No Retirement Visa Either, and Age Appears Nowhere
Nothing in the immigration statute is addressed to retired people and no category turns on age. A pensioner with means and no American family has no route of their own: the categories are family, employment, investment that creates jobs, diversity and humanitarian protection, and retirement is none of them.
At a glance
- A retirement category
- None
Established by reading section 1153(a) of title 8 of the United States Code, quoted below. Age is not a qualifying condition in any paragraph of it.
- Age
- Not a qualifying condition anywhere in the preferences
- What a pensioner would use
- A family or investment route, or a visitor status with no residence
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
«(a) Preference allocation for family-sponsored immigrants Aliens subject to the worldwide level specified in section 1151(c) of this title for family-sponsored immigrants shall be allotted visas as follows: (1) Unmarried sons and daughters of citizens Qualified immigrants who are the unmarried sons or daughters of citizens of the United States shall be allocated visas in a number not to exceed 23,400, plus any visas not required for the class specified in paragraph (4). (2) Spouses and unmarried sons and unmarried daughters of permanent resident aliens Qualified immigrants— (A) who are the spouses or children of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, or (B) who are the unmarried sons or unmarried daughters (but are not the children) of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, shall be allocated visas in a number not to exceed 114,200, plus the number (if any»The family preferences, quoted to show the shape of the system: every class is a relationship or an activity, and none of them is a stage of life.
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
The whole answer is on the income record.
How a foreign pension is taxed once a person becomes resident is a different question, governed by the substantial presence test and by treaty.
- consolidates8 U.S.C. 1153(a), family-sponsored preferences
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