A residence permit (less commonly ''residency permit'') is a document or card required in some regions, allowing a

foreign national A foreign national is any person (including an organization) who is not a national of a specific country. ("The term 'person' means an individual or an organization.") For example, in the United States and in its territories, a foreign nationa ...

to reside in a country for a fixed or indefinite length of time. These may be permits for temporary residency, or

permanent residency Permanent residency is a person's legal resident status in a country or territory of which such person is not a citizen but where they have the right to reside on a permanent basis. This is usually for a permanent period; a person with suc ...

. The exact rules vary between regions. In some cases (e.g. the UK) a temporary residence permit is required to extend a stay past some threshold, and can be an intermediate step to applying for permanent residency. Residency status may be granted for a number of reasons and the criteria for acceptance as a resident may change over time. In

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

the current range of conditions include being a skilled migrant, a retired parent of a New Zealand National, an

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

and a number of others.

Biometric residence permit

Some countries have adopted

biometric Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used to identify in ...

residence permits, which are cards including embedded machine readable information and

RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...

NFC capable chips.

In Georgia

Georgia (country) Georgia (, ; ) is a transcontinental country at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, by Russia to the north and northeast, by Turkey to the southwes ...

offers several types of temporary residency permits, such as work residence permit, for those with a work contract or business in the country, short-term residence permit, based on property ownership, and residence permit for family reunification. There are also other types of residency permits, like, e.g., student residency permit.

In Germany

See

German residence permit The German residence permit (German: ''Aufenthaltstitel'') is a document issued to non- EU citizens (so-called ''third-country nationals'') living in Germany. Prior to 1 September 2011, residence permits and additional provisions were affixed ...

In France

See Permanent residency in France

In Italy

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

the residence permit ( permesso di soggiorno) is released by the state police (

Polizia di Stato The ''Polizia di Stato'' (State Police or P.S.) is one of the national police forces of Italy. Alongside the Carabinieri, it is the main police force for providing police duties, primarily to cities and large towns, and with its child agencie ...

); it must be requested by the

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...

to be allowed to reside in the country for more than eight days, or more than ninety days if having a travel visa ( visto d'ingresso) for tourism. It is not required for

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

citizens.

In Singapore

See Permanent residency in Singapore

In Ukraine

In Ukraine there are two types of residence permits: temporary residence permit and permanent residence permit. Temporary residence permit is issued, in general, for a period of 1 year provided that there is at least one of legal grounds for temporary stay in Ukraine. Permanent residence equals to immigration.

In the United States

See

Permanent residence (United States) A green card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is an identity document which shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States. ("The term 'lawfully admitted for permanent residence' means the status of having been ...

In Saudi Arabia

See Premium Residency

References

External links

PRADO - Public Register of Authentic travel and identity Documents Online
– contains information about and images of documents issued by countries in the European Union and Schengen Area. Residence permit {{Law-stub