No Passive-Income Route at All
The United States has no residence category for a person who intends to live on their own money. Every immigrant preference is built on a family relationship, an employer, an investment that creates jobs, or a humanitarian ground, and every temporary category is built on an activity. A reader with capital and no intention to work, who would use a non-lucrative visa in Spain, an elective residence in Italy or a D7 in Portugal, has nothing here. The nearest provision is the employment creation preference, and it requires ten American jobs.
At a glance
- A permit for living on your own money
- None
Established by reading section 1153 of title 8 of the United States Code, quoted below: every preference in that section is a relationship, an employer, an investment that creates jobs or a humanitarian ground.
- The nearest provision
- The employment creation preference, which requires ten jobs
8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5), quoted on the investor record.
- What the corpus shows by comparison
- Spain, Portugal and Italy each have such a route; Germany and the United States do not
Exceptions by origin
No exceptions recorded
Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.
What the law says
«(5) Employment creation (A) In general Visas shall be made available, in a number not to exceed 7.1 percent of such worldwide level, to qualified immigrants seeking to enter the United States for the purpose of engaging in a new commercial enterprise (including a limited partnership)— (i) in which such alien has invested (after November 29, 1990) or, is actively in the process of investing, capital in an amount not less than the amount specified in subparagraph (C) and which is expected to remain invested for not less than 2 years; and (ii) which will benefit the United States economy by creating full-time employment for not fewer than 10 United States citizens, United States nationals, or aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence or other immigrants lawfully authorized to be employed in the United States (other than the immigrant and the immigrant's spouse, sons, or daughte»Quoted to show what the nearest thing requires. It is an investment that must employ ten people, not a balance that must exist.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government Publishing Office's authenticated repository. The United States Code is published here edition by edition, one HTML file per section, at an address that names the edition year - and a link service resolves a title and section number to the current edition's file.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: An edition is a snapshot: the 2024 edition states the law as of a date in 2024 and says nothing about amendments made since. The Code is itself a compilation of acts, and for titles not enacted into positive law the Statutes at Large govern where the two differ. Nothing here carries the regulations, which are in the Code of Federal Regulations, or the annual notices that fill in the numbers these sections leave open.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
This record exists so a reader stops looking for something that is not there.
Retirement is the same answer and has its own record.
- consolidates8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5), employment creation
GovInfo, U.S. Government Publishing Office · consolidated to 2024
About this source
The Government Publishing Office's authenticated repository. The United States Code is published here edition by edition, one HTML file per section, at an address that names the edition year - and a link service resolves a title and section number to the current edition's file.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: An edition is a snapshot: the 2024 edition states the law as of a date in 2024 and says nothing about amendments made since. The Code is itself a compilation of acts, and for titles not enacted into positive law the Statutes at Large govern where the two differ. Nothing here carries the regulations, which are in the Code of Federal Regulations, or the annual notices that fill in the numbers these sections leave open.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source