Residency as a retiree, country by country

One question, 33answers, each one the country’s own record. The labels below are the ones its own instruments use rather than a vocabulary we imposed on them: where one country’s law has no equivalent of another’s test, the row is simply absent, because an empty cell would invent a comparison nobody made. Every line opens onto the law it rests on.

Countries answered: 33
Exceptions by nationality: 0
Oldest check: 2026-09-20
Newest check: 2026-10-08

Antigua and BarbudaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-05

Retiring to Antigua and Barbuda

Retirement is named in the statute twice, and neither mention creates a visa. Section 38(4)(a) of the Immigration and Passport Act 2014 lets the Chief Immigration Officer, with the Minister's approval, extend a retiree's or a homeowner's stay by up to twenty-four months at a time, expressly without the right to work. Section 70A, inserted in 2023, lists a retiree as one of four reasons a bona fide visitor must apply to change status. There is no retirement category with a stated pension threshold, no reduced-rate scheme and no fast track to permanent residence; a retiree with means goes to the same section 42 permanent residence permit as everyone else, and since 2021 that asks for an annual income of not less than US$500,000.

Retiree extension: Up to 24 months at a time, no right to work
Stated pension or income threshold: None in the Act
Health insurance: A matter the officer may take into account
Dependant's matching extension: Up to 24 months, from age 18 for a non-spouse
Change of status as a retiree: Required since 2023

ArgentinaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

Temporary Residency for Pensioners

Argentina asks retirees for the same five minimum wages as its passive-income route, but the proof is narrower and easier: a certificate that you receive a pension or retirement payment regularly and permanently. Unlike the rentista route it does not have to come from assets you own, and unlike Colombia's it can come from a private company as well as a state or an international body.

Income threshold: 5 x monthly minimum wage
Who may issue the certificate: A government, an international organisation, or a private company
Nature of the payment: Regular and permanent
Initial grant: 1 year, renewable
Where filed: RaDEX, online, from inside Argentina

BarbadosCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-05

Retiring to Barbados

Barbados has no retirement visa and no retiree programme with a name. What it has is one paragraph of the Immigration Act: a permitted entrant who desires to reside in retirement in Barbados and has sufficient means of support to maintain himself and his dependants may, on application to the Minister, be granted permission to become an immigrant. Immigrant status is the strong status - the Immigration Department describes it as the equivalent of a permanent visa, allowing a person to live and work in Barbados indefinitely - and it is granted by the Minister on an open test with no stated income figure, no stated asset figure and no stated age. The only numbers published are fees, and the Department's figures are not the figures in the Regulations.

Minimum income the Act states: None. The test is sufficient means of support to maintain yourself and your dependants
Minimum age the Act states: None
Status granted: Immigrant, under the Immigration Act
Fee on application, as the Regulations prescribe: $200.00
Fee on application, as the Department charges: $300.00 BDS
Loss of the status: Section 7A of the Act provides for loss of the status of immigrant

BelizeCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Retiring to Belize: the Qualified Retired Persons programme

Belize's retirement route is a statute of its own - the Retired Persons (Incentives) Act, Chapter 62 - and it was substantially rewritten in 2023. The minimum age came down from forty-five to forty, the income test stopped meaning only a pension and now reaches savings, inheritance, a reverse mortgage and home equity, and a retiree who used to be barred from any investment in Belize may now buy a home, buy land to build one, and run a business here with the Tourism Board's approval. The money is unchanged: US$2,000 a month or US$24,000 a year, from outside Belize, undertaken to be deposited into a Belize financial institution. Two things about this route are easy to miss and expensive. A Qualified Retired Person is deemed a non-resident for the purposes of the Immigration Act and the Belizean Nationality Act, so the years do not build toward permanent residence or citizenship. And the Act defines "dollar" as the United States dollar, which matters enormously for the investment threshold the Tourism Board publishes in Belize dollars.

Minimum age: 40as of 2023-04-18
Retirement income required: US$2000.00 a month
Annual alternative: USD$24,000.00
First-time application fee: US$150.00
Designation fee, applicant: US$1200.00
Designation fee, each dependent: US$950.00
Renewal application fee: US$25.00
Validity of the designation: One year, renewable
Minimum presence in Belize: thirty (30) consecutive days in Belize annually
Investment capital to run a business in Belize: one million dollars
Belizeans to be employed by such a business: at least five Belizean citizens
Presence required before business approval: at least ninety non-consecutive days
Approved foreign currencies: US dollar, pound sterling, euro and Canadian dollar
Time counting toward permanent residence or citizenship: None

BoliviaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-09-27

Residency as a Retiree

There is no pensioner or retiree category in Bolivian migration law. A pension is not one of the grounds on which a stay may be granted, and the migration directorate publishes no procedure for retirees. A retired person moving to Bolivia uses a general ground - most often family, if there are relatives in the country - or the self-employed work route, and shows economic solvency the same way everyone else does. Age brings one benefit, and it comes late: a foreigner over 60 who has held permanent residence for more than fifteen continuous years can get an identity card with no expiry date.

Retiree or pensioner category: None
Minimum pension: None published
Age-based benefit that does exist: Identity card with indefinite validity
Routes a retiree would actually use: Family, or work without an employment relationship

BrazilSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

Residency as a Retiree or Survivor's Pensioner

A pension of at least US$ 2,000 a month, transferred to Brazil, buys a residence of up to two years. The wording matters twice over. It is a transfer to Brazil that has to be proved, not merely an entitlement held abroad, and survivors' pensions count alongside retirement pensions, which is not true everywhere. Other regular income may be added to reach the figure. What the resolution does not do is say how the two years are renewed: it defers that to a further resolution which, eight years after the migration law, has not been issued.

Income test: US$ 2,000 a month transferred to Brazil
Counts as qualifying income: Retirement pension or survivor's pension
Topping up: Other regular income may be added to reach the figure
Initial term: Up to two years
Renewal: Not regulated

ChileSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

Temporary Residency for Pensioners

Chile puts pensioners and rentistas in the same subcategory but gives them different proofs. A pensioner needs a pension obtained under the rules of their country of residence, big enough to cover at least basic needs, evidenced by a certificate stating the amount and duration plus the most recent payment slip. Uniquely among the routes here, it has a back door: someone already holding the paid-activity permit can switch into the pensioner permit from inside Chile, and only has to produce the pension certificate to do it.

Qualifying income: A retirement pension
Income threshold: No published figure
Where you apply: From abroad, or from inside Chile if you already hold the paid-activity permit
Initial grant: Up to 2 years
Extension: Up to 2 further years
Counts towards permanent residency: Yes
Paid work: Permitted
Documents needed when switching from inside Chile: The pension certificate only

ColombiaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-20

Migrant Visa (M) for Pensioners

Colombia's route for people living on a pension asks for three monthly minimum wages, from a state pension or a private fund. It is unusually specific about what counts: this is a pension visa, not a passive-income visa, and the certificate must show a lifetime monthly payment. Proof of health cover in Colombia is part of the application rather than something to arrange later.

Income threshold: 3 monthly minimum wages
What counts: A pension, from a state or a private fund
Medical certificate: Required
Health cover in Colombia: Required at application
Counts towards permanent residency: Yes

Costa RicaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-04

Pensionado: US$1000 a Month, and Two Words That Do Not Match

The pensionado subcategory is the oldest and cheapest way into Costa Rican residency, and the threshold is a quarter of the rentista's: US$1000 a month. The statute and the regulation describe the pension differently, and the difference matters in both directions. Article 81 of the migration law requires a monthly, permanent and stable pension coming from abroad. Article 100 of the Reglamento de Extranjería requires a pension held for life and says nothing about where it comes from. So the regulation adds a condition the statute does not impose - a life annuity rather than any permanent pension - while dropping one the statute does impose. The migration directorate publishes the regulation's wording.

Monthly pension required: US$1000as of 2009-09-01
Must the pension be for life?: Yes under the regulation
Must the pension come from abroad?: Yes under the law
Status granted: Temporary residency, up to 2 years, renewable for the same
First application fee: US$50
Dependants covered: Spouse, children under 25 and adult children with a disability
Permanent residency after: 3 consecutive years of temporary residency

CubaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-06

No Retirement Route, and the Only Place Age Appears

Cuba has no pensioner or retirement residence category. The five resident classifications and the eleven subclassifications of temporary residence contain no route that turns on age, on a pension, or on retirement, and the grounds for permanent residence are family, length of prior residence, professional standing and wealth. Age enters Cuban residence law in exactly one place and it is not a route in: a permanent resident who reaches sixty stops having to renew, because from that age the classification runs indefinitely and the foreigner's identity card is issued without a new term.

Retirement or pensioner route: None
Minimum age for any route: None stated
Where age does appear: Permanent residence stops needing renewal at 60
Permanent residence renewal before 60: Every 5 years
Absence that ends permanent residence: 1 consecutive year

DominicaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Retiring to Dominica

No retirement visa exists, and the one scheme Dominica does run for people coming back to live is open only to its own nationals. A foreign retiree applies for the same discretionary section 9 permit as everybody else, with no pension threshold, no age rule and no concession. A Dominican national who has lived abroad for at least seven years and is returning for good is a different case: the Returning Resident scheme admits household and personal effects, tools of trade and one motor vehicle free of import duty and VAT, administered by the Customs and Excise Department. The dividing line is nationality, not age - the scheme turns on a Dominican passport going back seven years, and a retiree without one gets none of it.

Dedicated retirement or pensioner category: None
Minimum pension or age: None stated
Returning Resident status: who qualifies: Dominican nationals, 7 years abroad
Returning Resident concession: how often: Once, and to one family member only
Concession for a foreign retiree: None

Dominican RepublicCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Residence as a Pensioner: Ley 171-07 and What It Does Not Say

Fifteen hundred dollars a month from a pension, and the file goes through the migration service's foreign-investment window rather than the ordinary residence queue - which is the whole of the advantage, because that window skips the five-year temporary-residence stage every other applicant serves. The statute is specific about what a pension is: a monthly payment from a government, an official body or a private company of foreign origin, evidenced by a certificate from the payer naming the post held, the time served and the amount. There is no minimum age. The law also carries a bundle of tax reliefs that have nothing to do with migration - no transfer tax on a first property, half the mortgage and property taxes, no tax on the declared pension - and those, rather than the residence, are what the law was passed for. The much-repeated 'residence in 45 days' is in the law, but the article that actually sets the deadline says forty-five working days.

Pension threshold: US$1,500 a month
Per dependant: US$250 a month extra
Minimum age: None
Card issued within: 45 working days
Renewal card issued within: 8 working days
First card valid for: 1 year
Renewed card valid for: 2 years
Tax on the declared pension: Exempt
Transfer tax on a first property: Exempt
Mortgage tax and property tax: Half exempt
Capital gains on property bought under the law: Half exempt
Household goods and one car: Import reliefs apply
Dominicans who pensioned abroad: Also covered

EcuadorSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

Retiring to Ecuador: the Jubilado Visa

Ecuador has a dedicated pension category. It asks for an official document from the foreign institution paying the pension, certifying a monthly pension of at least three minimum wages - USD 1,446 in 2026 - and it will not accept savings or investment income in its place: the money has to be a pension, and it has to come from abroad. Health insurance covering Ecuador is required for the whole visa period, USD 250 of extra monthly income is needed per dependent, and the fee is halved for applicants aged 65 and over.

Pension threshold: 3 minimum wages a month - USD 1,446 in 2026^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-01-01
Source of the pension: Must come from abroad
What counts: A retirement pension only, certified by the paying institution
Visa length: 2 years, renewable on multiple occasions
Fee: USD 50 to apply, USD 270 on grant
Over-65 discount: 50 per cent of the fee
Each dependent: USD 250 of additional monthly income
Route to permanent residence: 21 continuous months as a resident

El SalvadorCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Residence on a Foreign Pension

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.

Pension threshold: 3 monthly minimum wages (commerce and services)
Threshold in dollars: USD 1,226.40 a month^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2025-06-01
Grant: 1 year, multiple entry
Income tax on the declared foreign sums: Exempt
Household effects: Duty free up to USD 20,000 CIF, once
Vehicle: Duty free up to USD 25,000 CIF, once every 5 years
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
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

GrenadaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Retiring to Grenada

There is no retirement programme and no pensioner visa. A retiree uses the same permit of permanent residence as everyone else, with the same two conditions and no income test. What Grenada does have, and does not advertise, is a retirement provision in its tax law: section 25(1)(y) of the Income Tax Act exempts income from a source outside Grenada accruing to a retired individual who was not resident here before retiring. Since section 8 already keeps foreign income outside the charge for everybody, that exemption is belt and braces - but it is the only place in Grenadian law where the word retirement does any work for an incomer, and it is written for a person who retires to Grenada rather than in it.

Retirement residence programme: None
Minimum age: None
Minimum pension: None
Foreign income of a retiree: Exempt
Pension income generally: Exempt
Social security contributions after 60: Not insurable

GuatemalaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-04

Retiring to Guatemala

A pensioner takes the same permanent residence as a rentista, under the same article and against the same monthly figure, but the definition is narrower and easier to prove: money received periodically by way of retirement, widowhood, orphanhood, incapacity or social security, from governments, international organisations or foreign private companies. There is no age condition anywhere in it. The status is permanent from the first grant, carries an indefinite term, and bars paid work in Guatemala. Every five years the holder has to show the pension is still arriving, and the regulation accepts a Guatemalan bank account, a certified statement from the paying institution, or a statement certified by the applicant's own embassy in Guatemala.

Status granted: Permanent residence, indefinite term
Minimum monthly pension: USD 1,250
Each dependant adds: USD 300
Minimum age: None stated
Paid work in Guatemala: Not permitted on this status
Residence fee: USD 400.00
Annual foreigner's fee thereafter: USD 40.00
Proof that the pension continues: Every 5 years

GuyanaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Guyana Has No Retirement Programme

Guyana does not run anything like the Belizean Qualified Retired Persons programme or the retirement incentives its Caribbean neighbours advertise. Nothing in the Immigration Act names age, retirement or a pension, and the six purposes a permit may be granted for do not include living in retirement. What Guyana does have is a concession on the way in rather than a status: a person who satisfies the revenue authority within three months of entry that they intend to take up residence for at least three years is a "settler" for customs purposes, and a Guyanese who has lived abroad for five years is a "re-migrant". Both get duty relief on household effects and a reduced rate on one motor vehicle, and both carry a condition to be in the country at least 183 days a year. Neither gives a right to remain: the immigration side is still the ordinary three-year permit followed by naturalisation.

Retirement residence programme: None found
Minimum age anywhere in the immigration statute: None stated
Pension income threshold: None stated
Settler, as the Customs Act defines it: A person not resident in Guyana who satisfies the Commissioner-General within three months of entry that he intends to take up residence for a minimum of three years
Re-migrant, as the revenue authority defines it: A Guyanese citizen returning after at least five continuous years abroad, aged eighteen or over on the date of returnas of 2026-10-06
Presence required to keep the vehicle concession: At least 183 days in each year, for three years for a used vehicle and five for a new oneas of 2026-10-06

HaitiCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

Retiring to Haiti: No Pensioner Route, the Same Permit as Everyone Else

Haiti has no retirement visa, no pension threshold and no concession for a retired applicant. A retiree is named in the Haitian procedure only as one of the kinds of person who must obtain the ordinary residence permit: the United States embassy's description of the Direction de l'Immigration et de l'Émigration's requirements lists missionaries, teachers, businessmen, retirees and students together, as people who need the same permis de séjour on the same documents. The immigration law behind it creates one permit and no categories, so there is nothing for a pension to qualify for. The one thing that does change with time is the residence tax in article 31, which falls as the years in the country accumulate - two hundred gourdes in the first five years, a hundred and fifty from five to ten, a hundred after ten.

Retirement or pensioner category: None
Pension income threshold: None published
Residence tax after ten years: One hundred gourdes

HondurasCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Retiring to Honduras on a Pension

The pensionado residence asks for USD 1,500 a month in permanent and stable pension income, a thousand less than the rentista route and the cheapest of the retirement categories in the isthmus. The pension must come from outside Honduras - the law says so in the article after the one that lets rentista income arise at home - and it must be paid in through a Honduran bank, which certifies at every renewal that it still is. The reward is substantial and old: no income tax on the pension, a household's effects and one car imported free of all import, customs and sales tax, and the right to invest without limit while never taking a salary.

Pension threshold: USD 1,500 per month
Where the pension must arise: Abroad
Residence fee: USD 300
Income tax on the pension: Exempt
Household goods: Free of import duty, once
Car: One, free of import, customs and sales tax
Car resale lock: 5 years
Household goods clawback: 3 years
Discretionary half-threshold route: USD 750 per month^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2025-07-29

JamaicaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Retiring to Jamaica

Retirement is one of the five categories under which the Agency will take a permanent residence application, and that is the whole of it. There is no retirement Act, no incentives programme, no pension threshold and no duty concession attached to retiring - Jamaica built none of the things Belize, Panama and Antigua built. The Agency's requirements are the general permanent residence list: evidence of means, a medical certificate, police certificates, two Jamaican referees and an interview. What does exist, and is often confused with a retirement programme, is the Returning Residents regime - but that is for Jamaican nationals coming home, not for foreign retirees, and Jamaica Customs says so in terms.

Retirement route: A category of permanent residence, not a programmeas of 2026-10-06
Minimum pension or capital: None publishedas of 2026-10-06
Application fee: JM$100,000.00as of 2026-10-06
Tax or duty concession for retiring: None foundas of 2026-10-06

MexicoNorth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Permanent Residence for Pensioners

Mexico is one of the few countries in the Americas where a pensioner goes straight to permanent residence rather than serving years of temporary status first. The migration law lists pensioners as a ground for permanent residence in their own right, and the visa guidelines set the test: a pension of 1,140 days of the UMA a month over six months, or savings of 45,850 days of the UMA over twelve. Those multiples are about 2.3 times what the repealed 2014 guidelines asked, and in a different unit. The permanent card, once issued, never expires.

Status granted: Permanent residence, directly
Pension income test: Above 1,140 days of UMA a month for the last 6 monthsas of 2025-08-09
Savings test: An average monthly balance of 45,850 days of UMA over the last 12 monthsas of 2025-08-09
Pension test in pesos: MXN 133,733.40 a month^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-02-01
Savings test in pesos: MXN 5,378,663.50^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-02-01
What the test was before 9 August 2025: 500 days of minimum wage a month, or 20,000 days in savings
Card validity: Indefinite
Permanent resident card fee: MXN 13,578.96as of 2025-11-07
Where the pension must come from: Abroad - a foreign government, an international body, or a private employer for services rendered outside Mexico

NicaraguaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-05

Retiring to Nicaragua

Nicaragua's retirement residence programme no longer exists. Ley 694 of 2009 gave a pensioner over forty-five with a thousand dollars a month immediate permanent residence, a household-goods franchise worth twenty thousand dollars, a car free of value-added tax every four years and tax-free building materials for a house, in exchange for spending six months a year in the country and banking the pension there. Article 38 of the tourism law of 2 August 2024 repealed that law outright and put nothing in its place. The migration law still names residente pensionado among its permanent-residence subcategories and the regulation still asks for an INTUR committee resolution to prove it, but the instrument those two point at has gone, and the migration directorate's own page for permanent residence no longer lists the subcategory at all.

A retirement residence route: None in force
The route that existed: Residente pensionado, under Ley 694
Pension it required: USD 1,000.00 a month
Minimum age it required: 45
Presence it required: At least six months a year, consecutive or not
Household goods it exempted: USD 20,000.00
Vehicle it exempted from value-added tax: USD 13,000.00 CIF, once every four years
Repealed by: Ley 1210, art. 38
Named on the migration directorate's permanent-residence page: No

PanamaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-04

Retiring to Panama: the Pensionado and the Rentista Retirado

Panama has two retirement routes and they are not variants of each other. The pensionado takes a lifetime pension of at least B/.1,000 a month from a foreign government, an international body or a private company, and it is the one route that escapes the two-year provisional stage: the permit is granted indefinitely and needs no renewal. The rentista retirado is a different animal - it asks for B/.850 a month of interest from a fixed deposit held at the Banco Nacional de Panamá or the Caja de Ahorros for at least five years, and the regulation as amended in 2009 calls it a temporary residence permit. Both carry the statutory discounts of Ley 6 de 1987, and both carry a prohibition on working.

Pensionado minimum pension: B/.1,000 a month, for lifeas of 2009-03-11
Pensionado with Panamanian property: B/.750 a month
Property needed for the lower pension: B/.100,000
Per dependant: B/.250 a month
Pensionado permit term: Indefinite, no renewal
Rentista retirado income: B/.850 a month of interestas of 2009-03-11
Rentista retirado deposit term: 5 years minimum
Rentista retirado permit term: 5 years, renewable once for the same
Where the deposit must sit: Banco Nacional de Panamá or Caja de Ahorros
Work: Prohibited, with three exceptions
Household goods allowance: B/.10,000, once
Imported vehicle: One every 2 years

ParaguaySouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

Retiring to Paraguay on a Pension

There is no pensionado visa. A pensioner applies for the same temporary residency as everyone else and, two years later, proves economic solvency as a jubilado o pensionado when converting to permanent residency. The evidence is one document - a certificate of the pension stating the amount received and the financial channel it is paid through, legalised or apostilled. No minimum is published, in the resolution or on the directorate's pages, and nothing requires the pension to be remitted to Paraguay.

Dedicated retirement visa: None
Minimum pension: No amount published
Requirement to remit the pension to Paraguay: None found
When the pension is examined: At the change to permanent residency, two years in
Fee: 25 jornales - Gs. 2.926.925 at each stageas of 2026-07-01

PeruSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

Retiring to Peru on the Rentista Status

Peru has no separate pensioner visa. A retirement pension is one of the two things the rentista status accepts, alongside a permanent income, and the two are handled by the same procedure with the same US$ 1,000 monthly threshold for foreign income. For a pensioner the route is unusually clean: the regulation asks for proof of a lifetime pension, which is precisely what a pension certificate is, and the permission granted is indefinite rather than renewable.

Dedicated pensioner category: None - pensions go through the rentista status
Threshold: US$ 1,000 net per month for foreign-source incomeas of 2024-06-17
Length of permission: Indefinite
Age condition: None stated
Medical certificate: Not required in the published requirements
Private pension accepted: The rule says pension of Peruvian or foreign source, without naming a payer

Saint Kitts and NevisCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-05

Retiring to Saint Kitts and Nevis

Retirement is one of only two ways into permanent residence that the Immigration Act names, and it is the shorter one: a person who wants to live here in retirement and has sufficient assets and means of support for themselves and their dependants may be granted permanent residence, with no qualifying period of prior residence at all. The other route needs seven years. The Act sets no figure for what sufficient means, and the price of the concession is written into the work-permit section: a retiree admitted on this ground is expressly carved out of the word "resident" for the purposes of section 19, so unlike every other resident they still need a permit before taking any employment.

Status granted: Permanent residence
Prior residence required: None
Minimum assets or income: No figure in the Act
Right to work: No - a work permit is still needed
Loss of status by absence: 5 continuous years abroad

Saint LuciaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-05

Retiring to Saint Lucia

There is no retirement programme and no pensioner permit, but there is a tax concession, and it is a large one that nobody advertises: section 25(1)(l) of the Income Tax Act exempts a pension from a source outside Saint Lucia paid to a retired person who was not resident here before retiring. Saint Lucia is otherwise the second country in this comparison, after Grenada, where the answer to the retirement question is a closed list rather than a brochure: the Immigration Act's seven permit purposes do not include retirement, and nothing in the Acts gazetted through to February 2026 adds one. A retiree is therefore an ordinary visitor with an ordinary one-year ceiling, unless they buy land - which brings an entrance permit lasting as long as the licence - or buy the passport. The personal allowance is EC$25,000 and has been since the 2023 income year, and from 1 January 2025 all other allowances and deductions together are capped at EC$40,000, which is the figure a pensioner with Saint Lucian-source income will actually feel.

Retirement residence programme: None
Minimum age: None
Minimum pension: None
Exemption for foreign pension income: Yes, if you were not resident before you retired
Personal allowance: EC$25,000as of 2023-01-01
Cap on all other allowances and deductions: EC$40,000as of 2025-01-01
Pensionable age: 60

Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-05

Retiring to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

No retirement residence programme exists. There is no retiree visa, no minimum pension, no incentive scheme - the same single permission at the Prime Minister's Office applies to a retiree as to anyone else. Two things do exist and neither is an immigration route. Pension income is exempt from income tax up to EC$20,000 a year whether it was earned here or abroad, which is in the Act rather than in a scheme and therefore applies to any resident. And a Vincentian who has lived abroad for ten continuous years and is coming home to stay can bring household effects and tools of trade free of import duty, excise tax and VAT, and one vehicle per family at a 75% waiver.

Retirement residence programme: None
Pension exemption: EC$20,000 a year, local or foreign
Returning national concession: years abroad required: 10 continuous years
Returning national concession: household effects and tools of trade: Free of import duty, excise tax and VAT
Returning national concession: motor vehicle: One per family, 75% waiver
Returning national concession: time limit: One year from the date of return

SurinameSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

No Retirement Route, and One Thing That Looks Like One: the Remigrant

Suriname has no pension or retirement residence category. The Vreemdelingenwet 1991 names no categories at all, and the aliens department's list of application types contains nothing for a retired person. What it does contain is the remigrant: a person living abroad who wishes to return under the remigration provision of the Sociale Verzekeringsbank, who applies as an alien of Surinamese origin and selects remigrant as the means of support. That route is open by descent, not by age, and is a variant of the Surinamese-origin application rather than a route of its own. Anyone else retiring to Suriname applies for the ordinary residence permit of at most two years and satisfies the Minister on means of support.

Dedicated retirement route: None
Minimum age: None, because there is no age-based route
Remigrant: An option inside the Surinamese-origin application, not a separate route
Residence permit: At most two years, renewable

The BahamasCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-08

Retiring to The Bahamas: No Retirement Route, and Two Things Near It

There is no retirement category in Bahamian immigration law. The Immigration Act's Part VI contains one permit power, section 30, and it distinguishes only between remaining without working and remaining to work; nothing in it turns on age, pension income or retirement. Two provisions come close and neither is general. The International Persons Landholding Act gives a non-Bahamian who owns a home here an entitlement - not a discretion - to an annual home owner resident card covering the holder, spouse and minor children, and that is the route most retirees actually use. The Department's fee schedule separately prices a residence permit at $250 for a person who has held work permits for twenty years and is now retired in The Bahamas, which is a fee for people who worked their way here rather than a route for people arriving to retire. Anyone else retires on an ordinary Permit to Reside under section 30(1)(a), with a written undertaking not to work.

Dedicated retirement route: None in the Immigration Act
Home owner resident card: An entitlement, on proof of owning a home
Who the home owner card covers: The holder, the spouse and minor children
Residence permit for a retired former work-permit holder: $250 a year
Pension income requirement: None in any instrument we read

Trinidad and TobagoCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Retiring to Trinidad and Tobago

There is no retirement category. The Immigration Act's list of people who may be granted resident status has four paragraphs and none of them mentions age, pension or retirement. What a retiree can use is paragraph (b): a person who is the parent or grandparent of either a citizen or a resident of Trinidad and Tobago, residing in Trinidad and Tobago, if that citizen or resident is willing and able to provide care and maintenance for them. That route runs upward through the family rather than downward, which is the opposite direction to the ancestry routes most countries publish, and it needs an adult child or grandchild already here. Failing that, the retiree is in the same position as anyone else of independent means: a Minister's permit for up to twelve months at a time, or the five-year establishment route in paragraph (a), which asks for a trade or business as well as money. One thing does follow a pensioner across the border: section 18 of the Income Tax Act gives the personal allowance - TT$90,000 since 1 January 2023 - to a person who is not resident in Trinidad and Tobago and is in receipt of pension income accruing or derived from Trinidad and Tobago.

Retirement or pensioner category: None
Family route: Parent or grandparent of a citizen or resident living in the country
Who must support you: The citizen or resident, who must be willing and able to provide care and maintenance
Minimum age: None stated
Minimum income: None stated
Personal allowance for a non-resident on a Trinidad and Tobago pension: TT$90,000as of 2023-01-01

UruguaySouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

Retiring to Uruguay

There is no separate retiree visa. A pension is one of the listed ways of proving means of support on the ordinary permanent residency route, alongside employment and business income, and it is treated no differently from any of them. That means no dedicated threshold, no medical certificate, and permanent residency rather than a renewable temporary permit.

Dedicated retiree route: None
How it is handled: As one way of proving means of support for permanent residency
Income threshold: None published
Medical certificate: Not required for this route as such
What you get: Permanent residency

VenezuelaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Retiring to Venezuela

Venezuela has no separate retirement visa. A pension is named inside the category for people of independent means, the TR-RE, in the same breath as any other lawful unearned income, and it is held to the same figure: the equivalent of USD 1,200 a month generated abroad, plus USD 500 a month for each family member travelling with you. A pensioner is not asked for less and is not offered anything extra. The closed list of visa classes in the resolution has no age-related category of any kind.

Separate retirement route: None
Category that covers a pension: Transeúnte Rentista (TR-RE)
Pension required: USD 1,200 a month, generated abroad
Per accompanying family member: USD 500 a month
Age condition: None stated