Residence on a Foreign Pension
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Honduras on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Honduras to El Salvador · Residency as a retiree
The pensioner's threshold is three monthly minimum wages for commerce and services, one lower than the rentista's, and the pension has to be monthly, permanent, stable and from abroad. What makes the category worth the paperwork is article 146: exemption from income tax on the sums declared as coming from abroad, one duty-free household shipment up to twenty thousand dollars CIF, and one duty-free vehicle up to twenty-five thousand dollars CIF, repeatable once every five years. The vehicle can be sold on free of those duties, but only after five years and with the Ministry of Finance's authorisation. Switch to another status inside four years and every exempted tax falls due. Paid work is forbidden apart from specialised work for the state or a municipality and teaching, and the law tells the directorate in terms to go and check.
At a glance
- Pension threshold
- 3 monthly minimum wages (commerce and services)
- Threshold in dollars
- USD 1,226.40 a monthCALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2025-06-01
Our arithmetic: three times the $408.80 monthly minimum wage for commerce and services in force from 1 June 2025. The law states the multiple only.
- Grant
- 1 year, multiple entry
Article 109 numeral 6 of the migration law, which grants the pensioner one year with multiple entry and exit.
- Income tax on the declared foreign sums
- Exempt
- Household effects
- Duty free up to USD 20,000 CIF, once
Article 146 numeral 2 writes the sum in words - "veinte mil dólares de los Estados Unidos de América, precio C.I.F." - rather than in digits.
- Vehicle
- Duty free up to USD 25,000 CIF, once every 5 years
Article 146 numeral 3 writes the sum in words - "veinticinco mil dólares de los Estados Unidos de América" - rather than in digits.
- Transferring the vehicle on free of duty
- After 5 years, with Ministry of Finance authorisation
- Changing status within four years
- All exempted taxes become payable
- Time to permanent residence
- 1 year
Article 152 numeral 10 of the migration law, quoted in full on the own-income record: one year holding pensioner or rentista status before the application.
- Family
- Spouse or partner and children under parental authority share the benefits
- False documents
- Immediate revocation plus the taxes and a 10 per cent surcharge
Figures marked CALC are our arithmetic, not a figure in any instrument. Where the law states a threshold as a multiple of something else, the amount shown is that multiple applied - and it moves when the underlying figure does.
Requirements
- A monthly, permanent and stable pension from abroad
- A pension of not less than three monthly minimum wages for the commerce and services sector
- A certificate from the institution paying the pension
- A sworn declaration before a Salvadoran notary giving the source and amount and undertaking not to work
- A valid passport and a foreign police or criminal record certificate, authenticated or apostilled
- No paid work, except for the state, a municipality or an autonomous official institution in a specialised field, or teaching
- Absences of less than six months, consecutive or cumulative, in a calendar year
Country-level policy
El Salvador adopted the United States dollar as legal tender by a decree of November 2000, and the statutes written since then state money in dollars with no national unit behind it: a thousand dollars of duty-free goods, fifteen thousand dollars CIF of household effects, a seven-hundred-dollar naturalisation fee, a six-thousand-six-hundred-dollar exempt band. Nothing on this country's pages needs converting, and a figure that looks converted has been mishandled. Two residues are worth knowing about. The Social Security Law of 1953 still fixes the State's annual contribution in colones, a currency that no longer circulates, because nobody has amended that sentence. And since 2021 bitcoin has also been legal tender - amended in January 2025 so that acceptance is voluntary and only private persons may accept it, with the obligation to accept, the state conversion mechanism and payment of taxes in bitcoin all repealed.
El Salvador writes its qualifying incomes as multiples of the monthly minimum wage for the commerce and services sector, not as sums. Three wages for a pensioner, four for a rentista, six for a rentista with two or more people in tow, and four again as the monthly ceiling on a simplified bank account. The sector named is the highest-paid of the published rates, which matters: the same multiple of the agricultural rate would be a third lower. Nothing has to be amended when the Ministry of Labour reissues the wage decree, so every dollar figure on these pages is arithmetic rather than law, and it moves on a date no migration instrument announces. The rate in force since 1 June 2025 is $408.80 a month. The fees are the opposite case: the migration law's own schedule states them in dollars and they change only when the law does.
El Salvador applies four different presence tests and they do not agree with each other, so which one binds depends on the status held. A temporary resident must be in the country at least ninety calendar days a year, consecutive or added up - a presence quota introduced in March 2026 and the newest rule of the four. A pensioner or rentista loses the status after six months away, consecutive or cumulative in a calendar year. A permanent resident may be away two years outright, then up to one more with permission and further extensions on application. And someone trying to regularise after ten years of irregular stay has their clock broken by six months' absence. For tax, two hundred consecutive days make you domiciled, and once domiciled for more than a calendar year you may be away a hundred and sixty-five days without losing it. A plan built on one of these figures is not safe against another.
Most countries in this region put their migration fees in a ministerial schedule that can be reissued without anyone noticing, and several of them write the amounts in an index unit rather than in money. El Salvador does neither: article 325 of the migration law is a fee schedule running to several dozen lines, stated in dollars, and it can only be changed by amending the law. That has a second consequence worth knowing. The schedule charges a non-Central American roughly twice what it charges a Central American for the same service, line after line - a hundred and forty dollars against seventy for a year of temporary residence, three hundred and forty-five against a hundred and thirty-five for first-time permanent residence, sixty against a hundred for permission to be absent. Humanitarian cases may be exempted from the fees altogether.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Honduras
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«Se entenderá como residente pensionado a toda persona extranjera que ingrese al territorio nacional y reciba pensiones mensuales, permanentes y estables provenientes del exterior, cuyo monto no sea inferior a tres salarios mínimos mensuales vigentes correspondientes al sector comercio y servicios, destinados para su subsistencia en el país, cumpliendo los requisitos establecidos en la presente Ley.»Our translation - not official
A resident pensioner is understood to be any foreign person who enters the national territory and receives monthly, permanent and stable pensions coming from abroad, the amount of which is not less than three monthly minimum wages in force for the commerce and services sector, intended for their subsistence in the country, meeting the requirements laid down in this Law.
About this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«El residente pensionado no podrá dedicarse a ninguna clase de trabajo remunerado, salvo el trabajo con el Estado, municipios o instituciones oficiales autónomas, en materia especializada o la docencia.»Our translation - not official
The resident pensioner may not engage in any kind of paid work, except work with the State, municipalities or autonomous official institutions in a specialised field, or teaching.
The exception is narrow and specific, and article 150 makes breaking it a sanction plus cancellation of the status.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Exención de los derechos aduaneros de importación causados por la introducción de su menaje de casa, enseres y adornos de casa en general, siempre que el valor de dichas mercaderías no excediere de veinte mil dólares de los Estados Unidos de América, precio C.I.F. El interesado podrá hacer uso de este derecho una sola vez.»Our translation - not official
Exemption from the import customs duties arising from the introduction of their household effects, furnishings and household ornaments in general, provided the value of those goods does not exceed twenty thousand United States dollars, C.I.F. price. The person concerned may use this right once only.
This is the only duty-free household shipment a foreigner can reach in Salvadoran law. The Ley de Equipajes reserves its own household allowance to returning Salvadorans.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Exención de los derechos aduaneros de importación causados por la introducción de un vehículo automotor con un valor C.I.F. unitario no mayor de veinticinco mil dólares de los Estados Unidos de América, el cual podrá ser transferido a terceras personas, libre de los mencionados derechos, previa autorización del Ministerio de Hacienda y sólo después de haber transcurrido cinco años desde la fecha de su importación. El interesado gozará de este beneficio una vez cada cinco años.»Our translation - not official
Exemption from the import customs duties arising from the introduction of one motor vehicle with a unit C.I.F. value of no more than twenty-five thousand United States dollars, which may be transferred to third parties free of those duties, with the prior authorisation of the Ministry of Finance and only after five years have elapsed from the date of its importation. The person concerned shall enjoy this benefit once every five years.
About this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Para los efectos de esta Ley, son ingresos provenientes del exterior, aquellos que no se consideren rentas obtenidas en El Salvador de acuerdo a la Ley de Impuesto sobre la Renta y su respectivo Reglamento.»Our translation - not official
For the purposes of this Law, income from abroad means income that is not treated as income obtained in El Salvador under the Income Tax Law and its regulation.
The definition is borrowed from the tax law, which matters because El Salvador taxes territorially: the exemption in numeral 1 mostly restates what the income tax law already does not reach.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Si lo hiciere antes de cuatro años, pagará todos los impuestos de los que fue eximido como beneficios por haber obtenido la categoría migratoria inicial.»Our translation - not official
If they do so before four years, they shall pay all the taxes from which they were exempted as benefits of having obtained the initial migration category.
A four-year clawback on a benefit granted in year one. Moving to a work permit in year three undoes the vehicle and household exemptions.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Asimismo, se informará a la Fiscalía General de la República para que tome las acciones que correspondan y al Ministerio de Hacienda para que exija el pago inmediato de los impuestos eximidos, más un recargo de diez por ciento de los mismos.»Our translation - not official
The Attorney General's Office shall also be informed so that it may take the appropriate action, and the Ministry of Finance so that it may demand immediate payment of the exempted taxes, plus a surcharge of ten per cent of them.
About this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Comercio y servicios | | $408.80»Our translation - not official
Commerce and services, $408.80
The input for the dollar threshold. The sector the law names for both pensioner and rentista is commerce and services, which is the highest of the published rates, not the lowest.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The dollar figure for the pension is ours, calculated from the multiple in article 144 and the wage in the Ministry of Labour's decree. Both inputs are cited here; neither instrument publishes the product.
The pension must be a pension. Article 144 says 'pensiones mensuales, permanentes y estables', which is narrower than the rentista's 'cualquier otro ingreso lícito proveniente de fuentes externas' in article 109 numeral 5 - so an annuity or investment income belongs on the rentista route at four wages rather than on this one at three.
- consolidatesLey Especial de Migración y de Extranjería, consolidated text with reform legend
Centro de Documentacion Judicial, Corte Suprema de Justicia (El Salvador)
About this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidatesReglamento de la Ley Especial de Migración y de Extranjería, art. 166
Centro de Documentacion Judicial, Corte Suprema de Justicia (El Salvador)
About this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidatesTarifas de Salarios Mínimos para la República de El Salvador
Centro de Documentacion Judicial, Corte Suprema de Justicia (El Salvador)
About this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- administersResidencias temporales - formularios
Direccion General de Migracion y Extranjeria (El Salvador)
About this source
Decides every Salvadoran migration application and publishes the numbered application forms applicants work from.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for anything about the law. Its service pages are a sentence and a link, and the law, the regulation, the visa-required country list and all forty-five forms sit on Google Drive - which cannot be stored or compared, so a change there is invisible to us. Its own copy of the migration law is a 2020 snapshot predating three reforms, and every service page read carries a 2020 date while the statute has moved in 2023, 2025 and 2026. It cannot be cited for the visa-required nationalities at all.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source