplier and the local organisation. · PI — foreign investor. Issue requires a recommendation from BIDA or BEPZA confirming that the applicant is a genuine investor; extension requires the same body to confirm that the investment still exists, plus security clearance. · B and C — businessperson or business representative, and crew of aircraft and ships on international routes. A businessperson needs a certificate from a recognised trade association of their own country or a recommendation from a local sponsor plus evidence that the business is genuine; for extension, a trade licence, a tax certificate and a favourable police report. · N — employee of a registered NGO: an appointment letter and confirmation from the NGO Bureau that the appointment is genuine; for extension, a work permit and security clearance. · J — journalists for foreign publications, agencies and broadcasters, including freelancers; M — missionaries and religious teachers (recommendation of the Ministry of Religious Affairs); P — figures in culture, artists, writers, sportspeople and coaches. · R — internship, research or training at an approved organisation; S — student at a government-approved educational institution: an admission document, sponsorship, a bank guarantee, and for extension also a certificate that the student is not employed. · A, A1, A2, A3, D, ND, DA — official and diplomatic categories: heads of state and government, ministers and members of parliament, officials of government and semi-government bodies, staff of the UN and international organisations, ambassadors and consuls, and their personal staff. · T — a citizen of any country having diplomatic relations with Bangladesh: travel, tourism, visiting relatives, religious purposes, seminars. A favourable police report is sufficient for extension.

Two things shape the procedure and are worth knowing in advance. First, issue and extension are split between authorities — the visa is issued by a mission abroad and extended by the Department of Immigration and Passports, and the document lists for these two actions differ, with a work permit and security clearance added for extension in almost every work category. Second, for work and investment categories the recommendation comes not from the migration authority but from the investment bodies BIDA and BEPZA, which means employment and investment are cleared outside the immigration circuit. This table contains no statutory processing times, but the authority does publish them — in its citizen's charter (“সেবা প্রদান প্রতিশ্রুতি”, April 2026 edition). Visa issue is set there at 3–30 working days depending on the category and conditional on a favourable investigation report; the fee follows the country-by-country visa fee schedule and is paid into a branch of Sonali Bank, or in Dhaka at the bank counter in the visa section of the head office. A caveat about the document itself: its PDF is typeset in the legacy Bijoy encoding, and ordinary text extraction recovers no Bengali characters from it at all — the pages were read by rendering them as images. The grounds were collected on 25.08.2026 from the consolidated Visa Policy 2006 as amended to September 2016: it is published both by the police Special Branch on its immigration site and by the Ministry of Home Affairs itself on its page of visa rules and circulars. That the consolidation is still in force is settled not by argument but by a list: the ministry publishes its visa orders day by day, and the orders of 24–25 August 2026 name the classes by the same letters — “Extension of A3 visa”, “B শ্রেণির ভিসার মেয়াদ ০১ বছর বৃদ্ধি”. At the same time, on 10 August 2026 the cabinet approved a draft “Visa Policy 2026” with thirty-four categories; the ministry has not yet published its text, and its rules page still carries the 2006 edition. A separate counting trap: the department and the ministry number the classes DIFFERENTLY. The English table of the Department of Immigration and Passports inserts FE1 as a row of its own and breaks off at T under number 30, while the ministry's charter refers to “serials 12 to 33, from E to W” — that is, to the numbering of the policy itself, where there are thirty-three rows, and the thirty-fourth class FEI was added by circular without renumbering.

Long-term visas and residence permits

Official and diplomatic classes A, A1, D, ND, DA (note verbale, no fixed cap)

Other
renewabledoes not count toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: The visa class has no fee of its own. The rate is set by the applicant's nationality on a reciprocity basis: the citizen's charter of the Department of Immigration and Passports refers to the “country-by-country visa fee schedule”, and the visa policy itself, in mandatory condition 3, expressly directs that visas be issued under the visa agreement where one exists and on the principle of reciprocity in every other case. That is why the fee field is empty for every class: a figure attached to a class does not exist.
official source · read 2026-08-25

A2 visa — UN and international organisation staff (up to 5 years)

Work
term 60 morenewabledoes not count toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

A3 visa — experts on bilateral or multilateral project (up to 5 years)

Work
term 60 morenewabledoes not count toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

B visa — business (1 year at issue, extension up to 5 years)

Other
term 12 morenewabledoes not count toward permanent residenceapplicant onlyprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

C visa — international transport crew (up to 3 years)

Work
term 36 morenewabledoes not count toward permanent residenceapplicant onlyprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

E visa — employment (3 months at issue, extension for the work permit term)

Work
term 3 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

EI visa — machinery and software installation and supervision (up to 6 months)

Work
term 6 morenewabledoes not count toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

J visa — journalists and media representatives (up to 3 months at issue)

Work
term 3 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

M visa — missionaries and clergy (6 months at issue, extension up to 5 years)

Work
term 6 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

N visa — employees of registered NGOs (3 months at issue)

Work
term 3 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

P visa — athletes, coaches, artists and writers (6 months at issue)

Talent
term 6 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

PI visa — private foreign investor (1 year at issue, extension up to 5 years)

Investment
term 12 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

R visa — research, training and internships (3 months at issue)

Study
term 3 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

S visa — students and researchers (1 year at issue, extension for the full course)

Study
term 12 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

T visa — visit, tourism, family and religious purposes (up to 3 months)

Other
term 3 morenewabledoes not count toward permanent residenceapplicant onlyprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

TI visa — Tablighi Jamaat participants (130 days, extension to 150 days from arrival)

Other
renewabledoes not count toward permanent residenceapplicant onlyprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

TF visa — foreign spouse and children of a Bangladeshi citizen and persons of Bangladeshi origin (1 year, extension up to 5 years)

Family
term 12 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

TR visa — transit for workers based abroad (up to 5 years, 72 hours per entry)

Other
term 60 morenewabledoes not count toward permanent residenceapplicant onlyprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

W visa — Work and Holiday, development and volunteer programmes under agreement

Working holiday
term 12 morenewabledoes not count toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

Dependant classes FA2, FA3, FE, FEI, FJ, FM, FN, FP, FPI, FR, FS (co-terminous with the principal)

Family
renewabledoes not count toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 3–30 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

Visa on arrival (30 days, single entry)

Other
term 1 morenewabledoes not count toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 10 days
Fee: on the same terms as the ground above.
official source · read 2026-08-25

Transit visa issued at the port of entry (up to 72 hours)

Other
not renewabledoes not count toward permanent residenceapplicant onlyfee $ 20,0processing time not published
Fee: USD 20 per head as a service charge, paid into a designated bank and a designated account in foreign currency. This is one of only two amounts the visa policy names as a figure at all; everything else it leaves to the country-by-country schedule. Holders of diplomatic, special and official passports of countries with a visa waiver agreement get the transit visa free of charge.
official source · read 2026-08-25

NVR — No Visa Required for Travel to Bangladesh endorsement

Repatriation
renewabledoes not count toward permanent residencefamily allowedfee $ 80,0processing 15 days
Fee: USD 80 per head or the equivalent — the rate set by the circular of 12.02.2025 and a line of the same size in the Security Services Division fee schedule of 04.12.2024. The earlier 2012 circular charged 50, and that figure still stands in the consolidated visa policy: the consolidation runs to September 2016 and cannot be newer than the ministry's own circulars. Transferring the endorsement to a new passport is paid for again. The ministry publishes both documents as scans with no text layer; the figures were read by eye from images of the pages.
Citizens of certain countries are excluded.
official source · read 2026-08-25

NVR for investors of USD 5 million and above (free of charge)

Investment
renewabledoes not count toward permanent residencefee $ 0,00processing 15 days
Fee: Free of charge. The Security Services Division fee schedule of 04.12.2024 gives this tier a line of its own and states in words in the rate column that an investor of five million dollars gets the NVR without payment. A zero is not confirmed by searching the page, by the design of the check; it was read by eye from an image of the scanned page.
official source · read 2026-08-25

Permanent residence right certificate (investment of USD 75,000)

Investment
counts toward permanent residenceincome from $ 75 000fee $ 121processing 6 days
Fee: BDT 15,000, paid by treasury chalan into any branch of Bangladesh Bank or Sonali Bank under code 1-7301-0001-2681. The Security Services Division fee schedule of 04.12.2024 names the same amount on a line of its own. The figures in the charter are typeset in Bengali digits.
official source · read 2026-08-25

Dual citizenship certificate

Repatriation
does not count toward permanent residencefee $ 80,9processing 7 days
Fee: BDT 10,000 when filed from Bangladesh and USD 84 when filed from abroad; payment is electronic, at the moment the application is submitted. The taka rate matches the Security Services Division fee schedule of 04.12.2024; the dollar line is absent from that schedule and appears only in the citizen's charter. The figures in the charter are typeset in Bengali digits.
official source · read 2026-08-25

SAARC visa exemption sticker

Other
renewabledoes not count toward permanent residencefee $ 0,00processing 3–7 days
Fee: Free of charge: in the fee column the citizen's charter of the Department of Immigration and Passports writes “বিনামূল্যে” — in words, not as a figure. A zero is not confirmed by searching the page, by the design of the check; it was read by eye.
For citizens of certain countries only.
official source · read 2026-08-25

BIDA work permit (1 year, renewable)

Work
term 12 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedfee $ 80,9processing 3–16 days
Fee: BDT 10,000 government fee plus 15% VAT and a BDT 250 application fee — that is how the one-stop portal prices the EXTENSION of the permit. On the card for the first permit the fee column carries the placeholder “Application Fee” with no figure, so the field holds the extension rate. The BIDA visa recommendation is priced separately — BDT 5,000 per individual per year.
official source · read 2026-08-25

BEPZA work permit (export processing zones)

Work
renewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedprocessing 7 days
Fee: BEPZA does not publish the rate: in its fee column it says the issue fee is as prescribed by the authority itself and is paid in cash. With that wording, no figure exists at any of its addresses.
official source · read 2026-08-25

BEZA work permit (1 year, extension up to 4 years)

Work
term 12 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedfee $ 80,9processing 9 days
Fee: BDT 10,000 plus 15% VAT for the first permit and the same for every year of extension. The one-stop portal prints both rates in identical words, distinguishing them only by the “per year” attached to the extension.
official source · read 2026-08-25

BHTPA work permit (hi-tech parks, 1 year)

Work
term 12 morenewablecounts toward permanent residencefamily allowedfee $ 4,04processing time not published
Fee: BDT 500 or USD 7 — the authority prints the rate in two currencies at once, and the field carries the local one. The same rate applies to the visa recommendation, the visa-on-arrival recommendation and the visa extension recommendation.
official source · read 2026-08-25

Programme terms change, and the final decision rests with the consulate or the country migration service. The data is collected from official sources on the date shown and is not legal advice.

Residence and citizenship

Documents

Document certification
apostille

The country is party to the 1961 Hague Convention: a degree or certificate is authenticated with a single apostille in the country that issued it.

Family

Partner

Timeline
3–30 working days. This is the published standard of the Department of Immigration and Passports for the "visa issue" service, taken from its citizen's charter: the time depends on the visa category and is conditional on a favourable investigation report. The charter does not break it down by category, so the source carries no separate figure for the family categories (FE, FPI, FN and the rest) — only the overall range is known. For comparison, neighbouring services of the same authority are held to tighter standards: the SAARC visa exemption sticker takes 3–7 working days, a route change permit 3 working days, and a certificate of identity for a foreigner 7 working days by the ordinary route and 3 by the urgent one.

Parents

Partner's parents

Pets

Limit
no limit
Quarantine
no
Antibody titre test
not needed
Preparation
~3 months

No Bangladeshi source of its own on importing cats and dogs could be found, so the requirements are read from a document issued on the other side of the border, with explicit attribution: British export health certificate 4134EHC, "Export of a dog/cat from Great Britain to Bangladesh", and its guidance note 4134NFG, both published on gov.uk. The guidance note was updated in December 2023; the certificate form itself is old, cleared in 1998, and that is worth bearing in mind. Two conditions are named in the guidance as central and are rare elsewhere. First, an import permit is mandatory — a "No Objection Certificate" from the Bangladeshi veterinary authority; without it the certificate does not work on its own, and we have no source of our own on that authority. Second, commercial imports of cats and dogs are PROHIBITED outright: only personal animals may be moved. The veterinary examination takes place no more than 48 hours before export, the animal must be free of clinical signs of infectious and contagious disease and fit to travel, and the certificate itself is valid for seven days from the date of signature. Rabies vaccination is framed in the form as a choice between two mutually exclusive attestations: either it was given no more than 12 months and no less than 90 days before export, or the veterinarian certifies that no vaccine was administered at all. The guidance note calls the vaccination advisable rather than mandatory — hence the value of the preparation-time field: three months are needed by whoever chooses to vaccinate. Antibody titration is not mentioned in the documents, they impose no quarantine on arrival, and they name no banned breeds. The same caveat applies as for other countries in this class: the absence of quarantine is confirmed only for animals imported under these conditions, and no general guarantee follows from it.

Safety

Climate

18J
21F
25M
28A
28M
29J
28J
28A
28S
27O
23N
19D

Quality of life

Life expectancy
74.9 years

Cities

Dhaka

$ 166
1 bedroom, per month

The capital and the country's largest city on the bank of the Buriganga; here are the Department of Immigration and Passports, the investment authorities BIDA and BEPZA whose recommendations are required for work and investment visas, and all the diplomatic missions.

2 bedrooms $ 223 · estimate3 bedrooms $ 300utilities $ 39,8ticket $ 0,41monthly pass $ 22,4
To buy, per m²: centre $ 1 249 · suburbs $ 700

The city stands on a low floodplain in the delta, and the country's natural hazards converge here at once: floods at 9.9 out of 10 on INFORM, earthquakes at 8.9. A separate and constant problem is the air: mean PM2.5 for the country is 69.25 micrograms per cubic metre, and in Dhaka it runs above that average.

+Every authority whose recommendation is needed for a work or investment visa is located here
+Rent and utilities are low even by regional standards
−Floods and seismicity combined: the city sits on a low floodplain in the delta
−Air pollution among the worst in this set

Chittagong

$ 113
1 bedroom, per month

The country's principal seaport and its second city, on the coast of the Bay of Bengal; here too are the export processing zones that account for much of the demand for category E work visas.

2 bedrooms $ 154 · estimate3 bedrooms $ 207utilities $ 28,4ticket $ 0,22monthly pass $ 4,06
To buy, per m²: centre $ 799 · suburbs $ 465

The Bay of Bengal coast means cyclones and storm surges: coastal risk at 8.9 out of 10 on INFORM, cyclones at 7.9, tsunami at 8.1. To that are added the same floods and seismicity found across the country.

+The port and the export processing zones: the main source of demand for category E work visas
+Rent noticeably below the capital
−Cyclones and storm surges on the Bay of Bengal coast
−The relevant visa and investment authorities are in the capital

Grocery basket

Bread, 500 g
$ 0,54
Milk, 1 l
$ 0,79
Eggs, 12
$ 1,15
Chicken breast, 1 kg
$ 3,13
Cheese, 1 kg
$ 8,20
Rice, 1 kg
$ 0,60
Potatoes, 1 kg
$ 0,31
Apples, 1 kg
$ 2,57
Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 l
$ 1,02
Total
$ 18,3

The same set for every country, so the comparison is fair.

Cost of living across the country

Rent, 1 bedroom
$ 144 a month
Rent, 3 bedrooms
$ 326 a month
Utility bills
$ 36,0 a month
Home internet
$ 11,8 a month
Monthly transport pass
$ 18,9 a month
Single transport ticket
$ 0,38
Petrol, litre
$ 0,98
Cold medicine
$ 2,94 for a week

Country averages. City prices, where collected, are shown above and are more precise.

Indicators

Life expectancy
74,9 years2024
Homicides
1,8 per 100k2023
Road deaths
18,6 per 100k2021
Unemployment
3,8 %2025
Unemployment, ages 15–24
9,4 %2025
Inequality (Gini)
30,92022
Health spending per person
$ 53,5 a year
Air pollution, PM2.5
69,3 µg/m³2023
Access to clean water
98,8 %2024
Internet, fixed line
69,8 Mbit/s2026
Internet, mobile
37,8 Mbit/s2026

Governance

Political stability
low · -1,5
Control of corruption
low · -1,1
Rule of law
below average · -1
Government effectiveness
below average · -0,6

World Bank estimates on a −2.5 to +2.5 scale, higher is better.

Natural hazards

Earthquakes
8,9 out of 10
River floods
9,9 out of 10
Coastal floods
8,9 out of 10
Tropical cyclones
7,9 out of 10
Droughts
1,9 out of 10
Tsunamis
8,1 out of 10

Each value carries the year it refers to. “Data lags behind” means this country's figure was collected noticeably earlier than the rest. Natural hazards use one 0–10 scale and are meant to be compared against each other.

Compare with other countries in the region

Afghanistan · Azerbaijan · Bhutan · Brunei · Cambodia · Hong Kong · India · Indonesia · Iran · Iraq · Japan · Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kuwait · Kyrgyzstan · Laos · Lebanon · Malaysia · Mongolia · Myanmar · Nepal · Oman · Pakistan · People's Republic of China · Philippines · Singapore · South Korea · Sri Lanka · State of Palestine · Taiwan · Tajikistan · Thailand · Timor-Leste · Türkiye · Turkmenistan · Uzbekistan · Vietnam · Yemen

Other countries in the region: Asia

Afghanistan · Azerbaijan · Bhutan · Brunei · Cambodia · Hong Kong · India · Indonesia · Iran · Iraq · Japan · Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kuwait · Kyrgyzstan · Laos · Lebanon · Malaysia · Mongolia · Myanmar · Nepal · North Korea · Oman · Pakistan · People's Republic of China · Philippines · Singapore · South Korea · Sri Lanka · State of Palestine · Syria · Taiwan · Tajikistan · Thailand · Timor-Leste · Türkiye · Turkmenistan · Uzbekistan · Vietnam · Yemen

All countries by region

Official sources

Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) — Types and Essential Documents of Visa
The full table of visa categories in English: who is eligible, the purpose of travel, and the documents required separately for issue and for extension. The table is NOT equal to the visa policy it is drawn from: it inserts FE1 as a row of its own, breaks off at class T under number 30 and does not contain classes TI, TF, TR and W at all, whereas the policy itself runs to thirty-three rows, from A to W. For the list of grounds go to the consolidated policy on immi.specialbranch.gov.bd; come here for the documents by class. A caveat about the Bengali PDF of the policy: it is typeset in the legacy Bijoy encoding and text extraction recovers no Bengali letters from it — but the class letters, row numbers, dates and all the terms in it are Latin script and Arabic numerals and read as they are. Read on 06.08.2026, re-checked on 25.08.2026.
↗
BanglaBiz — the one-stop portal: services of BIDA, BEPZA, BEZA, BHTPA and the NGO Affairs Bureau
The only address where the rates and service norms of all four permit regimes sit as figures and are machine-readable. A bare request gets a 403 — a browser User-Agent is required. Read on 25.08.2026.
↗
APHA/DEFRA (United Kingdom) — Export of cats and dogs to Bangladesh, certificate 4134
No Bangladeshi source of its own on animal imports could be found; the requirements are read from a document issued on the other side of the border. The 4134NFG guidance note was updated in December 2023, while the certificate form itself dates from 1998. Read on 06.08.2026.
↗

Reliability. Collected from open sources: official immigration service sites, statistical aggregators, industry surveys. Updated: 2026-08-25.

This is not advice. 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.