Entities and businesses in Mongolia who employ expatriates and also individuals come to Mongolia for investment purposes face an issue of immigration. The Law of Mongolia on the Legal Status of Foreign Nationals (the Foreign Nationals Law) regulates any relations related to the entry and naturalization of foreign nationals.
Visas
Foreigners who are visiting Mongolia are required to have a visa to enter the country.
It is mandatory for foreigners who are staying in Mongolia for more than 30 days to be registered with their local Office of Immigration, Naturalization and Foreigners Registration (Immigration Office) within seven days of arrival. Fines and penalties will be imposed for the ones who fail to register. The citizen, business entity or organization who is inviting a foreigner to visit Mongolia shall be liable for registering the invited person with the Immigration Office.
Residence permits
If a foreigner wishes to reside in Mongolia, he/she may apply for a residence permit. The foreigners are issued with resident permit of up to one year validity which can be extended for an additional years. For the following purposes, residence permits are issued:
- Work
- Family reasons
- Immigration
- Investment
- Study, internship, scientific research and other private matters
If a foreigner is applying for residence permit for the purpose of work, he or she is required to be requested by the foreigner’s employer. In addition, the Foreign Nationals Law limits the number of foreigners residing in Mongolia and holds it to 3% of the total population, and the number of foreign nationals from each country to 1% of the total population.
Work permits
Rare or high end professionals and specialists can be employed from abroad. However, the legal the procedure for this requires the employer to obtain a work permit for the said employee from the Labour and Social Implementation Agency (Labour and Social Agency). To apply for a work permit, the following documents are mandatory:
- Official statement about why the foreigner is to be employed
- Employment contract for the individual in subject
- The foreigner’s passport and certificates
Depending on the decision by the Labour and Social Agency, work permit can grant right to work for up to a year, which then can be extended by the employer’s official extension request. However, the Labour and Social Agency will make decision, which factors the business case and performance assessment of the foreign employee.
Fees and quotas for employing foreign workers
The employer must pay a monthly premium of 480’000 MNT for each of the foreign employee, unless the employee is from a country where there are existing trade agreement between the two countries, in which case the monthly premium may differ in accordance to the said agreement. The default fixed premium is updated by the government periodically to reflect the minimum compensation amount. The total premium collected is then utilized by the government to fund their programmes against unemployment in Mongolia. There is an established limit for maximum number of foreigners that can be employed within the given year and there is also case by case foreign workforce percentage limit for each organizations that employee foreigners, which goes up to 70% depending on the organization’s sector and size. Most of the higher foreign workforce percentage organizations are in either mining or construction sector. Each employers are permitted to limited number of cheaper ‘investor’ visas.
