What is Angola's Visto de trabalho (work visa) + autorização de residência?

Foreign professionals with an Angolan employment contract — in practice the only realistic way for a non-Angolan to live and work here. Two instruments in sequence: the consular work visa that lets you enter and work, and the separate SME residence authorisation that makes you resident. It lasts under article 55 of Lei n.º 13/19 the work visa is issued for multiple entries and permits a stay of up to 365 days, renewable for equal periods until the employment contract ends. Temporary residence under article 81 is granted for two years and renewed for equal two-year periods. Article 82: permanent residence requires ten consecutive years of temporary residence, after which it is of unlimited duration and reviewed administratively every five years. There is no accelerated track for skilled workers, no points system and no shortcut — ten years is the number to plan around, and it is roughly double the European norm.

What is Angola's Autorização de residência temporária → permanente?

Anyone already lawfully in Angola on a long-stay visa who needs the status that actually makes them resident — and, ten years later, the permanent version of it. This is the route every other route eventually feeds into, which is why it is worth reading as its own thing rather than as an appendix to the work visa. It lasts article 81: temporary residence is valid for two years from issue and renewable for equal two-year periods. Article 82: permanent residence is of unlimited duration, subject to an administrative renewal of the card every five years. Ten consecutive years of temporary residence is the condition for permanent residence under article 82. 'Consecutive' is the operative word — a gap between cards is the thing most likely to reset a decade of patience, so renew early rather than at the edge of expiry.

What is Angola's Visto de investidor (investor visa)?

Foreign investors, and the representatives of foreign investors, whose investment project is registered under Angola's private-investment regime and administered through AIPEX. It is an operating-business route, not a property purchase converted into a permit. It lasts article 59: the investor visa is granted for up to two years and is renewable for equal periods, for as long as the investment remains valid. Article 59 allows temporary residence to be granted after three continuous years on the investor visa, provided the investment is still live. From there the ordinary article 82 clock applies — ten consecutive years of temporary residence for permanent status. Angola has no golden visa and no citizenship-by-investment programme, so investing buys a route in, not a route to a passport.

What is Angola's Reagrupamento familiar (family reunification)?

The family of a foreign resident in Angola. Article 88 of Lei n.º 13/19 defines the eligible relatives narrowly and by category, so who counts as family is a legal question here rather than a practical one. It lasts family members' status is granted alongside the principal's and renewed with it — temporary residence for two years at a time under article 81. The same article 82 route as everyone else: ten consecutive years of temporary residence. Marriage to an Angolan citizen is governed by the nationality law rather than by Lei n.º 13/19 and is a separate question worth taking Angolan legal advice on rather than reading off an immigration page.

GlobeQuest

Moving from Kenya to Angola

What your passport gets you at the border — and what it takes to actually stay.

Kenya

AngolaShort stay

Visa required

Kenya passport holders need a visa arranged in advance to enter Angola, usually through an embassy, consulate or accredited visa centre.

This is short-stay visitor policy only. It does not let you work, study or settle in Angola — that needs a residence permit.

Passport Index · updated 17 February 2026Angola's official immigration service

Long stay

How you actually move to Angola

Work / sponsoredMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Visto de trabalho (work visa) + autorização de residência

Foreign professionals with an Angolan employment contract — in practice the only realistic way for a non-Angolan to live and work here. Two instruments in sequence: the consular work visa that lets you enter and work, and the separate SME residence authorisation that makes you resident.

What you need

A signed Angolan employment contract, plus the Ministry of Labour's approval of hiring a non-national and a declaration from the employment centre — SME lists all three among the work-visa documents
The employer's business licence and tax-compliance proof
Academic and professional certificates, translated into Portuguese
A criminal-record certificate and a medical certificate, translated into Portuguese
A yellow-fever vaccination certificate — an entry requirement for Angola, checked on arrival
Three passport photographs and a passport valid well beyond the visa period
For the residence authorisation afterwards: a letter to SME requesting residence, an atestado de residência, an Angolan criminal-record certificate, proof of means of subsistence, two 4x5 cm photographs on a white background and the fee receipt

How long it lasts: Under article 55 of Lei n.º 13/19 the work visa is issued for multiple entries and permits a stay of up to 365 days, renewable for equal periods until the employment contract ends. Temporary residence under article 81 is granted for two years and renewed for equal two-year periods.
Path to permanent residence: Article 82: permanent residence requires ten consecutive years of temporary residence, after which it is of unlimited duration and reviewed administratively every five years. There is no accelerated track for skilled workers, no points system and no shortcut — ten years is the number to plan around, and it is roughly double the European norm.
Cost: Consular work-visa fees are set at post and vary by nationality under an explicit reciprocity principle, and SME publishes its domestic fees on a tabela de taxas that it serves as an image rather than as text. We therefore quote no single figure. Budget for the consular fee, the residence-authorisation fee, the resident card, and the translation and legalisation of every foreign document — plus an Angolan criminal-record certificate once you are in the country.
Processing time: SME publishes no service standard for either the visa or the residence decision. Realistically the timeline is dominated by two things outside the migration service: the employer's Ministry of Labour clearance, and legalising and translating your home-country documents. Allow one to several months end to end.

Worth knowing

The visa authorises only the specific professional activity that justified it. Changing employer requires authorisation rather than a resignation letter, which materially reduces your bargaining position once you are in the country — negotiate before you arrive.
The work visa alone does not make you resident. The autorização de residência is a separate application to SME with its own document list and its own fee, and the cartão de residente is what police and banks actually ask to see.
Do not arrive on the tourist-visa exemption intending to convert. Decreto Presidencial n.º 189/23 de 29 de Setembro waived tourist visas for citizens of 98 countries — 30 days per entry and up to 90 days in a calendar year — but the tourism, short-stay, study and medical visas all expressly prohibit fixação de residência and paid employment.
The visto privilegiado that older HR checklists and relocation blogs still name belonged to the previous Lei n.º 2/07. It is not in the 2019 regime. Check any category name you are given against the current law before building a timeline on it.
Angola's double-tax treaty network is small, so the tax consequences of the posting need advice on your home country's rules rather than reliance on a treaty catching you.

Sources:SME — Requisitos dos actos migratórios: estrangeiros (per-category document lists)SME — Categoria dos vistos (validity, permitted stay, extension rules)Lei n.º 13/19 de 23 de Maio — Regime Jurídico dos Cidadãos Estrangeiros na República de Angola SME — Tabela de taxas UK FCDO — Angola: entry requirements

Work / sponsoredMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Autorização de residência temporária → permanente

Anyone already lawfully in Angola on a long-stay visa who needs the status that actually makes them resident — and, ten years later, the permanent version of it. This is the route every other route eventually feeds into, which is why it is worth reading as its own thing rather than as an appendix to the work visa.

What you need

A letter addressed to SME requesting residence authorisation, plus the completed form, sheet and cover
A current atestado de residência
An Angolan criminal-record certificate
Proof of means of subsistence
Two 4x5 cm colour passport-type photographs on a white background
A photocopy of the passport including the identification pages and the residence-fixing visa
Proof of payment of the fee

How long it lasts: Article 81: temporary residence is valid for two years from issue and renewable for equal two-year periods. Article 82: permanent residence is of unlimited duration, subject to an administrative renewal of the card every five years.
Path to permanent residence: Ten consecutive years of temporary residence is the condition for permanent residence under article 82. 'Consecutive' is the operative word — a gap between cards is the thing most likely to reset a decade of patience, so renew early rather than at the edge of expiry.
Cost: Reported figures put the temporary resident card and the permanent residence card at the same price, but SME's own tabela de taxas is published as an image and we could not read a definitive figure off an official page. Check the fee table or the SME counter before budgeting, and treat any number quoted by an agency as indicative.
Processing time: Not published by SME. Plan in months rather than weeks, and start the renewal well before the two-year card expires.

Worth knowing

This is a separate decision from your visa, made by SME inside Angola, and it is the one that determines whether you are lawfully RESIDENT rather than merely lawfully present.
Ten years of temporary residence before permanence is long by international standards and is the single most important fact for anyone weighing Angola as a place to settle rather than a place to be posted.
The atestado de residência and the Angolan criminal-record certificate both go stale. Collect them last, not first, or you will be re-doing them by the time the rest of the file is assembled.
Being in Angola without the right status is a migration offence, not a paperwork slip. Do not let the clock run out while an employer's HR department is 'working on it'.

Sources:SME — Requisitos dos actos migratórios: estrangeiros (per-category document lists)Lei n.º 13/19 de 23 de Maio — Regime Jurídico dos Cidadãos Estrangeiros na República de Angola SME — Tabela de taxas SME — Serviço de Migração e Estrangeiros

InvestmentMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Visto de investidor (investor visa)

Foreign investors, and the representatives of foreign investors, whose investment project is registered under Angola's private-investment regime and administered through AIPEX. It is an operating-business route, not a property purchase converted into a permit.

What you need

An investment registered under the private-investment law and processed through AIPEX, the investment and export-promotion agency
A criminal-record certificate
An international vaccination certificate
Proof of means of subsistence and of housing in Angola
Three passport photographs and a declaration of commitment (declaração de compromisso)
Proof of payment of the fee

How long it lasts: Article 59: the investor visa is granted for up to two years and is renewable for equal periods, for as long as the investment remains valid.
Path to permanent residence: Article 59 allows temporary residence to be granted after three continuous years on the investor visa, provided the investment is still live. From there the ordinary article 82 clock applies — ten consecutive years of temporary residence for permanent status. Angola has no golden visa and no citizenship-by-investment programme, so investing buys a route in, not a route to a passport.
Cost: SME publishes the migration fee on its tabela de taxas. The material cost is on the investment side rather than the migration side — AIPEX administers the registration and the sector-specific incentives, and those are the figures worth getting from the agency directly rather than from a commercial guide.
Processing time: Not published. AIPEX's registration of the investment sits ahead of the visa and is the part with the real variance.

Worth knowing

This is a visa attached to a registered, operating investment. Buying an apartment in Talatona is not an investment for this purpose and does not create any immigration right.
Three continuous years on the visa before temporary residence, then ten years of temporary residence before permanence — the investor route is faster to enter than the work route and no faster to settle through.
Angola's private-investment incentives are fiscal and customs advantages for the company, administered by AIPEX. They are not immigration advantages for the founder; do not let an incentive brochure be read as a residence route.
The visa follows the investment. If the project lapses, the basis for the visa lapses with it.

Sources:SME — Requisitos dos actos migratórios: estrangeiros (per-category document lists)Lei n.º 13/19 de 23 de Maio — Regime Jurídico dos Cidadãos Estrangeiros na República de Angola AIPEX — Agência de Investimento Privado e Promoção das Exportações SME — Tabela de taxas

FamilyMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Reagrupamento familiar (family reunification)

The family of a foreign resident in Angola. Article 88 of Lei n.º 13/19 defines the eligible relatives narrowly and by category, so who counts as family is a legal question here rather than a practical one.

What you need

A principal who is lawfully resident in Angola and can evidence it
Proof of the relationship — marriage certificate, proof of a recognised de facto union, or birth certificates — legalised and translated into Portuguese
Proof of means of subsistence and of adequate housing for the family
Criminal-record and medical certificates for adult applicants, translated
The standard SME residence file for each applicant: form, atestado de residência, photographs, passport copies and the fee receipt

How long it lasts: Family members' status is granted alongside the principal's and renewed with it — temporary residence for two years at a time under article 81.
Path to permanent residence: The same article 82 route as everyone else: ten consecutive years of temporary residence. Marriage to an Angolan citizen is governed by the nationality law rather than by Lei n.º 13/19 and is a separate question worth taking Angolan legal advice on rather than reading off an immigration page.
Cost: Per SME's tabela de taxas, per applicant. Budget separately for legalising and translating every civil-status document, which for a family is frequently the larger bill.
Processing time: Not published by SME. Assume the family file moves no faster than the principal's and often slower.

Worth knowing

Article 88 admits the spouse or recognised de facto partner, dependent minor children, unmarried adult children studying in Angola, and first-degree direct ascendants who are dependent on the resident. Relatives outside that list are outside the route — there is no discretionary 'other dependent relative' category to argue into.
A dependant's status is not a work permit. A spouse who wants a job needs their own employer, their own labour clearance and their own work visa, exactly as if they had arrived alone.
Every civil-status document from abroad needs legalisation and a Portuguese translation. Start this before you leave; it is the step that most often strands a family behind the principal.
The principal's status is the foundation. If the principal's visa lapses, the family's does too.

StudentMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Visto de estudo (study visa)

Foreign students enrolled at an Angolan university or accredited institution — Universidade Agostinho Neto in Luanda, the Universidade Katyavala Bwila in Benguela, the Universidade José Eduardo dos Santos in Huambo — and holders of internship or vocational-training placements.

What you need

Proof of enrolment (comprovativo de matrícula) at the institution
Academic and professional credentials, translated into Portuguese
A criminal-record certificate and a medical certificate, translated
Proof of means of subsistence and a declaration of commitment
An internship or training contract, where the placement is the basis of the application
Three passport photographs, a passport photocopy and the fee receipt

How long it lasts: Article 53: the study visa permits a stay of up to one year and is renewable for equal periods until the studies end. SME's own category table gives a visa validity of 60 days for the initial entry, so use it promptly once issued.
Path to permanent residence: None automatically, and this is the point most worth being clear about. Angola has no post-study work permit. Article 72 allows the study visa to be transformed into a work visa in justified circumstances and only where the Migration Authority authorises it — a discretionary conversion, not an entitlement. Assume you will need an employer to run the full work-visa process, and treat any published claim of an Angolan post-study route as unverified unless SME says so.
Cost: Per SME's tabela de taxas and the consular fee at the post handling your application. Angola publishes no student concession that we could verify.
Processing time: Not published. Apply as early as the institution will issue the enrolment proof.

Worth knowing

The study visa expressly prohibits fixação de residência and paid employment, with a narrow exception for internships that are part of the programme. Working alongside your studies is not a right here.
Article 72's conversion to a work visa is discretionary and requires the Migration Authority's authorisation. Do not plan a career on it.
Study time does not count toward the ten-year permanent-residence clock unless it is spent on temporary residence, which the study visa is not.
The visa itself must be used within its short validity window — the category table gives 60 days — so coordinate issue with your travel date rather than applying as early as possible.

Work / sponsoredLow confidenceVerified August 2026

Permanência temporária (temporary stay authorisation)

People already in Angola whose circumstances need to be regularised for a defined period without a full residence application — SME lists it as its own migratory act for foreigners, with its own document set, alongside the visa categories.

What you need

The completed form, plus a declaration from the competent executive organ where one applies
A criminal-record certificate and a medical certificate translated into Portuguese
Proof of family relations, where relevant
Proof of means of subsistence and of housing
Three passport photographs, a passport photocopy, a declaration of commitment and the fee receipt

How long it lasts: SME does not publish the period on its public requirements page, and Lei n.º 13/19's provisions on temporary stay are not reproduced there. We deliberately do not state a duration rather than guess one — ask SME directly.
Path to permanent residence: Not a residence status, so it does not by itself build the ten consecutive years of temporary residence that article 82 requires for permanence. Treat it as a bridge, not a ladder.
Cost: Per SME's tabela de taxas.
Processing time: Not published.

Worth knowing

This is the least well documented of Angola's migratory acts on SME's public pages, which is exactly why it attracts confident, invented descriptions elsewhere. Take the document list from SME and take the duration from SME, in person.
It is not a substitute for the autorização de residência and does not confer the same rights.
Because the published information is thin, this route is the one where an Angolan lawyer earns their fee. Do not assemble it from forum posts.

Sources:SME — Requisitos dos actos migratórios: estrangeiros (per-category document lists)SME — Serviço de Migração e Estrangeiros SME — Tabela de taxas

Work / sponsoredMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Tourist visa exemption (98 countries) — what it is NOT

Citizens of the 98 countries covered by Decreto Presidencial n.º 189/23 de 29 de Setembro. It is listed here deliberately, because it is by far the most-used way foreigners currently enter Angola and because it is routinely and dangerously mistaken for a long-stay route.

What you need

A passport from one of the 98 exempted countries — the list covers the whole EU plus Russia, Norway and Türkiye, 14 African states, 11 Asian states including China, India, Japan, South Korea, the UAE and Israel, and Brazil, Cape Verde, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe and Timor-Leste
A yellow-fever vaccination certificate, which remains an entry requirement
Proof of means of subsistence and, in practice, onward travel

How long it lasts: Up to 30 days per entry, and up to 90 days in total within a calendar year. Both limits apply — repeat 30-day visits are capped by the annual ceiling.
Path to permanent residence: None whatsoever. This is not a residence route and cannot become one. Converting to a work visa from inside Angola on this basis is not a process that exists; you leave, and you apply for the work visa at a consulate.
Cost: Free.
Processing time: None — nothing is applied for. Those outside the 98 countries use SME's eVISA or a consular visa instead.

Worth knowing

The exemption applies to TOURISM. Angola's tourism, short-stay, study and medical-treatment visas all expressly prohibit fixação de residência and paid employment, and the exemption sits in the same family.
Working on it — including remote work for a foreign employer while physically in Angola — is not something the law contemplates, and there is no nomad category to fall back on.
The 90-day annual ceiling is separate from the 30-day per-entry limit and is the one people breach without noticing, by treating each new entry as a fresh clock.
Being visa-exempt on entry says nothing about whether you may stay. Angola's entry rules and its residence rules are genuinely different systems and the friendliness of the first is not evidence about the second.