The residence routes to Morocco: one question comes before all the others

Most emigration journeys start with the question what you're going to do. This one starts with the question who you are.

The split no other country has

Law 02-03 regulates the entry and residence of foreigners in Morocco. Whoever holds Moroccan nationality alongside the Dutch is not a foreigner in Morocco and falls outside that law. No residence card, no mention of purpose, no renewal clock.

That is no edge case. Moroccan nationality passes by descent and cannot be given up. So many Dutch people have it without ever having done anything with it — sometimes without knowing for sure.

If you don't know, finding out is the first step of your emigration and not a detail for along the way. The Moroccan consulate can establish whether you're in the registers. If you are, your journey runs through the Moroccan identity card, and that is afterwards the key to almost everything: the bank, the land registry, enrolling children.

Whoever never had Moroccan papers before and whose parents' certificates are missing is looking at a file of months. So start on it early.

If you don't have that nationality: the carte d'immatriculation

As a Dutch citizen you enter Morocco without a visa. If you want to stay longer than ninety days, you need a carte d'immatriculation. You lodge the application with the police or the royal gendarmerie of the place where you live, within ninety days of entry.

Mind that word: lodge. The clock runs on the application, not on the issue. That helps, because gathering the documents takes more time than ninety days suggests. Until the card is there you get a receipt that temporarily replaces it — keep it carefully, because it is then your only residence title.

The three mentions

The card comes in three flavours, and the mention follows your reason for staying.

• Visiteur — for pensioners and people of independent means. Almost everyone who comes from the Netherlands on a pension or own means falls under this.
• Travail — for whoever takes up employment. The employment contract should be approved before the card is issued.
• Étudiant — for whoever studies there.

The card is issued for one to ten years and renewed each time for the same period. In practice a first card is short and later ones get longer. Put the end date in your diary on the day you receive it: this is a clock you watch yourself, because nobody sends you a reminder.

What you take to the counter

Count on the fixed core: your passport, passport photos, proof of your home address in Morocco, proof that you can support yourself without working there, and a medical certificate.

The exact list differs per mention and per prefecture. That is no sloppiness of this article but the practice of this country: ask for the list at the prefecture where you're going to live, and do so before you leave. There is no fixed minimum amount of means that applies everywhere — the prefecture judges for itself, and a wide margin helps.

The order that works

Everything that comes after arrival hangs on one paper: proof of your address. A rental contract or title deed is the basis, and many municipalities also have a certificate of residence. Arrange that first and keep several certified copies — you hand them in again at every counter.

Only then the residence application, and only then the bank. In that order, because every counter asks for the paper from the previous one.