Foreign staff in Mozambique: quotas, hiring regimes and payroll

Three frameworks, three questions

A labour communication or authorisation never replaces the immigration requirements, and neither decides the tax position. Plan the three in parallel.

Quotas: how many foreigners an employer may have

Article 25 of the Labour Law classifies employers by average headcount in the calendar year, and article 34 attaches a quota of foreign workers to each class. Hiring within the quota requires notification (comunicação) to the Minister of Labour or the delegated authority, rather than an application for work authorisation. The petroleum and mining sector keeps its own regulation, Decree 63/2011, with a different classification.

Two consequences follow. First, the quota is calculated on the Mozambican entity’s own headcount and no rounding is allowed (Decree 88/2024, art. 9 no. 4). There is, however, an express exception: a micro employer may hire one foreign national even with fewer than ten national employees (art. 9 no. 5), so a newly created subsidiary with three local staff has one in-quota position; headcount and the nominal staff list must be checked under art. 10. The exception does not waive the notification, the documents or the immigration requirements. Second, which table applies depends on whether the entity and the activity fall under the petroleum and mining regulation; a catering contractor on an LNG site and a drilling services company may not be in the same regime. Investment projects approved by the Government can set a different percentage in the approval, in which case a notification suffices (Labour Law, art. 34 no. 2).

The four hiring regimes

Decree 88/2024 of 17 December 2024, which revoked Decree 37/2016 and Decree 43/2022, organises the hiring of foreign citizens into four regimes. Decree 63/2011 keeps a parallel set for petroleum and mining, with longer short-term work, and the Area 1 and Area 4 LNG projects follow the special regime of Decree-Law 2/2014 (arts. 18 and 20).

Immigration: visa and residence

The labour step produces a document that the immigration service then requires for the work visa and, for longer stays, the residence authorisation (DIRE). Categories, validity and the sequence between visa and DIRE are set by immigration law and have changed more than once; treat any summary, including older guidance that first-time permit holders skip the DIRE, as something to confirm for the specific person and date. Passports should have at least six months’ validity and criminal record and medical certificates should be obtained before travel, because they are requested at several points in the chain.

The framework is Law 23/2022, in force since 28 January 2023, which replaced Law 5/93. It is still applied with the regulation issued under the previous law, Decree 108/2014 as amended by Decrees 3/2017 and 46/2022 on the investment, business and border visas, to the extent compatible with the new law; as of 19 October 2026 we could not confirm the publication of a new regulation under Law 23/2022. For workers hired under the regimes in article 20 nos. 1, 2 and 4 of Decree-Law 2/2014 (Area 1 and Area 4 projects), that decree-law provides for a multiple-entry business visa allowing 90 consecutive or intermittent days of stay. Under the regimes in nos. 1 and 4, where a DIRE is legally required, the application is supported by that visa and the subsequent notification or work authorisation, respectively.

A sequence that avoids the usual delay

1. Before incorporation is complete, list every foreign role for the first twelve months with start dates and durations.
2. Classify each role: short-term (120 or 180 days depending on the regime), in-quota, authorisation, or local hire. Identify the functions that can be filled by Mozambican professionals; each one improves the quota and the local content score.
3. Collect documents early: legalised and translated qualifications, criminal record certificates, medical certificates, employment contracts in Portuguese.
4. File authorisation applications first, because they take longest; file quota notifications once the entity has its tax and social security registration.
5. Use the short-term regimes for the specialists who really are short-term, and track their days per calendar year.

Typical path: from the labour regime to the visa and residence

Business visa: how the process runs

1. Documents prepared in the country of origin or residence: invitation letter from the Mozambican entity, visa request, passport copy with at least six months of validity, return ticket, accommodation booking, photographs, proof of means of subsistence and proof of payment of the fee.
2. Submission at the Mozambican embassy or consulate in the country of origin or residence, or electronically on the official eVisa portal (evisa.gov.mz) for the nationalities it admits; SENAMI publishes on that portal the nationalities that must apply through a consulate.
3. On receipt, check name, document number and validity before travel; errors are corrected far more easily before departure.
4. Entry: the business visa allows multiple entries and a stay of up to 90 days counted from the first entry, not extendable, and does not allow work or residence (art. 25). Under the general regime, work requires the appropriate work visa (art. 27) and completion of the applicable labour procedure; cases falling within article 20 of Decree-Law 2/2014 follow the special Area 1 and Area 4 route described above.

Visa exemption does not necessarily remove the requirement for prior electronic travel authorisation. A new eVisa/eTA platform was launched on 11 February 2026, replacing the previous system (official portal; notice of the Mozambican High Commission in London). Before travel, check the official portal for the route applicable to the traveller’s nationality, passport and purpose, and obtain prior authorisation where required. Tourism or business visa exemption does not authorise employment.

Tax residence and payroll

Since 1 January 2026, article 21 of the IRPS Code (as amended by Law 11/2025) treats as tax resident, regardless of nationality or days of presence, anyone whose principal residence is in Mozambique, who carries on a professional activity in Mozambique unless it is shown to be secondary, or whose centre of economic interests is in Mozambique. A 180-day count is therefore no longer the test. Separately, a foreign employer whose staff perform services in Mozambique for more than 90 days in any twelve months may itself acquire a permanent establishment under the Corporate Income Tax Code (IRPC Code) (see the tax guide). Where a treaty applies, its residence and employment-income articles decide which state may tax.

For the Area 1 and Area 4 projects, the applicable contractual framework must also be checked: article 11.3(a) of the original concession contracts provides an exemption for employment income of certain non-resident expatriate personnel of the concessionaire and its subcontractors, as defined in the contract. Its application requires confirmation of the contract’s scope, the worker’s circumstances and the interaction with the residence rules and later instruments. Foreign nationality or offshore salary payment does not, by itself, confer the exemption.

A payroll error we see often in our practice is failing to account for remuneration paid abroad. If the person works in Mozambique and is on the local entity’s payroll, the part of the remuneration paid abroad must also enter the tax analysis of the work performed in Mozambique, with the residence rules, the applicable contractual framework and any exemption or treaty checked. Split payrolls must be declared and taxed accordingly.