Immigration
Law 02-03, with two regularisation campaigns and a pending asylum statute
Entry, residence and removal are governed by Law 02-03 of 2003. Morocco ran regularisation campaigns in 2014 and 2016 for irregular migrants, but a domestic asylum law has been drafted rather than enacted.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Ministry of Interior for residence; Ministry of Labour for work authorisation; the Bureau des Réfugiés et Apatrides for refugee recognition following UNHCR referral.
- Deadline — Residence cards are issued for one year initially, renewable, with ten-year cards available after long residence
- Deadline — Work contracts for foreign employees require validation by the labour ministry before the permit issues
Governing law
- Law 02-03 on the entry and residence of foreigners2003
- Dahir 1958 on Moroccan nationality, as amended in 2007
- Decree 2-09-607 on work permits for foreign employees
In practice
Morocco's position shifted from transit country to destination country, and the 2013 National Strategy on Immigration and Asylum acknowledged that, which is why the 2014 and 2016 regularisations happened. The legal gap is that Law 02-03 predates that shift and still frames irregular entry principally as an offence, while the asylum bill intended to complete the framework has not been adopted, so recognition operates through UNHCR referral and a domestic bureau rather than a statutory procedure with appeal rights. The 2007 nationality reform allowed transmission of nationality by Moroccan mothers, which was retroactive in effect and resolved a substantial category of cases. Employment of foreigners requires proof that no national candidate is available, and the ANAPEC certificate that establishes this is the usual bottleneck.