A holder of an ordinary permit can bring family only after a year, and only with "justified prospects" of permanent residence; the spouse can work only on a permit of their own, like any foreigner.
The country is complicated: residence rules are national, but the Federation, Republika Srpska and the Brčko District each have their own laws on employing foreigners, and they are not aligned. Demand for workers is growing, though: 5,798 work permits were issued in 2024, the quota rose to 7,229 in 2025 and 7,427 in 2026, and 41% of the 2024 permits were issued outside the quota. Every canton sets an annual shortage occupations list, and for those jobs there is no labour market test.
Delivery is slow and paper-based. Applications are in person only, with biometrics, there is no online filing and queues run to weeks. Neither the foreigners' service nor the employment services publish refusal rates.
We found no pressure on people living there legally: the European Commission's 2025 report covers problems with asylum and transit migration, but not a single episode targeting workers, entrepreneurs or their families. The law on foreigners was last amended in 2023, and statuses already granted have not been withdrawn retroactively.
Status is tied to the employer. Residence is issued for the term of the work permit plus 30 days and ends 30 days after the work permit expires; you may not work in those days. If you file a new work permit within that month your residence survives, but the permit itself goes through the full cycle again: employer application, unemployment register check, quota. While a renewal is pending you may stay, but the law does not let you work.
Day to day: you must register your address within 48 hours, your host within 12, and individuals face fines of 100-500 marks. Banks open accounts routinely for residents, while some refuse non-residents. Diploma recognition is handled by cantons and takes months.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
No visa for up to 90 days. To live and work, the same residence procedure as for everyone.
According to the BiH embassy, visa-free entry for up to 30 days within two months of first entry. Bosnia and Herzegovina is not in the EU, so the EU's temporary protection until 2028 does not apply here. After that, the same residence procedure as for everyone.
We found no direct bans on residence permits. Visa-free entry for up to 30 days (within 60 days of first entry, according to the BiH embassy), and the first residence permit can be filed from inside the country. There is no dual citizenship treaty with Russia, so naturalisation means giving up Russian citizenship. Foreigners can buy property only on a reciprocity basis.
We found no direct bans on residence permits. There is no dual citizenship treaty with Belarus, so naturalisation means giving up Belarusian citizenship.
The place interval 37-56 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 Pressure on newcomers: 83 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 65.2. The weakest is Status security: 50 against 57.9. Above the world average: 3 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.
Up to 90 days by law for the whole cycle: 30 days for the work permit and 60 for residence when filed in the country. The law sets no deadline for the labour market check, so in practice it takes 1-3 months.
Yes, as the founder of your own company: that permit needs no work permit, quota or labour market test, and it counts towards permanent residence. Residence based on property is granted only exceptionally and gives no right to work.
We did not find an official consolidated fee schedule: state fees and cantonal work permit charges are published piecemeal. We do know the language exam for permanent residence is paid by the applicant.
Yes, along with your job: residence ends 30 days after the work permit expires. You can keep it by filing a new work permit within that time, but the employer has to go through the whole procedure again.
Permanent residence after 5 years of continuous residence and a local language exam. Citizenship no earlier than 3 years after that, so about 8 years from arrival; dual citizenship only if the two countries have a treaty.
We found no pressure on legal residents, the rules are stable and taxes are low. The difficulties lie elsewhere: status depends on one employer, family can join only after a year, a spouse cannot work, and agencies are slow and in person only.
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.