Immigration
ECOWAS free movement with a carte de séjour for others
ECOWAS nationals enter visa-free for 90 days. Others require a visa and a carte de séjour for longer stays. Guinea hosts refugees from neighbouring conflicts and applies the 1969 OAU Convention's broader refugee definition.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — The Direction Nationale de la Police de l'Air et des Frontières controls entry and issues permits.
- Deadline — Carte de séjour: within three months of arrival
- Deadline — ECOWAS nationals: 90 days visa-free
Governing law
- Loi L/94/019 relative à l'entrée et au séjour des étrangers
- ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons 1979
- OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa 1969
In practice
Guinea's significance in regional migration law comes from its history as a refuge during the Liberian and Sierra Leonean wars, when it hosted several hundred thousand refugees under the OAU Convention's group-based recognition rather than individual determination. That practice still shapes how status is administered for arrivals from neighbouring states.