VisaMadagascar worker renewals require separate employment and residence files
Current guide: expatriate employees need earlier work records, updated contracts and different criminal-record evidence for renewal, with an online process followed by physical submission.
Official source date: 2026-11-01
Edited and checked by the VisaWand editorial team
Renewing employment authority is a separate administrative task
Foreign employees renewing their position in Madagascar should separate employment authorisation from their long-stay visa and resident-card file. The Economic Development Board of Madagascar publishes different checklists for these procedures. A renewed contract or a residence application receipt should not be assumed to resolve both. This is a current guide to those existing renewal requirements, not a newly announced November permission.
EDBM’s work-permit checklist, version eight dated 13 January 2025, directs submissions to e-work. For renewal it asks for the previous permit and last endorsed contract, together with an amendment or renewed contract where relevant. Those historical employment records therefore need to be retrievable before a sponsor opens the next application.
The same checklist identifies a named request to the labour minister, the employment contract governed by Malagasy labour law, employee and company information forms and workforce-composition records. It specifies multiple copies for some documents. Use the full work-permit checklist to prepare the required originals and copy quantities rather than send a single unverified scan of the current contract.
Online submission leads to a physical-document appointment
The official e-work Steps to Follow page describes four stages: learn the requirements, lodge the online application, attend the appointment and collect the employment authorisation. Applicants create an account, complete the form, upload the supporting documents and submit the file. The portal provides messaging for correspondence and an appointment communication.
The appointment is for submitting the physical file corresponding to the uploaded material, paying the file charge and handling the endorsed contract. The applicant then tracks availability of the employment authorisation and collects its original at the counter. An online upload therefore is not the final documentary event in the process.
This distinction affects the employer’s internal arrangements. The person who uploads the application should make the physical originals and required copies available to the person attending the appointment. If an amendment changes salary, duties or contract dates, check that the uploaded and physical versions correspond. Keeping a receipt establishes what was lodged; it is not a substitute for collecting and checking the actual authorisation.
The residence renewal uses a local criminal-record extract
EDBM’s long-stay worker checklist, version 13 dated May 2024, distinguishes initial and renewal evidence. For renewal it calls for a Madagascar-issued criminal-record extract, bulletin number three, less than three months old, previous long-stay visas, the current resident card and proof of IRSA employment-tax payment. Do not substitute an old first-application police certificate from abroad for the specifically listed local renewal record.
The shared residence file includes passport copies, local residence and foreigner-registration evidence, tax documentation, an endorsed employment contract and labour authorisation, alongside the signed application forms and photographs. Its instructions require originals to be presented for photocopied documents and personal attendance at submission. Use this residence checklist alongside the employment list, not in place of it.
The described residence process includes biometric enrolment and a receipt, payment of the visa and card charges, and collection of the card and passport visa. It also identifies additional transmission documentation for files originating outside Antananarivo. Residents outside the capital should confirm the applicable local-office route before arranging a trip or delegating delivery.
Budget charges separately and confirm the renewal timetable
The January 2025 work-permit checklist lists a €100 file-processing charge payable in ariary at EDBM’s front office, using the displayed monthly central-bank exchange rate. That is an employment-file amount, not the combined cost of a long-stay visa and resident card. Ask for the current local-currency calculation before paying.
The e-work Tools page offers a fee simulator tied to the submission month. Use it for preparation, then reconcile the official counter request and receipt with the procedure being paid for. Converting a euro figure at a personal bank’s retail rate can produce a different result from the official monthly calculation. Residence and card charges need their own current confirmation; older EDBM fee tables should not be assumed to establish the final November total.
The accessible resources do not establish one universal advance filing interval for every worker’s renewal. Check the expiry dates on both the employment authorisation and residence documents and obtain instructions before either expires. An application submitted for one permission does not prove that the other has been extended. The next practical action is to compare those dates, retrieve the earlier endorsed contract and permit, and schedule the local criminal-record evidence so that it remains within the residence checklist’s stated age limit at filing.
