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Leading Sub-Sahara African Corporate Immigration Expert Owen Davies Leads Office
Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) announced today it has officially opened its Maputo, Mozambique Office. BAL had previously announced that Owen Davies had been hired as Managing Director, Africa. Davies is widely recognized as a Sub-Sahara African corporate immigration expert and a leading international corporate immigration lawyer.
“BAL is the leading immigration firm for the energy industry and Mozambique is one of the top countries in Africa for energy exploration,” said managing partner Jeremy Fudge. “Mozambique is a progressive African country with a democratic government that has been focused on providing services back to its population. With substantial infrastructure enhancements, and energy resources that provide revenue to its economy, Mozambique is well-situated to become a focal point for international business and economic growth and stability. Now, with our new BAL office, we are positioned to help energy firms and other businesses partner with this great country in pursuing economic opportunities.”
“I am delighted to be leading BAL’s office in Africa,” Davies said. “I believe that BAL’s globally unified structure is critical to successfully partnering with clients in Africa, where the immigration norm requires multi-country document and process support.”
With nearly twenty years of experience, Davies brings considerable expertise to BAL’s African practice. Consistently ranked as an African immigration expert by the highest bands of legal directories, he is a leading solicitor and advisor to multi-national companies, governments and international trade blocs on global immigration issues, including crisis management and immigration program and policy development.
Emily King, BAL Managing Director, Europe, who had previously supervised the firm’s strategy in Africa, stated: “Placing our BAL team within Africa offers an enhanced opportunity to be of service to our clients, and promotes a higher level of ground level focus on compliance. We recognize that Africa is a continent that poses unique challenges that are best addressed by experts on-site who can accomplish and manage work that is compliant and honed to each country’s unique needs.”
Copyright © 2016 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries please contact copyright@bal.com.
Media Contact: Emily Albrecht Senior Director — Marketing & Communications ealbrecht@bal.com 469-559-0174
IMPACT – HIGH
What is the change? The Cabinet of the Mozambican Government has approved amended work permit regulations that govern the hiring of foreign labor in all industry sectors other than petroleum and mining.
What does the change mean? The revised work permit regulations have yet to be published, but are expected to include several changes, detailed below, including longer processing times, increased government filing fees and greater compliance enforcement.
Details: The purpose of the revised work permit rules is to promote the employment of foreign skilled labor where required and to ensure that the Mozambican workforce is properly valued, according to a statement last week by Mozambican Cabinet spokesperson and Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Ana Comuana.
The revised rules are expected to include the following changes:
BAL Analysis: Given the potential impact of the expected key changes to the work permit regulations, employers should anticipate significant changes in the medium term, both in terms of end-to-end process times and budgeting for work permit application government fees.
This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice group. For additional information, please contact your BAL attorney.
IMPACT – LOW
What is the change? The National Directorate of Civil Identification has announced that it has suspended the granting of Mozambican citizenship to foreign nationals in order to reorganize the application process.
What does the change mean? Until the process is complete, foreign nationals will not be granted citizenship, even if they meet the qualifying criteria. Citizenship on the basis of marriage to a Mozambican national, however, will continue to be processed by the directorate during the suspension period.
Background: The directorate announced the temporary suspension last week and confirmed that citizenship applications have been on hold since January. Only applications submitted on the basis of marriage to a Mozambican national will be processed during the suspension period.
BAL Analysis: The suspension is indicative of a wider concern in Mozambique regarding the prevalence of forged immigration and other identity documents. Accordingly, further counter-forgery initiatives are expected to be rolled out by the Mozambican authorities in the coming year.
What is the change? Minimum wage rates will increase between 7 and 11 percent in most sectors of Mozambique’s economy.
What does the change mean? Companies are subject to the new pay thresholds but may set wages higher. Additionally, work permit application fees will increase because they are tied to the relevant industry-sector minimum wage rate.
Background: The Mozambican Consultative Labor Commission announced in April that it had reached consensus on new national minimum wages. Most increases will range between 7 and 11 percent.
BAL Analysis: Given that work permit application fees are tied to minimum wage rates, employers and individuals should factor the new minimum wages into their budgets for foreign national employees.
IMPACT – MEDIUM
What is the change? The Mozambican Consultative Labor Commission has announced that it reached consensus last week on new national minimum wages. The commission’s agreement will now be submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval.
What does the change mean? As government work permit application fees in Mozambique are calculated as a multiple of the national minimum wage level, the cost of applying for work permits in Mozambique will increase once the new minimum wages are approved and published by the Council of Ministers.
Background: The Mozambican Consultative Labor Commission, made up of representatives from employers, trade unions and the government, has announced that it has reached consensus on the new national minimum wages in all nine business sectors. The commission’s agreement will now be submitted to the Council of Ministers.
Since 2007, Mozambique has no longer had a unified statutory national minimum wage; instead, the government sets different national minimum wages for each sector of the economy. Last year, Mozambique had 14 separate national minimum wages. The government only determines the national minimum wages; in the private sector, wages above the statutory minimum are primarily determined by collective bargaining. However, the national minimum wages have a direct impact on work permit applications in Mozambique, as the government fee for such applications is calculated as a multiple of the national minimum wage level in the relevant business sector (either three times or 10 times the monthly national minimum wage, depending on business sector and category of work permit).
BAL Analysis: Given the correlation between minimum wages and the government work permit application fees, employers and individuals should factor the new minimum wages into their budgets for foreign national employees.
What is the change? Employers are reminded to submit their annual Mozambican Company Employee List (known locally as the Relação Nominal) to the Ministry of Labor by April 30.
What does the change mean? Employers that do not submit their annual Mozambican Company Employee List to the Ministry of Labor by April 30 will automatically be deemed non-compliant.
Background: Employers are reminded to make the annual filing by April 30 or be deemed noncompliant by the Ministry of Labor.
In recent public comments, Mozambique’s Labor Minister separately emphasized that companies employing foreign nationals must comply with immigration regulations limiting foreign workers to jobs for which Mozambicans are unavailable and requiring skills to be transferred to local workers. The comments signal the intention of labor authorities to refocus on issues of localization and upskilling of the workforce and a likely increase in inspection and audit activity to scrutinize companies for violations.
Labor inspectors suspended over 1,000 foreign employees in 2015 for working illegally and there was significant media coverage in Mozambique last month when a South African national was deported and banned from returning to Mozambique for abusing Mozambican co-workers and using racial epithets.
BAL Analysis: Employers are reminded of the deadline to submit their Mozambican Company Employee List and should be aware of the current intensified enforcement environment.
What is the change? Immigration authorities in Mozambique are now strictly enforcing limits on border visas that took effect last year.
What does the change mean? Under the law, border visas that are purchased upon arrival are limited to foreign nationals entering for purposes of tourism and whose home country does not have a Mozambique consular post.
Visa exemptions: Under the recent legislation, foreign nationals must obtain a visa before travel if they are coming from a country where Mozambique maintains an embassy or consulate that issues visas. Additionally, anyone traveling for business or work purposes must obtain a visa before travel and will not be issued a business visa upon arrival. In urgent circumstances, exceptions may be granted for travelers coming from countries without a Mozambique consular mission who did not have time to obtain a visa, but the decision is discretionary.
BAL Analysis: Up until now, authorities have been relaxed in their enforcement of border visa restrictions. Travelers who are not visa-exempt should leave time to apply for the appropriate business, work or tourist visa before traveling.
This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice group and our network provider located in Mozambique. For additional information, please contact your BAL attorney.
What is the change? Mozambique is ramping up its efforts to stop companies from using third-party recruiting agencies to sidestep government quotas on foreign workers.
What does the change mean? Employers must submit their own work permit applications and can no longer use recruitment agencies to do so on their behalf.
Background: Mozambique sets quotas for the maximum number of foreign employees that companies are permitted to hire, calculating the quotas as a percentage of a company’s overall workforce. Recruiting workers above the set amount – or recruiting “out of quota” – is a complicated process and approval is not guaranteed. Some companies in Mozambique made a practice of reaching their quota and then exceeding it by using recruiting agencies to file their work permits for them. Mozambique is now aiming to end that practice.
In recent months, the country has more strictly enforced a rule that bars recruiting agencies from filing work permit applications on behalf of companies. Provincial Labor Directorates were ordered on Sept. 17 to stop accepting work permit applications from recruiting agencies, which are now permitted only to submit the applications for their own employees.
BAL Analysis: Although recruiting out of quota is difficult, and although enforcement of rules may vary from province to province, companies should take Mozambique’s work permit rules seriously. They should acquaint themselves with the process for applying for work permits and should no longer rely on recruitment agencies to do it for them.