Fiji · Work Permit
A Fiji work permit can carry an order to train your replacement
It runs one to three years, costs FJ$650.05 plus FJ$185 a dependent, and the job has to be one Immigration accepts a Fijian couldn't do.
Fiji's Ministry of Immigration calls this one the Work Permit for Non-Citizen Skilled Contracted Workers. Everyone in Fiji calls it a Time Post. You don't file it on your own. An employer in Fiji files it with you. What Immigration weighs is the job, not you.
The test
Whether a Fijian could do it is the question on the form
Regulation 42 of the Immigration Regulations 2007 sets out when the Permanent Secretary may grant a work permit. The ordinary route is the first one listed. You've signed a written employment contract with an employer in Fiji. Those services also have to be ones that "cannot be provided by a citizen of Fiji."
How that clause becomes paperwork
Every post has to be advertised, and the checklist adds the word recently. Only government contracts are excused. Your employer writes a request letter carrying a company profile, the position description and a detailed justification for the need of the position. Your CV and certified copies of your academic qualifications go in beside it.
The other five routes
Regulation 42 also covers ordained ministers and religious workers, teachers, people working in the medical field, qualified professionals whose practice would benefit Fiji, and volunteers doing charitable work. Teaching and medical posts need a second signature, from the Permanent Secretary of Education or of Health. And yes, volunteering counts. Unpaid charity work still needs a permit.
A condition they can put on your employer
Regulation 43 lets the Permanent Secretary impose conditions on the employer too, "including a condition that the employer puts in place a training programme to train a citizen of Fiji to do the work" your permit covers.
One fee for you, another for everyone you bring
FJ$650.05
Application fee, principal applicant
about US$290
FJ$185
Added for each dependent
spouse and under-18s only
2 to 2.5%
Surcharge on card and wallet payments
MPAiSA, Visa or Mastercard
FJ$825.78
To appeal a refusal
lodging costs FJ$413.33
Work Visa
US citizens seeking employment in Fiji must obtain a work visa before arrival. The process requires a job offer, employer sponsorship, and approval from Fiji immigration authorities.
- Processing time
- ~30 days
- Timeline
- Before arrival
- Difficulty
- Moderate
Key requirements
- Valid US passport
- Job offer from a Fiji-based employer
- Approval from Fiji Department of Immigration
- Police clearance certificate
- Medical certificate
About that data card
The Timeline line is right, and it's the rule that catches people. For a first long-term work permit, Fiji wants you outside Fiji when it goes in. Two groups are excused: spouses of Fiji citizens, and anyone already holding a short term work permit. Processing sits close as well, since the ministry publishes 21 working days. The five requirements above are real, and they are also abridged. The full checklist runs to nine items for you alone, and adds proof the post was advertised. Skip the Difficulty line. That field only ever holds 1 to 5 while the words it maps onto run to 10, so the gentlest route in our data and the roughest one both land on Moderate.
The file
Renewal asks for a Fiji police report, not an American one
Papers you collect before anyone files
Certified passport biodata valid more than six months. A national police report from anywhere you've lived twelve months or more, certified or apostilled, good for a year. A medical report on the ministry's own form, good for three months. Your CV and certified academic qualifications. A signed terms and conditions form and an employee consent and declaration form. Everything in English, and anything translated has to be notarized where you live.
Then the paperwork switches countries
At extension that national police report becomes a local Fiji one. The file also has to go in a month before your current permit runs out. It all lodges online through Immi Hub.
None of it comes back
Regulation 59 puts it flatly: fees paid "are not refundable or transferable." A refusal keeps your money, and so does an appeal that fails.
Who counts as family
Fiji's work permit takes a legal spouse and children under 18. De facto partners and children over 18 aren't eligible as dependents and have to lodge their own co-extensive residence application. The regulation is wider than the policy here, so it's the ministry's line that binds you.
What you're tied to once it's granted
One employer, named
Regulation 43 ties the permit to the employer you nominated. Working for anyone else breaches it.
One job, as described
It covers the business, profession or employment you nominated. Nothing beside it counts.
Paid or unpaid, same rule
The wording is "whether or not for reward," so a favor you do for free still breaches the permit.
Switching jobs needs a yes
A change of employment while you're in Fiji isn't allowed unless the ministry approves it first.
Your spouse can't just start work
A co-extensive permit bars employment outright. Immigration will let a dependent take a job once they hold a permit of their own.
A bond can be demanded
Regulation 17 lets Immigration ask for one before granting. Breach or overstay forfeits it to the State.
- Currency
- Fijian Dollar (FJD)
- English proficiency
- 90/100
- Population
- 936,000
The pay
Fijian pay, American tax return
Fiji's national minimum wage is FJ$5.00 an hour, about US$2.25, set by the Ministry of Employment and in force since April 2025. Ten sectoral wage orders sit above it. A construction foreman's floor, for one, is FJ$7.54.
Rent, and the rest of the month
Our country data puts a comfortable single budget near US$1,150 a month and a couple at US$1,900, with a one bedroom in the center around US$550.
Deductions, before you see it
FNPF, the compulsory retirement fund, takes 8 percent from you. Employers paid 10 percent until August 2026 when their share dropped to 8 percent for a temporary 12 months. Income tax starts above FJ$30,000 a year, roughly US$13,500, then runs at 18 and 20 percent.
Two governments, one salary
PAYE has been a final withholding tax in Fiji since 2013, so a salary earner usually lodges no Fiji return at all. The American one is still due every year. There's no tax treaty between the two countries, and the 2026 Foreign Earned Income Exclusion shelters up to US$132,900 of earned income.
The savings that follow you home
FNPF money isn't stranded in Fiji. The fund's migration category covers an expatriate who finishes a Fiji work contract, gets terminated, or resigns early and heads home. You complete form FW04 and attach a certified copy of the work permit if you've been employed in the last six months, plus your employer's letter confirming your last day. The full balance of the general and preserved accounts is then paid out, to a Fijian account or an overseas one. Transfer charges come off the payment.
The parts HR hands back to you
MyExpatTaxes
U.S. Expat Tax Service
Fiji takes its cut through PAYE and then leaves you alone. The IRS never does. MyExpatTaxes handles the American filing and the Form 2555 that claims the exclusion against a Fijian salary.
Aqua Moving Services
Worldwide Shipping and Moving Service
Your contract's repatriation clause covers flying you home, not shipping your household to Fiji. Aqua Moving runs one survey and comes back with three quotes, worth doing before you agree a start date.
Things that come up once the offer is real
Do I pay income tax in Fiji and the United States?
Both, in different ways. Your Fijian employer withholds under PAYE, and for a straightforward salary that withholding is the end of it, with nothing owed below FJ$30,000 a year. Washington still wants a return from you each year. The 2026 exclusion for income earned abroad is US$132,900 per qualifying person, claimed on Form 2555.
Do I get my FNPF contributions back when I leave Fiji?
Yes. FNPF has a withdrawal category for expatriates leaving for good, and it pays out everything sitting in your accounts rather than a portion. It covers people whose contract ended, people who were let go, and people who quit early. The paperwork turns on your employer confirming your final day of work.
How much does a Fiji work permit cost?
Immigration publishes FJ$650.05 for the principal applicant, around US$290 in September 2026, and FJ$185 for each dependent traveling with them. Paying by card or mobile wallet adds 2 to 2.5 percent. Issue and bond fees are charged separately once a permit is approved, and nothing is refunded if the application fails.
Can I apply while I am in Fiji on a tourist stamp?
No. Immigration excludes visitor, student, residence and investor permit holders from the work permit entirely, and Business Visitor Permit holders too. Someone applying for the first time has to be outside Fiji on the day it goes in. Spouses of Fiji citizens are exempt, and so is anyone already working on a short term permit.
How long does a Fiji work permit last?
A long term permit runs one to three years, and the regulation caps any permit at three years from the date it is granted. Short term permits cover a year or less. Extensions have to be lodged a month before the current permit expires, and the police report required at that stage is a Fijian one.
Can my spouse work in Fiji on my permit?
Not on the dependent permit itself, which bars any business, profession or employment, paid or unpaid. Immigration's own FAQ says dependents may work once they apply for a work permit of their own. In practice that means finding a second employer willing to sponsor a second application.
Can I move to Fiji on a work visa without a job offer?
There is no route for it. Fiji runs no job seeker permit and no self sponsored work option. A locally registered company has to hire you first, then lodge the permit application with you rather than on your behalf. Immigration also looks for evidence that the vacancy was advertised before anyone offered it to a foreigner.
Let the country decide before the job does
Answer a few questions about your work, your money and your paperwork, and see which countries fit.
Why not you?