VisaKenya Class D employment applications need employer and understudy evidence
A current guide explains the role-specific permit, recruitment evidence, published fee differences and the separate foreign-national registration requirement.
Official source date: 2026-11-01
Edited and checked by the VisaWand editorial team
A Kenyan job offer is the beginning of the Class D test
Kenya's Class D employment-permit applicants should prepare evidence about both the overseas recruit and the sponsoring organisation. The Directorate of Immigration Services describes the category as specific employment with a specific employer, requiring skills or qualifications unavailable in Kenya and an engagement beneficial to the country. This current guide does not announce a new jobseeker route or suggest that any signed offer establishes eligibility.
The Directorate's Class D checklist asks for evidence that the vacancy could not be filled through the local labour market, including a competitive recruitment process. It also requests the name, identity details, qualifications, contacts and CV of a Kenyan understudy. Employers should organise those records alongside the job description before filing. A recruit's professional certificate addresses their competence; it does not by itself explain local recruitment or supply the understudy evidence. Use the category page to identify those distinct parts of the application.
The online file must match the applicant and employer records
The official eFNS Class D information pack identifies signed Form 25, employer cover letters, valid passport copies, photographs, immigration-status evidence where already in Kenya, qualifications, CV and the employment report on Form 27. It also distinguishes tax-compliance evidence: the organisation's certificate for a new application, and both organisation and individual certificates for renewal. Foreign-language documents require an appropriate English translation. Compare the renewal checklist with the initial file instead of assuming every document remains current.
eFNS directs applicants through the government single-sign-on account to permit issuance or renewal, then generates an invoice in the dashboard payment area. Keep the application number and itemised payment record together, and monitor the account for official notifications. Its instructions also refer to presenting application printouts at Immigration headquarters or regional offices. Confirm the appointment or presentation arrangements for the case rather than assuming an online upload alone completes every step. The information pack warns that incomplete applications are not accepted and employment without the requisite permit or pass is an offence. Confirm those arrangements before travelling to the office.
Confirm the live invoice where published fee summaries differ
The Directorate's current Class D page lists a non-refundable KES 20,000 processing charge and KES 500,000 per year for issuance, with East African Community member states described as gratis. However, the government-backed Invest Kenya procedure page still shows KES 200,000 for one year's issuance. Those are materially different published figures, so applicants should confirm the applicable official charge before budgeting or paying a privately supplied quotation.
The eFNS invoice is the practical payment reference for the submitted application; use it to ask Immigration to resolve any mismatch with a public checklist. Processing and issuance are distinct items, and payment is not a decision that the labour-market or qualification test has been met. A nationality-based fee exemption likewise should not be assumed to remove substantive permit requirements. Keep the contract's intended start conditional on the necessary authority, because the sources reviewed do not establish a guaranteed approval time or a right to start work while the request is pending.
Longer residence brings a separate identification process
The eFNS foreign-national information pack says residents staying more than 90 days must register, subject to its listed exemptions. It describes Form 50, a valid passport, photographs and the current permit or pass, with the previous foreign-national certificate required for renewal and a police abstract for a lost card. This identification process is separate from the employer's Class D application; neither document should be treated as an interchangeable substitute for the other.
Registration requires personal attendance and biometric capture. The information pack links the certificate's validity to an underlying permit or pass that expires sooner than its normal period. Workers should therefore keep both expiry dates and the passport record available when arranging renewal or replacement. Exemptions include specified official or protected categories and short lawful stays; read the precise list for the person concerned rather than assuming that every foreign employee is exempt. Before the stay crosses the registration threshold, use the eFNS registration resource to arrange the correct application and retain its acknowledgement alongside the employment permission.
