Immigration
A 1968 entry law with no domestic asylum procedure
Entry and residence run under Law 1968-7 and its decrees. Tunisia ratified the Refugee Convention but has never enacted an asylum law, so status determination is conducted by UNHCR.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Ministry of Interior for entry and residence; Ministry of Social Affairs for work authorisation; UNHCR Tunis for refugee status.
- Deadline — Residence permits are issued for one or two years, renewable
- Deadline — Foreigners staying beyond three months must obtain a carte de séjour
Governing law
- Law 1968-7 on the condition of foreigners
- Nationality Code, Law 1963-6, as amended
- Law 2004-6 on passports and travel documents
In practice
The 1968 law is a security-era instrument and its penalties for irregular stay, including fines calculated per week of overstay, are enforced at exit, which regularly surprises long-staying foreigners. There is no statutory asylum procedure, so recognised refugees hold UNHCR documentation without a domestic status conferring work rights, and a draft asylum law has been pending for over a decade. Tunisia's position on the central Mediterranean route has made irregular transit migration politically salient, and enforcement practice has fluctuated sharply with that politics rather than with legal change. Nationality passes through either parent following the 2010 amendment, and naturalisation is discretionary with a five-year residence baseline.