Malawi temporary employment permit

Any foreigner offered employment by an organisation in Malawi needs a temporary employment permit, issued before entry for a specified occupation in a specified area. The organisation, not the employee, is responsible for applying. Working or being employed without a TEP is a criminal offence under the Immigration Act, and the government has warned organisations that engage expatriates before approval that they will be prosecuted.

Short consultancies and other short work-related assignments are handled through a temporary residence permit applied for by the engaging institution, and foreign nationals working on development activities for a sponsoring country or agency use the technical assistance permit. Self-employed people and business owners apply for the business residence permit.

Malawi requires vacancies to be offered first to qualified Malawians. A post may go to an expatriate only where a shortage of the skill in Malawi is demonstrated, and every application must show that the post was advertised locally and that no suitably qualified local candidate could be found. The application must also give details of a qualified Malawian who will understudy the expatriate and eventually take over the post; applications that do not meet these conditions are not accepted.

The TEP application form and supporting documents follow the government's Policy Statement on the Employment of Expatriates. Since 1 April 2018, NGOs must add the NGO Board's certificate of registration, its annual compliance certificate and its letter recommending the TEP application; a CONGOMA registration certificate is no longer accepted.

Permit fees cannot be paid online; they are paid at FDH Bank counters in immigration offices in Malawi. A cancelled application is not refunded. Bring a printed copy of the approval email to the port of entry or immigration office, because its application number is used to finalise the permit.

The application is lodged with the Department of Immigration while the applicant is outside Malawi, either at the headquarters in Blantyre or a regional immigration office, or online after registering on the ePermit portal. It goes to the TEP Approval Committee and then to the Minister for a decision. The applicant is notified formally; if approved, the fees must be paid within 30 days of notification. New applicants are required by law to wait outside Malawi until approval.

On the ePermit portal, names are entered exactly as in the passport's machine-readable zone, status changes are emailed and can be checked with the application ID, passport number and date of birth, and the same passport cannot be used for two applications for the same permit type. Organisations that have had no reply more than four months after submitting are asked to contact the permit enquiries officer at headquarters.

A renewal application is submitted with the TEP renewal form and supporting documents three months before the permit expires, or through the portal's renew function. Under the expatriate employment policy, a TEP other than one for a key post may be renewed only twice, and renewal is not automatic; permits that do not meet these rules are not considered for further renewal.