Before you start

An Algerian employment contract with a company established in Algeria
A provisional work authorisation obtained by the employer before the visa application
An employer attestation guaranteeing repatriation costs at the end of the engagement
A work visa issued by an Algerian consulate abroad

Step-by-step

1
Let the employer obtain the provisional work authorisation
This comes from the employment services and precedes everything. It is not something you can start, chase or substitute, and its timing is the main reason Algerian onboarding takes months rather than weeks.
Via employerWho: Your employer
2
Apply for the work visa at an Algerian consulate abroad
The consulate requires the contract, the provisional authorisation and the employer's repatriation-cost attestation. This must be done outside Algeria — arriving on a business or tourist visa with the intention of converting does not work.
In personWho: You
3
Check whether a short-assignment track fits instead
There is a lighter instrument for engagements not exceeding three months: a temporary work authorisation and a temporary work visa. If your assignment is genuinely short, ask about it. If it is not short, do not use it and then try to extend.
Via employerWho: Your employer
4
Apply for the carte de résident at the wilaya after arrival
The wilaya covering your address issues the card, and the file rests on the work permit, temporary authorisation or declaration of employment. Its validity is normally two years, or matched to the validity of the document authorising your presence.
In personWho: YouAfter arrival
5
Keep the permit and the card aligned at every renewal
The two instruments have their own cycles and the card follows the permit. A permit renewal that slips leaves the card exposed. Track both dates yourself rather than assuming the employer's HR function is doing it.
Via employerWho: You
6
Note the seven-year threshold if you are staying long term
A carte de résident valid ten years is available to a foreigner who has resided legally and continuously in Algeria for seven years or more, and to their children living with them who have reached eighteen. The file includes a declaration on honour of continuous legal residence.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport and copies
Algerian employment contract
Provisional work authorisation and, subsequently, the permis de travail
Employer attestation guaranteeing repatriation costs
Proof of address in Algiers
Criminal-record extract and identity photographs

Things most newcomers don’t know

You cannot regularise from inside Algeria, and this is the single most consequential rule here.

The work visa is issued by a consulate abroad on the strength of an authorisation the employer obtained first. Arriving on a business or tourist visa and expecting to convert once a contract is signed is not a slow route, it is not a route. People arrive on that assumption because it works in a number of other countries, and the correction involves leaving and starting again.

Source: loi 08-11; loi 81-10

The work permit and the residence card are two instruments, not two stages of one.

Loi 81-10 governs the permit through the labour administration; loi 08-11 governs the card through the wilaya. They have separate files, separate authorities and separate renewal cycles, and the card's validity is tied to the document authorising your presence. Treating them as a single process is how a renewal gap opens — the permit lapses and the card's basis disappears with it.

Source: loi 81-10; Ministère de l'Intérieur

The carte professionnelle is not an entrepreneur visa, whatever it looks like.

Algeria issues a carte professionnelle to foreigners carrying on a commercial, industrial, craft or liberal activity, valid two years and renewable, granted by the wali. But the Ministry of Interior's own document list requires a copy of your resident card to apply for it. It is an authorisation to trade for someone already resident, not a way into the country. Reading it as a self-sponsorship route is the most common misunderstanding of Algerian immigration.

Source: Ministère de l'Intérieur — carte professionnelle

Where we could not source something, we have left it out — and you should treat other sources the same way.

Algeria publishes less procedural detail online than Morocco or Tunisia, several ministry sites are intermittently unreachable, and a substantial body of confident secondary writing about Algerian visas cannot be matched to any instrument. We have not stated processing times, fee schedules or document lists we could not attribute. If a guide gives you a precise Algerian figure, ask which law or which official page it comes from before you plan around it.

Source: editorial note

Common mistakes to avoid

Arriving on a tourist or business visa expecting to convert to work status inside Algeria.
Assuming the residence card follows automatically once the work permit exists.
Using the three-month temporary track for an assignment that is not actually short.
Reading the carte professionnelle as a route to residence rather than an add-on for residents.
Relying on secondary sources for Algerian fees, timelines and document lists.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.