VisaVanuatu short-work permits carry VT30,000 or VT60,000 labour charges
Current guide: the exemption label does not mean free employment permission, and employers must distinguish Labour permit categories from Immigration visa conditions.
Official source date: 2025-06-20
Edited and checked by the VisaWand editorial team
The Labour charge depends on the short-work category
Employers bringing non-citizens to Vanuatu for short assignments should identify the Labour permit category before quoting a total immigration cost. A Department of Labour directive published on 20 June 2025 says collection of temporary and exemption work-permit fees is enforced from 1 July 2025. It specifies VT60,000 for temporary work up to four months and VT30,000 for the exemption category for employment not exceeding one month.
This is a current guide to an existing fee instruction, not a newly announced November increase. The exemption label is particularly important: the directive expressly requires an application and a fee. It should not be represented as a blanket exemption from obtaining any labour authority or paying anything for a short assignment.
The department’s checklist breaks down the totals into an application fee and work-permit tax. It lists VT20,000 plus VT10,000 for exemption permission and VT20,000 plus VT40,000 for temporary permission. Ask the employer to identify both components on the official receipt rather than confuse a partial payment with the full Labour amount.
Match the duration and document checklist to the assignment
The Labour checklist describes exemption work permission from one week to one month and temporary work permission from one month to four months, and marks both as non-renewable. An employer contemplating a longer assignment should ask for the correct route at the outset rather than assume the shorter permission can simply be rolled over.
For these short-term categories the checklist asks for a photograph, explanatory covering letter, flight itinerary, passport copy and immigration-status evidence. It separately addresses a residence-permit copy where applicable. Use the short-term part of the form, then confirm any case-specific additions with Labour; the documents for a one-year permit or employer change are not automatically interchangeable.
The proposed job and dates should match across the employer letter, itinerary and immigration evidence. If a task originally described as a brief installation expands into several months of continuing duties, raise the revised arrangement before relying on the existing permission. Paying a short-term fee does not establish approval for a materially different assignment.
A Labour permit does not determine the visa by itself
Immigration’s Work in Vanuatu guidance describes a separate employer-sponsored short-term employment visa linked to skilled work and the relevant labour assessment. The sponsored activity and employer remain central conditions of the permission. A project sponsor should establish both the labour authority and the visa required for the individual traveller rather than treat the documents as alternative names for one approval.
The Immigration page lists a VT51,500 charge under its short-term employment section, separately from the Labour directive’s amounts. It also uses differing duration descriptions within that section, including a one-to-four-month validity statement and a reference to work not exceeding six months. Confirm the authorised duration in the actual visa decision; do not select the longest wording as a guaranteed entitlement.
The same page requires compliance with the activity on which permission was granted and notification of significant personal or financial changes. A nationality’s visitor-entry concession, where available, does not answer whether that traveller may undertake the sponsored skilled work. Tourist permission should not be used as a substitute for the appropriate employment assessment.
Use current renewal instructions for a longer employment route
For employers dealing with an existing longer employment permission, Labour’s separate notice of 6 March 2025 says renewal applications are to be made through the MIDAS online portal after the earthquake-related technical disruption was resolved. That historical restoration notice is not a new 2026 renewal amnesty and does not make the non-renewable short-term categories renewable.
The department’s forms page still describes employer-prepared work-permit evidence, including qualifications, a written employment contract and photographs. Read that general document resource alongside the later online-renewal instruction. The existence of a downloadable form is not sufficient reason to bypass the currently directed submission channel.
The resources reviewed do not establish a universal processing guarantee or a single advance-filing deadline covering every work and visa category. Plan against the intended arrival, start date and any existing document’s expiry. Confirm the Labour category, required visa, current payment request and permitted duration before travel or work begins. The published charges concern different procedures; obtain the actual applicable calculation rather than automatically adding every amount appearing on a government page.
