Directorate of Immigration and Emigration (Direction de l'Emigration et de l'Immigration)

ATTRIBUTIONS AND ORGANIZATION
The Directorate of Emigration and Immigration is responsible for:
the application of laws and regulations on emigration, immigration and stay of foreigners on the national territory;
participation in the fight against cross-border crime and terrorism;
the coordination of the activities of the border units in the field of immigration, with the exception of the special border surveillance units;
issuance of travel and residence permits.
The Directorate of Emigration and Immigration includes:
an administrative secretariat and a private secretariat;
the Foreigners Service;
travel document service;
the border service.
 

FUNCTIONING
The Administrative Secretariat
He is responsible for:

• drafting correspondence;
• management of incoming and outgoing mail;
• Communication ;
• responsibility for the switchboard;
• mail filtering;
• reception of visitors;
• distributing documents to the right recipients.

The Private Secretariat
He is responsible for:

• processing confidential or secret mail;
• the harmonious and efficient management of mail in consultation with the administrative secretariat;
• management of the Director's diary.

The Foreigners Service
It includes three (03) sections:

The visa issuance section:

The visa issuance section is responsible for receiving, registering, studying visa application files and issuing visas. These visas are issued to foreigners present on Beninese territory for transit, tourism or for business reasons.

The Resident Card Issuing Section:

The section for issuing resident cards is responsible for receiving, registering, studying application files and issuing resident cards to foreigners whose duration of stay exceeds three (03) months, except minors under the age of eighteen (18) (except in specific cases: diplomats and similar). She also sees to the proper maintenance of the section's archives.

The Census and Aliens Control Section:

It is responsible for collecting information on foreigners living in Benin. To this end, it carries out missions in the field for the purposes of neighborhood surveys, especially with regard to residence card establishment files. Neighborhood surveys mainly consist of going to the applicant's home and/or place of work in order to check and verify the authenticity of the declarations made in the various documents included in the submitted file. At the end, she writes an investigation report which she attaches to the file.

She also studies residence card application files and performs all other investigative missions entrusted to her.

Travel document service
This service is run by four (04) sections:

The “pre-check” section:

She is responsible for:

provide applicants with passport application forms;
receive and check the documents making up the applicant's file;
briefly verify the identity of applicants to ensure the effectiveness of their Beninese nationality;
have the section head initial the files deemed admissible;
register the files received on slips;
Invite applicants to approach the registration section.
The “registration” section:

She is responsible for:

• receive and check applicants' files;
• collect the applicable filing fees;
• record the identity data of the applicant;
• take the live digital photo of the person concerned;
• take the person's fingerprints.
• The "rejection" section

She is responsible for:

• study the passport files registered in Benin as well as those of the diaspora;
• transcribe the files in the various registers (register of rejected files, register of validated files, register of file movements and register of rejections-printing);
• send without delay to the printing, the validated files and those rejected for their electronic transcription in order to allow the users to know the position or the evolution of their files;
• return rejected Diaspora files to the Computer Unit;
• receive users for identity checks, missing documents and guide them for any procedures to regularize acts;
• carry out missions to check suspected files, throughout the national territory;
• periodically go down to the regions of origin of certain applicants from the diaspora if necessary, for family recognition.

The “discount” section

She is responsible for:

• receive the printed passports in their respective files;
• classify passports in the storage warehouse;
• issue passports to applicants;
• store the submitted passport files in the archives.

The border service
It is animated by three (03) cells:

The Unit for the Fight against Documentary Fraud:

It is responsible for recording and repressing, at all borders, offenses against documentary and related fraud in accordance with the regulations in force.

The Refoulement Cell at the Borders

It is responsible for the effective execution of pushbacks at border crossings and regularly sends the statistics to the Head of Service.

The Operational International Cooperation Unit

It is responsible, under the control of the Head of Service, for monitoring cases with international bodies and structures in the fight against illegal immigration in all its forms.