Before you start

An employment contract with a DRC-registered employer, who is the applicant for the work card — not you
Six months' prior lawful stay in the DRC, which the establishment-visa file assumes
A passport valid at least six months, four identical recent photographs, and the DGM's form plus fiche d'immatriculation
An international vaccination card — yellow fever is checked at Ndjili on arrival, not politely enquired about
An attestation de bonne vie et mœurs and an attestation de résidence for your actual Kinshasa address

Step-by-step

1
Enter on a travel visa or the electronic airport visa
Apply through the DGM's own portal at evisa.gouv.cd or at a Congolese embassy. Travel visas run from eight days to six months, single or multiple entry, and must be used within three months of issue. A sponsor in the DRC — a company or a resident who takes responsibility for you — is a substantive requirement, not a formality, and it is the reason most unsponsored applications fail.
OnlineWho: You, with a Congolese sponsorThe electronic route advertises around 72 hoursWidely reported at USD 83 for one month single-entry up to USD 400 for six months multiple-entry; the electronic airport visa at USD 390 all-in (USD 300 online, USD 90 on arrival). Confirm on the portal — this schedule moves and agents mark it up
2
Your employer files the carte de travail with the CNEE
The file goes to the Secrétariat technique of the Commission Nationale de l'Emploi des Étrangers in Kinshasa (provincial Divisions de l'Emploi handle hires outside the capital). After the commission examines it, a report goes to DGRAD and the DGM; DGRAD issues the note de perception; you pay; the contractor captures your biometrics and prints the card, which the Ministry then delivers.
Via employerWho: Your employerMonths rather than weeks — the commission, DGRAD and the biometric capture are three separate queuesUSD 280 total: USD 130 by bank deposit for the form and card production, plus USD 150 to the CNEE technical secretariat
3
File the visa d'établissement at the DGM
With the work card in hand, the establishment file goes to the DGM. The category is set by Ordonnance 87-281: work (running for the term of the work card, itself a maximum of two years), ordinary (three years, renewable, for people on their own means), special (five years, for investors approved under the investment code), studies (one year), or missionary (five years).
In personWho: YouNo published service standard — the DGM does not advertise oneAround USD 653 for the work category and USD 700 for the ordinary one circulate widely in Congolese sources, with DGM form and filing fees of roughly USD 50 and USD 100. We found no official page publishing any of it — treat as indicative and insist on the DGRAD note de perception
4
Register your address, and expect a municipal drive at some point
Ordonnance 83-164 puts the residence card at commune level — the bourgmestre of the commune where you live, not a national office. This is why residence-card registration drives periodically appear at the Hôtel de Ville: the city announced one in July 2022 with a ten-day deadline and 50% surcharges, and business federations disputed the province's competence to run it at all. If one starts while you are here, comply and keep the receipts, but check who is asking.
In personWho: YouWhenever a drive is announcedVaries by drive; get a receipt for everything
5
Renew before it lapses, and never let a file lapse instead
The work-visa cycle is tied to a work card of at most two years; the ordinary category runs three years and renews. Ordonnance-loi 83-033 art. 22 makes irregular stay a criminal matter with servitude pénale and a fine, and art. 15 lets the authorities expel a foreigner whose presence is judged to threaten public order. A pending renewal is not a status.
In personWho: You and your employerStart three months outThe same scale again, plus any late surcharge

Documents you’ll need

Passport valid at least six months, plus copies of the visa and entry stamp
Four identical recent passport photographs
The DGM application form and the fiche d'immatriculation
International vaccination card (yellow fever)
Attestation de bonne vie et mœurs, and an attestation de résidence under six months old
The employer's file for the carte de travail, and the DGRAD note de perception plus payment receipts for everything

Things most newcomers don’t know

The work card comes BEFORE the visa, and this is the mistake that costs the most.

Ordonnance 87-281 art. 9 makes a valid carte de travail the condition for the work establishment visa. The intuitive order — get residency, then get permission to work — is backwards here. Starting work while 'the papers are being sorted' is unlawful for you and for your employer, and in July 2024 the Ministry of Employment announced a nationwide inspection mission of employers of foreign workers precisely to find it.

Source: Ordonnance n° 87-281 art. 9; Ministère de l'Emploi, July 2024

Your employer pays a 25% tax on your salary that never appears on your payslip.

The IERE, the exceptional tax on expatriate remuneration, is charged on gross pay and borne by the employer rather than withheld from you. It is why a local contract can be offered lower than you expected, why some employers would rather engage you offshore, and why the negotiation looks different once you know the number. Mining companies pay 12.5% in their first ten years.

Source: DGI — impôt exceptionnel sur les rémunérations des expatriés

The special investor visa is five years and, as the ordinance writes it, non-renewable.

Ordonnance 87-281 art. 7 grants the special establishment visa to promoters approved under the investment code for five years without renewal. Five years is exactly long enough to build a life and be surprised. If you are on this category, ask the DGM in year four what you convert onto — and note that mining investments run under the Code minier, a different track entirely.

Source: Ordonnance n° 87-281 art. 7; Loi n° 004/2002 Code des investissements

The DGM publishes essentially nothing, and that is itself the operating instruction.

dgm.cd is a landing page and evisa.gouv.cd covers entry visas only. There is no online fee schedule, no service standard and no downloadable form list. In that vacuum, intermediaries quote whatever they like. The one defence that works is the DGRAD note de perception: every legitimate state charge has one, and anything without one is somebody's private tariff.

Source: DGM and EVISA portals, checked August 2026

Common mistakes to avoid

Arriving expecting to land on an establishment visa — the six months of prior lawful residence come first
Starting work on a travel visa while the CNEE file is pending, which exposes your employer as well as you
Paying anyone anything without a DGRAD note de perception
Photographing government buildings, the airport, bridges or anything military — this is illegal and people are detained for it
Assuming the province and the DGM agree about who registers foreign residents; they have publicly disagreed, and you can be caught between them
Treating advice written about the eastern provinces as advice about Kinshasa, or the reverse

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