For a start, please read through the following topic:

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=74483

Mark

Hi Natasha - we live in Tunisia for 6 months every year. For the first 3 months no visa is necessary - for every subsequent week you will each have to pay 10 t.dinars (about £5) for your visa. A simple visit to the police station (visa section) of the area where you are living is all that's necessary for us - however, we have to take 4 passport photos, photocopies of the back page of our passports, photocopy of the entry visa page of same, photocopies of our credit cards, photocopies of our return flight tickets and a letter from the hotel stating that we have paid for the entire cost of the future stay. Don't know how you will stand for the latter two bits of paper, as your not likely to have them are you? Hopefully there is someone out there who can give you better advice on long stay as a semi resident rather then a holiday stay. Jenny

I am also going to stay in Tunisia this Autumn and Winter. I have been told that if you leave the country for a day after your three month visa expires (e.g. take a trip to somewhere close like Malta) your passport is then stamped again on entry into Tunisia and a new three-month visa starts. Is this correct?

Hi Chelseablues - I understand that that is correct. You have to weigh up the costs involved. Until March 2005 the cost of a visa was 10 td irrespective of how long it was for - and we paid this every year, so it was something of a shock when we trotted off this February to see our friend in the visa office, clutching the bits of papers and the 10 dinar stamp, only to be told that we had to pay 240 dinars (for 2 persons)!! We could have gone on a day trip to Lybia or Algeria, but this would poss. have cost us more. At the end of the day, it is not that bad if you know in advance. In the past we have paid a small fortune for visas to holiday in India, Myanmar, etc etc for relatively short stays. You cannot change it so you have to accept it and let's be fair - everything else is pretty cheap Jenny

You should also take a look at this topic

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=79365

There are some useful sites on there.

dorra

Thanks for info on visas jennyfrank. I'm a bit confused in as much as I thought that there was no cost to stay up to three months as a tourist. I don't understand where the 10 Dinars and 240 Dinars come from. Could you try and explain a bit more, thanks.

Hi Chelsie blues - sorry if I have confused you!
You do indeed get a 3 months stay without a visa.
We stay for the 6 winter months.
The first 3 months we do not need a visa.
The second 3 months we do need a visa which costs 10td each for each week.
That is a further 12 weeks each @ 10 td = 120td each
Total of 240td
Is that any clearer?
PM me if you want any more explainations - and apologies again for the confusion! Jenny

Hi everyone,

I was myself brought up in Tunisia and lived there for 20 years. I didnt have to worry about all the visa side of things as I was a child when I moved there with my parents and we were residents and things may have been different 20 years ago. My best advice would be for you to contact the Tunisian Embassy or Consulate in London and they might be able to tell you all the paperwork you will need.

Check out this link http://tunisia.embassyhomepage.com/

About jobs in Tunisia, the reason I left there and moved here after uni is because of the lack of opportunities for good well paid jobs. Also in your cases, if you do not speak Arabic, you will have a problem. Best way to be assured to have a job when you get there is to apply through one of the British Tour Operators that work in Tunisia. You have to apply in the UK and usually you have to be flexible and they can send you anywhere they want to. However, they do ask you for your preferred country to work in and most people want to go to places like Spain and Greece and usually when people request Tunisia they get it cuz no one else wants it ( i know this because I used to work for these companies when I was in Tunisia ). The jobs are mostly rep positions but sometimes there may be admin jobs for those who prefer that, or you could start off as a rep and get into admin as soon as an opportunity becomes available.

About finding a place to live, if you get a job as a rep your accomodation is usually in a hotel or a rep's villa or you get an allowance towards your accomodation if you wanted to rent your own place. There are also letting agencies etc but mostly people find properties to let through word of mouth and there never really is a problem finding a place to rent as demand is never as high as supply.For the long term, renting is better than staying in a hotel as its a lot cheaper. From what I remember, you can rent a 3 bed villa for between 300 to 500 dinars depending of course on the area and condition etc. About buying property, by law you have to be Tunisian to be able to buy land or property in Tunisia. This was true as of a couple of years ago and I dont think it would have changed.

Hope this helps a bit. If anyone needs more info on this or more specific things then pls let me know.

Take care
Naima

Oh sorry guys I also forgot to mention, if you get a job with a tour operator, then they will help you sort out your visa and paperwork and you will get a "Carte Sejour" , however they are not responsible if you do not get it for any reason and have to leave the country ( I have never personally seen any reps being refused it and had to leave the country because of it )

Hi all

I have been browsing the net for further info about buying property in Tunisia and it seems that Foreigners are allowed to buy property but have to seek authorisation from the Governor of the area they are buying in by putting in a formal request and providing certain documents like ID etc.

I found some info on this link which is in English but other sources are in french.

http://www.tunisia.com/Tunisia/Business/investing%20in%20property

Naima