Ethiopia Investor Visa

There is no money threshold to look up, and the reason matters more than a figure would: the service catalogue of the Immigration and Citizenship Services carries ten items and none of them is a residence route based on owning property, or a golden visa for investors.

The longest-running residence route that does exist is the Permanent Residence id, and its condition is not money but employment: a letter to the agency from the employing company, the valid trade certificate of that company, a valid passport copy, and a valid working or tourist visa with its stamp.

Which is to say that the door into long-term residence in Ethiopia currently runs through an employer, not through a sum of capital. Proclamation 1388/2025 on the ownership of houses by foreign nationals passed the House of People's Representatives on 1 July 2025 but has not yet produced a residence route in the catalogue

On 29 March 2026 the Immigration and Citizenship Authority announced a 10-year electronic residence permit for investors, together with a 5-year real estate visa for individuals and families purchasing property. The official announcement states no investment threshold.

The Deputy Director-General of the Immigration and Citizenship Service describes it as a standardised electronic permit that lets holders stay with greater freedom. Holders benefit from streamlined entry and exit, including faster processing at Bole International Airport.

The five-year property visa is tied to Ethiopia opening its real estate sector to foreigners. As of the article, the service said only that this visa will be introduced, without publishing conditions or procedures.

Two dates, and both say this route is not yet running.

On 1 July 2025, at its 41st regular session, the House of People's Representatives passed by majority vote the proclamation regulating the ownership and holding of houses by foreign nationals; two standing committees, Urban Infrastructure and Transport Affairs and Justice and Legal Affairs, presented a joint report.

By 29 March 2026, when the Immigration and Citizenship Service announced the ten-year electronic residence permit for investors, the agency Deputy Director-General spoke of the five-year property visa for individuals and families acquiring immovable property in the future tense — it "will also be introduced".

That is, eight months after the proclamation passed, the residence route based on home ownership had still not opened. No processing time is published for it

The agency publishes no minimum number of days of presence for any route. What it does publish is a term and a renewal cycle: the Permanent Residence id is valid for five years and can be renewed on expiry.

The word permanent is therefore a name rather than a description — it is a time-limited card renewed on a five-year cycle, and each renewal still requires a subsisting employment relationship, because the document bundle asks for a letter from the employing company.

The catalogue carries two shorter residence routes besides: renewal of a residence permit, and a temporary residence permit through marriage. Applications may be filed from outside Ethiopia through an Ethiopian embassy or consulate, so presence in the country is not required to begin

The proclamation defines family in exactly one sentence at article 2(5): family means a wife or a husband and children of a foreign national.

Article 8(2) gives a foreign national who owns or holds a long lease on a residential house two rights joined by the word or, not by the word and.

Limb (a) is a residence permit issued by the relevant authority allowing that person and their family to reside in Ethiopia. Limb (b) is the right to obtain a multiple-entry visa valid for up to five years enabling that person and their family to enter and re-enter.

Four things the proclamation does not say, and this record does not supply: there is no age limit for children, since the proclamation does not mention age or minority.

There is no financial dependency test; there are no parents, grandparents or siblings; and there is no monetary threshold per dependant.

Article 9(2)(a) says only that the foreign national must meet the minimum amount of money required to be a rights holder, and that amount is set by a ministerial directive rather than by the proclamation; the full text of that directive has not been verified at source.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Ethiopia passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Ethiopia passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Ethiopia passport reaches 36 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The programme carries no tax regime of its own, and the first-tier silence is absolute: Proclamation No. 1388/2025, published in the Federal Negarit Gazette, 31st Year No. 67 of 2 October 2025 and signed by the President, does not use the words tax, levy or duty anywhere.

The true title of the instrument is a proclamation regulating the ownership of residential houses by foreign nationals, and the residence permit is only one limb of article 8(2):

Limb (a) grants a residence permit for the applicant and family, limb (b) grants the right to apply for a multiple-entry visa valid for up to five years, and the two limbs are joined by the word or.

Article 9(1) is an empty cross-reference, saying only that a foreign national owning a residential house is subject to the obligations imposed on Ethiopian citizens by the relevant Ethiopian laws, without naming any tax statute.

The only sum the proclamation requires is a government service fee for the lease, house purchase, construction permit and first year, payable in the equivalent foreign currency acceptable in Ethiopia; that is a fee, not a tax.

The agency confirms that fees exist but does not publish the amounts. In its own words in the FAQ: there are fees associated with applying for various visas, permits and IDs; the fees vary depending on the type of service; and detailed information on fees is available on the website or by contacting the office.

The individual service pages carry no table — the Permanent Residence id page lists all five required documents without a single figure of money.

The distinction is worth keeping: this is not free of charge, and not a fee yet to be set, but a fee that has been set and is not published.

One timing figure is published, applying to services generally rather than to any one route: most applications take about five to ten business days, and the agency states plainly that some take longer