Residency on passive income, country by country

Living in Antigua and Barbuda on Income From Abroad

There are two doors and they are priced a world apart. The ordinary one is section 38(4) of the Immigration and Passport Act 2014: an extension of time of up to 24 months, without the right to work, for a homeowner or someone who has made Antigua and Barbuda their country of retirement, with the Chief Immigration Officer entitled to weigh whether the applicant has a continuous source of annual income of at least the prescribed amount. The other is the permanent residence permit in section 42, the scheme every intermediary sells as Antigua's tax-residency programme: it requires a permanent place of abode and thirty days a year in the country, and since 2021 it requires an annual income of not less than US$500,000. Every guide we checked still says US$100,000. That figure was replaced on the face of the statute by section 8 of the Immigration and Passport (Amendment) Act 2021.

Permanent residence: minimum annual income

US$500,000as of 2021-09-07

Permanent residence: physical presence

30 days in a calendar yearas of 2021-09-07

Permanent residence: validity

12 months, renewable

Permanent residence: right to work

Included, without a work permit

Ordinary extension for a homeowner or retiree

Up to 24 months, no right to work

Residence permit: qualifying period

4 continuous yearsas of 2021-09-07

Rentista (Passive-Income) Temporary Residency

Argentina grants one year of renewable temporary residency to a foreigner who can show a recurring income of at least five monthly minimum wages, produced by assets rather than by working. The wage figure is indexed, so the threshold moves with it several times a year; the requirement that the money be passive, and that it arrive through the Argentine banking system, is what actually decides most applications.

Income threshold

5 x monthly minimum wage (SMVM)

Income must originate

Abroad

Government fee

100 UMSM extra-Mercosur, 50 UMSM Mercosur^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-09-20

Filed at a consulate instead

600 consular units extra-Mercosur, 300 Mercosur

Initial grant

1 year, renewable

Legal basis

Ley 25.871 art. 23(b), Decreto 616/2010, Disposicion DNM 1.732/2023 as amended by 3446/2023

Where filed

RaDEX, online, from inside Argentina

Living in Barbados on Income from Abroad: the Welcome Stamp

The Barbados Welcome Stamp is the one remote-work route in this comparison that has a statute of its own. It was created by the Remote Employment Act, 2020-23, which commenced on the day after assent, and extended by the Remote Employment (Amendment) Act, 2021-11, which added renewal. The Act does the work in nine short sections: a non-national employed in a country other than Barbados may be granted a stamp to work here for twelve months on proof of annual income of $100,000 or more generated outside Barbados, a valid passport and valid health insurance; the fee is $4,000 for an individual and $6,000 with family; a renewal costs $3,000 and $4,500 and runs another twelve months. The holder is deemed not resident for the purposes of the Income Tax Act residence test, and income received by a stamp holder is not income derived from Barbados. They may not take any other employment in Barbados.

Length of the stamp

12 months only

Income threshold

$100 000 or more a year, generated outside Barbados

Fee, individual

$4 000

Fee, with family

$6 000

Renewal fee, individual

$3 000

Renewal fee, with family

$4 500

Employment in Barbados

Prohibited, other than the employment the stamp was granted for

Tax residence

Deemed not resident for the purposes of the Income Tax Act residence test

Dependant

A child or step-child under the age of 26 years, or a relative wholly dependent by reason of age or infirmity

Living in Belize on Income from Abroad

Belize has no rentista or passive-income visa. It has something less tidy and, for a lot of people, better: permanent residence after one year of legal residence, where the financial test is simply that you can show you have supported yourself and will go on doing so - and the Immigration Department's own list of ways to satisfy it includes being employed or receiving income outside Belize. There is no threshold attached. The year is ordinarily spent on visitor's permits renewed monthly, and the catch is a presence rule the Department publishes and the statute does not: no more than fourteen days out of the country across the whole year. Anyone under forty who wants a named income route instead should look at the Qualified Retired Persons programme, which has a figure (US$2,000 a month) and an age floor of forty.

Qualifying period

A continuous period of at least one year on a temporary permit

Income threshold

None stated

Absence allowed during the qualifying year, per the Immigration Department

not left the country for more than 14 days in total

Permanent residence fee, CARICOM nationality

BZ$1,000.00

Permanent residence fee, European nationality

BZ$6,000.00

Permanent residence fee, minors

50% of the adult fee for the nationality

Status once granted

Indefinite

Residency on Passive Income

Bolivia has no passive-income route. The migration regulation lists the grounds on which a temporary stay may be granted - study, work, health, family, humanitarian - and living on money from elsewhere is not among them. There is no rentista category, no threshold to meet and no published figure to compare. What Bolivia asks of everyone is different in kind: proof of lawful means of support by sworn declaration with documents behind it, attached to one of the named grounds rather than standing on its own.

Passive-income route

None

Minimum income threshold

None published, because there is no category to attach one to

What is asked instead

Economic solvency by sworn declaration with documentary support

Grounds a temporary stay can rest on

Study, work, health, family, humanitarian

Closest usable route for someone not employed locally

Temporary stay for work without an employment relationship

Residency on Income From Outside Brazil

Brazil has no rentista route. Nothing in the migration law or its regulation lets a person settle on investment income, rent or savings alone, and the ministry's own list of residence categories has no such heading. The one route that pays for itself from abroad is the digital nomad permit, and it is narrower than it sounds: it requires a contract with a foreign employer or client, not merely money arriving from overseas. The test is either US$ 1,500 a month from a foreign payer or US$ 18,000 sitting in a bank, and the permit runs one year, renewable once for the same period.

Income test

US$ 1,500 a month from a foreign paying source

Alternative to the income test

US$ 18,000 available in a bank account

Initial term

Up to one year

Renewal

Once, for the same period

Passive income route

None

Temporary Residency as a Rentista

Chile's passive-income route is narrower than most and, at the same time, has no published number. It is open only to income from two named sources - real estate or financial assets - which leaves out royalties, business distributions and remote salary. There is no fixed threshold: the test is that the income covers at least basic needs as measured by the social development ministry's indicators, assessed case by case. The permit runs up to two years, allows any lawful paid work, and counts towards permanent residency.

Qualifying income

Real estate or financial assets only

Income threshold

No published figure

Where you apply

From abroad

Initial grant

Up to 2 years

Extension

Up to 2 further years

Paid work

Permitted - temporary residents may work

Counts towards permanent residency

Yes

Passport validity at application

At least 1 year

Age of a public document at filing

No more than 60 days

Visitor Visa (V) for People Living on Income

Colombia's route for living on income that is not a pension asks for ten monthly minimum wages - more than three times what it asks of a retiree. The income must be periodic and variable from a demonstrable lawful source, which is a looser test than Argentina's requirement that it come from assets in your own estate, and the assets producing it may be in Colombia rather than abroad.

Income threshold

10 monthly minimum wages

Nature of the income

Periodic and variable, from a demonstrable lawful source

Where the assets may be

Abroad or in Colombia

Validity

Up to 2 years

Health policy

Required

Counts towards permanent residency

No

The Rentista Route: US$2500 a Month, Guaranteed for Two Years

Costa Rica's income route is the rentista subcategory of temporary residency. The migration law sets the figure itself, in dollars: US$2500 a month, from abroad or from a bank in the Costa Rican national banking system. The regulation turns that into an evidential test, and in February 2023 that test was tightened substantially - proof now has to come from a bank, in Costa Rica or in the country where the income arises, or failing that from a Costa Rican certified public accountant. The directorate's own published requirement list has not caught up: it still shows the 2012 wording, which accepted a document from any competent authority. The income must be guaranteed for at least two years, and it covers the applicant, the spouse and children under twenty-five.

Monthly income required

US$2500as of 2009-09-01

Period the income must be guaranteed for

At least 2 years

Who may certify the income

A bank of the Costa Rican national banking system, a bank in the country where the income arises, or a Costa Rican certified public accountant

Status granted

Temporary residency, up to 2 years, renewable for the same

First application fee

US$50

Dependants covered

Spouse and children under 25, or adult children with a disability

Permanent residency after

3 consecutive years of temporary residency

No Passive-Income Residence, and What Stands in Its Place

Cuba has no residence category for someone living on income from abroad. The resident classifications are a closed list of five, and the eleven subclassifications of temporary residence are all occupational - technician, student, artist, athlete, journalist, religious worker, trader, employee, investor, aid worker, accompanying family. None is a rentista, a pensioner or a person of independent means. What does exist runs through wealth rather than income: a foreigner with a significant patrimony abroad or in a Cuban bank may apply for permanent residence directly, and where the accounts are abroad the regulation requires the availability of a Cuban account holding a six-figure sum. That is a capital test, it leads to permanent residence rather than to a renewable temporary permit, and it passes through a year of provisional residence first.

Passive-income route

None

Retiree or rentista subclassification

None

Nearest route

Permanent residence on patrimony

Cuban account required where the patrimony is abroad

Not less than six figures

Guarantee deposit

USD 1 000

Provisional residence first

1 year

Decision on provisional residence

180 working days

Decision on permanent residence

Up to 60 working days after the provisional year

Permanent residence term

5 years, renewable

Absence that costs you the status

1 consecutive year

Living in Dominica on Income from Elsewhere

There is no rentier visa, no passive-income category and no published income threshold. Dominica's Immigration and Passport Act contains exactly one residence instrument - a permit under section 9, granted by the Minister on any conditions he thinks expedient - and it is not divided into categories at all. Having an income from abroad helps in one specific way: section 5(1)(a) makes a person without sufficient means to support himself a prohibited immigrant, so means are what keep you out of the prohibited class rather than what qualify you for a route. The practical consequence is that a person of independent means applies on the same form as everyone else, and the decision is discretionary from beginning to end.

Dedicated income or rentier category

None

Published income threshold

None

Application fee stated by the Act

EC$50

Licence fee for permanent residence or over a year, stated by the Act

EC$500

Application fee charged by the Ministry

EC$250 for a CARICOM national, EC$800 for everyone else

Health requirement

Medical certificate with HIV test and chest x-ray

Residence on Income From Abroad: the Rentista Route

The Dominican Republic has a living-on-income route and it is unusually generous about what counts. A rentista is someone with stable income generated abroad, and the law lists seven sources that qualify - foreign bank deposits, remittances from foreign financial institutions, investments in foreign companies, rental income from property abroad, interest on foreign-currency securities, returns on government paper where the capital came from abroad, and even income from Dominican property if the principal behind it was earned abroad. The threshold is two thousand dollars a month, there is no minimum age, and the application goes through the migration service's foreign-investment window rather than the ordinary residence queue, which is why it skips the temporary-residence stage entirely. The holder may also take a paid job; the salary is taxed like anyone else's.

Income threshold

US$2,000 a month

Per dependant

US$250 a month extra

Minimum age

None

Income must have run for

5 years

Card issued within

45 working days

First card valid for

1 year

Renewed card valid for

2 years

Temporary residence stage

Skipped

Paid work

Permitted, and taxed

Income declared for the programme

Exempt from income tax

Living in Ecuador on Income from Outside: the Rentista Visa and the Nomad Variant

Ecuador's income route is the rentista visa: two years of temporary residence, renewable without limit, against proof of monthly lawful income of at least three minimum wages - USD 1,446 a month in 2026. Unusually for the region, the regulation lets that income come from Ecuadorian as well as foreign sources, so an Ecuadorian rental contract counts. A separate sub-category, the rentista para trabajo remoto that the ministry markets as the Visa Nómada, applies the same three-wage test to foreign-source earnings and lets you satisfy it annually instead of monthly. Both require health insurance valid for the whole visa period.

Income threshold

3 minimum wages a month - USD 1,446 in 2026^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-01-01

Remote-work variant, annual alternative

36 minimum wages a year - USD 17,352 in 2026^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-01-01

Where the income may come from

Abroad or from Ecuadorian sources

Visa length

2 years, renewable on multiple occasions

Health insurance

Required for the whole visa period

Each dependent

USD 250 of additional monthly income

Fee

USD 50 to apply, USD 270 on grant

Route to permanent residence

21 continuous months as a resident

Residence on Income From Abroad: the Rentista

El Salvador keeps a rentista category and writes its threshold as a multiple of the minimum wage rather than as a sum, so the number moves whenever the Ministry of Labour reissues the wage decree and never needs amending. Four monthly minimum wages for the commerce-and-services sector, rising to six where two or more people come with you. The income has to come from or be generated abroad, it has to be monthly, permanent and stable, and the status forbids paid work of any kind in the country with two narrow exceptions - work for the state or a municipality in a specialised field, and teaching. The grant is one year at a time, which is shorter than most of the law's other temporary categories, and after one year of it permanent residence can be applied for.

Income threshold

4 monthly minimum wages (commerce and services)

Threshold in dollars

USD 1,635.20 a month^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2025-06-01

Threshold with two or more accompanying

6 monthly minimum wages

That threshold in dollars

USD 2,452.80 a month^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2025-06-01

Income must come from

Abroad

Grant

1 year, multiple entry

Work in El Salvador

Forbidden, with two exceptions

Time to permanent residence

1 year

Absence that cancels the status

6 consecutive months, or 6 months in intervals in a calendar year

Fee, non-Central American, one year

USD 140

Living in Grenada on Income from Elsewhere

There is no income threshold, because there is no income-based residence permit. Grenada's Immigration Act has exactly one residence status - the permit of permanent residence in section 24 - and the only things it asks for are good character and a stated intention to live here permanently. No sum of money appears anywhere in the section. What makes the arrangement work for someone living on money from abroad is the tax side rather than the immigration side: income tax reaches only income from sources in Grenada, so a foreign pension, foreign rent or foreign dividends are outside the charge whether or not you become resident. The fee for the permit is EC$1,000 for a CARICOM or Cuban citizen and EC$5,000 for everyone else.

Income threshold

None

Permanent residence fee, CARICOM and Cuba

EC$1,000

Permanent residence fee, everyone else

EC$5,000

Qualifying period before applying

None stated

Absence that puts the permit at risk

3 years continuously outside Grenada

Tax on foreign income

Outside the charge

Living in Guatemala on Income from Abroad

Guatemala's route for someone living on income rather than work is the rentista permanent residence, and it is unusual in two ways. It is permanent from the first day - there is no probationary temporary stage to serve first - and it is closed to anyone who intends to earn here: the regulation's own words are that the applicant decides to stay "without engaging in any kind of paid activity". The income has to be generated outside Guatemala, has to be permanent and lawful, and the regulation sets a monthly floor with a smaller additional amount for each dependant. The rentista definition is a closed list of six kinds of income - foreign bank deposits and investments, foreign company holdings, remittances from real estate or religious or academic support, and three categories of securities - and income that is not on it is not rentista income.

Status granted

Permanent residence, indefinite term

Minimum monthly income

USD 1,250

Each dependant adds

USD 300

Paid work in Guatemala

Not permitted on this status

Income must be generated

Outside Guatemala

Residence fee

USD 400.00

Annual foreigner's fee thereafter

USD 40.00

Proof that the income continues

Every 5 years

Guyana Has No Residence Route for Passive Income

There is no Guyanese permit for someone who wants to live in the country on money that arrives from somewhere else. Section 12(1A) of the Immigration Act requires the immigration officer to write a purpose on every permit, and it gives six: transit, medical treatment, visiting, employment, trade or business, and any other purpose of a temporary nature. The residual sixth is expressly temporary, so it cannot carry a settlement plan. The only statutory route that leads anywhere permanent for a person with means is naturalisation, which asks for twelve months in Guyana immediately before the application and five years in the preceding seven, and for which the Second Schedule sets no income or capital condition at all. A person with independent means therefore enters Guyana on the same three-month permit as a tourist and must stay inside a three-year ceiling until they qualify to naturalise.

Residence route based on passive income

None found in the Immigration Act or the Investment Act

Purposes a permit may be issued for

Transit, medical treatment, visiting, employment, trade or business, or any other purpose of a temporary nature

Ceiling on a permit and its extensions

Three years from the date of entry

Minimum income or capital anywhere in the statutory route

None stated

What the Act does ask about money

That you are not a person without sufficient means to support yourself and your dependants, and not likely to become a charge on public funds

Living in Haiti on Income from Elsewhere: One Permit, and a Means Test That Shrank by Fifty Times

Haiti has no rentier visa and no passive-income category. There is one residence instrument for everybody, the permis de séjour, and the only financial test attached to it is a bank attestation. What makes Haiti worth reading is the size of the gap between the instrument and the counter. The immigration law as rewritten in 1959 requires an applicant for a non-immigrant or resident visa to show a minimum deposit of ten thousand United States dollars in a bank established in Haiti, or an affidavit from a Haitian citizen willing to take responsibility for him, and repeats the ten thousand dollars in the documents list for the residence permit itself. The procedure the Direction de l'Immigration et de l'Émigration publishes through Haiti's embassy in Canada asks for a bank attestation from a bank sitting in Haiti of a minimum of 7,500 gourdes or US$200. Nothing we read bridges the two figures.

Dedicated income, rentier or passive-income category

None

Bank attestation the agency asks for

A minimum of 7,500 gourdes or US$200as of 2026-10-06

Deposit the immigration law requires

US$10,000 in a bank established in Haiti, or an affidavit of support from a Haitian citizen

First issue of the residence permit

5,000 gourdesas of 2026-10-06

Renewal

2,500 gourdesas of 2026-10-06

Permit period

One fiscal year, 1 October to 30 September

Living in Honduras on an Income of Your Own

Honduras has had a rentista residence since 2003 and it asks for USD 2,500 a month in permanent, lawful and stable income. Two things make it unusual. The income may be generated abroad or inside Honduras - most of the region insists the money come from outside - and the income has to arrive through a Honduran bank, which the holder must prove again at every renewal. In exchange the rentista pays no income tax on that income, brings a household's goods and one car in free of duty, and may invest without limit; what the rentista may not do is take a salary. A 2025 ministerial instrument opened a discretionary door for applicants who reach only half the figure.

Income threshold

USD 2,500 per month

Where the income may arise

Abroad or in Honduras

Must be received through

A Honduran financial institution

Residence fee

USD 300

Income tax on that income

Exempt

Renewal

A bank certificate that the income is still arriving

Discretionary half-threshold route

USD 1,250 per month^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2025-07-29

Living in Jamaica on income from elsewhere

Jamaica has no passive-income residence category, and the reason is worth stating plainly: the two immigration Acts contain no residence statuses at all. Neither the Aliens Act nor the Immigration Restriction (Commonwealth Citizens) Act uses the words permanent residence, and neither creates anything like it. What each does contain is a power for the Minister to exempt a person from all or any of the Act's provisions, either unconditionally or on conditions. Permanent Residence and Unconditional Landing, the two statuses the Agency actually grants and publishes requirements for, are administrative shapes built on that power rather than categories Parliament named. So there is no income threshold to meet, because there is no instrument that could set one. The Agency asks for evidence of financial status and means of support, and publishes no figure.

Minimum income published

None

Permanent residence application fee

JM$100,000.00as of 2026-10-06

Published processing time

3 to 6 monthsas of 2026-10-06

Categories of permanent residence

Five: employment, retirement, marriage, dependency, former unconditional landing by marriageas of 2026-10-06

Temporary Residence on Your Own Means

Temporary residence is the route for someone who can show money rather than a job, and the numbers were rewritten in July 2025. The old guidelines asked for monthly income of 300 days of the minimum wage; the guidelines that replaced them on 9 August 2025 ask for 680 days of the UMA, and for savings they ask 11,460 days of the UMA rather than 5,000 days of the minimum wage. That is about 2.3 times the multiple in each case, in a different unit. The card is granted for one to four years, cannot be renewed beyond four years in total, and the visa must be obtained at a consulate before travelling - this is not a status you can switch into after arriving as a visitor.

Savings test

An average monthly balance of 11,460 days of UMA over the last 12 monthsas of 2025-08-09

Income test

Net monthly income above 680 days of UMA for the last 6 monthsas of 2025-08-09

Savings test in pesos

MXN 1,344,372.60^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-02-01

Income test in pesos

MXN 79,770.80 a month^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-02-01

What the test was before 9 August 2025

5,000 days of minimum wage in savings, or 300 days of minimum wage a month

Card validity

One, two, three or four years, at the applicant's request

Maximum time as a temporary resident

4 years in total, renewals included

Visa validity

180 days, one entry

Consulate's decision time

10 working days

Deadline to collect the card after arrival

30 calendar days

Card fee, one year

MXN 11,140.74as of 2025-11-07

Card fee, four years

MXN 25,057.82as of 2025-11-07

Residence on Income from Abroad in Nicaragua

There is no route into Nicaragua on passive income any more. The one that existed - residente rentista, for someone with a stable income generated abroad of at least a thousand two hundred and fifty dollars a month - was created by Ley 694 in 2009 and repealed outright by article 38 of the tourism law of 2 August 2024, which put nothing in its place. The migration law still lists the category among its permanent-residence subcategories and still defines it by reference to Ley 694, so the shell survives in the statute while the law that filled it is gone. What remains for someone living on money from outside Nicaragua is the ordinary immigrant subcategory, which asks for documentation of economic means but names no threshold, and the independent-worker subcategory, which requires a registered business rather than an income.

A route based on income from abroad

None in force

The route that existed

Residente rentista, under Ley 694

Monthly income it required

USD 1.250.00

Additional income per dependant it required

USD 150.00 a month

Repealed by

Ley 1210, art. 38

Still named in the migration law

Yes - art. 30 and art. 31

Threshold for the ordinary immigrant subcategory

None stated in the law or the regulation

Living in Panama on Your Own Means

Panama has no residence permit that tests a monthly income from abroad. Its answer to the person who says 'I can support myself' is a capital test: B/.300,000 placed in a three-year fixed deposit at a Panamanian bank, or held as unencumbered Panamanian real estate, or split between the two. The permit is granted provisionally for two years before permanence can be asked for. The nearest thing to an income test anywhere in the migration rules is the remote-worker visa created in 2021, which asks for B/.36,000 a year from a foreign source - but that is a short-stay visa in the non-resident category, not residence, and it is capped at eighteen months.

Threshold

B/.300,000as of 2008-08-08

Monthly income test

None

Fixed deposit term

3 years minimum

Per dependant

B/.2,000

Provisional stage

2 years before permanence

Fees

B/.250 plus B/.800

Remote-worker visa income test

B/.36,000 a year

Remote-worker visa duration

9 months, extendable once

Living in Paraguay on Income You Do Not Earn Locally

Paraguay has no rentista visa, no investor-income category and no published income threshold. Since Ley 6984/2022 there is one route for almost everybody: temporary residency for up to two years, then a change of category to permanent. Temporary residency is granted on documents - identity, birth, civil status, police and Interpol certificates, two sworn declarations - and the migration directorate's own 2026 resolution states in terms that proof of economic solvency applies exclusively to permanent applications. When the money question does arrive, two years later, it is answered with evidence rather than an amount: a remote worker shows an employment certificate stating the income and how it is paid, a property owner shows a title registered at least two years earlier.

Income threshold for temporary residency

None published

Income threshold for permanent residency

No amount published

Temporary residency term

Up to 2 years, renewable for the same period

Fee, temporary residency

25 jornales - Gs. 2.926.925as of 2026-07-01

Fee, permanent residency

25 jornales - Gs. 2.926.925as of 2026-07-01

Absence that cancels temporary residency

More than 1 year without authorisation

Window to change category

The 3 months before the temporary card expires

Different by nationality: Kingdom of the Netherlands · Spain · Switzerland Read them

Rentista Residency on Permanent Income

Peru's route for living on income you do not work for is the rentista status, and it is the only one in the region whose permission is indefinite from the first grant - no annual renewal, no three-year wait. The published threshold is US$ 1,000 net a month where the income comes from abroad, and Migraciones requires a sworn declaration that the money enters Peru through a supervised bank. The awkward part is in the regulation: the law speaks of a pension or a permanent income, while the regulation asks the applicant to prove a lifetime pension, which is narrower than the law it implements.

Income threshold (foreign source)

US$ 1,000 net per monthas of 2024-06-17

Income threshold (Peruvian source)

Not published

Length of permission

Indefinite

Fee - visa from abroad

S/ 58.80as of 2024-06-17

Fee - change of status from inside Peru

S/ 161.40as of 2024-04-22

Decision time

30 working days

Money must arrive through a Peruvian bank

Yes, by sworn declaration

Living on Foreign Income in Saint Kitts and Nevis

There is no income visa. The Immigration Act lists six classes of resident and none of them is granted on the strength of money arriving from abroad. Means appear twice in the Act, but never on their own: once as part of the test for someone who is likely to establish himself in a profession, trade, business or agricultural enterprise, and once in the permanent-residence route for someone who intends to retire here. A person with a remote salary and no Kittitian employer, no business here and no intention to retire falls outside both. What such a person actually has is the visitor permit, which runs to six months and can be extended to six years from entry - long enough that the question rarely gets asked.

Income or passive-income residence permit

None

Minimum income threshold

None stated anywhere in the Act

Nearest thing to a route

Visitor permit, up to 6 years from entry

Digital-nomad visa

Not in the Act or its Regulations

Living in Saint Lucia on income from elsewhere

There is no income-based residence permit. The Immigration Act gives an officer seven purposes for which a permit may be written, and none of them is passive income, independent means or remote work. A person living on money from abroad falls into the residual paragraph - any other purpose of a temporary nature - and is then subject to the same one-year ceiling as a tourist. After that the only routes are a Cabinet grant of permission to remain or of permanent residence, both at Cabinet's discretion and neither carrying any published test; a landholding licence, which brings an alien investor entrance permit with it; or citizenship by investment, which skips residence altogether. What Saint Lucia does have, and does not advertise, is a tax rule that suits someone living on foreign income: a person who is resident here by presence but has no permanent home here is taxed on foreign income only to the extent it is brought in.

Income-based residence category

None

Minimum income

None published

How long you can stay without Cabinet

One year from entry

Foreign income of a resident who is not ordinarily resident

Taxed only on what is remitted

Living in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Income from Elsewhere

There is no published residence category for someone living on income from abroad - no passive income visa, no rentier permit, no threshold. What there is, is a single undifferentiated permission: a non-national who wants to take up residence applies to the Prime Minister's Office, and residency sits in the Prime Minister's own portfolio. Nothing is published about what that application requires, what it costs, or how long it takes. The tax side, by contrast, is readable and favourable: a resident who is not ordinarily resident is charged on foreign income only as it is received here, and pensions are exempt to EC$20,000 a year.

A residence route for people living on foreign income

None published

What exists instead

One permission, decided at the Prime Minister's Office

Income threshold

Not published

Tax on foreign income if you are resident but not ordinarily resident

Only as received here

No Income or Private-Means Route: One Permit, Granted on Purpose Rather Than on a Category

There is no residence category in Suriname for someone living on income from abroad, and no threshold to meet, because there are no categories at all. The Vreemdelingenwet 1991 creates a residence permit of at most two years and a settlement permit, and leaves the grounds for both to the Minister: the purpose of the stay appears as a limitation written onto the permit rather than as a route with published conditions. Means of support matter twice - as a condition of lawful presence under article 6(2)(c), and as a ground for withdrawing a permit under article 12(b) when the holder no longer has them - but nothing in the Act or the regulation names a figure. The application is lodged either at the Ministry of Justice and Police or at a Surinamese mission abroad, and a person who is in Suriname as a tourist cannot lodge it at all.

Dedicated income or private-means route

None

Income threshold

None published

Residence permit

At most two years, renewable

Settlement permit

After five years of lawful main residence

Where to apply

Ministry of Justice and Police, or a Surinamese mission abroad

Deemed refusal

Six months without a decision

Living in The Bahamas Without Working: the Permit to Reside

Section 30(1)(a) of the Immigration Act lets the Director of Immigration grant a permit to remain in The Bahamas for a specified period otherwise than for the purpose of engaging in any gainful occupation. That is the whole of the statutory route, and it is the instrument behind what the Department calls the Permit to Reside, or Annual Permit. The Act names no income threshold, no asset test and no nationality condition; section 30(6) lets the Director require evidence of good character, medical certificates, satisfaction that the applicant can maintain himself and his dependants, a written undertaking not to work, and a bond. The fee is $3,000 a year for a person, $300 for a dependant, plus a $200 processing fee. The divergence is on eligibility: the Act restricts the permit to nobody, and the Department's page lists only two kinds of applicant - a person attending school, college or university, and a dependant of someone lawfully resident. The route every guide calls the Bahamian annual residency for people of independent means does not appear on the Department's own eligibility list, while the fee schedule prices a residence permit for any person.

Statutory basis: Immigration Act s. 30(1)(a)

A permit to remain otherwise than to engage in gainful occupation

Annual fee for a residence permit

$3,000 for each year or part of a year

Annual fee for a dependant

$300 for each year or part of a year

Processing fee

$200, non-refundable

Income threshold

None in the Act or in any instrument we read

Minimum presence

None in the Act or in any instrument we read

Living in Trinidad and Tobago on Income from Abroad

There is no passive-income route and no remote-work permit. The Immigration Act contains two closed lists and neither has a category for a person who wants to live in the country on money earned elsewhere. Section 9(1) lists nine classes of permitted entrant - diplomats, military, tourists or visitors, people in transit, clergy, two kinds of student, crew, and persons entering to engage in a legitimate profession, trade or occupation - and nothing in it reaches a person of independent means. Section 6(1) lists four classes who may be granted resident status, and the only one a person of means can use is paragraph (a): a permitted entrant who has established or is likely to establish himself successfully in a profession, trade, self-operating business or agricultural enterprise, who has sufficient means of support, and who has been continuously resident for five years. Sufficient means is a condition attached to establishing yourself, not a route of its own. The remaining instrument is section 10, under which the Minister may issue a written permit for a period not exceeding twelve months, renewable at his discretion, with no criteria stated at all.

Passive-income or digital-nomad category

None

Residence qualifying period

5 years continuous

Shortest period the Minister may accept

12 months

Means test

Sufficient means of support to maintain yourself and your immediate family

Minister's permit

Up to 12 months at a time

Residence lost by absence

One continuous year outside the country

Land a non-national may buy without a licence

One acre for residence

Permanent Residency on Means of Support

Uruguay's route for people living on their own money is permanent residency, and there is no income threshold to clear. The requirement is a nominal monthly income 'sufficient for your maintenance', proved by a notarial certificate. What the country is strict about is the form of the proof rather than the size of the number - and unlike Argentina, it accepts income from working for a foreign employer.

Income threshold

None published

Foreign employment

Accepted

Rents and pensions from abroad

Accepted as their own category

Criminal record certificates

Must be national in scope

US applicants

May be fingerprinted at Interpol in Montevideo

Absence during the application

Over six months abroad means a new criminal record certificate from where you were

Living in Venezuela on Income from Abroad

One category covers people who live on income they do not work for: the transient person of independent means, TR-RE. It asks for the equivalent of USD 1,200 a month in lawful income or pension generated abroad, and a further USD 500 a month for each family member travelling with you. The visa runs a year with multiple entries and a year of stay, and is renewed for equal periods on proof that the foreign income still exists. After one uninterrupted year in the country the interior ministry may grant Resident status, renewed every five years. The thresholds were set in December 1999 and the foreign ministry still publishes the same two figures.

Income required

USD 1,200 a monthas of 2026-10-06

Per accompanying family member

USD 500 a month

Income must come from

Abroad

Visa validity and stay

One year, multiple entries, one year of stay

Renewal

Equal periods, on proof the foreign income sources persist

Time to Resident status

One uninterrupted year, then at the interior ministry's discretion

Resident status renewed

Every five years