Tunisia · Business & founder
Carte de Séjour — Investor
Open, but this is an ordinary administrative permit processed by the Investor Support Department, not a dedicated programme. Tunisia has no citizenship-by-investment, no residency-by-investment and no golden visa.
We include Tunisia here to make one point clear. There is nothing on offer for a UHNW family. It has no investor programme. Its offshore regime is gone. And it is the only jurisdiction in this region that has actively expanded a wealth tax in 2026. The interesting fact about Tunisia is not the opportunity. It is the direction of travel.
Qualifying routes
There is no published minimum. The application requires investment-project certification, a commercial register extract, JORT publication, a fiscal card and an employment contract.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- The official cost is low. The real burden is procedural rather than financial.
- Route type
- Business & founder
- Timeline
- 3–12 months (A one-year card, renewable annually. There is no long-term certainty.)
- Physical presence
- Substantial. This is a permit for people actually running a business in Tunisia.
- Family
- SpouseDependent children
- Permanent residency
- There is no meaningful permanent residence route for investors. The card simply renews annually.
- Citizenship
- Citizenship requires 5 years of fixed residence, a clean record, knowledge of Arabic, and good health and character. Investment confers no route of its own.
- Language test
- Arabic
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted. You would have to renounce.
- Requirements
- certified investment projectcommercial register extractJORT publicationfiscal cardemployment contractclean criminal record
- Tunisia moved against wealth in 2026. Finance Law 2026 Article 88 widened the wealth tax. It no longer covers immovable property alone. It now reaches movable assets, going concerns and bank deposits. The rate is 0.5% on TND 3-5m and 1% above TND 5m, levied every 1 January.
- The wealth tax has extraterritorial reach. Under the earlier framing, it covered real estate located abroad for taxpayers who are tax-resident in Tunisia. Whether the 2026 movable-asset extension is similarly worldwide is not clearly established. That uncertainty is itself a reason for caution, not comfort.
- Dual citizenship is a genuine trap. Tunisian nationality may be automatically lost when another nationality is acquired without prior authorisation. Birthright dual citizens are excepted. But naturalised Tunisians should take advice before acquiring anything else.
- Finance Law 2025 raised the corporate rate from 15% to 20%, with 40% for banks and insurance and 35% for telecoms, hypermarkets, car dealers and franchisees. A new permanent 4% sectoral contribution applies from 1 January 2026.
- The Tunisia offshore company is a legacy artefact. The offshore banking and export regimes were abolished, with grandfathering ending 31 December 2020. The corporate form survives. The tax advantages do not.
- The top personal rate is 40% from TND 70,000, a very low threshold for a very high rate. There is also a solidarity contribution, rising to 1% from 2027.
- Annual renewal means annual risk. There is no long-term security of status for an investor.