Nigeria
Corporate Guide

If there is no requirement to have a local director or shareholder in Nigeria, what is the process of obtaining a work permit for foreign employees?

Any Nigerian company desirous of employing foreign personnel needs to obtain expatriate quota approval. There are two types of expatriate quota approvals: 

• Permanent until reviewed (PUR) quotas, which are usually reserved for CEOs.
• Ordinary quotas, which are issued to expatriate employees of a company, as well as directors. 

It is the duty of the company to apply for expatriate quota approval. Expatriate quota positions (except with respect to the PUR), when granted, are valid for a specified period of three years in the first instance and renewable thereafter biannually within a total life span of 10 years. 

The following must be provided in support of the application:

• reason for the request (the company must be able to demonstrate that there is a scarcity of the requisite skill for the position in Nigeria);
• proposed training programme for Nigerian understudies (at least two per expatriate);
• proposed annual salary to be paid to expatriates; and
• for each position required:
  • curriculum vitae of the expatriate;
  • education qualification;
  • years of experience;
  • job description;
  • country of origin; and
  • state of deployment.

The official fee payable is NGN 100,000 (approximately USD 190), inclusive of automation, processing, approval and portal fees for the first position and NGN 200,000 (approximately USD 130) for each additional position.

Upon securing expatriate quota approvals, each expatriate employee must obtain a Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Alien Card (CERPAC), which permits them to reside and work in Nigeria. The CERPAC is issued by the Immigration Office to non-Nigerian employees upon their arrival in Nigeria. Prior to arriving in Nigeria, expatriates are required to obtain a subject to regularization (STR) visa from the Nigerian Embassy / High Commission in their home countries, which enables them to lawfully take up employment during the period in which their applications for the issuance of a CERPAC are being processed. An STR visa is valid for a period of 90 days.

An application for a CERPAC is made on a CERPAC form addressed to the Minister of Interior and the form is valid for three months from the date of purchase. The following documents need to be submitted in addition to the form:

• application letter on the company’s letterhead;
• expatriate quota issued by the FMI;
• business permit issued by the FMI;
• offer letter of employment to the expatriate by the company;
• letter of acceptance of employment from the expatriate;
• academic credentials and curriculum vitae of the expatriate;
• certificate of incorporation;
• board of directors’ resolution, where the expatriate is to occupy the position of a director or CEO;
• two recent passport photographs of the expatriate; and
• international passport of the expatriate (containing STR visa and arrival endorsement page).

The official fee payable is USD 2,000 (approximately NGN 3 million).

A CERPAC is usually issued within six to eight weeks from the date of application and is valid for a period of one year. Expatriates seeking CERPAC validity for two years will have to purchase two CERPAC forms.