Morocco permanent residence (carte de résidence)

The four years are normally spent on a carte d'immatriculation, the ordinary residence card that every foreigner over 18 staying beyond 90 days must hold. It authorises a stay of 1 to 10 years, renewable for the same period, and carries a mention matching the reason for stay: visiteur for people living on their own resources without a professional activity, étudiant for students with sufficient means, or the name of an authorised professional activity.

Continuity matters: the law requires a foreigner to leave Morocco when the carte d'immatriculation expires unless it is renewed or replaced by a carte de résidence, and a refused or withdrawn card means leaving within 15 days of notification. Keeping each renewal on time is therefore what makes the four years count as uninterrupted.

Any foreigner who proves at least four years of residence in Morocco that was uninterrupted and in line with the laws in force may apply. The administration decides by looking in particular at the means of existence available, including the conditions of the professional activity, and at any facts supporting the intention to settle permanently in Morocco. The card can be refused on public-order grounds.

Prepare your successive cartes d'immatriculation proving four uninterrupted years, proof of income or professional activity, proof of address, a criminal-record extract and photos, plus any element showing your intention to settle (family ties, property, long-term employment). The police foreigners' department of your place of residence gives the exact list.

Subject to lawful entry and stay, and unless an exception is made, the law grants the card to: the foreign spouse of a Moroccan national; the foreign or stateless child of a Moroccan mother who has reached civil majority or is supported by the mother, and the dependent foreign ascendants of a Moroccan and of their spouse; the foreign parent of a child born and residing in Morocco who acquired Moroccan nationality by law in the two years before majority, if the parent has legal custody or supports the child; and the spouse and minor children of a foreigner who holds a carte de résidence.

The carte de résidence is the more stable of Morocco's two residence titles: it is not tied to a single reason for stay like the carte d'immatriculation, and it allows the holder's spouse and minor children to obtain the same card. Their children can apply individually at majority. The usual stamp duty applies.

Residence cards are subject to stamp duty when they are issued, renewed or duplicated, under the stamp-duty provisions referred to in Article 7 of Law No. 02-03. Minors under 18 whose parent holds a residence title receive a travel document (document de circulation) on request instead of a card.