Immigration
No ECOWAS membership, with a national visa regime and EU migration cooperation
Mauritania left ECOWAS in 2000, so there is no community free movement right; nationals of most states require visas. Mauritania is a Maghreb Arab Union member and cooperates with the EU on Atlantic route migration control.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — The Direction Générale de la Sûreté Nationale administers entry and residence.
- Deadline — Carte de séjour: applied for within the period set by decree
- Deadline — Visa: required for most nationalities, obtainable on arrival at Nouakchott for some
Governing law
- Loi n° 65-046 portant dispositions pénales relatives au séjour des étrangers
- Décret n° 64-169 relatif au régime de l'immigration
- Convention with Senegal on movement of persons
In practice
Mauritania's 2000 withdrawal from ECOWAS means West African nationals have no free movement right here, in contrast to every other state in this file — a point routinely missed because Mauritania is geographically and historically part of the same region. Bilateral arrangements with Senegal and Mali partially fill the gap, and the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands has made Mauritania a focus of EU border cooperation.