Living in Cabo Verde as a French National: EASE, Stay, Islands, School, Safety and Health

Cabo Verde is an Atlantic archipelago of more than 500,000 inhabitants. The DG Trésor (the French Treasury’s economic directorate) indicates that tourism represents nearly 25% of GDP. The official language is Portuguese: contracts, procedures and civil-status documents are prepared in Portuguese. The country is linked to France by a social security agreement for employees, which sets it apart from many of its African neighbours.

The points of caution fall into three areas. Safety: France Diplomatie describes a recent rise in violent armed assaults, including in daytime, notably in Praia, on the trails of Santiago and outside the urban centres on Boa Vista and Fogo. Health: local medical capacity is weak and access to medicines may be limited. Finally, logistics: inter-island ferry links are long and subject to delays, and the harmattan wind often disrupts flights. See also the guide to the Cabo Verde healthcare system.

Praia, on the island of Santiago, is home to the French embassy (rua Tenente Valadim, in the Plateau) and Nelson Mandela airport. Mindelo, on São Vicente, is served by Cesária Évora airport. Sal and Boa Vista, tourist islands, have Amílcar Cabral and Aristides Pereira airports. The ports of entry are Praia, Mindelo and Palmeira. Ordinary passports are requested from the Consulate General of France in Dakar, which is responsible for Cabo Verde, with consular missions about twice a year; an honorary consul is present in Mindelo.

France Diplomatie places the whole territory under heightened vigilance. It recommends not walking alone outside the busy areas of the town centre on Santiago and São Vicente, not walking at night, preferring taxis and being accompanied by a Cape Verdean guide for mountain or dune excursions on Santiago, Fogo and Boa Vista.

According to France Diplomatie, a French passport is mandatory, including for French-Cape Verdean dual nationals, and must be valid for three months after the planned end of the stay. Pre-registration on the ease.gov.cv website is done at least five days before arrival, by the traveller or by a tour operator, with the passport, the entry and exit dates, the flight number and the place of stay. The airport security tax is 3,400 escudos (€30.83); Cape Verdean nationals and holders of a residence card in Cabo Verde are exempt, and failing to pre-register within the deadline means paying again on arrival.

• Tourism: visa exemption up to 30 days; beyond that, a tourist visa of 30 to 90 days, extendable for the same length at most, to be requested from the consulate or on arrival.
• VIE or VSI (international business or civil volunteer schemes): 180-day temporary visa, then 180-day renewals with the Directorate of Foreigners and Borders (DEF).
• Work: 180-day temporary visa, then a residence authorisation from the DEF, with a declaration of registration with the INPS (the national social security institute) and an authenticated French criminal record extract; a residence visa is issued during the processing.
• Lost passport: laissez-passer valid for one month at most, issued by the embassy in Praia or by the honorary consul in Mindelo (3,310 escudos for those on the register, 6,065 escudos otherwise).

For employment, see the page on working in Cabo Verde.

The ‘Economic indicators’ block above presents inflation and the escudo exchange rate. France Diplomatie converts 3,400 escudos to €30.83, or about 110 escudos to €1. The official pages consulted do not publish a rent scale or consumer prices: amounts should be requested from local agents and the employer, and checked in writing before signing a lease. The tourist islands of Sal and Boa Vista have a property market distinct from that of Santiago and São Vicente.

For payments, international cards are increasingly accepted, Visa being more widespread than Mastercard, which is not accepted at all cash machines or terminals. On Sal and Boa Vista, some tourist businesses accept euros, often at an unfavourable rate. For a family: expat family insurance.

The AEFE network (the Agency for French Education Abroad) has two schools in Cabo Verde, both with partner status: the Escola Internacional Les Alizés in Praia and the French School of Boa Vista, in Sal Rei. Levels, numbers, tuition fees and grants should be requested directly from the schools and from the consular section of the embassy. Families settled on another island should ask the consular section about the schooling solutions available.

For children, insurance is chosen with a paediatrics and vaccinations component; dengue and Zika occur sporadically. The page on healthcare reimbursement in Cabo Verde compares the cover options.

• do not wear jewellery, carry large sums of money or valuables; replace the bum bag with a discreet pouch;
• stay in a group, especially at night; do not resist in the event of a snatch theft; report any theft or assault to the nearest police station;
• for women travelling alone, increased vigilance: France Diplomatie reports a resurgence of sexual assaults;
• driving is on the right; a French licence is valid for 185 days after entry, then it must be exchanged for a Cape Verdean licence at the General Directorate of Road Transport (Tira Chapéu, Praia); there is no emergency roadside assistance;
• sea: currents and waves often strong, unsupervised swimming, no sea rescue service and no decompression chamber for diving;
• hiking: Pico Grande (2,829 m, on Fogo) requires very good physical condition; no helicopter is available, and evacuation after a fracture can take a very long time.

The law prohibits selling or serving alcohol to under-18s, and drug use or trafficking is punished by up to eight years in prison. France Diplomatie publishes no police, fire or rescue numbers for Cabo Verde: the embassy number (+238 260 45 35, and +238 991 21 29 outside office hours in cases of absolute necessity) and that of your contract’s assistance provider should be saved.

France Diplomatie indicates that local medical capacity is weak and that access to medicines may be limited; it asks for a contract covering medical costs, surgery, hospitalisation and medical repatriation, without which access to care may be refused, even in a life-threatening emergency; the embassy does not pay these costs. Malaria involves only sporadic cases, limited to the island of Santiago; dengue has no curative treatment.

The climate is marked by the harmattan from mid-December to the end of March, which reduces visibility and disrupts flights, and by the rainy season from August to October, which makes some tracks impassable without a 4x4. The country is exposed to volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis, with low-magnitude undersea seismic activity. See also repatriation and assistance.