Bangladesh · South Asia
Moving to Dhaka
Dhaka quick facts
Bangladesh at a glance
South Asia
Economy
World BankReligion
% of populationBangladesh Population and Housing Census 2022
Cost of living in Dhaka
Can you move to Bangladesh?
Pick your passport to see whether you can enter Bangladesh — 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 Bangladesh
E visa, N visa, and the regulator that owns your file
The single decisive fact is which body regulates your employer, because it determines the visa letter, the approval route and the timetable. BIDA handles private-sector employment on an E visa; the NGO Affairs Bureau handles NGO and INGO appointments on an N visa; BEPZA handles the export processing zones. All of them route through a Ministry of Home Affairs security clearance which, since October 2025, is applied for digitally through BIDA's One Stop Service portal and is deemed granted after 21 working days without objection.
Read the full step-by-step guideThe IDP you must obtain before arrival, and the metro that changed everything
An International Driving Permit is obtained in your home country before you travel — you cannot apply for one after arriving in Bangladesh — and it is valid alongside your national licence for twelve months. Most foreign professionals in Dhaka do not drive themselves: a driver on a monthly salary is the standard arrangement and is often included in a package. The genuine change since 2023 is MRT Line 6, which for journeys along its corridor is dramatically faster than any road option.
Read the full step-by-step guideOpening an account, foreign currency deposits, and getting money out again
Bangladesh operates real foreign exchange controls, so the account you open determines what you can later take out. Foreign nationals may hold private foreign currency accounts and Non-Resident Foreign Currency Deposit accounts, and the balances in an NFCD are freely repatriable — but the minimum deposit for a foreign national is materially higher than for a non-resident Bangladeshi. Your work permit and visa are what make a taka account straightforward; without them, expect friction.
Read the full step-by-step guidePrivate hospitals, evacuation cover, and four months of unbreathable air
Dhaka's private hospitals — Evercare, Square, United and Apollo-lineage facilities among them — handle routine and much serious care competently, and costs are low by international standards. For complex care, the established regional pattern is treatment in Bangkok, Singapore or India, which is why medical evacuation cover matters more here than the premium suggests. The city's dominant health issue is air: Dhaka sits repeatedly among the world's ten most polluted cities through the dry season.
Read the full step-by-step guideThe two-SIM passport limit, and why the SIM comes before the bank
SIM registration in Bangladesh is biometric and tied to an identity document, and the limits are set by which document you use. A Bangladeshi national ID supports a substantial number of SIMs; a passport, driving licence or birth certificate supports only two. The rule applies to foreigners and Bangladeshis alike. Getting the SIM early matters more here than in most countries, because mobile financial services — bKash and Nagad — are tied to it and run a large part of daily life.
Read the full step-by-step guide182 days, a July–June year, and the certificate you need to leave
Bangladesh's residency test is 182 days in the income year — not 183 — with a second limb catching people at 90 days if they were present more than 365 days across the preceding four years. The income year runs 1 July to 30 June. Non-residents face a flat rate on Bangladeshi income rather than the progressive scale. And the rule that catches almost every departing foreign professional: you cannot leave the country permanently without a tax clearance certificate.
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 Bengali 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
Find out which regulator owns your employment before anything else
CriticalPrivate-sector employment runs through the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority: your sponsor obtains an E-visa recommendation from BIDA, then a work permit through BIDA's One Stop Service portal. NGO and INGO employment runs through the NGO Affairs Bureau on an N visa, with its own appointment approval tied to an approved project. Export processing zone employment runs through BEPZA. These are three separate tracks with three separate letters and three separate timetables, and a file lodged with the wrong one is not transferred — it is restarted. Confusing them costs months, and it is the most expensive mistake made in Bangladeshi immigration.
The security clearance has a deadline that runs against you, not against the ministry
CriticalSince 1 October 2025 all foreign investors and employees must apply for security clearance through BIDA's One Stop Service portal, and the clearance is deemed granted if no objection is raised within 21 working days. That protection is real. The other half is less advertised: BIDA states that failing to submit the security clearance application within the period specified on the work permit invalidates the permit. Diarise the date on the permit itself, not the date you were told about.
You cannot simply leave — a tax clearance certificate is required
CriticalA person not domiciled in Bangladesh may not leave the country without obtaining a tax clearance certificate from the income tax authority. For a permanent departure this means filing a return covering 1 July to your departure date, including estimated income up to that date, and obtaining the certificate from your local tax circle. It is not fast and it cannot be done from abroad. Anyone finishing a posting here should start it six to eight weeks out, not in the final week.
Tax residence in Bangladesh is 182 days, not 183 — and the year runs July to June
CriticalYou are a resident if you are present for 182 days or more in the income year, or for 90 days or more if you were in Bangladesh for more than 365 days across the four preceding years. The income year runs 1 July to 30 June. Every element of that differs from the assumption most arrivals bring: the threshold, the second limb, and the year boundary. If you are moving here from a country with a 183-day calendar-year test, do the arithmetic properly rather than transferring the habit.
The metro changed which addresses make sense, and older guidance has not caught up
ImportantMRT Line 6 opened in stages from December 2022 and now runs sixteen stations from Uttara North to Motijheel, carrying around 400,000 passengers a day, with services roughly 07:10 to 21:00 Saturday to Thursday and a shorter Friday afternoon service. Fares run from about Tk 20 to Tk 100. For journeys along that corridor it converts a two-hour crawl into twenty minutes. Uttara, Mirpur and Agargaon are now realistic places to live for someone working in Motijheel in a way they simply were not three years ago. Guidance written before 2023 assumes the opposite.
Winter air in Dhaka is a health issue, not just a haze
ImportantDhaka appears repeatedly among the world's ten most polluted cities during the dry season, with index readings above 200 and at times above 250 through January and February. The drivers are brick kilns ringing the city, vehicle emissions, construction dust and a winter inversion that stops any of it dispersing. Buy HEPA purifiers for the bedrooms before December, and treat outdoor exercise in January as a decision rather than a habit.
Top industries & employers
Ready-made garments & textiles
DBL Group, Ha-Meem, Beximco, Pacific Jeans, plus the buying offices of most global brands
Bangladesh is the world's second-largest garment exporter and the sector is roughly four-fifths of national exports. Most foreign professionals in Dhaka are here in sourcing, compliance, technical or buying roles for brands that do not own the factories.
Pharmaceuticals
Square Pharmaceuticals, Beximco Pharma, Incepta, Renata, ACI
Bangladesh manufactures the large majority of its own medicines and exports generics widely — a genuinely unusual position for a country at this income level, built on decades of policy and now a serious export sector in its own right.
Development & the NGO sector
BRAC, Grameen Bank, UN agencies, the World Bank, and the Cox's Bazar response
BRAC is the largest non-governmental development organisation in the world and is Bangladeshi. Between the domestic NGOs, the INGOs and the Rohingya response, this is one of the largest concentrations of development employment anywhere.
Banking, microfinance & fintech
BRAC Bank, City Bank, Eastern Bank, bKash, Nagad
bKash is one of the largest mobile financial services platforms in the world by users, and mobile money penetration here is deeper than in most middle-income countries. Grameen's microfinance model started in this country and still shapes the sector.
Technology & IT services
Therap BD, Brain Station 23, Kaz Software, Enosis, Samsung R&D Bangladesh
A growing software services and outsourcing sector concentrated around Karwan Bazar and the Janata Tower area, with the government's Hi-Tech Park programme trying to extend it. Smaller than India's or Pakistan's but rising fast.
Shipping, logistics & leather
Chattogram port operators, Summit Group, Apex Footwear, Bay Group
Chattogram handles the overwhelming majority of Bangladeshi trade and Dhaka runs the commercial side of it. Leather and footwear is the country's second-largest export sector after garments and is concentrated around Savar.
Where to go in Dhaka
Lalbagh Fort
Landmark · Old Dhaka
An unfinished Mughal fort begun in 1678, with a tomb, a mosque and a hammam inside a walled garden above the river.
Local tip: Go early on a weekday — by late morning it fills with school groups. The tomb of Pari Bibi in the centre is the reason the fort was abandoned, and the story is worth reading before you come rather than after.
Ahsan Manzil
Culture · Kumartuli, on the Buriganga
The pink 1872 palace of the Nawabs of Dhaka, restored as a museum, facing the river from the old city.
Local tip: The building is the point rather than the collection. Combine it with a walk east along the riverfront toward Sadarghat, which is where the old city still functions as a working port rather than as a heritage site.
Shakhari Bazar & Old Dhaka
Neighborhood · Puran Dhaka
A three-hundred-year-old lane of Hindu artisan houses, one shopfront wide and four storeys tall, in the densest part of the old city.
Local tip: Walk it on foot and start early. Rickshaws cannot easily get through and that is the appeal. The conch-shell workers the street is named for are still there. Around Durga Puja it is transformed and worth planning a visit around.
Puran Dhaka's biryani houses
Food · Old Dhaka — Nazira Bazar, Kazi Alauddin Road
Haji Biryani, Nanna Biryani, Star Kabab and the kacchi that Dhaka argues about with more heat than politics.
Local tip: Kacchi biryani here is made with mutton and cooked with the rice, which is the distinction from the pulao you get elsewhere. Haji's is small, cash-only and closes when the pot is finished — go by eight in the evening or not at all.
Hatirjheel
Nature · Between Gulshan, Tejgaon and Rampura
A rehabilitated lake and canal system through the middle of the city, with walkways, bridges and a water-taxi service.
Local tip: It is the closest thing central Dhaka has to a park and the walkways are genuinely used for running in the early morning. The water taxis across the lake are cheap, quick and a far better way to cross this part of the city than any road.
Sadarghat launch terminal
Hidden gemLandmark · On the Buriganga, Old Dhaka
The river terminal where hundreds of multi-deck launches leave for the southern delta — one of the busiest inland ports in the world.
Local tip: Go at around five in the afternoon when the evening launches are boarding and the whole terminal is in motion. Almost no foreign resident of Gulshan has ever been, which is the point. Take the small ferry across to Keraniganj for a few taka and look back at it.
Emergency numbers in Dhaka
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