A new work permit is required even for a transfer to a different position with the very same employer.
From the outside the system runs smoothly: electronic filing, the ASAN one-stop shop, no months-long queues, family members join with no income threshold and no prior residence period, and foreigners enjoy the same rights as citizens by law. Inside, it is closed: there are few grounds for residence, work permits are issued within a quota, the employer must justify hiring a foreigner, and the employment service has 5 working days to decide whether locals could fill the job. The state does not publish refusal statistics.
A worker's status is fragile. If the contract ends early, the work permit lapses, and without another ground you must leave within 10 working days. The law gives no window to find a new job. The spouse of a permit holder cannot work without going through the general procedure with the quota and labour market test. Address registration is tied to the landlord: if the owner withdraws consent and you cannot show papers for other housing within 10 working days, the residence permit is cancelled.
There is pressure on residents. In summer 2025, amid an interstate conflict, foreigners of one nationality were detained in Baku, including IT specialists who had moved after 2022; human rights groups recorded signs of beatings (details in the passport section). In February 2025 the Foreign Ministry withdrew accreditation from Voice of America, Bloomberg News and the BBC's Azerbaijani service and closed the office of another foreign agency. Foreigners who had been extending their stay year after year since 2020 were told to regularise or leave by 31 July 2025, with no transitional rules.
Renewal is formalised: you must apply at least 30 days before expiry, and it is refused if you spent more than 90 days out of 180 abroad. With an application filed on time you may keep living and working until the decision. A visa-free stay of up to 90 days requires registration within 15 days.
Day to day, a bank account opens routinely with a residence permit, while non-residents without local status are often refused or asked for justification. Permanent residency and citizenship require knowledge of Azerbaijani at a level that is defined nowhere.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
A visa is required: the ASAN e-visa takes 3 working days, costs $20 and allows up to 30 days. A visa on arrival is available only to those flying the direct New York-Baku route.
Turkish citizens enter visa-free for up to 90 days. Marriage to an Azerbaijani citizen exempts you from the work permit, and close kinship with a citizen leads to permanent residency after 2 years on a residence permit, the only route without capital.
Visa-free for up to 90 days under an intergovernmental agreement. To work, the same permit and quota procedure applies.
Visa-free for up to 90 days per calendar year. In summer 2025, amid the conflict between Baku and Moscow, at least 8 Russian citizens were detained, among them IT specialists who had moved after 2022 and two Sputnik journalists; HRW and Amnesty International noted visible signs of beatings in court photos. For a Russian passport the country is harsher than its overall score.
Visa-free for up to 90 days under an intergovernmental agreement. After that, the same employer and quota procedure as for everyone.
The place interval 69-84 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Family rights: 75 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 72.2. The weakest is Path to citizenship: 20 against 57.1. Above the world average: 2 out of 7.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
A base of about 20 working days for the work permit and as many for the residence permit, about 40 in total. A higher fee buys a faster decision.
Not to work: the law has no ground for freelancers or remote workers. Residence through property or a deposit of 100,000 manats or more is possible, but it does not by itself give the right to work.
The right to live in the country and work for the employer named in your permit. A work-based permit does not lead to permanent residency, and even a move to another position needs a new permit.
Yes. If you are dismissed, the work permit lapses and without another ground you must leave within 10 working days. The permit is also cancelled if your landlord withdraws consent and you have no papers for other housing.
Employees cannot get permanent residency, and therefore not citizenship either. For others, permanent residency after 2 years on a residence permit and citizenship 5 years after that, with proof of Azerbaijani; dual citizenship is banned.
Procedures are convenient, but the system is closed: quotas, a labour market test, a tight link to one employer and no route to permanent residency for workers. In 2025 pressure on some foreigners living there grew noticeably.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.