Country guide · 7 min read · Updated October 2026
Hiring in Burundi: the work permit, the contract and ending employment, step by step
How you hire in Burundi without an entity of your own: the work permit step by step, moving someone already in Burundi, the contract, the employee test, leave, ending employment, and what changed this year.
What does it take to hire a foreign national in Burundi?
A foreign national needs a work permit, or a special authorisation, before working in Burundi. That includes a national of another East African Community state. A tourist visa does not allow work. The contract is in writing and carries the permit number. The employer pays a levy of 4% of the foreign employee's gross annual salary each year. Through Global Kinect EOR, the permit is arranged without an entity of your own.
Follow the steps for a foreign national
Burundi's labour code makes a work permit, or a special authorisation, the condition for every foreign hire. Hiring a foreign national without one is unlawful. The other steps lead up to it or follow from it.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. The offer | A written contract in two copies, signed by both sides, in an official language the employee understands |
| 2. The work permit | A work permit or a special authorisation, on the conditions the ministers responsible for labour and immigration set by joint ordinance. A national of another East African Community state needs one too |
| 3. The contract | It carries the permit number. Work starts once a medical certificate confirms the person is fit for the job |
| 4. Entry | A tourist visa does not allow work in Burundi |
| 5. Registration and the levy | The employee is registered with the INSS, and the hire is reported to the labour authorities. The employer pays a levy of 4% of the foreign employee's gross annual salary each year from the date the employment contract is endorsed, by 31 March |
Through Global Kinect EOR, the work permit is arranged where the role needs it.
Move someone who is already in Burundi
A foreign national already working in Burundi moves on a new written contract, which carries the number of their work permit. The permit they hold is checked against the new employment before they move.
A Burundian citizen needs no permit. Their move turns on the notice they owe their current employer, which is 50% of what the employer would owe them, and never more.
Someone who leaves without the notice they owe can be liable to their old employer. A new employer who drew them away can share that liability. It is free of it if, when it is told, a month has already passed since they left.
Check the role is open to a non-Burundian
Burundi's labour code leaves the conditions for hiring a foreign national to a joint ordinance of the ministers responsible for labour and immigration. The ordinance follows the National Labour Committee's opinion. Those conditions decide whether a role can go to a non-Burundian. They are checked for each hire.
A foreign national hired lawfully has the same rights as a Burundian worker, and works under the same code. A fixed-term contract is open to them on the same terms as anyone else: only for a precise task that is not permanent.
Set the contract up right
Every contract is in writing, in two copies signed by both sides, and the employee keeps one. It states the particulars the labour code lists, among them the job, the place of work, the start date, the grade, the salary and its parts, and the permit number for a foreign national.
An open-ended contract is the normal form. A fixed term is allowed only for a precise task that is not permanent, such as covering an absence. On opening a business or a new establishment, or launching a new product, a fixed term can run for up to a year, and then becomes open-ended. Work that carries on past the agreed end makes the contract open-ended.
A trial period is agreed in writing. In an open-ended contract it lasts up to six months, or 12 for supervisors and managers. Either side can end it without notice during its first month, and on three days' notice after that.
Pay is set and paid in legal tender. A monthly salary is paid within eight days of the month's end, with a payslip. The employer also pays a housing allowance and a seniority bonus, at the rates collective agreements or ministerial ordinances set.
The normal maximum is eight hours a day and 45 hours a week. Each day brings at least ten hours' rest in a row, and each week at least 24, in principle on Sunday. Every hour beyond the legal week is overtime, counted by the week, and earns a premium or equal time off. Collective agreements, or failing them a ministerial ordinance, set how much overtime is allowed and how it is paid. Night work, from 22:00 to 05:00 the next morning, and work on the rest day or a public holiday are paid at a premium too.
Know the employee test before you engage a contractor
Burundi's labour code treats as an employee anyone who does manual or intellectual work for another, under that person's direction and authority, for pay. The authority can be direct or indirect.
The code expects every contract in writing. Even so, an employer cannot rely on the lack of a written contract where the signs point to an employment relationship.
The code reaches the informal sector too, within the limits of the laws that govern it. A role that needs a work permit goes through employer of record.
Know the leave your people are entitled to
| Leave | What the law gives |
|---|---|
| Annual leave | 20 working days a year, earned month by month, paid at average daily pay before the leave starts. At least six working days are taken in a row once a year, with 15 days' warning of the start. The rest can be carried for up to two years at the employee's request |
| Long service | A day more for every four years with the same employer |
| Sick leave | The employee tells the employer within 24 hours, with a medical certificate if the absence goes on. Until sickness insurance takes it over, the employer pays two thirds of average monthly pay, for up to three months a calendar year |
| Maternity leave | 12 weeks, extendable to 14, with six of them after the birth. Until social security covers it, the employer pays 50% of average monthly pay. The contract cannot be ended during it, except for gross misconduct unrelated to the pregnancy or where keeping it on is impossible. It is never ended because of the pregnancy or the birth |
| Special leave | Paid leave for the events that collective agreements or a ministerial ordinance list. The employer pays up to 15 days of it a year |
The contract cannot be ended while the employee is on annual, special or sick leave.
End employment on the law's terms
A fixed-term contract ends at its term, without notice or indemnity. Before then, only gross misconduct, mutual consent, force majeure, certified unfitness or death ends it. An employer who ends it early otherwise owes at least the pay to the end of the term.
An open-ended contract ends on notice, which runs from the day after it is given.
| Service | The employer's notice | Dismissal indemnity, at least |
|---|---|---|
| Under three years | A month | Half a month's average pay |
| Three to five years | A month and a half | A month's |
| Five to ten years | Two months | Two months' |
| Over ten years | Three months | Three months' |
The employee's notice is 50% of the employer's. During the employer's notice, the employee can take up to a day a week, or four working days a month, on full pay to look for work. Notice not worked is paid instead. The dismissal indemnity is not owed for gross misconduct.
A dismissal needs a precise, accurate, objective and verifiable reason, serious enough to make carrying on impossible. The employer has to prove it. Before a dismissal for a personal reason, the employer gives the reason in writing, and the employee has two working days to answer in writing. The dismissal letter states the reason, and a copy goes to the labour inspectorate.
An unfair dismissal leads to reinstatement where both sides agree, and otherwise to damages. The damages are the employee's age and years of service added together, divided by three, times the last monthly pay, up to 36 months' pay. They come on top of the indemnity and any notice pay.
A certificate of service comes with the final settlement. Asked for in writing, it is due within 15 days. Employment ends at 60. The employer gives a year's warning of the date.
See what changed this year, and what is next
| When | What changes |
|---|---|
| 30 June 2026 | The finance law for 2026/27 sets a levy of 4% of a foreign employee's gross annual salary, paid by the employer each year by 31 March |
| When sickness and maternity insurance begin | Sick pay and maternity pay move from the employer to social security, as the labour code provides |
Common questions.
Does a national of another East African Community state need a work permit in Burundi?
Can someone work for us in Burundi as a contractor?
Who pays sick pay in Burundi?
Hiring where you have no entity? Name the country and the role.
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