Botswana · Business & founder
Work and Residence Permit (Immigration Act 2011)
Open, but there is no statutory investor-residence programme. The official government residence permit page lists only three categories: Dependants, Immigrants, and Spouse of a Citizen. Investors use an ordinary work permit, which expressly permits a non-citizen 'to invest in Botswana for profit'. No statutory minimum capital exists.
Botswana is the best-governed country in the region with a 25% top rate and no tax on foreign income. What it does not have is a programme — every investor threshold you will be quoted is invented, and BITC, which agencies cite as the gatekeeper, grants nothing at all.
Qualifying routes
permits working for reward OR investing in Botswana for profit; no statutory minimum capital — the BWP 1,000,000 figure agencies quote has no legal basis
The facts
- Total landed cost
- Modest official fees; we could not verify a reliable family-of-four total from any official source
- Timeline
- 2–6 months — no dependable service standard
- Physical presence
- Business-based
- Family
- spouse and dependants via Dependants permits
- Permanent residency
- Permanent residence after 5 years' lawful continuous residence plus good character, 'significant contributions to Botswana' (undefined and discretionary) and sufficient means. Investors may apply with under 5 years — the closest thing to an RBI lever Botswana has.
- Citizenship
- Roughly 11 years — 12 months' continuous residence immediately preceding application plus 10 years' aggregate within the preceding 12 years
- Language test
- sufficient knowledge of Setswana or a language spoken by a tribal community in Botswana — English does NOT satisfy this
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted — you would have to renounce
- Requirements
- work permit (which covers investing for profit)residence permitclean recordproof of means
- There is no investor threshold. The BWP 1,000,000 figure is agency lore with no statutory basis, and BITC — routinely cited as setting a threshold — runs a one-stop facilitation desk and grants no residency at all.
- There is no retirement permit. Agency sites advertising a 'retirement visa for the over-45s' have invented it; retirees use the generic Immigrants permit.
- The citizenship language test is Setswana or a tribal language, not English. This is a material obstacle for anglophone families, though section 13(2A) allows ministerial waiver in special circumstances.
- 'No inheritance tax in Botswana' is false. Capital Transfer Tax reaches gifts and inheritances at 2-5% and — unusually — the beneficiary is liable, not the estate. It is mild, but advisers who tell you it does not exist have not read the Act.
- Permanent residence requires 'significant contributions to Botswana', which is undefined and discretionary. The government's own page states both '56 working days' and 'six months' for processing — a fair proxy for administrative predictability.
- The economy contracted 2.8% in 2024 and a further 0.4% in 2025 on the diamond downturn, and SACU receipts are now the largest single revenue source. That fiscal stress is the engine behind both the proposed tax rises and the citizenship-by-investment push. Expect further increases.
- Botswana has not committed to CRS — the OECD lists it among developing countries not asked to commit with no exchange date. A bank-onboarding flag, not a durable feature.
- Botswana exited the FATF grey list in 2021 and is not on the EU AML list, but a Member of Parliament warned during the CBI Bill debate that the programme risked 'financial terrorism, corruption, and eventually grey listing'.