Solomon Islands

Visa speed

The department states outright that it does not guarantee a timeframe, and this is the rare case where the absence of a standard is not inferred but PRINTED. There are two formulations, and both stand word for word on the visa pages: “The processing time may vary for different visa categories, there is no specific timeframe, however all applications will be processed when registered in our system” and “We do not guarantee a specific timeframe, but we will process your application in a timely manner”. There is no figure on any of the thirty-one pages, so the processing time is marked unpublished on every ground. Instead of a deadline the department describes how to find out: after lodging, log into your account and watch the status; a letter about the decision will come to the address you gave. On approval an electronic grant letter arrives, a copy of which must be presented on entry. What is fixed firmly is the PLACE of lodgment: “You must apply outside of Solomon Islands” — the application is made while the person is OUTSIDE the country, and this is repeated on the visa pages, including the family ones, the employment ones and permanent residence. A separate note about the passport: with less than six months' validity entry may be refused. One figure does come from the department, and it is about the BEGINNING rather than the decision: the permitted period of stay runs either from the date of entry into the country or from the date the visa was granted — depending on where the application was made. Someone applying from outside counts from entry, someone applying from inside from the grant. Lodgment goes through the eVisa portal, but not for everyone: a notice on the visa page says online application and payment have been launched SO FAR ONLY for the visitor categories, and the rest will follow once the transition is complete. Payment is two charges, the visa fee and a 50-dollar online lodgement fee; both are levied in US dollars, converted into Solomon Islands dollars before the application is registered, and are not refunded even on refusal.

Visa types: The shape of the catalogue is worth grasping before the numbers: for EVERY visa the authority prints five figures — the fee, a separate "online fee" of 50 dollars on almost all of them, the visa's validity, the maximum period of stay, and the right to work. Validity and maximum stay are DIFFERENT quantities and often do not match: on the tourist visa the visa is valid 30 days from arrival, while a stay of up to 150 days is allowed. · Visitor Visa — Tourist: a fee of 100 dollars plus 50 online, the visa 30 days from arrival, the stay up to 150 days, single entry, renewable before expiry. Work is not permitted. · Visitor Visa — Visiting Relatives: for holders of Melanesian passports travelling to close relatives and friends. No visa fee, only the 50 online; the visa runs 90 days, the stay up to a year, multiple entry, renewal at 100. Work is not permitted. · Visitor Visa — Melanesian Spearhead Group: no visa fee, 50 online; the visa runs 60 days, the stay up to a year, multiple entry, renewal at 200. Work is not permitted. · Visitor Visa — Yacht Persons: for the masters and crews of private yachts. 200 dollars plus 50; the visa runs 60 days, the stay up to 180 days, single entry. Work is not permitted. · Visitor Visa — Journalist/Reporter: 150 plus 50; the visa runs 30 days, the stay 30 days, single entry, renewal at 200. Work is not permitted, beyond the journalism itself. · Business Visa — Short-Term: 450 plus 50; the visa runs 90 days, the stay up to 180 days, single and multiple entry, and there is NO extension. One may not take employment without the Commissioner of Labour's approval — only non-remunerated business activity is allowed. · Business Visa — Emergency Employment Visa: for engineers, technicians and the like arriving under time-sensitive circumstances. No extension; work is permitted on stipulated conditions. · Working Resident Visa — Short-Term Employment: 300 plus 50; the visa runs 6 months, the stay 6 months, renewal at 700 dollars. Work is permitted within the approved assignment and ONLY with the Commissioner of Labour's consent. · Working Resident Visa — Long-Term Employment: 450 plus 50; the visa runs 2 years, while the maximum period of stay is set not by the visa but by the WORK PERMIT; renewal at 500 and on the terms of that same permit. · Entertainer Visa — four sub-types at different prices but the same term (visa and stay up to 2 years, multiple entry): a church or cultural performer (non-commercial) at 250, a commercial musician at 400, a commercial comedian at 400, a non-commercial film-maker at 150 and a commercial one at 400. The right to work is granted, but strictly within the performance or project itself. · Special Exemption Visa — Ministerial: granted at the government's discretion to those engaged in the service of the country's ministries and organisations. No fees are charged, visa and stay run up to 2 years, multiple entry, and extension is by re-application. Work is permitted where the exemption says so. Separate sub-types cover dependants of diplomats and ministerial figures, religious workers, sportspeople, research academics, aid workers and volunteers, and emergencies of 30 and 60 days. · Transiting Visa — Commercial Vessel: for crew members arriving on international flights and boarding commercial vessels. 50 plus 50; the visa runs 7 days from arrival, the stay up to 14 days. Work is not permitted — transit only. · Mutual Visa — under memoranda with the European Union, the PRC, India, the UAE and Indonesia: no fees, visa and stay of 90 days, single entry, work prohibited. · Accompanying Family Visa — two varieties, both at 300 dollars plus 50, a stay of up to 2 years, renewal at 350. Details in the family section. · Permanent Resident Visa — two tiers, the principal one and one for dependants. Details in the permanent-residence section.

Collected on 24 August 2026 from the site of the Solomon Islands Immigration Division (`immigration.gov.sb`). Technically the site is taken the same way as Zimbabwe's: WordPress serves everything through REST, and here BOTH forms work — `/wp-json/wp/v2/pages?per_page=100` and `?rest_route=…`; 66 pages in full, each visa with a page of its own carrying a “Key Details” block of five values. **Employment runs on two stages, and that is the main thing to know.** The visa by itself gives no right to work. For the long-term employment visa the maximum stay is set not by the visa but by the WORK PERMIT of the Commissioner of Labour under the Labour Act: the department prints exactly that — “Maximum stay: Specified in the Work Permit” — and the extension follows the terms of that same permit. For the short-term employment visa the Commissioner's consent is named outright. The Commissioner's permission is required even where the work does not look like work: for the religious worker and for the humanitarian volunteer. Even the business visa stipulates that one may not take employment without the Commissioner's approval and only non-remunerated business activities are allowed. The immigration department and the labour department are two different doors, and the second matters more. **Visa validity and maximum stay are DIFFERENT quantities, and they often disagree.** On the Melanesian Spearhead Group visa the visa is valid 60 days while the stay may run up to A YEAR; on the yacht visa 60 days against a stay of up to 180; on the tourist visa 30 days against a stay of up to 150. The department prints both values in every card, and confusing them means being wrong by a multiple. The cards here record the visa's validity, with the maximum stay named in prose. **An extension often costs more than the visa.** The short-term employment visa costs 300 dollars and its extension 700. A sportsperson and a volunteer pay 100 and extend for 300. A religious worker — 100 and 200. The family visas — 300 and 350. Only on the long-term employment visa is the extension comparable to the grant: 450 and 500. Whoever plans to stay pays more than whoever arrived. **All prices are in US dollars, and a separate online fee is charged on top.** The department stipulates that the visa fee and the online lodgement fee are levied in US dollars and converted into Solomon Islands dollars BEFORE the application is registered, and that neither is refunded even on refusal. The online fee — 50 dollars — stands on almost every category, including those where the visa itself is free: a diplomat and a ministerial exemption pay 50 dollars to lodge against a zero visa fee. Nothing at all is charged only on the protection visas (asylum, refugee, victims of trafficking) and on the permanent residence dependent. **“Permanent” residence is a five-year visa granted for five previous years.** The Permanent Resident Visa requires five consecutive years of lawful residence on other visas, is valid for 5 years and is renewed after five; THE RIGHT TO WORK IS NOT AUTOMATICALLY GRANTED — it is assessed against the visa history, and the list of documents includes a valid work permit from the Commissioner of Labour. Continuity is proved by a list of previous visas or by a Border Management System (BMS) record number. This is the country's most expensive visa fee — 1,500 dollars. **The department's own catalogue contradicts itself, and in more than one place.** For the short-term diplomatic visa the term is named THREE times and differently: in the visa list's description line — “valid for less than 3 months”, in the same list's summary — “1 year (single entry)”, and on the visa's own page — “Less than 6 months”. The entertainer visas are marked “not extendable” in the list and “Extension: available” on their own pages. The student visa page contradicts itself within a single page: “Extension Available: Yes” in the summary, “Extensions are not available” in the note at the bottom. For the sportsperson one line says “Single/Multiple” and another “Multiple Entry Option: No”. Everywhere THE VISA'S OWN PAGE has been recorded, and the discrepancy is named in the card. **Nationality restricts two grounds out of thirty-one.** The Melanesian Spearhead Group visa is open to citizens of Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu — the department names them one by one; the visa for visiting relatives is described as available to “Melanesian countries passport holders” without a list, and its nationality rule has been recorded from the neighbouring page of the same department. Both are free and both allow a stay of up to a year on a visa valid 60 and 90 days. **Mutual visa exemptions are not grounds for living there.** The country has memoranda with the European Union, the PRC, India, the UAE and Indonesia: holders of OFFICIAL and diplomatic passports of those countries enter with no visa fee for 90 days, single entry, with no right to work and no extension. That is an exemption from the visa for official travel, not a ground for residence, and it has not been collected among the grounds. **The Act every page cites is one the department does not publish.** The visa pages quote the Immigration Act 2012 (sections 11, 18, 21, 23) and the Immigration Regulation 2013 — while the page “Strategy documents and Acts” carries the Customs and Excise Act, the Correctional Services Bill 2007, the Penal Code (Sexual Offences) Amendment Act 2016, the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and two regional strategies. Neither the Immigration Act nor the regulation is there. **Online lodgment does not work for everyone.** A notice on the visa page reads: “Online Application and Payment is now Operational. You can now apply for Visitor Visa classes only. Other visas will be available once we finalize the transition”. So the “Apply online” button appears on every category while it actually works only for the visitor ones. **Requirements that run through everything.** The application is lodged while the person is OUTSIDE the country — repeated on the visa pages. A passport with less than six months' validity may be a reason to refuse entry. The list of documents is almost everywhere the same: passport bio-data page, police report, medical report, sponsor letter of indemnity, payment of two fees. Refusal and cancellation follow sections 23 and 21 of the Immigration Act 2012. **What is not among the grounds.** The tourist visa (valid 30 days, stay up to 150, 100 dollars), the journalist visa (30 days, 150 dollars) and the transit visa for commercial vessel crews (7 days on arrival, stay up to 14, 50 dollars) are permission to enter, not to live. The five mutual exemptions are described above. Citizenship is not handled by the immigration division.

Permanent residence after

5 years

Permanent residence exists, and its qualifying period is published outright: FIVE YEARS of continuous lawful residence in the country on other valid visa types. The authority's wording: «for individuals who have lawfully resided in the Solomon Islands for at least five consecutive years on other valid visa types and are now seeking permanent residency». The figures: a fee of 1,500 dollars plus 50 online — the most expensive document in the catalogue; the visa is valid for FIVE YEARS and is renewed on expiry; entry single or multiple. **The right to work is NOT granted automatically** — it is assessed on visa history and compliance, and a current work permit from the Commissioner of Labour appears as its own line among the application requirements. What must be attached: the application in the eVisa portal, the passport bio page, a valid work permit, a police report, a medical report, and a sponsor's letter of indemnity. Directors, chief executives and investors of companies operating in the country are named as a requirement of their own. The five years of residence must be documented — through visa history or a Border Management System (BMS) record number. The conditions the authority cites from the Regulations under the Immigration Act 2012, on the same page: there is an approved sponsor for the applicant; the Director approves that the employment is genuine; the applicant holds a work permit granted by the Commissioner for Labour under the Labour Act. Character requirements come from section 23(1–3) of the Immigration Act 2012, and they open with whether the person has a record of serious criminal conduct. Dependants of a permanent-status holder receive a separate Permanent Resident Visa — Dependent: no fees at all, validity tied to the primary applicant's visa, and NO right to work — for that one must apply for a visa of one's own. The conditions for citizenship were not read on this pass.

Document certification

consular legalisation

The country does not accept apostilles: documents go through consular legalisation in three steps — ministry of justice, foreign ministry, consulate.

Limit

no limit

Bread, 500 g

$ 1,50

Milk, 1 l

$ 2,55

Eggs, 12

$ 5,58

Chicken breast, 1 kg

$ 8,58

Cheese, 1 kg

$ 5,30

Rice, 1 kg

$ 1,63

Potatoes, 1 kg

$ 1,95

Apples, 1 kg

$ 6,43

Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 l

$ 4,33

Total

$ 37,9

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

Rent, 1 bedroom

$ 586 a month

Rent, 3 bedrooms

$ 1 753 a month

Utility bills

$ 258 a month

Home internet

$ 90,4 a month

Monthly transport pass

$ 25,1 a month

Single transport ticket

$ 0,37

Petrol, litre

$ 1,32

Cold medicine

$ 3,80 for a week

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

Life expectancy

70,7 years2024

Homicides

3,7 per 100k2008 · data lags behind

Road deaths

11,2 per 100k2021

Unemployment

1,4 %2025

Unemployment, ages 15–24

2,8 %2025

Health spending per person

$ 111 a year

Air pollution, PM2.5

9,8 µg/m³2023

Access to clean water

71,6 %2024

Governance

Political stability

above average · 0,8

Control of corruption

below average · -0,1

Rule of law

above average · 0,2

Government effectiveness

below average · -0,9

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

Natural hazards

Earthquakes

7,1 out of 10

River floods

0 out of 10

Coastal floods

6,8 out of 10

Tropical cyclones

3,6 out of 10

Droughts

2,9 out of 10

Tsunamis

7,8 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.

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