Namibia · Employment
Employment Permit (section 27, Immigration Control Act 1993)
Open
Last verified July 2026
This is open, and in practice it is the only real route in. What agencies advertise as a Business Investment Permit or investor permit is really an ordinary employment permit, issued to someone employed by their own company. The Act itself has no investor category and sets no statutory capital threshold.
Namibia's tax system is genuinely excellent. It is territorial, with no CGT and no inheritance tax. Its immigration system, on the other hand, is genuinely broken. The honest advice is to enjoy the tax treatment as a permit-holder and abandon any plan that depends on reaching permanent residence or citizenship.
Qualifying routes
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Employer-sponsored employment
Tied to a specific employer, job and location. A compulsory labour-market test applies, requiring the position to be advertised in 3 national newspapers for 2 weeks.
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Employment by one's own company
This is the real substance behind what is marketed as an investor permit. No statutory minimum capital exists.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- Official fees are modest, and professional costs come on top. No official source gives a reliable total for a family of four.
- Route type
- By employment
- Timeline
- 2–4 months (Officially stated as 8-10 weeks, though in practice it tends to run 2-4 months.)
- Physical presence
- This route is employment-based. Permits run 1-2 years and are renewable.
- Family
- A spouse and dependent children may accompany the main applicant as dependants
- Permanent residency
- None that works reliably. Permanent residence under section 26 has no statutory qualifying period. But decisions have been frozen since April 2025. See the watch-outs below.
- Citizenship
- Effectively blocked. Section 5(3)(b) of the Citizenship Act 14 of 1990 states that no period counts toward the residence requirement where the applicant has the right to reside in Namibia only by virtue of a temporary permit. Years spent on an employment permit count for nothing.
- Language test
- There is no statutory language test. Section 5(1)(f) requires only adequate knowledge of the responsibilities and privileges of Namibian citizenship.
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted. You would have to renounce.
- Requirements
- A job offer or your own companyA labour-market test: advertising in 3 national newspapers for 2 weeksQualifications and police clearanceA medical certificate
What can go wrong
- Time spent on an employment permit counts for nothing toward citizenship. Section 5(3)(b) excludes any period held only under a temporary permit. The Supreme Court confirmed this in Minister of Home Affairs v Holtzmann 2020 (2) NR 303 (SC), ruling that Namibian domicile cannot be acquired while present only on a work permit, even with intent to remain.
- There is no investor permit and no capital threshold. Agency figures contradict each other, citing N$2m, N$3.95m and N$4m, while another agency admits there is no minimum at all. Treat any NAD threshold you are quoted as pure marketing.
- Permanent residence decisions have been frozen since April 2025. In Immigration Selection Board v Knoche [2025] NAHCMD 180, the court found that the Board had refused permanent residence on a fixed assets test that does not appear anywhere in section 26(3)(d), and it ordered the Board to issue the residence. Execution was stayed pending a Supreme Court appeal. The Ministry used that stay to freeze all permanent residence decisions, reportedly around 55 applications, some of them 18 months old.
- The Immigration Selection Board has a documented pattern of conduct that courts have criticised. See Kitching 2023 (1) NR 121 (HC), Viljoen 2017 (1) NR 132 (HC), which found an abuse of discretion, and Frank 2001 NR 107 (SC).
- Henley's own Namibia Residence by Investment page states that the process is under government review. The product itself was USD 365,000 placed into a single private development, President's Links Estate in Walvis Bay, wrapped around an ordinary work permit. It is a single-developer real estate scheme with no statutory basis.
- The Namibia Investment Promotion Act 9 of 2016 was never brought into force. The ministerial commencement notice was never issued, so its repeal of the Foreign Investment Act 1990 never took effect either. The replacement Bill is still not law after roughly ten years.
- The EPZ Act is repealed, and grandfathering expired on 31 December 2025. The SEZ Bill is still not law. There is no operative zone regime to plan around.
- Namibia was removed from the FATF grey list at the June 2026 plenary. It remains, however, on the EU AML high-risk third-country list under Delegated Regulations (EU) 2026/46 and 2026/83, pending a European Parliament vote. Banking friction persists.
- Namibia has not committed to CRS at all. The OECD lists it among developing countries that have not been asked to commit, with no exchange date set. That may appeal to some, but it is a flag in bank onboarding, not a stable assumption to build a plan on.