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Flag of Kenya

Kenya

Class N Digital Nomad Work Permit

PR: IndirectUTC+3

The requirements

Programme status
Open, accepting applications
Minimum monthly income
$2,000 a month
Required savings
None
Annual total
$24,000
Initial duration
1 year, renewable
Family allowed
Yes
Apply online
Yes

USD 24,000/year assured foreign income.

How this figure is set: A fixed amount set in law or on the official page. The wording on the source is: 24000. Formula: assured foreign income >= US$24,000/year (secondary; Afriwise notes newer guidance stresses 'consistent foreign income' rather than a fixed threshold).

Income confidence: low · checked 2026-09-07
Legal basis: Kenya Citizenship and Immigration (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (cited by secondary; not fetched).

Does this lead to permanent residence?

Indirect pathway. Work permit class; PR needs 7 yrs on a permit plus 3 yrs continuous residence (Act s.37).

Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act No. 12 of 2011, s.37(1)(b) (read via kenyalaw.org's consolidated text) requires 7 continuous years holding a work permit plus 3 years' continuous residence immediately before applying for permanent residence, with no distinction by permit class. Kenya's Department of Immigration Services official Immigration Permit Information Pack (fns.immigration.go.ke) lists Class N 'Digital Nomad' among the standard lettered work-permit classes A-R, the same structural category as every other work permit. Neither the Act, DIS's PR page, nor the Permit Information Pack states explicitly that Class N accrues toward PR -- this is inference from Class N's official classification as a work permit combined with the Act's undifferentiated language, not a stated confirmation naming Class N by name.

Pathway confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-07

Where it is

Nairobi sits at 1.29° S, 36.82° E.

Kenya picked out on a world map

Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Nairobi. This is the only link here that leaves the site.

Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Time zone

  • UTC+3 Nairobi (Africa/Nairobi)

The country

Region
Africa · East Africa
Capital
Nairobi
Currency
KES

Nearest

The countries covered here whose capitals are closest to Nairobi.

What it costs to live there

$152 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Kenya spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.

Nairobi
$744 / month incl. rent
of which rent $243

City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.

Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20
World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.

Languages

  • Swahili official
  • English official
  • Kikuyu common in cities
  • Luyia common in cities
  • Luo common in cities

Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".

How to apply

  1. Check you clear the requirements above — $2,000 a month is the figure this row records.
  2. Gather what the official page asks for. Expect proof of income, a passport, health insurance and a criminal-record check as the common core.
  3. Apply online through the official portal.
  4. Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
  5. Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.

Kenya eFNS portal ↗

USD 200 processing + USD 1,000/year. Police clearance, accommodation proof. Class N (digital nomad) is missing from the Directorate of Immigration's official permit-class list; figures are from secondary sources.

A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by .