Jordan · Middle East
Moving to Amman
Amman quick facts
Jordan at a glance
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan
Economy
World BankReligion
% of populationCIA World Factbook / national censuses
Cost of living in Amman
Can you move to Jordan?
Pick your passport to see whether you can enter Jordan — and what it takes to stay.
Entry rules come from github.com/imorte/passport-index-data, updated 17 February 2026. They change without notice — confirm with the official immigration service before booking.
Getting set up in Jordan
Work permit, residence permit, and the closed-professions list
The Ministry of Labour issues a work permit tied to one employer and one occupation. The Public Security Directorate then issues a residence permit. Neither implies the other, both are annual, and the whole thing turns on a question you should ask first: is your occupation open to non-Jordanians at all? The Ministry maintains a closed-professions list and applies sector ratios limiting how many foreigners an employer may hold, and no amount of enthusiasm from a hiring manager overrides either.
Read the full step-by-step guideConverting a licence, and driving a city built on hills
Conversion requires a valid residence permit, your original licence with an Arabic translation where needed, an eye test and a fee — and, depending on the issuing country, sometimes a test. Jordan drives on the right. What actually catches people is the city: steep gradients, roundabouts that operate on assertion rather than rules, and a winter that puts ice on hills where nobody has winter tyres.
Read the full step-by-step guideOpening an account, and the dinar that is worth more than a dollar
Jordanian banks require a residence permit, a passport and normally an employer letter to open a resident account, and they apply due-diligence rules carefully. The dinar is pegged to the dollar at a rate that makes it worth about USD 1.41, which is the opposite of what most people arriving from a soft-currency country expect. Cash is still used far more widely than in the Gulf, though card and app payment have grown fast.
Read the full step-by-step guideA regional medical hub, and what your insurance actually reaches
Amman's private healthcare is genuinely good — Jordan is one of the region's established medical-tourism destinations and the King Hussein Cancer Center is a regional referral institution. Health insurance is not universally mandated for expatriate workers in the way it is in the Gulf, which means the question 'am I covered' has a real answer that varies by employer. Establish it at onboarding, because the private system is excellent and priced accordingly.
Read the full step-by-step guideGetting a line, and why the map pin matters more than the address
SIMs in Jordan are registered against identity documents. Visitors register on a passport; residents should hold the line on their own identity because verification flows depend on it. Coverage and data are good and cheap by regional standards. The Amman-specific point is not technical: because the city navigates by circles and landmarks rather than street addresses, your phone's map pin is the practical address for everything from a delivery to an ambulance.
Read the full step-by-step guideIncome tax that actually applies, 16% sales tax, and social security
This is the section that most distinguishes Jordan from the Gulf. Income arising in or from Jordan is taxable regardless of where it is paid, at progressive rates from 5% to 30%, with a 1% national contribution above JOD 200,000. Social security is deducted from your pay and matched by your employer on covered salary up to a monthly ceiling. General sales tax is 16% on most goods and services. Personal exemptions and limited deductions reduce the base meaningfully, so the effective rate on a normal salary is well below the headline.
Read the full step-by-step guideEach guide has verified costs, timelines, required documents, and the non-obvious gotchas — sourced from official government pages. Last verified August 2026.
Essential Arabic phrases
Reading a list isn’t learning it. Globe Quest turns these into a trainer — hear each phrase spoken, drill them with spaced repetition, and get scored as you say them out loud.
What to know before you go
Piped water arrives once or twice a week, and it decides which flat you take
CriticalJordan is one of the most water-scarce countries on earth, and Amman's supply runs on a rotation: most households receive piped water for a limited window once or twice a week, filling rooftop tanks they then live off. Before you sign a lease, ask three questions: which day does the water come, how large is the tank, and is there a pump. A small tank with a weak pump on a high floor means running dry mid-week and buying tanker water, which is expensive and not always well regulated. This is the single most Amman-specific thing about renting here and it appears on no listing.
Your salary is taxed, and so is your spending
CriticalThis is not the Gulf. Income arising in or from Jordan is taxable regardless of where it is paid, at 5% on the first JOD 5,000 of taxable income and rising in JOD 5,000 bands to 25%, then 30% above JOD 1,000,000, with an additional 1% national contribution above JOD 200,000. Social security is deducted from your pay as well, and general sales tax is 16% on most goods and services. Personal exemptions and limited deductions reduce the base, so model your net rather than applying a headline rate — but do model it. A Jordanian offer compared gross against a Gulf one is being compared wrongly.
Amman gets snow, and the city stops when it does
ImportantAmman sits between roughly 750 and 1,100 metres and is a genuinely cold-winter city — most winters bring at least one snowfall, and a significant one closes schools, government offices and roads for days. The hills are steep, most cars have summer tyres, and the gradients that make the city beautiful make it undriveable on ice. Heating is frequently diesel or gas rather than central, and older stone buildings are cold. Budget for winter heating and do not assume a Middle Eastern posting means you can leave the coat behind.
Check the closed-professions list before you accept anything
ImportantThe Ministry of Labour maintains a list of occupations reserved for Jordanian nationals, and it is updated periodically. Sales roles, most teaching posts, hairdressing, security work and clerical and administrative functions have all appeared on it. If the job you have been offered sits on that list, no amount of employer enthusiasm fixes it. Employers also face sector ratios limiting how many non-Jordanians they may hold. Ask for confirmation that a permit can actually be issued for your occupation, in writing, before you resign anywhere.
Directions are given by circle, landmark and hill — not by street name
ImportantAmman's main spine, Zahran Street, is punctuated by eight numbered circles, and the whole city navigates by them: 'Third Circle', 'behind Sweifieh', 'up from the Fourth'. Streets do have names and buildings do have numbers, but almost nobody uses them, delivery drivers will call rather than navigate, and a mapping pin is more useful than an address. Learn your nearest circle and your nearest landmark, and give both when you order anything or call 911.
The international-organisation economy is a parallel labour market
Good to knowAmman is a regional headquarters for the UN system and a large share of the international NGO sector, running responses across Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the wider region. That produces an unusually large, mobile, English-speaking professional community and a hiring market with its own conventions — internationally recruited versus nationally recruited contracts, very different pay scales, and terms tied to funding cycles rather than to Jordanian labour norms. If you are entering it, understand which contract type you are being offered before you negotiate anything else.
Top industries & employers
Humanitarian & development
UNHCR, UNRWA, UNICEF, WFP, ICRC, NRC, IRC, Mercy Corps, Oxfam
Amman is a regional hub for the UN system and the international NGO sector, coordinating responses across the region. It is the city's most distinctive employer base and a genuinely large professional community.
Banking & finance
Arab Bank, Housing Bank, Bank al Etihad, Capital Bank, Central Bank of Jordan
Arab Bank, headquartered in Amman since 1948, is one of the largest and oldest banking groups in the Arab world — an outsized institution for the size of the economy around it.
ICT & outsourcing
Aramex, Maysalward, Mawdoo3, Expedia's Amman office, regional development centres
Jordan's education system produces far more engineers than the domestic economy absorbs, which is why a real software and outsourcing sector exists here and why Jordanian engineers are heavily represented across the Gulf.
Pharmaceuticals & medical
Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Dar Al Dawa, Arab Center for Pharmaceuticals
Hikma grew out of Amman into a global generics manufacturer, and Jordanian pharma is a genuine export industry rather than an import-substitution one.
Healthcare & medical tourism
King Hussein Cancer Center, Jordan Hospital, Istishari, Abdali Hospital
Jordan is one of the region's established medical-tourism destinations, drawing patients from across the Arab world. The King Hussein Cancer Center in particular is a regional referral institution.
Tourism & heritage
Jordan Tourism Board, Petra Development Authority, Dead Sea and Aqaba resorts
Petra, Wadi Rum, Jerash and the Dead Sea are within a few hours of Amman, and tourism is a major foreign-currency earner that is highly sensitive to regional events.
Where to go in Amman
The Citadel (Jabal al-Qala'a)
Landmark · Jabal al-Qala'a, above Downtown
A hilltop enclosure layered with Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad remains — the Temple of Hercules, the Umayyad Palace — looking straight down over the Roman theatre.
Local tip: Come in the last hour before closing. The site faces west across the downtown bowl, the call to prayer goes up from every hill at once, and the whole city turns gold. From here you can actually read Amman's geography, which is impossible from inside it.
Rainbow Street & Jabal Amman
Neighborhood · Jabal Amman, First Circle
A restored 1920s–40s hillside of stone villas, cafés, bookshops and small galleries — the most walkable and most photographed stretch of the city.
Local tip: Souk Jara runs here on summer Fridays and is the best single afternoon in Amman — crafts, food and live music down the whole street. Otherwise go on a weekday morning; the weekend traffic and the shisha crowds make it a very different place after dark.
Jabal al-Weibdeh
Neighborhood · Jabal al-Weibdeh
The city's arts quarter — Darat al Funun, independent galleries, small publishers, and the cafés where Amman's writers and film people actually sit.
Local tip: Darat al Funun is free, occupies three restored 1920s houses and a Byzantine church ruin on a terraced hillside, and is one of the best contemporary art spaces in the Arab world. Almost no visitor to Jordan goes. The garden alone is worth an afternoon.
Downtown (Al Balad) & the Roman Theatre
Culture · Downtown
The low-lying old centre — a second-century Roman theatre for six thousand people, the gold souq, the fruit market and the Grand Husseini Mosque.
Local tip: Habibah's kunafa, down an alley off King Hussein Street, is the single most Ammani food experience there is: you queue, you eat standing, and it costs almost nothing. Go to the original branch, not the mall one.
Wadi Rum & Petra day-reach
Nature · Three to four hours south
The Nabataean city and the desert valley that between them define Jordan — both reachable from Amman on the Desert Highway for a long weekend.
Local tip: The Jordan Pass, bought before you arrive in the country, bundles Petra entry with the tourist visa fee and is a substantial saving — but only if purchased before you land. Residents get a discounted Petra rate on production of a residence permit, which most people never ask about.
Wadi Mujib & the Dead Sea panorama road
Hidden gemNature · About an hour and a half south-west
A river canyon dropping from the Jordanian plateau to the lowest land surface on earth, with a wet trail you wade upstream between vertical sandstone walls.
Local tip: The Siq Trail is seasonal — it closes over the winter high-water months and reopens in spring — and it is a genuine wade, not a walk. Check the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature's current dates before driving down. The panorama road above it is worth the trip on its own and takes an hour from Amman.
Emergency numbers in Amman
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