Your first 90 days in Africa: deadlines by country

Across nearly every country here, the same chain repeats: immigration document first, then tax ID, then bank account. Skip a step or run them in the wrong order and you hit a wall — banks won't open the account, utilities won't connect, and landlords sometimes won't sign a lease. Kenya's published rules make this explicit: the KRA PIN depends on the immigration document arriving first, and the bank account depends on both. Nigeria adds a third layer with the Bank Verification Number enrolment sitting between the CERPAC and the account opening.

The driver's license window is the deadline that most often gets ignored until it's a problem. Mauritius gives you four weeks from arrival — unusually short. South Africa lets you drive on a foreign license while your visa is valid, but permanent residents must convert within 12 months. Morocco gives one year from taking up residence. Namibia and Kenya give 90 days and three months respectively. None of these windows reset automatically, and enforcement at a traffic stop is real.

The table below shows the published registration trigger and the tax ID name for each country. 'Before entry stamp expires' means the clock starts on arrival day — not when you decide to stay.

The table gives the skeleton. Here's the flesh — the specific detail in each country's published rules that bites people.

Cape Verde. The online Airport Security Tax (TSA) that replaced the tourist visa for most European arrivals is not a visa and does not extend your stay. Your 30-day clock still runs. The residence file requires a criminal record certificate, proof of means, and proof of accommodation, all apostilled and translated into Portuguese. Beyond the paperwork, inter-island logistics are the hidden cost: flights and ferries between islands are expensive and frequently cancelled, so a medical or administrative errand on another island can eat days. The Cape Verde arrival playbook covers the full file checklist.

Kenya. Everything immigration-related runs through the eCitizen portal — the eTA introduced in 2024, the residence permit, and the digital nomad Class N permit introduced in 2024. The KRA PIN is the gatekeeper for far more than tax: no bank account, no vehicle registration, and often no lease without it. And it depends on the immigration document arriving first. That sequencing chain is the thing to plan around, not the individual steps.

Mauritius. The Economic Development Board is the single window for investor, professional, self-employed, and retired-non-citizen permits and is efficient by regional standards. The Premium Visa is free and decided quickly — but it's a visa, not a residence permit, and it does not build toward permanent residence no matter how many times you renew it. The four-week driver's license window is the most acute deadline: start the conversion in the first fortnight. See the Mauritius arrival playbook for the NTA conversion steps.

Morocco. The carte de séjour application goes to the police prefecture covering your address, not a central office, and the file is handled in French or Arabic. Processing commonly takes several months, during which you hold a récépissé. The convertible-dirham account is the banking detail that determines whether your money can leave the country — get it right at opening. The Morocco arrival playbook has the full prefecture file list.

Namibia. Permanent residence typically takes 6–12 months from submission. The Digital Nomad Visa is a 6-month renewable option for remote workers and is far faster. The scale of the country is the practical trap: it's one of the least densely populated countries on earth, and the nearest hospital can be a four-hour drive on gravel. Vehicle reliability, fuel, water, communications, and evacuation cover that includes air transfer are not optional considerations.

Nigeria. The CERPAC is tied to your employer's expatriate quota position — leaving the job puts your residence status at risk immediately, not at renewal. Understand the quota position you occupy before accepting a role. The BVN, NIN, and CERPAC chain is the sequencing to plan for at the banking stage, and naira convertibility remains constrained, so cross-border funds are better held outside the country. The Nigeria arrival playbook maps the CERPAC process step by step.

Rwanda. Rwanda's immigration process is one of the most digitised in Africa — application, payment, and status tracking are online through the IREMBO/DGIE portal, and decisions commonly come within days. The flip side is that Rwanda enforces its rules precisely: permit conditions, tax filings, and even the monthly community-work morning (Umuganda) are taken seriously, and informal workarounds common elsewhere in the region don't work here.

Seychelles. No visa is required to enter, which misleads people into thinking residence is straightforward. The Gainful Occupation Permit is employer-sponsored and tightly controlled. The offshore company sector is entirely separate from resident retail banking — don't assume an IBC's bank will serve you personally. Cost of living is the shock: almost everything is imported and priced accordingly, and housing on Mahé for foreigners is expensive and restricted.

South Africa. Most temporary residence visas must be applied for and issued before travel — changing status inside South Africa is restricted and frequently refused. Applications go through VFS Global centres. Exchange control is the defining feature: money is easy to bring in and genuinely bureaucratic to take out. Document the source and the inbound transfer of every significant sum from day one. The South Africa arrival playbook covers the VFS process and exchange-control documentation.

Tunisia. Overstay penalties are charged per week and enforced at departure. The local police station or National Guard post handles the carte de séjour file, and requirements vary by station. Currency convertibility is the practical constraint: declare significant sums on entry, keep the exchange receipts, and open the non-resident convertible account by name.

Uganda. Permits are class-based (Class A through G), and the class determines what you may actually do. Applying under the wrong class is the most common reason for rejection. A Class G special pass or a dependant's pass does not entitle you to work. Mobile money (MTN, Airtel) reaches far further than bank branches and the registered SIM matters as much as the bank account. The Uganda arrival playbook lists the permit classes and their conditions.

Zambia. Employment permits are tied to the sponsoring employer and the specific role — a job change means a new permit, not an amendment, and you're not lawfully working in the gap. Plan the overlap deliberately if you move jobs. The kwacha is volatile and Zambia has periodically restricted foreign-currency practices, so treat the local account as a spending account and keep cross-border reserves outside the country.

Every country on this list requires an immigration document — and usually a tax ID — before a local bank account can open. That gap between landing and having a working local account can run from days (Rwanda) to several months (Morocco, South Africa with a backlogged Home Affairs). Having a card that works internationally while you wait isn't a luxury; it's the bridge. The banking guide covers which cards and accounts work best during that window.

Two currency-specific notes worth flagging: the Namibian dollar is pegged 1:1 to the South African rand and rand notes circulate freely, making the two economies effectively one payment area for daily purposes. Cape Verde's escudo is pegged to the euro, which makes European transfers predictable — but international wires outside the euro area are slow and expensive.

In Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia, mobile money is the dominant everyday payment rail — M-Pesa in Kenya, MTN MoMo and Airtel Money in Rwanda and Uganda, MTN and Airtel in Zambia. A local SIM registered to your ID matters more day to day than the bank account does in these markets. Getting the SIM registered is therefore not a nice-to-have; it's part of the arrival sequence alongside the tax ID and the bank account.

In Nigeria, the NIN is now demanded for SIM card registration as well as bank accounts and most government services — another reason the NIN sits near the top of the sequencing chain.

None of the registration deadlines above cover healthcare enrollment, which runs on its own timeline and in several countries requires the residence permit before public schemes will register you. Private cover that works on arrival — and in Namibia, evacuation cover that includes air transfer — is the practical bridge. The healthcare enrollment guide maps the public and private options by country.

The deadlines and requirements above are drawn from each country's published rules. Whether a specific application is approved — and on what timeline — is a decision each government makes individually. Rwanda's system genuinely returns decisions within days; South Africa's Home Affairs has a long-standing backlog. Morocco's prefecture processing commonly takes several months. Build that variance into your planning, and don't commit to a lease term shorter than the realistic permit timeline.

For country-specific document checklists, fee schedules, and step-by-step filing guides, the full arrival playbooks go deeper on each destination.