VisaLebanon’s six-month bank-statement residence is limited to named account holders
Current General Security guidance sets a minimum bank balance and excludes work-residence holders. Applicants must distinguish this six-month route from annual residence and tourist extensions.
Official source date: 2026-11-01
Edited and checked by the VisaWand editorial team
A six-month route with specific exclusions
Lebanon’s General Security publishes a six-month multiple-entry residence route based on an account at a Lebanese bank. Its guidance limits the benefit to account holders named on the statement and excludes people ordered to leave and holders of work-residence permissions, including the listed temporary work arrangements. This is a current explanation of an existing route, not a newly announced investor programme or a promise that a bank deposit secures approval.
The Six-month residence visa resource requires valid identification with two colour copies, a notarised undertaking not to undertake paid work, a minimum balance of LBP1.5 billion or the stated foreign-currency equivalent, and a bank-certified statement for the preceding three months. Applications go to the regional-centre secretariat as a request to the Director General, with a paid service charge. The page’s currency-equivalence wording references the Sayrafa platform; applicants should obtain General Security’s current conversion and bank-document instructions rather than calculate an entitlement using an unrelated market exchange rate.
Do not substitute an annual bank-income checklist
The separate Annual Residence resource describes another bank-statement or monthly-income basis. Its published checklist includes an application, passport and copies, three photographs, a notarised no-work undertaking, a lease or ownership document and the relevant financial evidence. It refers to a blocked account and distinguishes individual and joint-account amounts. This is not the same checklist as the six-month named-account-holder procedure.
The practical consequence is that applicants must identify the residence category before asking a bank to block funds or obtaining expensive notarised records. Ask the regional centre which procedure it will assess and which household members need separate consideration. Do not transfer the annual page’s family provisions to the six-month route, whose instructions expressly restrict the benefit to named account holders. The annual page also links regional-office contacts, allowing applicants to identify the receiving centre instead of assuming every request is filed at airport immigration.
Separate the legal residence fee from paid services
General Security’s Residence Permit Application Fees page currently lists LBP18 million for annual residence in the other-category group, with distinct rates for students and work categories. It separately lists an additional LBP4.9 million for urgent paid service through the Public Relations Department. These figures describe the specified annual transactions; they do not establish a complete charge for the six-month bank-statement application.
The fee resource says visa fees and overstay penalties are collected under the applicable schedule when they become due. Applicants should ask for the assessment tied to their selected category, confirm whether an optional paid service is being requested and retain receipts. A fee table with multiple categories is not authority to choose the lowest available amount. No guaranteed decision time or universal fee exemption for the bank-statement route is established by the resources reviewed, and payment should not be treated as approval or authority to work.
Resolve existing visitor permission before relying on a residence request
For full British citizen passport holders, the UK entry guide describes a normally free, single-entry tourist or family-visit visa at Beirut airport, initially valid for one month and extendable through General Security up to three months. Embassy-issued visas can have different validity. This is visitor guidance, rather than a grant of the six-month financial residence permission. Check the actual stamp and expiry before planning the next filing.
The UK resource also warns that overstayers may need to pay a fine in Lebanese currency at departures before security. A pending bank-statement request should not be assumed to remove an existing overstay or automatically prolong the visitor endorsement. Establish with General Security when to submit, how to preserve lawful permission while waiting and what decision or document will authorise the proposed stay. The VisaWand editorial team edited and checked this guide. A named account, a complete application and an individual residence decision remain distinct steps; none should be replaced by an agent’s assurance that maintaining a balance alone is enough.
