Residency through work, country by country

Working in Antigua and Barbuda

Two statutes have to be read together and only one of them is legible. The Antigua and Barbuda Labour Code, Cap. 27, is what forbids a non-citizen to work without a work permit and lists the handful of people the prohibition does not reach; the Immigration and Passport Act 2014 is what controls whether they may be here at all, and ties the length of their permission to the life of the permit. The Act exempts two classes from needing a permit at all: the holder of a permanent residence permit under section 42, and the spouse of a citizen holding a residence permit under section 47, who may work in any occupation for as long as the marriage subsists. The Labour Code's own exemption list, as it stands in the Revised Edition, does not reach OECS or CARICOM nationals - which is a sharp divergence from Saint Kitts and Nevis, whose Immigration Act exempts them by name.

Work permit

Required for every non-citizen

Permanent resident

May work without a work permit

Spouse of a citizen

May work in any occupation while the marriage subsists

Immigration permission tied to the permit

For the time stipulated in the work permit

OECS or CARICOM exemption from the work permit

Not in the Labour Code we read

Change of status for work

Required of a visitor since 2023

Different by nationality: Dominica · Grenada · Montserrat · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Read them

Temporary Residency as a Migrant Worker

One year of renewable temporary residency for a foreigner with a job offer from an Argentine employer. The decisive condition is not about you: the employer must already be entered in RENURE, the national register of those who may request a foreigner's admission. Without that registration the application cannot be filed at all - the system will not let it be linked to an unregistered requester.

Initial grant

1 year, renewable

Blocking condition

Employer registered in RENURE

What you sign

A pre-contrato laboral, not a final contract

Pay floor

The applicable convenio colectivo de trabajo

Alta temprana deadline

Within 30 calendar days of starting the application

Government fee

100 UMSM extra-Mercosur, 50 UMSM Mercosuras of 2026-09-20

Where filed

RaDEX, online, from inside Argentina

Working in Barbados

Section 17 of the Immigration Act is the work permit rule, and the interesting part of it is who it does not apply to. As it stands since 2020 it bites on everyone except a citizen, a permanent resident, an immigrant, and a national of a CARICOM Member State to whom the Revised Treaty's right of establishment, provision of services or free movement articles apply. That exemption is not aspirational: it was written into the Immigration Act by the schedule of consequential amendments to the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Act, 2020-3, which commenced on the day it was assented. Everyone else needs a permit from the Minister. The Department grants short-term permits up to eleven months and long-term permits up to three years, charges a $300 application fee, and sets the final fee by a monthly scale in the Regulations that prices a job differently depending on whether the holder is a Caribbean national or a citizen of another country.

Short-term work permit

valid for a period up to eleven months

Long-term work permit

valid for a period of up to 3 years

Labour market test

Long-term only. The Department requires proof that no resident or Barbadian national is capable and willing to fill the post

Application fee, as the Department charges

$300.00 BDS

Application fee, as the Regulations prescribe

$200.00

Final fee

A monthly amount set by occupation in the Second Schedule to the Regulations, doubled for citizens of countries outside the Caribbean Community

CARICOM nationals exercising Treaty rights

No work permit required

Working in Belize: the Temporary Employment Permit

Belize issues a Temporary Employment Permit, and the striking thing about it is that you have to be in the country already to get one. The Immigration Department says so plainly: apply at a Labour Department office, and you need to be residing in Belize when you do. The employer files for an employee; a self-employed person files for themselves. The permit is priced by the kind of work rather than by the applicant's nationality, from BZ$150 for a season of agricultural work to BZ$3,000 a year for a professional. Two of the fourteen prices the Immigration Department publishes do not match the fee schedule in the regulations, and in both cases the Department's figure is the higher one.

Permit durations

One week or less, one crop season, or one year

Professional worker, holder of a university degree

BZ$3,000.00 a year

Technical worker, fee schedule

BZ$1,500.00 a year

Technical worker, Immigration Department's published fee

BZ$3000.00 a year

Seasonal agricultural worker

BZ$150.00 a crop season

Self-employed worker

BZ$3,000.00 a year

Decision time quoted by the Labour Department

Within 30 days

Must already be in Belize to apply

Yes

Residency Through Work

Work is the main way into Bolivia. The temporary stay for work is granted for one, two or three years, and the length follows the length of the activity you are coming to do rather than a category you pick. It covers employment, self-employment and work under a state or private agreement, and the four variants are priced very differently: a year on a state agreement costs 110 UFV and a year of ordinary employment costs 960. After three years the same ground converts into permanent residence.

Length of permit

1, 2 or 3 years, following the length of the activity

Employment, one year

960 UFVas of 2026-09-27

Employment, two years

1260 UFVas of 2026-09-27

Employment, three years

1560 UFVas of 2026-09-27

Under a state agreement, any length

110 UFVas of 2026-09-27

Under a private agreement, one year

510 UFVas of 2026-09-27

Permanent residence after

3 years

Permanent residence fee

2510 UFVas of 2026-09-27

Decision time

24 hours from filing a complete application

Residency Through Work

Work residency in Brazil is the employer's application, not the worker's, and it is decided against a published ladder of qualifications: a master's degree, or a postgraduate course of at least 360 hours plus a year of experience, or a degree plus two years, or a technical qualification plus three, or twelve years of schooling plus four. The permit runs up to two years and is tied to the employer that obtained it - the model employment contract the resolution annexes says in terms that the worker may not work for anyone else. The law itself is broader than the practice: it waives the job-offer requirement altogether for an immigrant holding a higher-education degree, a relaxation the resolutions do not implement.

Initial term

Up to two years

Qualification tier most applicants use

Higher education plus two years in the profession

Alternative tier without higher education

Twelve years of schooling plus four years of experience

Exceptional tier

Five years of professional experience

Employer

Fixed by the permit

Job offer waived

For an immigrant holding a higher-education degree or equivalent

Temporary Residency for Paid Activities

Chile's work permit rests on a contract of at least three months, signed by the employer before a Chilean notary and by you before the competent Chilean consulate - so the paperwork is split across two countries before you ever board a plane. What makes it unusually forgiving once granted is article 19 of the decree: the end of the contract that founded the permit is not on its own a reason to revoke it, and you may change employer without telling the migration service. Self-employment is covered too, on a separate track with a civil or commercial contract.

Minimum contract length

3 months

Initial grant

Up to 2 years

Extension

Up to 2 further years, successively

Pay floor

None published

Changing employer

Allowed, with no duty to notify the migration service

Losing the job

Not on its own a ground for revocation

Job-offer variant

90-day permit first, then 45 days from entry to file the signed contract

Renewal test

Working for at least 60% of the period the permit covered

Self-employment

Separate track, services contract longer than 90 days

Counts towards permanent residency

Yes

Migrant Visa (M) for Workers

Colombia puts the weight of this application on the employer, and heavily. Beyond a contract, the company must show average monthly income of a hundred minimum wages over the preceding four months, and must explain in writing why the role is not being filled by a Colombian. It is the most demanding employer test of the three countries covered here.

Employer income test

100 monthly minimum wages, averaged over 4 months

Labour-market justification

Required in writing

Where the burden falls

On the employer

Counts towards permanent residency

Yes

Working in Costa Rica: the Employer Applies, and the Labour Ministry Decides First

There is no general work visa. A foreigner works in Costa Rica either as a temporary resident in one of the employment subcategories - company executive, manager, representative or technical staff; scientist, professional, intern or specialised technician; athlete; press correspondent - or under one of the special categories the law reserves for specific labour, such as the specific-occupation worker. In every case a temporary resident may only do the paid activity the directorate authorises, and the directorate decides on the advice of the labour ministry. That advice takes the form of a published list of occupations in which the ministry recommends refusing authorisation outright because local unemployment in them is above frictional. Executives and technical staff of established companies carry a salary floor fixed by statute: the legal minimum wage for the position plus twenty-five per cent.

Salary floor for executives, managers, representatives and technical staff

The legal minimum wage for that position plus 25%

Who decides whether the work is allowed

The migration directorate, on the labour ministry's recommendation

Occupations the labour ministry recommends refusing

260 occupations

Status granted

Temporary residency, up to 2 years, renewable for the same

First application fee

US$50

Change of category from a non-resident status

US$200

Social security

Compulsory, and proof of it is required to renew the residency card

Working in Cuba as a Foreigner

A foreigner does not apply to work in Cuba. A Cuban legal person applies on their behalf, obtains the work permit from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security before the foreigner enters, and then asks the migration directorate for temporary residence. The permit belongs to the relationship, not to the person: lose the link with the body that sponsors you and the classification is cancelled and you must leave. Temporary residence runs for as long as the activity requires and may not exceed five years, renewable. Two classifications escape the permit entirely - provisional and permanent residents need no authorisation at all and are governed by the Labour Code like anyone else. A contract of ninety days or less needs no residence card: the visa is enough.

Who applies

The Cuban employer, not the foreigner

Maximum temporary residence

5 years

Renewal of temporary residence

Every 5 years

Contract of 90 days or less

Visa only, no residence card

Contract over 90 days

Apply within 7 natural days of entry

Decision on temporary residence

90 working days

Notification after the file closes

3 working days

Work permit needed by

Temporary, real-estate and humanitarian residents

Work permit not needed by

Provisional and permanent residents

Leaving after the permit ends

Up to 30 natural days

Identity card for a temporary resident, document tax

CUP 250.00

Absence that ends temporary residence

6 consecutive months

Working in Dominica

A work permit is required and the statute that is supposed to create it does not. The Immigration and Passport Act as consolidated contains no work permit provision at all: the only hook is section 9(1), which lets the Minister attach conditions as to occupation to a residence permit. The Act's own subsidiary regulations go further in a different direction, letting an officer accept a job offer as proof that an immigrant will not become a public charge, provided the employer undertakes to repatriate him if the engagement ends within two years. The only group with a statutory exemption from the permit requirement is CARICOM skilled nationals, and that exemption is granted by an Order whose recital cites a section of the Immigration and Passport Act that does not confer the power.

Work permit provision in the Immigration and Passport Act

None

Employer's repatriation undertaking

2 years from landing

Security deposit against becoming a public charge

EC$1,000 / EC$4,000 / EC$10,000

Work permit exemption: who

University graduates, artistes, musicians, media workers, sports personsas of 2003-04-17

Fee for a skills recognition certificate

EC$100as of 2003-04-17

Residence permit application fee charged by the Ministry

EC$250 for a CARICOM national, EC$800 for everyone else

Working in the Dominican Republic: the RT-3 Labour Residence

Work residence here is a one-year temporary permit tied to a contract, and the contract has to exist before the permit does: the migration service wants it notarised and stamped by the labour ministry, and the consulate wants a multiple-entry business visa before any of it. The permit renews annually. What it does not do is accumulate into permanence quickly - the regulation says permanent residence is applied for after five years of temporary residence renewed each year, which is also what the migration service's own page says when it lists the documents, even though the same page's summary says one year. Permanent residents may do any paid work; temporary residents may work within the terms of their admission; non-residents may not work at all, with four narrow exceptions. A professional qualification is a separate problem: practising a regulated profession needs an exequátur, and the migration permit does not supply one.

Permit length

1 year, renewable annually

Years of temporary residence before permanence

5

Renewal window

30 days before expiry

Right to work as a permanent resident

Unrestricted

Right to work as a temporary resident

Within the terms of admission

Right to work as a non-resident

None, with four exceptions

Regulated professions

Exequátur required separately

Contract

Registered with the labour ministry

Working in Ecuador: the Trabajo Visa

The work category covers both employment and self-employment, and the two halves are asked for entirely different things. An employee needs a registered contract and a clean compliance certificate from their employer covering tax, social security and the companies regulator - the burden is on the employer's standing, not on a salary threshold, and no minimum salary appears anywhere in the rules we read. The self-employed and consultants instead show a notarised services contract, a tax registration, or a municipal operating permit, and must already hold tourist, residence or business-visitor status when they apply from inside Ecuador. Enrolment in social security is checked at renewal.

Visa length

2 years, renewable on multiple occasions

Minimum salary set by the immigration rules

None found

Employer compliance certificate

Required, covering SRI, IESS and the Superintendencia de Compañías

Social security

Checked at renewal; failure to enrol is a punishable offence

Changing employer

30 days to apply for a new visa, or continuity of residence is broken

Self-employed applying inside Ecuador

Must already hold tourist, residence or business-visitor status

Working in El Salvador as a Foreigner

Work is a permission attached to a temporary residence, not a status of its own, and who grants it depends on whether you are employed or self-employed. Self-employment is authorised by the migration directorate and limited to the activities it names. Employment by someone else needs a favourable opinion from the Ministry of Labour, which has thirty working days to give it and whose silence counts as consent - a deemed-approval rule that is rarer in the region than it ought to be. Central Americans by origin are outside that machinery altogether: the migration directorate issues their work and stay permit on its own. Losing the job does not make you irregular; it starts a ninety-working-day clock to find another, and five days to leave if you do not. Temporary residence of any kind is capped at five years in total, and since March 2026 a temporary resident has to be physically in the country at least ninety days a year.

Grant

Up to 2 years, renewable, multiple entry

Ministry of Labour opinion

Required for employed work

Time the Ministry has to answer

30 working days

If it does not answer

Treated as favourable

Central Americans by origin

Exempt from the Labour Ministry opinion

After losing the job

90 working days to find other paid work

If none is found

5 days to leave

Notice of dismissal

8 working days, by worker and employer

Maximum total temporary stay

5 years

Minimum presence

90 calendar days a yearas of 2026-03-23

Renewal notice

30 calendar days before expiry

Fee, non-Central American, two years

USD 260

Fee, Central American, two years

USD 130

Different by nationality: CA-4 Read them

Working in Grenada

A work permit is not issued under the Immigration Act at all. It comes from a separate 1968 statute, the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act, which makes it an offence for a foreign national or a Commonwealth citizen to work without one and for anyone to employ them. The Minister of Labour decides in his absolute discretion; permits run twelve months and the fee is set by nationality - nothing for a CARICOM skills certificate holder and for a citizen of five named Eastern Caribbean states, EC$1,000 for a short list of CARICOM countries and Cuba, EC$3,000 for other Commonwealth, European and American nationals, EC$5,000 for everyone else. The Ministry's own guidance adds categories, deadlines and an advertising requirement that the Act does not contain.

Work permit validity

12 months

Application fee

EC$100

Permit fee, named CARICOM states and Cuba

EC$1,000

Permit fee, other Commonwealth, EEC and United States

EC$3,000

Permit fee, everyone else

EC$5,000

Permit fee, five OECS states

Nil

Work permit for an OECS Protocol citizen

Not required at all

Work permit for a CARICOM skills certificate holder

No fee

Entertainers from the named CARICOM states

EC$2,500 a band, EC$500 an individual

Advertising before applying

3 consecutive weeks

Processing time

12 working days

Replacement or late renewal

EC$100

Different by nationality: Antigua and Barbuda · Dominica · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Read them

Working and Living in Guatemala

Two quite different people hold the same Guatemalan status. One has a Guatemalan employer, a job offer letter and a registered Guatemalan guarantor, and needs a separate work permit from the labour ministry within three months of the residence being granted. The other has a foreign employer, needs no Guatemalan guarantor and no job offer, and qualifies on bank statements showing a minimum monthly remuneration from abroad over the last year - more if dependants come too. Both are "migrant workers" under article 75 of the Migration Code, both get between one and five years, and both run into the labour code's quota: nine in ten employees of a Guatemalan business must be Guatemalan, and they must take at least eighty-five per cent of the payroll.

Residence term

One to five years, by the length of the job offer

Foreign employer, minimum monthly pay from abroad

US$ 2,000.00

Foreign employer, with dependants

US$ 3,000.00

Guatemalan guarantor

Required with a Guatemalan employer, not with a foreign one

Work permit validity

1 year, renewable for equal periods

Work permit decision

20 business days at most

Work permit fee, first issue

Q3,000.00

Work permit fee, renewal

Q2,000.00

Guatemalan share of the workforce

90% of employees

Guatemalan share of the payroll

85% of wages

Residence fee, three to five years

USD 500.00

Different by nationality: CA-4 Read them

Working in Guyana: a Work Permit That Is Not in Any Act

Guyana's immigration statute has no work permit. The words do not appear in the Immigration Act, in the Immigration Regulations, in the Labour Act, or in either of the CARICOM free-movement Acts; the only statute that uses them is the Investment Act, which promises the Government will help investors obtain "work permits in compliance with the Immigration Act" - an Act that does not create one. What the Act creates is a permit to enter and remain, which the officer must mark "for purposes of employment", capped at three years from the date of entry. Everything a foreign worker actually meets is administrative: the Ministry of Home Affairs runs an Employment Visa on Arrival and a Landing Permit for Employment Status, requires the vacancy to have been advertised in the newspapers for three consecutive months, asks for police clearance, a medical report and the employer's tax and social-insurance receipts, charges GYD 28,700 or US$140, and takes about a month. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs then says the visa and the work permit are issued together on arrival, for three years.

Work permit in the Immigration Act

Does not exist. The phrase appears nowhere in the Act, its Regulations or the Labour Act

What the Act does issue

A permit to enter and remain, marked "for purposes of employment"

Ceiling under the Act

Three years from the date of entry

Period the Ministry of Foreign Affairs grants

Three years in the first instance, renewable for three years at a timeas of 2026-10-06

Labour-market test

The vacancy advertised in the newspapers for three consecutive monthsas of 2026-10-06

Fee

GYD $28,700 or USD $140as of 2026-10-06

Processing time stated

One monthas of 2026-10-06

Employer security

The officer may require the employer to give security to repatriate the worker if the employment ends within two years of entry

Effect of a job offer at the border

A traveller with bona fide employment awaiting him is not to be treated as likely to become a charge on public funds

Working in Haiti: Two Permits, a Five Per Cent Cap and a Duty to Train Your Replacement

Haiti separates the right to be in the country from the right to work in it, and the second is governed by the Labour Code rather than by the immigration law. A foreigner who works for an employer needs a permis d'emploi; a foreigner working on his own account needs a permis de travail. Both come from the Direction de la main-d'œuvre, neither can be granted for more than a year at a time, and renewal stops at five consecutive years. Two conditions make this one of the tightest work-permit regimes in the comparison. The permit may only be granted where no Haitian with the required competence or training can be recruited locally, and the foreign worker must undertake to train one or more Haitians to do the job, on pain of having the permit withdrawn. On top of that, article 315 caps foreign workers at five per cent of the staff of any establishment and requires seventy per cent of the total payroll to go to Haitian labour. The permis de séjour is a document in the work permit file, so the immigration permit comes first.

Maximum period of a work or employment permit

One year

Ceiling on renewals

Five consecutive years

Permis de travail fee

1,000 gourdes

Permis d'emploi fee

Half of one month's salary under the contract

Cap on foreign staff

Five per cent of the personnel of any establishment

Penalty for working or employing without a permit

A fine of 5,000 to 10,000 gourdes

Labour market test

Required

Working in Honduras

Working in Honduras is not a residence; it is a special permanence permit, granted for the length of a contract and capped at five years. It needs two things at once: the migration permit and a work card from the labour ministry. The condition that decides most applications is not about the applicant at all - the employer must produce a labour ministry certificate that it complies with the constitutional quota of ninety per cent Honduran staff and eighty-five per cent of payroll paid to Hondurans. Since July 2025 a worker with two years of continuous lawful residence and a work authorisation can ask to convert that permit into a residence.

What you get

A special permanence permit, not residence

Maximum length

5 years

Minimum contract length

Longer than 3 months

Permit fee

USD 100 per year

Employer quota

90% of staff and 85% of payroll Honduran

Lost by absence

6 consecutive months abroad

Employer must report the end of the job

Within 5 working days

Route to residence

2 years of continuous lawful residenceas of 2025-07-29

Working in Jamaica

Work in Jamaica runs on a permit issued by the Minister of Labour under the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act, and the permit is issued to the worker in the worker's own name while naming the employer and the place of work - so it does not travel with you to a new job. Both the worker and anyone who employs a worker without one commit an offence. Two groups fall outside the requirement. Caribbean Community nationals exercising rights of establishment, providing services or moving capital are exempted by a Schedule that an Act of 2011 wrote into the Act. Holders of a Caribbean Community skills certificate are outside it under a different Act altogether. Everyone else needs the permit, and the Ministry publishes no fee for it - only the statement that one is payable by the employer on approval.

Work permit fee

Not publishedas of 2026-10-06

Marriage exemption processing fee

JA$17,250.00as of 2026-10-06

Marriage exemption, expatriate men

Certificate valid three yearsas of 2026-10-06

Marriage exemption, expatriate women

Letter valid for the duration of the marriageas of 2026-10-06

Penalty for working without a permit

A fine not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars, or six months' imprisonment, or both

Permanent residence on employment

After more than three years working in the islandas of 2026-10-06

Different by nationality: CARICOM skills certificate Read them

Working in Mexico

Work in Mexico is sponsored. The employer, not the worker, opens the file: a Mexican employer registered with the Institute applies for the visa, and the permission to work is tied to that job. A job offer of up to 180 days produces a visitor with permission to work; a longer one produces temporary residence. In May 2026 the rules were rewritten to demand far more of the offer letter - the occupation coded to the national classification, the places of work, whether the work is on-site, remote or mixed, the pay and how often it is paid - and a second route was added for unpaid high-specialisation experts who commit to training Mexican staff.

Up to 180 days of work

Visitor with permission to carry out remunerated activities

More than 180 days

Temporary residence, up to 4 years

Who applies

The employer, at the Institute

Employer registration fee

MXN 391.10

Fee for a work permission added to an existing residence

MXN 4,340.77

Visitor-with-work-permission card fee

MXN 4,340.77

Visa application filed at the Institute, fee

MXN 247.96

New route added 16 May 2026

Unpaid high-specialisation technical assistance with a knowledge-transfer commitment

Residence card fee discount

50% where the stay rests on family unity, a job offer from a registered employer, or an invitation for unpaid workas of 2025-11-07

Working in Nicaragua

Work is a property of the residence card rather than a separate permit. The regulation issues the cédula de residencia in one of three conditions - with the right to work, without it, or to study - and the subcategory you apply under decides which one you get. Temporary residence runs from one to three years and is renewable; the directorate's own counter prices it as an annual card. An employment contract has to be certified by the labour ministry before migration will look at it, and the contract's own execution is suspended until the residence is granted, so the job and the permission are deliberately circular. The employer also signs a notarised undertaking to send the worker home when the contract ends. Seasonal work is handled outside residence altogether, by a migrant-worker permit of up to a year.

Temporary residence term

One to three years, renewable

Card classes

With the right to work, without it, or to study

Decision time

30 working days

Time to collect the card once approved

60 days

Annual temporary residence fee

C$ 7,324.86

Reduced annual fee, named subcategories

C$ 3,662.43

Application form

C$ 109.87

Seasonal migrant-worker permit

Up to one year

Absence that can cancel temporary residence

More than six months

Working without authorisation

A ground for cancelling or revoking the stay

Working in Panama

Two permissions, two ministries, and you need both. The Servicio Nacional de Migración grants the residence; the Ministerio de Trabajo y Desarrollo Laboral grants the work permit, and the migration file will not move without a copy of it. What constrains the whole thing is a quota written into the labour law and carried into the migration regulation: a company may fill 10% of its ordinary payroll with foreigners and 15% of its specialist payroll, and the two migration subcategories ordinary employees actually use are named after those percentages. The salary floor in both is B/.850 a month. Labour permits are issued for one year at a time up to a total of six years.

Maximum on a labour residence permit

6 years

Ordinary foreign-worker quota

10% of the payroll

Specialist quota

15% of specialist staff

Salary floor, both routes

B/.850 a monthas of 2009-03-11

Colón Free Zone executives

B/.2,000 a month

Renewal proof

9 consecutive social-security contributions

Fees

B/.250 plus B/.800

Employer's duty on termination

Notify within 20 working days

Different by nationality: Italy · Panama's Friendly Nations list Read them

Working in Paraguay as a Foreigner

There is no separate work visa. A foreigner who wants to work applies for the same temporary residency as everybody else, and may already work while the application is pending: the precarious residency card issued on filing expressly allows its holder to work and to study for ninety days. The law protects the job rather than licensing it - an authorised resident may not be discriminated against for being one, and the employer must notify the migration directorate and meet every labour obligation whatever the worker's status. Employment shows up again two years later as the easiest way to prove solvency for permanent residency, because a certificate of insurance with the social security institute is enough on its own.

Separate work visa

None

Work while the application is pending

Permitted

Employer duty

Notify the migration directorate and meet labour obligations whatever the worker's migration status

Social security contributions

9% worker, 14% employer

Deadline to register a new worker

3 working days in urban areas, 10 in rural areas

Proof of work for permanent residency

Social security insurance certificate, or a labour contract stamped by the Ministerio de Trabajo

Consular visa for paid activity

Required for most visa-waived nationalities

Trabajador Residency for Employees and Contractors

One year of renewable residency for a foreigner with a job in Peru. What gates the application is the contract: it must already be approved by the labour authority, be for a year or more, and be no more than 30 days old when you file. A contract with a probation period or a shorter term does not fail - it is redirected to the temporary worker status instead. Unusually for the region, the same category covers the self-employed: a services contract plus an active tax registration is enough, with no employer at all.

Length of permission

365 days, renewable

Minimum contract term

1 year

Contract age limit at filing

30 calendar days

Labour authority approval

Required before the migration application

Self-employment accepted

Yes, on a services contract plus an active RUC

Fee - visa from abroad

S/ 58.80as of 2024-06-17

Fee - change of status from inside Peru

S/ 161.40as of 2024-04-22

Shorter or probationary contract

Goes to temporary worker status instead

Working in Saint Kitts and Nevis

Work is permit-first and employer-led, and the Act puts a condition on it that most countries put in guidance: the application must be made while the prospective employee is outside the Federation. You cannot arrive as a visitor, find a job and regularise - except on renewal, or where the Minister directs otherwise by Order. The permit itself carries the status: holders are entitled to a work permit holder's residency, and their spouses and minor children can be granted temporary residence. The Minister may also require the employer to post security sufficient to repatriate the worker and the family, and until that security is furnished the permit has no effect at all.

Permit required before working

Yes, for all but three classes

Where you must be when the application is made

Outside the Federation

Status that comes with the permit

Work permit holder's residency

Family

Temporary residence for spouse and minor children

Employer security

At the Minister's discretion, amount unstated

Employing without a permit

An offence by the employer as well as the worker

Different by nationality: Antigua and Barbuda · Dominica · Grenada · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Read them

Working in Saint Lucia

Two permissions, from two Ministers, under two Acts. The immigration officer writes a permit under section 12 of the Immigration Act for the purpose of employment, capped at six months and extendable only to a year from entry. The work itself needs a work permit under Part 6 of the Labour Act, granted or refused by the Minister and cancellable on thirty days' notice. Three groups do not need the work permit: a citizen of an Eastern Caribbean Protocol member state, exempted by Order since 18 August 2014 unless they bought that citizenship; the holder of a Caribbean Community skills certificate, who may not be subjected to any restriction on gainful employment that would not apply to a Saint Lucian; and a person who holds a permit entitling them to reside permanently. The Immigration Act also puts the cost of a failed posting on the employer: if an employee admitted under a contract becomes removable, the first employer pays the whole bill for maintenance, transport and deportation.

Permissions needed

Two

Work permit exemption for Eastern Caribbean citizens

Since 18 August 2014

Economic citizens of other Protocol states

Not exempt

Work permit cancellation notice

Not less than 30 days

Employer's liability for deportation

The whole cost

Grace period after the employee ends the contract

2 months

Penalty for working without a permit

Up to EC$5,000 or one year, or both

Different by nationality: Antigua and Barbuda · Dominica · Grenada · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Read them

Working in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Employing a foreign national is regulated by an Act of 1973, the Employment of Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens Act, Chapter 208, amended in July 2025. Work permits are not handled by the Department of Labour: they sit in the Prime Minister's own portfolio, alongside citizenship, residency and alien's landholding licences, and applications for permission to reside and work are lodged at the Prime Minister's Office in the Financial Complex in Kingstown. Three groups do not need a permit: citizens of the other OECS Protocol states, holders of a CARICOM skills certificate, and since 1 October 2025 nationals of Barbados, Belize and Dominica. Every employee, whatever their nationality, must be registered with the National Insurance Services within seven days of starting.

Statute governing the employment of foreign nationals

Employment of Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens Act, Chapter 208

Where a work permit is applied for

The Prime Minister's Office

Work permit fee

Not published

Who does not need a permit

OECS citizens, CARICOM skills certificate holders, and nationals of Barbados, Belize and Dominica

CARICOM skills certificate issued by the holder's own state

6 months' work

National Insurance registration

Within 7 days of starting work

Minimum wage

Set by sector, under regulations of 2004

Different by nationality: Antigua and Barbuda · Dominica · Grenada · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia Read them

Work Permits: the Employer Applies and the Employer Is Punished, and the Fee Moved to Dollars in 2022

The Wet Werkvergunning Vreemdelingen 1981 forbids an employer to make an alien work without a permit from the Director of Labour. The duty and the offence both sit on the employer, not on the worker. A permit is applied for jointly by employer and alien, names both the alien and the undertaking, and is treated as not applied for at all unless the alien already holds, or has applied for, a residence permit valid for work - so the immigration file comes first and the labour file second. A labour-market test applies: a permit may be refused where supply exists or can reasonably be expected. Two things sit outside the Act. Persons from whom a work permit may not be required under a treaty or a binding decision of an international organisation are excluded by article 2, which is where the CARICOM skilled national lands; and holders of PSA status may work without the permit by their own Act. Since 1 December 2022 the fee is USD 100 or the equivalent in Surinamese dollars, and the amending Act says why: the 2004 redenomination had turned the old charge into SRD 75.

Who must hold the permit

The employer, who commits the offence if there is none

Fee

USD 100, or the equivalent in Surinamese dollarsas of 2022-12-01

Decision time

Thirty days, extendable once by thirty days

Appeal

To the Minister of Labour, within thirty days

Penalty

Up to six months' detention or a third-category fine, per worker and per dayas of 2022-12-01

Outside the Act

Persons covered by a treaty, and holders of PSA status

Working in The Bahamas: a Labour Certificate, a Newspaper, and a Fee by Occupation

Section 29 makes it an offence for anyone to engage in gainful occupation unless they are a citizen, a permanent resident whose certificate allows it, an accredited diplomat or government servant, the holder of a permit under section 30, or in a class the Minister has exempted by order. The permit is employer-led in practice: the Department requires a Labour Certificate with Notification of Vacancy from the Department of Labour and advertisement of the post in a nationally circulated newspaper on three consecutive days, and says in terms that these exist to test the employment prospects of suitably qualified Bahamians. The fee is not a flat rate but a schedule of occupations in ten scales, from $16,275 at Scale 1 down to $1,000 at the new Scale 10 for a home-care helper, and since 2023 a levy of five per cent is charged on top of the fee in Scales 1, 2 and 3. Work of ninety days or less goes on a short-term permit; from 1 July 2026, a closed list of business activities lasting three days or less needs no permit at all.

Working without a permit (Immigration Act s. 29)

An offence

Employing someone without one

A fine of up to ten thousand dollars, five years, or both

Top of the fee scale

$16,275 at Scale 1, plus a five per cent levy

Bottom of the fee scale

$1,000 at Scale 10, for a home-care helper

Levy on the fee

Five per cent, in Scales 1, 2 and 3

Short-term work permit

One to ninety days

Business visits needing no permit

Three days or less, for listed activities only

Working in Trinidad and Tobago

Everyone who is not a citizen, not a resident, and not inside the thirty-day window needs a work permit. Regulation 10 of the Immigration Regulations puts the prohibition on the worker and on the employer at once, and makes both of them guilty of an offence if it is broken. The thirty-day window is narrow and exact: one period not exceeding thirty days in every twelve consecutive months, so it cannot be split into two fortnights. The employer applies, not the worker, and for fewer than ten people the application is made online through TTBizLink. The fees doubled on 1 January 2026: TT$1,200 to apply and TT$900 a month for the duration of the permit, subject to a minimum of TT$2,700. A CARICOM national exercising rights under the Skilled Nationals Act is exempt from regulation 10 altogether. So, on the face of the Regulations, is a CARICOM national exercising the right of establishment or the right to provide a service under the Caribbean Community (Movement of Factors) Act - an Act that does not exist in the Laws of Trinidad and Tobago.

Work without a permit

One period not exceeding thirty days in every twelve consecutive months

Application fee

TT$1,200as of 2026-01-01

Fee for the duration of the permit

TT$900 per month, minimum TT$2,700as of 2026-01-01

Who applies

The employer

Applications for ten or more people

A single group application on the prescribed group form

CARICOM skilled nationals

Exempt from the work permit requirement

Holder of a Minister's permit

Exempt from the work permit requirement until 31 December 2026

Registrant card for an exempt permit holder

TT$700as of 2026-03-03

Different by nationality: CARICOM skills certificate Read them

Temporary Residency for Workers

Uruguay grants temporary residency to a foreigner with work here, and the financial bar is strikingly low: pay at or above the national minimum wage. What the process actually turns on is health documentation - a vaccination certificate issued inside Uruguay and a work health card - and on a letter from the employer certified by a notary.

Pay floor

One national minimum wage

Renewal window

Within the 90 days before expiry

Engagements under 180 days

A provisional identity sheet may be used instead

Health card

Carné de salud laboral, required

Vaccination certificate

Must be issued in Uruguay

Working in Venezuela

Work needs two separate permissions and they are given by two different ministries. The labour ministry issues the labour authorisation, and the Act makes it the employer's job to apply for it, not yours. The interior ministry then authorises the TR-L visa once the labour ministry has agreed. The visa lasts a year with multiple entries and a year of stay, renewed for equal periods once the labour authorisation is confirmed again; the Act says the visa lasts exactly as long as the labour authorisation does. After one uninterrupted year the interior ministry may grant Resident status. Short assignments are exempt from the labour authorisation altogether where they run ninety days or less.

Visa validity and stay

One year, multiple entries, one year of stay

Who applies for the labour authorisation

The employer in Venezuela

Visa duration

The same as the labour authorisation

Exempt from labour authorisation

Assignments of no more than 90 days

Registration after arrival

30 days

Fine for employing an irregular foreigner

200 tax units

Time to Resident status

One uninterrupted year, then at the interior ministry's discretion