Contract awarded in Algeria: what a foreign company must set up
3 legal vehicles, 2 of which can invoice in Algeria, 1 500 000 DA to open the one that cannot, a 30 % withholding on gross turnover if you use none of them, and 45 days then 15 more at the only two stages of a work permit that any text actually times. Those are the numbers an Algerian contract award puts in front of a foreign company before its first day of work.
In full. A liaison office cannot issue an Algerian invoice, a branch can, a subsidiary can. Executing with no local vehicle at all leaves you a foreign company with no permanent professional installation, a case for which the Directorate General of Taxes publishes a withholding of 30 % of gross turnover, at the corporate income tax rate and also covering value added tax, assessed on the gross and not on net profit.
The people side runs on its own clocks. The employment services notify their decision within 45 days of filing and past that delay their favourable opinion is deemed acquired, the permit is then issued within the 15 days following that opinion, and the accord de principe that has to come first has no published deadline at all. No text fixes a total duration for any of this, and we do not publish one.
Each of those questions is already answered in full elsewhere on this site, line by line against the Journal officiel. What this page adds is the sequence: which decision blocks which, what a wrong first move costs, and where a mobilisation actually loses its weeks.
A foreign company that wins work with Sonatrach, Sonelgaz, Naftal, Baladna or a comparable large principal operating in Algeria usually has no presence here on the day of the award. This is the order of operations from award to crews on site, with the text behind each step.
The award is not the start of your schedule. The vehicle is. Everything that lets you invoice, import, hire and bring people in hangs off a decision most bidders take last.
Send the contract type, the schedule and the headcount you have to mobilise. You get back the vehicle that fits, the filings it triggers and the critical path.
No relationship claimed
UpGrowth has no partnership, accreditation, referral arrangement or preferred supplier status with Sonatrach, Sonelgaz, Naftal, Baladna or any Algerian public body. Those names appear on this page only to describe the situation our readers arrive from. This page is public reference material and does not replace the advice of your own counsel.
The order of operations after the award
Eight steps. What you do, what it decides, what the text actually fixes, and where the full answer lives. A step taken out of order is the most common way an Algerian mobilisation slips.
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| Step | What it decides | What the text fixes | Answered in full |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01Choose the vehicle | Whether you can invoice at all, and therefore whether you can be paid. | A liaison office does not have legal personality and may not carry out economic activities (arrêté of 9 November 2015, art. 4), and carrying out commercial activity withdraws its agrément (same arrêté, art. 9). A branch is registered in the trade register as an establishment of a company based abroad (décret exécutif 15-111, art. 10). A subsidiary is registered in its own name as a legal person (décret exécutif 15-111, art. 9). | Liaison office, branch or subsidiary |
| 02Test your scope against the 51/49 perimeter | Whether your group can own 100 % of the Algerian company. | A 51 % resident national shareholding is required in two cases only: the activities of a strategic character listed in the annex to décret exécutif 21-145 of 17 April 2021, which covers energy and mining, pharmaceutical manufacturing, transport and defence, and importing for resale in the same state. Everywhere else foreign ownership can be total. | Setting up a company from abroad |
| 03Clear the sector authorisation | Whether the trade register entry can be filed at all. | Where the activity is regulated, the prior authorisation has to exist before registration in the trade register (décret exécutif 15-111, art. 26). This is the step that moves your critical path onto a sector administration you do not control. | Approval for a regulated activity |
| 04Register the vehicle | The date from which you can sign, invoice and employ locally. | A branch file crosses two opposite consular chains: the parent company statutes authenticated by the Algerian consular services, and the minutes of the decision to open the Algerian establishment authenticated by the foreign consular services established in Algeria, both translated into Arabic where applicable, plus proof of premises fit for a commercial activity (décret exécutif 15-111, art. 10). That text requires no capital. | What each vehicle costs to open |
| 05Screen the expatriate list before building a single file | Which of your people are mobilisable at all. | A foreign worker may only be engaged at a qualification level at least equivalent to that of a technician (loi 81-10, art. 3), and before filing the employer must check with the employment services that the post cannot be filled by a national worker (loi 81-10, art. 5, and décret 82-510, art. 7). | Work permits for foreign employees |
| 06File the work permits | When your crews are legally allowed on site. | The employment services notify their decision within 45 days of filing, and past that delay their favourable opinion is deemed acquired (décret 82-510, art. 9). The permit is issued within the 15 days following the favourable opinion (art. 10). The accord de principe that precedes both has no deadline published in the ministry procedure guide, and it is that upstream step, with the legalisation of your diplomas, that decides the real duration. | The full employer side chain |
| 07Run residence as a separate file | Whether people who hold a permit may lawfully stay. | Holding a work permit or a temporary work authorisation does not exempt the holder from the formalities on the residence of foreigners in Algeria (décret 82-510, art. 4). A salaried foreign worker receives a resident card whose validity cannot exceed that of the document authorising them to work (loi 08-11, art. 16). Two administrations, two files, two calendars. | Permit and residence, in sequence |
| 08Mobilise on the ground | Whether the schedule survives contact with the site. | No text fixes this one. Accommodation, transport, site access, local suppliers and subcontractors, and the interfaces between them, are where an otherwise compliant mobilisation loses its weeks. | Local project support partner |
No text fixes how long this takes end to end, and we do not publish a figure. What is publishable is the next table: the deadlines the texts themselves write down.
Every deadline the texts actually fix
These are the only durations on this page, because they are the only ones written in a text. Any other Algerian timeline you are given, including by us, is an estimate.
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| What the clock runs on | Duration | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Decision of the employment services on a work permit application | 45 days from filing. Past that delay the favourable opinion of the employment services is deemed acquired. | décret 82-510, art. 9 |
| Issue of the permit once the opinion is favourable | 15 days | décret 82-510, art. 10 |
| Accord de principe of the central employment services | No published deadline. It is the step that decides the real duration. | ministry procedure guide |
| National job offer, once the accord de principe is notified | Filed with the wilaya employment agency at the latest one month after notification. This is the only point where ANEM intervenes, and the offer follows the accord, it does not precede it. | ministry procedure guide |
| Filing the work title file after the worker enters Algeria | 15 days, extended to 45 days for foreign workers from countries exempt from the entry visa | ministry procedure guide |
| Maximum validity of a work permit | 2 years. The validity must correspond to the duration of the fixed-term contract and, where applicable, of the project contract, and may never exceed two years. | loi 81-10, art. 10, and ministry procedure guide |
| Temporary work authorisation, missions of 3 months or less | Cannot be renewed more than once in the year | loi 81-10, art. 8 |
| Exceptional works with no title required | Not more than 15 days, and total cumulative presence not exceeding 3 months in the year. Declared to the wilaya director in charge of labour. | loi 81-10, art. 9, and décret 82-510, art. 20 |
| Renewal filing | At least 45 days before expiry for a work permit, at least 8 days before expiry for a temporary work authorisation | décret 82-510, art. 13 and 17 |
| Notice of a contract termination to the employment services | 48 hours | loi 81-10, art. 21 |
| Return of the title to the employment services | At the latest 15 days after the end of the employment relationship | loi 81-10, art. 21 |
| Annual nominative list of foreign staff | Drawn up during the first quarter of each year for the previous year | loi 81-10, art. 22 |
| Resident card application | 15 days before the visa expires. The card cannot be granted at all without a work title, and its validity cannot exceed that title. | loi 08-11, art. 16, 17 and 18 |
| Liaison office agrément | Valid two years, renewable. The renewal is requested at the latest two months before the expiry date. | arrêté of 9 November 2015, art. 5 and 8 |
| Opening any vehicle, end to end | No text fixes it. It depends on the legalisation of your documents in your own country and on your bank's compliance review. We do not publish a figure. | No text |
Which title your people need, by mission length
It is the duration of the salaried activity in Algeria, not the nationality, the trade or the value of the contract, that decides which title has to be obtained.
More than 3 months
Work permit
Its validity cannot exceed two years and must correspond to the duration of the fixed-term contract and, where applicable, of the project contract. Renewable in the same forms.
3 months or less
Temporary work authorisation
It cannot be renewed more than once in the same year, which is the constraint that breaks rotation plans built on repeated short missions.
15 days or less, exceptionally
No title required
Provided total cumulative presence does not exceed 3 months in the year, and the works are declared to the wilaya director in charge of labour. That 3 month ceiling is an annual counter and repeated short rotations on the same site cross it with no notification telling you so.
One consequence that redraws mobilisation plans. A title authorises one determined salaried activity, for a given period, with one single employing organisation (loi 81-10, art. 4). A worker holding a permit through your entity A is not mobilisable at your entity B without restarting the whole procedure, and the change of employer file additionally requires a certificate from the entity being left stating that the worker has met their contractual obligations and leaves free of any commitment (décret 82-510, art. 12).
Every amount a published text or the tax administration puts on the table
Money that comes from a text or from the Directorate General of Taxes. UpGrowth's own fees are not on this page: they are quoted against a scope written with you, never off a list.
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| Item | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign company with no permanent professional installation | Withholding of 30 % of gross turnover, at the corporate income tax rate, and the same withholding also covers value added tax. The base is the gross, not net profit. This is what executing an Algerian contract from abroad actually costs. | Directorate General of Taxes |
| Temporary building works | Ordinary regime, with instalments calculated at 0,5 % on collections and due within the first twenty days of the following month | Directorate General of Taxes |
| Profits transferred by a branch to its head office abroad | Treated as distributed profits and subject to a 15 % withholding, reducible by tax treaty subject to holding and beneficial owner conditions checked file by file | Directorate General of Taxes, article 6 of the 2009 Finance Law |
| Corporate income tax under the ordinary regime | 19 % for production of goods, 23 % for building, public works and hydraulics and for tourism and thermal activities excluding travel agencies, 26 % for services, trade, import and other activities. Standard value added tax rate 19 %. | article 150-1 of the CIDTA as rewritten by article 46 of the 2022 Finance Law |
| Liaison office registration duty | Counter value in convertible currency of 1 500 000 DA, due again at each renewal of the two year agrément | arrêté of 9 November 2015, art. 7 and 8 |
| Liaison office bond | 30 000 US dollars with a primary bank. It is released only against a mainlevée from the Ministry of Trade, itself subject to four documents including a tax extrait de rôle showing the company is up to date and a CNAS clearance. | arrêté of 9 November 2015, art. 7 and 13 |
| CEDAC account opening for a liaison office | Deposit corresponding to a minimum of 5 000 US dollars | arrêté of 9 November 2015, art. 7 |
| Capital required of a branch by the trade register decree | None. That text requires no capital. | décret exécutif 15-111, art. 10 |
| Employing a foreign worker subject to the title requirement without it | Fine of 10 000 DA to 20 000 DA per infringement found. The calculation matters more than the amount: it is counted per irregular situation, so exposure follows headcount and is not a lump sum. | loi 81-10, art. 19, as rewritten by article 55 of the 2015 supplementary Finance Law |
| Vacant post not notified to the placement service | Fine of 10 000 DA to 30 000 DA per vacant post not notified. An employer can be perfectly compliant on permits and in breach on offers. | loi 04-19, art. 24 |
| Termination notice or annual nominative list not sent | Fine of 5 000 DA to 10 000 DA | loi 81-10, art. 23, as rewritten by article 56 of the 2015 supplementary Finance Law |
Two points before you price a bid. The professional activity tax no longer exists: article 14 of the 2024 Finance Law repealed articles 217 to 231 of the CIDTA, so any presentation that still adds it to the list above is out of date. And the Directorate General of Taxes states that foreign companies with no permanent professional installation may opt for taxation on real profit under article 148; we have not re-read the later finance laws in the Journal officiel and therefore do not assert here that the option is still open. Between a withholding on the gross and taxation on the net, that single point moves the price of your offer.
The four ways this goes wrong
Signing before the vehicle exists
A liaison office cannot invoice, and the undertaking signed when it opens is precisely a commitment not to carry out direct or indirect economic activity on Algerian territory (arrêté of 9 November 2015, art. 7). Discovering that after the award costs the time of opening a second structure, and a liaison office cannot be converted: no other agrément may be delivered to it (art. 11).
Executing from abroad to avoid the setup
That is the 30 % on gross turnover case. It is not a shortcut, it is a different tax base, and it is applied to revenue rather than to margin.
Building permit files before screening the list
The qualification floor removes people from the plan before a single file is worth assembling. There is no foreign workforce quota in loi 81-10 or in décret 82-510: we read both texts in full and neither contains a percentage, a proportion, a ratio or a quota measured against headcount. The limits are per post, which is why a company can be refused ten posts out of fifteen with no percentage applied to it at all. We do not prejudge a proportion requirement that may sit in a sector specific text, for instance on hydrocarbons or on local content in public procurement; that is checked against the text applicable to your own contract.
Treating residence as a formality that follows
The work title conditions the resident card and not the reverse, and a foreigner cannot obtain a resident card for salaried activity without a work permit, a temporary work authorisation or a declaration of employment (loi 08-11, art. 17). Two administrations, two files, two calendars, and the second one only starts when the first has produced a document.
Sources
Every legal or numeric statement on this page comes from one of these documents. The first eight are Journal officiel scans, the last two are the tax administration and the labour ministry.
- 01Law no. 81-10 of 11 July 1981 on the conditions of employment of foreign workers
Official Journal no. 28 of 14 July 1981, pages 683 to 685. Articles cited on this page: 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 19, 21, 22, 23.
- 02Decree no. 82-510 of 25 December 1982 on the grant of the work permit and the temporary work authorisation to foreign workers
Official Journal no. 56 of 28 December 1982, pages 1917 to 1919. Articles cited on this page: 4, 7, 9, 10, 13, 17, 20.
- 03Law no. 04-19 on the public placement service and the control of employment
Article cited on this page: 24, the fine per vacant post not notified.
- 04Law no. 08-11 of 25 June 2008 on the entry, stay and movement of foreigners in Algeria
Articles cited on this page: 16, 17 and 18. This is the text that ties the resident card to the work title and not the reverse.
- 05Supplementary Finance Law for 2015
Its articles 55 and 56 give articles 19 and 23 of law 81-10 their current wording, which is where the fines quoted on this page come from.
- 06Arrêté of 9 November 2015 setting the conditions and procedures for opening and operating non commercial liaison offices
Ministry of Trade. Official Journal no. 62 of 25 November 2015, pages 8 to 10. Articles cited on this page: 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13.
- 07Executive Decree no. 15-111 of 3 May 2015 setting the procedures for registration, amendment and deregistration in the trade register
Official Journal no. 24 of 13 May 2015. Articles cited on this page: 10 and 26.
- 08Executive Decree no. 21-145 of 17 April 2021 setting the list of activities of a strategic character
Official Journal no. 30 of 22 April 2021. This is the text that draws the perimeter where a 51 % resident national shareholding is still required.
- 09Taxation of foreign companies
Directorate General of Taxes. Draws the line between foreign companies with and without a permanent professional installation, and publishes the withholding rates and the treatment of profits transferred to the head office.
- 10Procedure guide, employment of foreign workers
Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security. Source of the accord de principe, of the national job offer filing, of the filing deadlines after entry and of the rule that the permit validity follows the fixed-term contract and, where applicable, the project contract.
Frequently asked questions
We won a contract with Sonatrach, Sonelgaz or another Algerian operator. Do we need an Algerian entity?
You need one as soon as you have to issue an Algerian invoice, import equipment in your own name or employ people here. A liaison office cannot do any of that: it does not have legal personality and may not carry out economic activities (arrêté of 9 November 2015, art. 4), and carrying out commercial activity withdraws its agrément (art. 9). A branch is registered in the trade register as an establishment of a company based abroad and can invoice and employ. A subsidiary is an Algerian company in its own right. If you execute with no local vehicle at all you remain a foreign company with no permanent professional installation, which the Directorate General of Taxes taxes by withholding 30 % of gross turnover, covering both corporate income tax and value added tax.
Can a liaison office execute a contract in Algeria?
No. Its mission is listed exhaustively as prospecting the market, establishing contacts, gathering information, promoting products and carrying out administrative formalities for foreign commercial companies (arrêté of 9 November 2015, art. 3). It does not have legal personality and may not carry out economic activities (art. 4), the undertaking signed when it opens is a commitment not to carry out direct or indirect economic activity on Algerian territory (art. 7), and exercising commercial activity withdraws the agrément (art. 9). It also cannot be converted: no other agrément may be delivered to a liaison office (art. 11), so moving to a branch or a subsidiary means opening the new structure and closing the office.
What happens if we execute the contract with no local entity at all?
You are taxed as a foreign company with no permanent professional installation. The Directorate General of Taxes publishes for that case a withholding of 30 % of gross turnover at the corporate income tax rate, and the same withholding also covers value added tax. The base is the gross, not net profit, which is what turns a contract that is profitable on paper into one that is not. The DGI also mentions an option for taxation on real profit under article 148; we have not re-read the later finance laws in the Journal officiel, so have your counsel confirm that option is still open before you build a bid on it.
Do we need an Algerian partner holding 51 %?
Only in two cases. A 51 % resident national shareholding is required for activities of a strategic character, whose list is set by décret exécutif 21-145 of 17 April 2021 and covers energy and mining, pharmaceutical manufacturing except innovative products, transport and transport infrastructure, and defence, and for importing for resale in the same state. In every other sector, including engineering, industry, technology, services and consulting, foreign ownership of the Algerian company can be total. What decides the answer is the wording of the corporate purpose and the activity code filed at the trade register, and those are settled before filing, not after.
How long does an Algerian work permit take?
The texts fix administrative deadlines, not a total, and it would be dishonest to give you a single figure. What is written: the employment services notify their decision within 45 days of filing, and past that delay their favourable opinion is deemed acquired (décret 82-510, art. 9); the permit is then issued within the 15 days following the favourable opinion (art. 10). Upstream, the accord de principe of the central employment services has no deadline published in the ministry procedure guide, and it is that step, together with the legalisation of your diplomas, that decides the real duration. We do not publish an end to end figure.
Our crew will be on site for two weeks. Do they need a work permit?
For exceptional works not exceeding fifteen days, the temporary work authorisation itself is not required, provided the total cumulative presence does not exceed three months in the year (loi 81-10, art. 9), and those works are declared to the wilaya director in charge of labour (décret 82-510, art. 20). The three month ceiling is an annual cumulative counter, so repeated short rotations on the same site eventually cross it and take the worker out of the exemption with no notification warning you. Above three months of activity the title is a work permit; at three months or less it is a temporary work authorisation, which cannot be renewed more than once in the same year (loi 81-10, art. 8).
What does it cost to open a liaison office in Algeria?
The text fixes three amounts. A registration duty for the counter value in convertible currency of 1 500 000 DA, a bond of 30 000 US dollars with a primary bank, and the opening of a foreign account in convertible Algerian dinars with a deposit corresponding to a minimum of 5 000 US dollars (arrêté of 9 November 2015, art. 7). The agrément is valid two years and the same registration duty is due at each renewal, requested at the latest two months before expiry (art. 5 and 8). The bond is released only against a mainlevée from the Ministry of Trade, itself subject to four documents including a tax extrait de rôle and a CNAS clearance (art. 13).
In what order should we do all of this?
Vehicle first, because it decides whether you can invoice, import, employ and hold a work title at all. Then the 51/49 test on your scope, then the sector authorisation if your activity is regulated, because that authorisation has to exist before the trade register entry (décret exécutif 15-111, art. 26). Then the registration itself. Only then the people: screen the expatriate list against the qualification floor of technician level (loi 81-10, art. 3) before assembling any file, file the work permits, and run residence as a separate file with its own administration and its own calendar. Mobilisation on the ground comes last and is the part no text governs.
Does UpGrowth have a relationship with Sonatrach or any Algerian state operator?
No. UpGrowth has no partnership, accreditation, referral arrangement or preferred supplier status with Sonatrach, Sonelgaz, Naftal, Baladna or any Algerian public body, and claims none. Those names appear on this page only to describe the situation our readers arrive from, which is having won or being about to bid on work for such a principal. What we do is the local side of executing it: the vehicle, the filings, the work permit files and the mobilisation on the ground, with the scope defined project by project.
Where each step is answered in full
Liaison office, branch or subsidiary
The vehicle decision on six criteria: invoicing, importing, hiring, sponsoring a work title, opening and closing. Every cell sourced to the Journal officiel.
Work permits for foreign employees
The full employer side chain: who issues what, which title for which mission length, the documents, the deadlines and the penalties.
Local project support partner
Once the structure exists: mobilisation, logistics, local suppliers, interfaces with the authorities and day to day operational continuity.
Setting up a company from abroad
If the answer is a subsidiary: the full registration chain, AAPI, notary, trade register, tax identifiers and bank, without the shareholder travelling.
Software built in Algeria
The systems a project needs once it is running here: management software, CRM, web platforms and mobile applications. Six floor prices are published, and the client work is listed with addresses you can open.
Approval for a regulated activity
When your scope is regulated, the authorisation has to exist before the trade register entry. This is where that file is described.
You have the contract. You do not have the structure.
Describe the case. You get the vehicle, the filings and the critical path.
Have your case qualifiedA written reply with the recommended vehicle, the documents to prepare on your side and the sequence. This page is public reference material and does not replace the advice of your own counsel.
