Q: Hello Everyone, I am planning to move to tunisia to start a Web Development Business. In my efforts to collent more information I need to know. 1. Can a person of foreign origin get permanent residency and can he own property? 2. Is a foreigner allowed to start a business? 3. What would be the cost to buy/rent an house? 4. What would be the cost to rent an office premises which can seat 10 people working on computer? 5. How much does an small car cost? 6. What are the salaries of senior web designers and developers with minimum 4 years of experience? 7. I have two girls, so I want to know are there good english schools? I thank you all in advance. Regards, Azim Shah
A: 1.) Yes, you can get permanent residency and own property. The best place to get information is from the Tunisian Embassy in the country where you live. They will be able to tell yo what kind of visa you need, procedures, etc. 2.) Yes. There are special permits you will need to have. Again, you will need to be in contact with the Tunisian Embassy. It takes 9 procedures and 47 days to start up a business in Tunisia. 3.) Cost of housing will depend on a few things. It will depend on what city you want to rent/buy, where in the city you want to rent/buy, whether you want to rent/buy an apartment or a house, and what amenities you want. The more amenities, the higher the price. Do you want central heating or no? Do you want gaz du ville or gaz that you buy in a bottle? Do you want air conditioning or not? Do you want a great view or does it not matter? How good a neighborhood do you want to live in? (If renting) Do you want it furnished or unfurnished? All these play a factor in the price. You can find rents as low as 200TND a month up to 1000TND a month, with the average being around 250-350TND a month. The cost to buy a house starts around 65,000TND 4.) Like a house, this has many variables. What city, where, what amenities, etc. Office space rents are usually around the same as houses. 5.) Again, this too varies depending on what make and model you are looking for, how new you want it to be, what amenities the car offers, what type of condition it is in, etc. You can find cars that will get you from point A to point B but not much else pretty cheap. But if you want a reliable car, you are looking at spending at least 7,000TND. Check with your Embassy here in Tunisia to see if they know of cars for sale. The US Embassy publishes classified ads every month for it's citizens residing here in Tunisia. The cars are usually in better shape and have reasonable prices. If I'm correct, the other Embassys do this for their citizens as well. 6.) I do not know too much of that field to give you actual quotes. Every company will have a different salary though. It will depend not only on your years of experience, but what your actual knowledge is. 7.) The only English school that I am aware of is the American Cooperative School of Tunis. Here are the links for it: http://www.state.gov/m/a/os/1347.htm http://www.acst.net/acst2007/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 If I can be of any more help or assistance, please feel free to contact me.