This page is not built from the Treasury's catalogue. The catalogue has no residence permit record. The amounts below are read from the 2026 edition of the tax code and from the decree governing identity documents, both archived here, and then set against what the issuing authority publishes.
What the tax code charges
Article 549 of the General Tax Code sets the stamp duty on residence documents issued to foreign nationals.
| Document and holder | Set by | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Carte de séjour, students | Article 549 (2) | 50,000 FCFA |
| Carte de séjour, foreign workers under contract with the State or a local authority, and unemployed spouses | Article 549 (2) | 75,000 FCFA |
| Carte de séjour, African nationals, issue and renewal | Article 549 (2) | 150,000 FCFA |
| Carte de séjour, non African nationals, issue and renewal | Article 549 (2) | 300,000 FCFA |
| Carte de résident, religious congregations, unemployed spouses, dependent minor children and expatriate spouses of Cameroonians | Article 549 (3) | 75,000 FCFA |
| Carte de résident, African nationals | Article 549 (3) | 300,000 FCFA |
| Carte de résident, non African nationals | Article 549 (3) | 750,000 FCFA |
| Refugee card, issue and renewal | Decree 2025/059, article 40 | Exempt |
Article 549 (4) exempts a further list from the stamp duty on the carte de séjour and the carte de résident: students with particular status, volunteers, refugees, technical cooperation staff, military and police cooperation staff, non diplomatic staff of diplomatic missions, staff of accredited international organisations, and the unemployed spouses of people in those categories.
A carte de séjour runs for two years and can be renewed twice. A carte de résident runs for ten years. A refugee card runs for two.
The rate for French nationals that nobody sets
The Délégation Générale à la Sûreté Nationale issues these cards. Its own identity documents page, read on 21 October 2026, publishes the schedule above with two extra lines that are not in the tax code:
Frais : Africains : 150.000 FCFA ; Non Africains : 300.000 FCFA ; Français : 200.000 FCFA ; Etudiants : 50.000 FCFA
and for the carte de résident, "Français : 500.000 FCFA".
So the issuing authority publishes 200,000 FCFA for a French national's carte de séjour and 500,000 for a carte de résident. Article 549 contains neither. It has two tiers, African and non African, and a French national falls into the second at 300,000 and 750,000.
We went looking for the text behind the French rates and did not find one. It is not in article 549. It is not in Decree No. 2025/059 of 28 February 2025. It is not in the 1997 law on the entry and stay of foreigners.
There is one hook on which such a rate could in principle hang. Articles 23 and 31 of the 2025 decree each say the stamp duty is fixed by the finance law "sans préjudice des dispositions des Accords et Conventions auxquels le Cameroun est partie", which leaves room for a bilateral arrangement. We found no published text applying it. Until one turns up, the French rates on the DGSN page are a figure from the issuing authority with no text behind it, and we publish them as exactly that.
The DGSN pages returned an HTTP 500 status while serving their content on the day we read them.
The decree sets no amounts at all
Decree No. 2025/059 of 28 February 2025 governs the characteristics and the issuing of identity documents. It is the text the DGSN cites. It fixes no sum anywhere. Article 23, on the carte de séjour, reads:
L'établissement de la carte de séjour donne lieu à l'acquittement d'un droit de timbre fixé par la loi de finances, sans préjudice des dispositions des Accords et Conventions auxquels le Cameroun est partie.
Article 31 says the same for the carte de résident. Article 40 exempts the refugee card. Every figure is delegated to the finance law, which means to article 549.
The 1997 law behaves the same way. Law No. 97/012 of 10 January 1997 on the conditions of entry, stay and exit of foreigners delegates throughout: articles 18 (4) and 20 (4) both say the card "donne lieu au paiement de droits dont le montant est fixé par la loi de Finances". The only money in the law is penalties. Note that it was amended by Law No. 2022/015 of 14 July 2022, which we could not obtain, so treat the 1997 wording as unconsolidated.
One correction for anyone working from older guidance. Decree No. 2007/255 of 4 September 2007 is repealed. Article 76 of Decree No. 2023/147 of 2 March 2023 repealed it along with its two amending decrees, and articles 37 to 45 of that 2023 decree were in turn repealed by article 52 of the 2025 decree. The chain runs 2007/255, then 2023/147, then 2025/059. Guidance citing the 2007 decree as governing is three steps behind.
Where the money goes
Ordinance No. 2024/001 of 20 June 2024 splits the stamp duty on residence documents three ways.
| Who | Share | Of a 150,000 FCFA card |
|---|---|---|
| The contractor | 75% | 112,500 FCFA |
| The Treasury | 15% | 22,500 FCFA |
| The administration | 10% | 15,000 FCFA |
The same ordinance assigns the identity card stamp duty 90 percent to the contractor and nothing to the Treasury, which is set out on the national identity card page.
The exit visa, and the conflict in the code
A foreign national holding a carte de séjour or a carte de résident must take an exit visa to leave the country. Law No. 97/012, article 29 (1):
Tout étranger titulaire d'une carte de séjour ou de résident est tenu de prendre un visa de sortie lorsqu'il sort du territoire national, sauf si une convention particulière en dispose autrement.
It lapses when the card expires. The 2023 decree sets five categories of it, from a single exit to a one year multiple, and requires the card to be surrendered when the exit visa is issued.
Its price is where the 2026 tax code breaks down. The exit visa line appears only in the annex of the volume, at page 358: "visa de sortie, sous réserve des conventions bilatérales entre l'Etat du Cameroun et le pays du demandeur : F CFA 150 000". The body of the same volume, at page 163, has no exit visa entry in article 548 at all. The harmonised article 454 says only that an exit visa "peut donner lieu à la perception d'un droit de timbre", without a figure.
So the only amount in force for a compulsory formality rests on one printing of one article, and the other printing of the same article in the same volume does not mention it.
The long stay visa is worse, because both printings carry a figure and they differ. Page 163 sets a normal visa valid for more than six months at 150,000 FCFA. Page 358 sets it at 200,000 FCFA. The body is the 2023 Finance Law text, the annex is the June 2024 ordinance, and neither is marked as superseded. That conflict, and the three other places in the same two articles where it recurs, is set out on the passport page.
The tax compliance certificate
Since the 2025 decree, an application for either card must include "une attestation de conformité fiscale en cours de validité", under articles 24 and 32.
That is a condition, not a price. We have found no published tariff for obtaining one, and we carry no figure for it. It is the same document that drove the false reports of a 155,000 FCFA passport in January 2026.
What this page does not tell you
What a counter will charge. How long it takes. What the French rates on the DGSN page rest on.
Sources
Read on 21 October 2026.
- General Tax Code, 2026 editionour copy, impots.cm. Article 549 at pages 163 and 164, and again at page 358, article 454, article 548. Archived in full.
- Decree No. 2025/059 of 28 February 2025 on the characteristics and issuing of identity documents. Scan filed at prc.cm, 17 pages. Articles 23, 24, 26, 31, 32, 35, 40, 42 and 52.
- Decree No. 2023/147 of 2 March 2023, articles 53 to 59, 70 and 76. Scan filed at prc.cm.
- Law No. 97/012 of 10 January 1997 on the entry, stay and exit of foreigners, articles 16, 18, 20, 21, 29 and 30. Read from a private reproduction, not an official host, and amended in 2022 by a text we could not obtain.
- Ordinance No. 2024/001 of 20 June 2024our copy, article thirty-seventh (ter), for the revenue split. Filed at prc.cm.
- Délégation Générale à la Sûreté Nationale, dgsn.cm, identity documents page, for the published schedule and the French rates.
There is no online Journal Officiel for Cameroon. prc.cm is the de facto gazette.
If a figure here is wrong, tell us. The method is written out at how we verify.
Page updated 21 October 2026