Applying for Residency in Morocco: Paperwork

If you desire to stay long-term in Morocco, then you will need to establish residency (obtain a “carte de sejour”).  This article will not be entertaining, but hopefully it will provide you with useful information so that you know what to expect.  Our hope is that you can benefit from what we have learned going through the process ourselves. 

Casablanca

The documentation necessary to obtain a carte de sejour is fairly lengthy, and will depend on which city you live in, as well as which neighborhood in the city (at least in Casablanca).  The police department handles the documentation.  All of the information included in this article pertains to requirements at the Maarif (Casablanca) police prefecture.  

There are a number of different ways to obtain a carte de sejour.  One is to be a manager (owner) of a business.  Additionally, you can be employed by a local company, married to someone with a carte de sejour, a student, or retired.  I have applied for my carte de sejour as a co-owner of a business, and the documents needed are the following.  If you would like the document lists for the other types, then please contact us.  

1. Copies of your passport pages

   1. Identity page

   2. Page showing the date of your last entry into Morocco, as well as the page showing your entry number

2. Background check from your passport country

3. Medical certificate in Morocco

4. Proof of address in Morocco

   1. Rental contract plus utility bill from previous month or

   2. Ownership document plus utility bill from previous month

5. Passport photos on a grey background format 3.5/4.5

6. Various documents from your business

7. Three months bank statements from your business

8. Three months personal bank statements from a Moroccan bank account

Here is pertinent information regarding some of these documents:

1. Legalization - Many of these documents need to be legalized. With the exception of the utility bill and bank statements (which get a stamp by those entities), you will be making copies of the documents and legalizing them. This means that you will go to the neighborhood notary (muqata’a) with your original documents and copies, and the notary will verify that the copies are based on the originals. Waiting in line at the office can take at least an hour. To avoid visiting the office on multiple days, we brought a folder full of documents to the office to consolidate our trips into one visit. We presented our original documents and were told to come back the following day to pick up the legalized copies. Each legalized document costs two dirhams. We have been told that legalized copies are only valid for three months from the date they are legalized.

2. Criminal Background Check - If you are from the United States, you can get a background check done by the FBI. This website has instructions. We were able to get our fingerprints taken at our county courthouse in the States, and then mailed the fingerprint card to the FBI. While at the courthouse, we also obtained a county background check just to be sure. The processing time is actually pretty quick, and the FBI will email you the results (they can also mail you a hard copy). Once in Morocco, you will need to get this document translated into French by a sworn translator.

   The challenge with this criminal background check is that the original (and thus the translated version) is only valid for three months. Also, it seems that there is no where to get a fingerprint card while in Morocco, so fingerprints have to be conducted before traveling to Morocco. Of particular note, the sheriff’s department in the United States also helps to obtain criminal background checks. However, we had challenges with this, because they have to assign a code for your background check. These codes are used when people are applying for work in the US. As much as we tried to explain that we were moving to Morocco, there was not a sufficient code to go with this. Avoid this hassle and go with the FBI background check and you will be fine….except…

   ….By the time we gathered all of our paperwork in Morocco, our FBI background check had passed three months validity and had expired. As a background (supplement?), I was able to obtain a Moroccan background check through this website. I filled out the form on a Wednesday afternoon, and the document was ready to pick up the next day. My wife and I rode the tram to the Court of First Instances, and picked up the document for 10 dirham. When I submitted all of these background checks together, it was acceptable to the worker at the police station.

3. Medical Certificate - We asked friends in the city who had previously obtained one, and they referred us to a doctor in the neighborhood.  The examination was very brief - 10 minutes at most - and he printed off a document explaining that we had a clean bill of health.  It cost 200 dirham for this exam. 

4. Proof of address in Morocco - Important to note about the rental contract is that it needs to state that the contract automatically renews.  For the utility bills, I went to the neighborhood Lydec and was able to obtain the statement very easily.  I was actually really impressed by the efficiency of the Lydec office as there was a number system that indicated which desk to go to.    I wondered if I would need to get the utility bill put in my name (it is in the name of the landlord), but this was not necessary; I did not need the bill in my name.  

5. Business documents - This information will be provided in a separate article.  To be considered a manager (co-owner), you need to own a certain percent of the business.  It has typically been mentioned that 35% is the key percentage.  My wife is a 25% co-owner of the business, and we were told by a worker at the police station that she needed at least 30% to apply individually for her carte de sejour.  

6. Bank statements - We hired an accountant to set up our business, and our accountant referred us to the bank where they do their banking.  This appears to be a branch that specializes in commercial banking.  When we talked to the manager of the business bank, we asked her about personal banking, and she referred us to a different branch a few blocks up the street.  Establishing a personal bank account was pretty simple.  One challenge was that we wanted both of our names to be on the account.  In the United States this is normal, but in Morocco it is uncommon for spouses to be on one account.  As a result, initially two bank accounts were created. For us to fix this, we needed to go to the muqata’a to sign a document saying that we wanted both names on the account.  It took 2-3 days to get the personal bank account created.  Once it was opened, we wired money from our bank account in the States. 

   For the business bank account to be created, we needed many documents from our business.  Additionally, there was a tax document that needed to be filled out, a W-8BEN-E.  I found a number of videos on YouTube that described how to correctly fill out this document.  It took about 2 weeks for the business bank account to be opened. 

   *An important item to note about bank statements - the list at the police station states that the previous three months of statements are necessary.  We have heard that other police stations in the city state that you need to show a sufficient amount of money to survive (typically at least 50,000 dirhams).  We did not provide three months of bank statements, but we were able to show a sufficient amount of money in both our business and personal bank accounts. 

As you can imagine, it takes a significant amount of time to gather all of these documents and get them legalized.  Running errands in this country takes time, so we set out to accomplish one errand a day for a month-long period.  Once we had gathered all of the paperwork, we set out for the police station.  Our experience there is the topic of another article.  

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