Residence card and numbers in Morocco: the card, the CNIE and the address the tax office uses

As a newcomer, your registration in Morocco revolves around one card. Those who are not Moroccan need a carte d'immatriculation after ninety days, and after four years of uninterrupted residence a carte de résidence can follow. Those who also hold Moroccan nationality use the CNIE, the electronic identity card. Your tax number comes from the tax administration. The point that hardly anyone notices: according to the tax code, the address on your card is also the address the tax office can use as your place of assessment.

Which card do you need?

Law 02-03 knows two residence titles, and every foreigner aged eighteen or over must hold one of them. Which mention your card gets, and which documents go with it, is in the residence routes to Morocco.

Card or number	For whom	What you need to know
Carte d'immatriculation	foreigners aged 18 and over staying longer than 90 days	valid 1 to 10 years, renewable each time for the same period
Receipt (récépissé)	those who have applied for the card or are renewing it	replaces the card until it arrives
Carte de résidence	after at least 4 years of uninterrupted, lawful residence; in principle also for, among others, the foreign spouse of a Moroccan	lapses if you are outside Morocco for more than 2 years
CNIE	Moroccans, compulsory from age 16	valid 10 years; replace it when your address changes
Tax number (identifiant fiscal)	those who file a return	assigned by the tax administration and stated on your return

Which deadlines run around the card?

The law is short but strict, and most of its deadlines are fifteen days.

Moment	Deadline
In Morocco without a card	at most 90 days after entry
Showing the card or receipt when asked	within 48 hours
Leaving the country after a refusal or withdrawal	within 15 days of notification
Appeal to the president of the administrative court	within 15 days of notification
Staying after your card expires without applying for renewal	after 15 days, escort to the border can follow
Absence after which a carte de résidence lapses	more than 2 years

The validity of the carte d'immatriculation is not fixed: the law gives one to ten years, according to the reasons you put forward to justify your stay. You pay stamp duty on issue and renewal. At the end of its validity you must leave the country, unless the card has been renewed or you have been given a carte de résidence. So put the expiry date in your diary.

What if you move within Morocco?

Then you report it. For both the carte d'immatriculation and the carte de résidence, the law requires you to report a change of residence to the Moroccan authorities, within the period and in the form set by an implementing decree. That period is not in the law itself; ask for it at the office where you applied for the card.

The address on your card is your tax address. The tax code provides that, when examining a person's tax situation, the tax office can assign a tax number ex officio to someone without one, and that the place of assessment is then the address on their CNIE or residence card. If an old address is still on it, that old address is your place of assessment. So keep the address on your card the same as where you live.

How do you get a tax number?

The tax number is assigned to you by the tax administration. It matters as soon as you file a return in Morocco. You file the annual return of your income for the previous year before 1 March if you have no income from a profession or business, and it states, among other things, the number of your CNIE or residence card, your tax number and your address.

Whether you have to file that return depends on your tax residence. The code places it in Morocco if you have your permanent home or the centre of your economic interests there, or if you stay there for more than 183 days in any period of 365 days. What that means for your state pension and pension, and why the Moroccan reduction on foreign pensions comes with conditions, is in state pension, pension and tax in Morocco.

And the CNIE, if you are also Moroccan?

Then you need no residence card, but you do need a valid CNIE. It is compulsory from age sixteen and valid for ten years. You make the first application in person, at the consular service of where you live or in Morocco at the DGSN, with among other things proof of consular registration, an extract or full copy of your birth certificate and four recent passport photos. If there is doubt about your nationality, a proof of nationality may be requested. According to the consular services, Moroccans abroad have their CNIE replaced when their address changes; whoever moves to Morocco therefore updates their card too. Start before you leave; which accounts you open afterwards is in banking and payments in Morocco.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Morocco or go straight to step 5.2 in the open plan.