To get a first time DIRE, you need to follow a process to obtain a work visa to enter Mozambique, before you start thinking about getting a DIRE. This is quite a complex process and must always be supported by a sponsoring company, most of which will help with this process, so I will just give a summary of that part of the process here.
There are 2 major steps to getting a work visa:
- Work authorisation, obtained in Mozambique by the sponsoring company
- Work visa, obtained from a Mozambican embassy overseas
Getting your work authorisation
First, your company needs to request Authorisation to Work from the Labour department. This will entail provision of a series of documents. There is also the need for the company to demonstrate they are complying with their maximum quota for foreign workers.
The documents required include
- Your employment contract (which will be a fixed term contract for a maximum of two years, and the start date should be subject to receiving the necessary visa)
- A police clearance certificate which must be issued in your home country and translated into Portuguese
- Notarised copies of your passport
- A certificate from the National Institute for Social Security (INSS)
- A certificate from the Finance Ministry
These final two certificates are called “quitações” and your sponsoring company must apply for them. The purpose of the certificates is to say the company’s tax affairs are in order. The INSS certificate is very easy to get – it is downloaded online from the INSS system, which works well. The Finance Ministry certificate is much more difficult to obtain. For this, you have to write a formal letter to the ministry requesting a quitação for the specific purpose involved. In theory, government departments have a maximum response time for any letter of 15 working days. But they seldom adhere to that and in any case, that may only be acknowledgement of your request, not the output you need. The quitação goes through two departments in the Finance Ministry and needs about 4 separate people to approve it. Allow at least a month to get the quitação back.
Once received, the quitação will last for 3 months, and to avoid it expiring before you get your DIRE, you will need to act relatively promptly. Getting another one will likely result in missing the DIRE issuance deadlines (see later), which attracts severe fines
Once your have the quitações and all other required documents, your employer should write to the Labour department requesting your work authorisation. The Labour department typically responds reasonably quickly – in around 3 weeks – but this can vary hugely from next day to a couple of months.
Are you intending to establish your own company in Mozambique to obtain your DIRE?
(if not skip this section)
This is entirely possible and a company with only 1 employee may sponsor an expatriate to be that one employee. In this case, you will first need to establish your company and then apply for your work authorisation. You need to issue the start of activities (início de atividades) before you can apply for work authorisation. Then you will need to follow the steps above yourself. Note that few lawyers in my experience know how to do this, so be vigilant to ensure the process is progressing. It will seem strange, but this process will need you to write a lot of letters to yourself and about yourself – that is ‘normal’. For instance, the letter to the Finance Ministry requesting a work authorisation will be sent by say, John Smith asking the ministry to issue a quitação so that John Smith can get a DIRE and then it will be signed by John Smith. Don’t worry about this (but do get a company name stamp and also stamp over your signature).
To approve your request for work authorisation, the Labour department will issue a formal letter stating they authorise you to work and that the sponsoring company is within its expatriate worker quota. They will attach this to a copy of your work contract. Once you have this document, you are ready to apply for your work visa.
Getting your work visa
You must apply for your work visa outside Mozambique. You don’t have to do it from your home country – any country with an embassy (or consulate) is fine.
Having already obtained your work authorisation means you already have most of the documents you need for the work visa application, but the list of requirements is long!
You need to submit the following documents to request a work visa (note that this list is for the worker themselves; a second list is provided below for family members / dependents)
- Passport with minimum 6 months validity (but make sure there is more to allow for delays) and 3 blank pages.
- Photocopies of your passport main pages (include any previous visas or entry / exit stamps for Mozambique, although this is not technically a requirement, it is often requested).
- 2 Colour passport photos (printed versions, not electronic). They are not too fussy about these – if they comply with standard passport photo criteria, they will be fine.
- Copy of the authorisation to work obtained earlier (in getting your work authorisation) including the attached work contract.
- A criminal record certificate issued by the country where you have been living for the past 12 months, with a date of issue no older than 3 months. Be careful here to make sure you get the correct document. For example, for UK citizens, the DBS clearance is not adequate; the required document is issued online via the ACRO website specifically for visa application purposes. If in any doubt, ask the local embassy you are using what they will require from that country.
- Health certificate – this is a basic health document issued by a doctor, but it must be notarised by the local country’s relevant authorities. For countries which don’t tend to use notaries, this can be complicated, using the example of the UK again, this must be notarised (signed and stamped) by both the FCDO and the Mozambican High Commission in London.
- Copy (I recommend a notarised copy) of the Alvara for your sponsoring company – every Mozambican company will have this (it is the business licence).
- The Finance Ministry and INSS certificates obtained above (they must still be less than 3 months old).
- A letter from your sponsoring company requesting issuance of the work visa and a copy of the ID document of the person signing the letter. Ask them to get both the letter and the ID document copy notarised in Mozambique, just to be safe.
Make sure all of the documents are printed clearly, notarised where required, and printed on standard white A4 paper.
Dependents of the worker applying for a work visa should apply for a residence visa. Provide the same documents above, except you do not need:
- Health certificate
- Alvara
- Finance Ministry and INSS certificates
- Children do not require criminal record certificates.
- And additionally, you (probably) will need copies of 6 months of bank statement to prove adequacy of funds (for adults)
You are likely to be applying for a work visa and dependent residency visas at the same time. Even though this is the case, you must submit a complete independent pack of documents for each application. So a family of four will need 4 copies of the work authorisation.
Each application needs to be accompanied by a completed and signed application form which you can see a copy of at the relevant high commission. Here is an example for the UK
The embassy will not need to keep your passports during this process.
Once the embassy has accepted your paperwork, they submit the application for evaluation to immigration in Maputo. This process, when running smoothly, typically takes about 2 weeks, but it can be much longer. It can be very difficult to get any feedback on progress while waiting. That the embassy has accepted your papers, though, should indicate that everything is correct. They usually telephone you when the visa is ready for collection.
Once the visa is ready, you have to return to the embassy and hand over your passports for them to stick the visa inside. This is usually done overnight, or even same day.
The work (and residency) visas will be valid for 3 months from the date of issue. They are valid for a single entry to Mozambique only. This is important, because if you use the visa to enter Mozambique and then exit before obtaining your DIRE, you will probably have to start the entire process again.
Enter Mozambique using your new visas within the 3 month deadline printed on the visa. You will get an entry stamp into Mozambique. Double-check this is legible and correctly dated (mistakes do happen with entry stamps and they can cause later problems).
Getting you DIRE in Mozambique
This is a series of articles about getting and renewing your work / residency permit (DIRE)
Residency permits in Mozambique, the guide to obtaining and renewing them
A residency permit is called a “D.I.R.E.” and the process for obtaining one can be complicated and confusing. Official information about which documents are required is rarely complete.
DIRE Article 1: Getting a work visa
DIRE Article 2: Preparing for your DIRE Application
On arrival in Mozambique
Just a couple of points to be aware of when you get to Mozambique, but they’re important:
You cannot leave Mozambique again until you get your DIRE.
From the date of entry, you have 30 days to get your DIRE. Day 1 is your day of entry, not the next day. There is a fine of 2000 meticais per day for exceeding the 30-day deadline.
DIRE Article 3: Your DIRE appointment
Most host companies will accompany their staff through this entire process and provide guidance. But in case they don’t (or they don’t understand the requirements correctly), you can follow this guide instead. It is entirely possible to do this as an individual...
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