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Permanent Residence Permit

RwandaLong-term residence

Explore the five recorded questions, answers and sources for this pathway.

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Explore pathways in Rwanda Read the five questions ↓

What exact status does accumulated residence lead to?

The status is a permanent residence permit: the Ministerial Order on immigration has a section on the permanent residence permit and sets out classes of permanent residence permits.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • These citations name the permanent residence permit and its classes; the ten-year residence class that links accumulated residence to this permit is cited in the R2 answer, not here.

What qualifying residence period is required and when does the period begin?

Under the 2019 Order, Class L-1 may be issued to a foreigner who has legally resided in Rwanda for an aggregate of ten years. The class provision does not say when the qualifying period begins. The Order describes separate L-2 to L-7 grounds without stating a general residence-period requirement for those classes.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • The qualifying-period start rule is not stated in the cited class provision.
  • The 2019 Order’s current effect was not verified.

Which types of residence count fully, partially or not at all where the official rules specify this?

The checked official sources did not provide enough route-specific evidence to confirm which types of residence count towards the qualifying period.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • Searched Article 20 (classes L-1 to L-7) and Articles 21-23 of the 2019 Order and the DGIE permanent-permits page; the Order only says "legally residing in Rwanda for an aggregate of ten (10) years" (cited in R2) and gives no rule on which residence types count fully, partially or not at all. The L-1..L-7 grounds list answers a different question.

What absence/continuity rules affect accumulation of the qualifying residence period?

Class L-1 requires legal residence in Rwanda for an aggregate of ten years. The official source does not state absence or continuity rules for accumulating that period.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • The current effect of the 2019 Order and any later absence rules were not verified.

What other major conditions apply, how is the status obtained, and what renewal, document-validity, retention or loss rules matter?

The DGIE says the applicant should contact DGIE before making any application. Under the Ministerial Order, a permanent residence permit holder and his or her family members have the right to stay in Rwanda in accordance with the Order. A child living with permit-holding parents is registered on the parents until age 25, when he or she acquires his or her own permanent residence permit upon application. A permanent permit may be cancelled where the holder has been convicted of a felony, where the holder has been outside Rwanda for more than three consecutive years (with exceptions for specified state-service cases and a Rwandan community member residing abroad), or for any other reason relating to national security. A resident identity card is issued once a residence permit is approved and has the same validity as the corresponding residence permit.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • The cited text does not state a validity period or renewal rule for the permanent permit itself; the absence-based cancellation ground is cited in the R4 answer.

These are the answers currently recorded in the catalogue. A missing or partial answer is not an eligibility decision.

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