Every one of them asks for something to keep it:

• Panama requires you back in the country at least once every two years.

• Paraguay requires one entry every three years once your residency is permanent.

• Uruguay can cancel permanent residency if you stay away for more than three years.

• Mauritius requires you to transfer USD 24,000 a year into a Mauritian bank account.

• Mexico’s temporary card has to be renewed in person, inside Mexico, before it expires.

If you have talked or worked with me before, you know that I’m a stickler for terminology (I’m German after all).

→ If I book a nonstop flight and it lands in Dubai on the way, I’m confused.

→ If I buy a lifetime warranty and it expires after five years, I’m confused too.

The three residencies in this article are permanent in the way the word suggests.

Once you have them, there is no minimum stay, no renewal and no second test.

One limit applies to all three.

Each country can still cancel your residency for fraud, a serious crime or a security reason.

What none of them does is cancel it because you were away, or make you qualify for it again.

Here’s what you’ll find for each:

• How you get the permanent status, and how long it takes

• What it asks of you once you have it

• The few cases where it can still be cancelled

Mexico first.

#1 Mexico (Residente Permanente)

Mexico grants permanent residency on the first application if you are retired or draw a pension.

The permanent card has no expiry date for adults, and Mexican law sets no minimum stay.

How you get it:

• A pension of more than 133,733 pesos a month after tax (about $7,200) for the last six months, or an average monthly balance of 5.38 million pesos (about $290,000) over the last twelve

• US Social Security counts as a pension

• Mexico’s rules set no minimum age, but consulates decide who counts as retired

How long it takes:

• The consulate decides within ten business days of your interview

• The visa is valid for up to 180 days, and you have 30 days after arriving in Mexico to apply for the card

• The card costs 13,579 pesos (about $730)

What it asks of you afterwards:

• No renewal and no minimum stay

• Report a new address, marital status, nationality or employer to immigration within 90 days

When it can still be cancelled (Article 64 of Mexico’s Migration Law):

• You gave false information or fraudulent documents

• Your record in Mexico or abroad makes you a risk to public or national security

• You declare that you are leaving Mexico for good

• You take on a different immigration status

#2 New Zealand (Permanent Resident Visa)

To make the terms clear, three types of visas come up in this section:

1. A visitor visa lets you stay for a set time, and then you have to leave.

2. A resident visa lets you live in New Zealand indefinitely, but it has travel conditions.

3. A Permanent Resident Visa lets you live there indefinitely with no visa conditions.

In New Zealand, you first get a resident visa, and only after holding it can you apply for the Permanent Resident Visa.

If you are outside the country when the resident visa’s travel conditions expire, the resident visa expires too.

For a retiree, two routes lead there:

• Parent Retirement Resident Visa: an adult child who is a New Zealand citizen or resident and lives there, no dependent children, NZ$1 million (about $570,000) invested in New Zealand for four years, NZ$500,000 in settlement funds, and NZ$60,000 a year in income (pensions count).

• Active Investor Plus Visa: NZ$5 million (about $2.8 million) for three years in investments the New Zealand government accepts, with 21 days in New Zealand, or NZ$10 million for five years in a wider range of investments, with 105 days.

• The retirement visa for people 66 and older is a visitor visa, and only a resident visa can lead to the Permanent Resident Visa.

How long it takes:

• Parent Retirement: 80% of applications are approved in principle within 11 months. You then have 12 months to transfer and invest the money, and you can apply for the Permanent Resident Visa after keeping it invested for four years

• Active Investor Plus: 80% are approved in principle within 11 weeks, and you have 6 months to invest. You can apply after three years (NZ$5 million) or five years (NZ$10 million), once you have met your visa conditions

• The Permanent Resident Visa fee starts at NZ$315 (about $180), and 80% are decided within two weeks

What it asks of you afterwards:

• No conditions and no minimum stay

• When you get a new passport, you transfer the visa to it before you travel, and you pay a transfer fee

Under the Immigration Act 2009, New Zealand can deport a permanent resident:

• Whose residence was obtained through fraud or false information

• Who is convicted of certain crimes, depending on the sentence and how long they had held residence

• Who is certified as a security threat

#3 Saudi Arabia (Unlimited Duration Premium Residency)

Saudi Arabia sells permanent residency for a one-time fee of SAR 800,000 (about $213,000).

Beyond the fee, you don’t need to invest in Saudi Arabia or work there.

There is also a version that costs SAR 100,000 (about $26,700) for each year, and that one has to be renewed.

How you get it:

• You have to be 21 or older

• A valid passport and a clean criminal record

• Proof of financial solvency (the law doesn’t set an amount)

• A medical report from the last six months showing you are free of communicable diseases

How long it takes:

• The government lists 90 working days to process the application

• After approval, you have 30 days to pay the fee and show Saudi medical insurance

What it requires afterwards:

• The residency is permanent, so there is nothing to renew

• You can leave and re-enter Saudi Arabia without a visa

• Article 7 of the Premium Residency Law obliges you to follow Saudi law

When it can still be cancelled (Article 9 of the Premium Residency Law):

• A conviction for a crime that carries at least 60 days in prison or a fine of at least SAR 100,000

• A court ruling or official decision to deport you

• False information in your application

• Not following Saudi law, as Article 7 requires

• The board of the Premium Residency Center can also end it if the public interest requires it

Conclusion

That’s it.

Three permanent residencies that stay valid while you live somewhere else, and never expire.

I wrote about the Saudi program and two other hard-to-get residencies in The 3 Most Exclusive Visas In The World.

As I always say:

With these three, you only have to get it once.

If you have questions about your specific situation, drop them in the comments.

I read them all.

Appreciate you being here,

— Ben

PS

By August, it had changed it back.

The line is the nationality field.

For about 16,000 people who became Uruguayan citizens, it shows the country they were born in.

Uruguay is not listed.

When Uruguay started printing “Uruguayan” in that field for everyone in April 2025, France, Germany and Japan refused to accept the new passports (read more about it here, if your Spanish is good enough).

These people lived in Uruguay for years and went through the full citizenship process.

Then they found out what their new passport actually says.

(And sometimes you only find out after you are already enrolled.)

Here’s what you’ll find for each:

• What the rule actually says

• Who it affects (and who it doesn’t)

• What to do before you apply

Before we go into the first trap, let me clarify a few definitions, that people usually never bother to distinguish.

Nationality, citizenship and passport

Most people use these three words as if they mean the same thing.

For most purposes they do.

Nationality

Nationality is the country that claims you as its own under international law.

Border officers and airline systems read it to decide whether you need a visa.

Citizenship

Citizenship is the set of rights you have inside a country, like the right to live there and to vote.

Passport

A passport is the travel document that records your nationality. It doesn’t “create” nationality.

Uruguay views them separately.

Under the Uruguayan constitution, nationality comes only from birth.

Being born in Uruguay, or being born abroad to a Uruguayan parent.

They can vote and they get a Uruguayan passport, but Uruguay does not give them its nationality.

Why is this a problem?

A passport normally shows two separate things:

1. Nationality

2. Place of birth

For a natural Uruguayan, the nationality field says Uruguayan.

For a legal citizen, both fields show the country they were born in.

That applies even if they gave up that nationality years ago (or plan to).

The nationality field is the one border officers and airline systems check to decide whether you need a visa.

#1 Uruguay (legal citizenship)

Uruguay has printed the birth country in legal citizens’ passports since 1994.

What the rule says:

• You can apply for legal citizenship after 3 years of residence if you have family in Uruguay, or after 5 years if you don’t.

• Your passport lists your birth country as your nationality.

• If you later naturalize in another country, you lose your Uruguayan citizenship (Article 81 of the Constitution).

Who it affects (and who it doesn’t):

• If you’re American, your Uruguayan passport says you’re from the United States. For travel, it adds little to the US passport you already have.

• The people it hurts most gave up their birth nationality to become Uruguayan. Their passport names a country that no longer counts them as citizens.

• Your children born in Uruguay are natural citizens and get the full nationality.

• On October 9, 2026, the government announced a law to recognize legal citizens as Uruguayan nationals. It hasn’t passed yet, and it says nothing about passports.

What to do before you apply:

• Keep your US passport valid and travel on it.

• Apply for Uruguayan citizenship if you want what it gives you inside Uruguay, like the vote.

• If you’re still deciding on Uruguay itself, start with this article.

#2 Mexico (naturalization)

When you naturalize in Mexico, you sign a renunciation of your US citizenship.

But the US doesn’t recognize it, so you stay American.

What the rule says:

• You can apply after 5 years of residence, or after 2 if you’re married to a Mexican.

• Before Mexico issues your naturalization certificate, you formally renounce your other nationality and any protection from a foreign government.

• As a naturalized Mexican, you lose your nationality if you use a foreign passport, present yourself as a foreigner in an official document, or live outside Mexico for five continuous years (Constitution, Article 37).

In practice, US law requires you to enter and leave the US on your US passport.

So Americans who naturalize in Mexico:

1. Use the Mexican passport for everything in Mexico.

2. Use the US passport only at the US border.

Who it affects (and who it doesn’t):

• Everyone who becomes Mexican by naturalization.

• Your children born in Mexico are Mexican by birth, and the Constitution says a Mexican by birth can’t lose that nationality.

What to do before you apply:

• Use your Mexican passport for every entry and exit in Mexico, and for every Mexican document you sign: notary deeds, bank accounts, property.

• Decide where you’ll live long term. The five-year rule has no workaround. If you move back to the US for five years straight, Mexico can take away your nationality.

• If you’re not a resident yet, start with this article.

#3 Argentina (permanent residency)

Argentina treats a foreigner with permanent residency as a tax resident as soon as the residency is granted.

What the rule says:

• Tax residents pay Argentine income tax on their worldwide income, at rates up to 35%.

• They also pay Bienes Personales, a yearly tax on their assets worldwide. For 2025, it applied to assets above ARS 385 million, at rates from 0.5% to 1%.

• The status starts when you get permanent residency, not after a minimum stay.

Temporary residents also become tax residents, but only after 12 months.

There is still the possibility to credit Argentine income tax against your US tax, but the US gives you no credit for a wealth tax like Bienes Personales.

Who it affects (and who it doesn’t):

• Anyone who gets Argentine permanent residency, including Americans who want it as a Plan B while they keep living in the US.

• Temporary residents in their first 12 months aren’t tax residents yet.

What to do before you apply:

• List what you own and earn worldwide, and have an Argentine tax adviser run the numbers before you file for permanent residency.

• If you’re moving there for real, budget for both taxes from your first year.

• If you’re looking at the investment passport instead, read this article.

#4 Nicaragua (pensionado residency)

For 15 years, Nicaragua’s Law 694 gave retirees a five-year residency and duty-free imports for a car and household goods.

In August 2024, Nicaragua repealed it.

What the rule says now:

• Retirees get a temporary residency that lasts one year, and you renew it in person every year.

• The residency card has to be replaced every six months.

• Since November 2024, years on that temporary residency no longer lead to permanent residence.

• The duty-free allowance for your car and household goods is gone.

In May 2026, the US State Department said the Nicaraguan government has denied entry to and expelled US citizens.

Who it affects:

• Anyone planning to retire in Nicaragua now. You start on a one-year permit with no route to permanent residence.

• Retirees who already hold residency under Law 694. Ask a Nicaraguan immigration lawyer how your next renewal will be handled.

What to do before you apply:

• Plan for a renewal every year and a new card every six months, each filed in person with Nicaraguan immigration.

• Keep a home base somewhere else until you’ve been through at least one renewal.

• Read the current State Department advisory before you book a flight.

Conclusion

That’s it.

Four rules you only find in the law itself:

• Uruguay gives legal citizens a passport that lists the country they were born in as their nationality.

• Mexico takes back your nationality if you use your US passport in Mexico or live abroad for five years straight.

• Argentina makes you a tax resident on your worldwide income and assets as soon as you get permanent residency.

• Nicaragua turned its five-year retiree residency into a one-year permit after Americans had already moved there.

Because those four are not the only ones to look out for.

If you’ve run into a rule like this yourself, tell me in the comments.

I read them all.

Appreciate you being here,

— Ben

PS

Before we start, an announcement.

Over the past months, many of you have asked me to help you build your Plan B (residency, banking, investments, all set up in the right order).

On Monday, I’m opening 5 spots for my new program, “Your Plan B”.

If you want it all in place before 2027, this is it.

Everything is built around you, and you get access to my private network, with options you won't get on your own, like Swiss private banking at a fraction of the usual minimum.

5 spots, and 1 already taken.

Reply “Plan” to this email, and you’ll hear from me before anyone else.

Now, let’s look at the best countries to move to.

In July 2025, I published my list of the 3 best countries to move to from the US.

I wrote it for remote workers who earn from clients and need a digital nomad visa.

But the people who actually hire me are planning a retirement.

Every client I worked with this year was between 45 and 88.

And a lot has moved in the 15 months since.

I also picked one country in Europe, one in the Americas and one in Asia on purpose.

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

• Why I picked these three (and why you should still start with you)

• One country in Europe, one in the Americas and one in Asia

• A real client or reader story for each one

First, how I picked them.

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Why these three

I always say:

Start with you, not with a country.

That still holds.

These three are where I’d start looking, because Americans 50+ already move to all of them.

Which one fits you depends on your budget and on how often you want to fly home.

At the end, I’ll show you which country fits which kind of person.

Here are my three.

#1 Portugal (Europe)

Portugal has the lowest income requirement of all the European retirement visas I’ve compared.

That’s 36% more than the year before.

Who it fits

You want to live in Europe on a modest income, and you plan to spend most of the year there.

The visa

Most retirees come in on the D7 visa.

You need at least €920 a month in passive income, such as Social Security, a pension, dividends or rent.

A couple needs €1,380 a month.

You also need about €11,040 in savings in a Portuguese bank account.

Your US income

Portugal taxes your Social Security and your pensions at its normal rates, which go up to 48%.

The old NHR tax break closed to new applicants in 2024.

The tax treaty between the US and Portugal makes sure the same income isn’t taxed twice.

If you have a Roth IRA, Portugal taxes the growth when you take money out.

Healthcare

Once you’re a resident, you can register with Portugal’s public health service.

Private insurance on top gets you faster appointments, and the price depends on your age.

What a month costs

Portugal is not as cheap as some options in the Americas, but compared to the US, very affordable.

A couple lives well in Porto on around €2,500 to €3,000 a month.

(Lisbon costs more.)

Where to live

Porto, if you want a real city that’s cheaper than Lisbon.

Lagos on the Algarve, if you want warm winters and a large English-speaking community.

What to watch out for

Since May 19, 2026, Americans need 10 years of residence before they can apply for Portuguese citizenship.

The timeline starts on the day your residence card is issued.

And getting that card from AIMA can take months after you arrive.

If a European home is what you want, this changes very little. If a second passport is your main goal, plan for the long wait.

A client who’s doing it

Rhetta and Scott, both in their 60s, moved to France years ago, and it went badly.

This time they decided on Portugal.

They started their D7 paperwork in August 2026 and plan to move in 2027.

Here’s Scott on how we narrowed it down:

Share

#2 Panama (the Americas)

Panama is the closest of the three to the US.

Panama City is about three hours from Miami, and the country uses the US dollar.

Who it fits

You have a pension of at least $1,000 a month, and you want to stay a short flight from your family.

The visa

Most retirees come in on the Pensionado visa.

You need a lifetime pension of at least $1,000 a month, and US Social Security counts.

If you buy a property worth $100,000 or more, the requirement drops to $750 a month.

Each dependent who comes with you adds $250 a month.

Approval gives you permanent residency from day one.

Your US income

Panama only taxes income you earn inside Panama.

Your Social Security, your pension and your IRA withdrawals are not taxed there.

You still file your US return every year, the same as you do now.

Healthcare

Panama City has private hospitals with English-speaking doctors.

Pacífica Salud, in Punta Pacífica, is affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine International.

Pensionado holders also get 20% off doctor visits and 15% off hospital bills.

What a month costs

A couple lives on around $2,500 to $3,400 a month in Panama City.

In Boquete, in the highlands, it’s around $2,100 to $2,800.

Where to live

Panama City, if you want the hospitals and the airport close by.

Boquete, if you want cooler mountain weather and a large American retiree community.

What to watch out for

The Pensionado doesn’t let you take a salaried job in Panama.

And you have to visit at least once every two years, for more than 24 hours, to keep your residency.

A client who’s doing it

Lorraine had her Italian passport on the way and was sure she’d retire in Italy.

Then she looked at how Italy taxes its own citizens, and the plan changed.

We built her plan around Panama, and she got her residency card there in July 2026.

She qualified for the Pensionado and still took a different visa.

Here’s Lorraine on what it was like:

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#3 Thailand (Asia)

I live in Bangkok, so this is the one I know best.

Thailand is the cheapest of the three, and private healthcare is the main reason retirees stay.

Who it fits

You want the lowest monthly cost and warm weather all year, and you’re fine with a long flight home.

The visa

Most retirees use Thailand’s retirement visa, which starts at age 50.

You need 800,000 baht (about $24,000) in a Thai bank account, and you renew the visa every year at your local immigration office.

The alternative is the Thailand Privilege visa, which most people still call the Elite visa.
I hold one myself.

It’s a paid membership: 900,000 baht (about $27,000) gets you 5 years.

Each entry gets you a stay of up to one year, and the program files your 90-day address reports for you.

Your US income

Under the US-Thailand tax treaty, only the US can tax your Social Security.

For other income, Thailand taxes foreign income you bring into the country in a year when you live there 180 days or more.

Savings you built before January 1, 2024 can be brought in tax-free.

Healthcare

Bangkok’s large private hospitals, such as Bumrungrad and Bangkok Hospital, have English-speaking doctors and international accreditation.

A doctor visit costs a fraction of what you pay in the US.

My international health insurance paid back 90% of it, and the policy costs me less than what it paid back.

What a month costs

A couple lives comfortably on around $1,600 to $2,100 a month, before health insurance.

Central Bangkok costs more, and Chiang Mai costs less.

Where to live

Bangkok, if you want the best hospitals, a metro and direct flights everywhere.

Chiang Mai, if you want a slower city that’s cooler in winter and has a large retiree community.

What to watch out for

On the retirement visa, you report your address to immigration every 90 days.

And foreigners can’t own land in Thailand, only condos.

A reader couple who did it

Mike and his wife, both in their 60s, have lived in Thailand for more than a decade.

They switched from a volunteer visa to the 10-year retirement visa, and their visa agent handles the renewal once a year.

They locked in their global health insurance before they turned 60 and pay around $400 a month for both of them.

Why pick just one?

If you had to choose one today, here’s how I’d decide:

• Portugal if you want a home in Europe and plan to live there most of the year.

• Panama if you want to stay close to the US and keep living in dollars.

• Thailand if you want the lowest monthly cost and don’t mind a long flight home.

But you can also hold more than one.

My client Cheri is 60 and lives in upstate New York.

This year we built her a setup across three regions:

• Mexico is her base, with permanent residency.

• Italy is her passport, through citizenship by descent.

• Thailand is her long game, with a 10-year Privilege visa.

In her words:

“Got one in the Americas, and I’ll have one in Europe, and I’ll have one in Asia, which really opens the world.”

You don’t have to copy her setup country for country.

But the idea behind it works for almost anyone:

One base where you live and pay tax, plus residencies in other regions that give you options.

Below, I show you how to build one tax-efficient base, add Europe without the European tax bill, and keep Asia as a Plan B.

Every residency has one job

You need one base, and you can add two layers on top of it.

Now the question is, where do you live and pax tax?

Read more

They rank 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st out of 31 countries in the Expat Insider 2026 survey.

Americans move to all four for good reasons:

• Turkey because a pension goes further.

• The UK because everyone speaks English.

• Germany because that is where their grandparents came from.

• Norway because it feels safe at night and the social system works.

The regret starts later, when the visa office, the health insurer and the tax office deal with a retiree from the US.

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

• The four countries, and the one reason people move to each

• What the system does with a US retiree after arrival: visa, insurance, tax, prices

• What to do instead if that reason is your reason

Turkey first.

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#1 Turkey

Turkey has no retirement visa.

For years that did not matter.

A lot of foreign retirees used the one-year residence permit for “touristic purposes”: no job, no property, renewed once a year at the local immigration office.

That route has mostly closed since 2023.

A first-time applicant who still applies on that basis most likely gets turned down.

The ones who get approved often get six months instead of a year, and renewals get harder each time.

Two routes remain for a retiree:

1. Property. Since October 16, 2023, the deed value has to be at least $200,000 to qualify for a residence permit as an owner.

2. Income. About 42,000 lira a month in 2026, which is 1.5 times the net minimum wage, paid into a Turkish bank account.

(Citizenship for a $400,000 property purchase also exists. I covered it in The 5 Fastest Passports To Get In 2026.)

Both routes work.

But neither is the Turkey people remember from 2019, where you flew in on a tourist visa and sorted out the permit after.

Then there are the prices.

Inflation peaked at 75% in May 2024 and was still at 31.5% in August 2026.

A weak lira does not protect you from that. In the year to July 2026, Turkish prices rose 31% while the dollar gained 17% against the lira, so what you buy in Istanbul got about 13% more expensive in dollars.

Five straight years above 30% inflation makes a fixed pension hard to budget, even one paid in dollars.

#2 United Kingdom

The UK closed its retirement visa in 2008.

It was called “Retired Person of Independent Means”.

Also, the investor visa closed in February 2022.

So an American with money, a pension and no British relatives has no visa category to apply under.

British grandparents do not help either. The Ancestry visa is for Commonwealth citizens, and the US is not in the Commonwealth.

The realistic route for a retiree is the family visa, and it needs a partner who is British, Irish or settled in the UK.

The couple has to show a combined income of £29,000 a year, and the applicant’s own pension counts toward it. Without the income, £88,500 in savings held for six months does the same job.

On top of the visa fee comes the Immigration Health Surcharge:

• £1,035 per adult per year, paid upfront for the whole length of the visa.

• For a couple on a 2.5-year visa that is about £5,175 before anyone has seen a doctor.

Then there’s tax.

UK residents pay UK tax on worldwide income.

The old remittance basis, which let foreigners keep offshore income out of reach, ended on April 6, 2025.

US Social Security is taxable only in the UK for a UK resident, at UK rates on the full amount.

The US drops its claim under the treaty.

New arrivals who spent the previous ten years outside the UK can claim a four-year exemption on foreign income, which can cover Social Security at first.

Whether it helps in your case is a question for a cross-border tax adviser, and one to ask before you move.

#3 Germany

This one is my own country.

According to 2020 census data, German was the top reported ancestry in 23 US states.

Every year some of those people come back to the towns their grandparents left, and they arrive without a visa category to apply under.

Germany has no retirement visa either.

The route is a residence permit “for other purposes” under section 7 of the residence act, granted case by case, usually for one year at a time.

You show you can pay your own way, and you have to obtain private health insurance.

And health insurance is the big one.

An American retiree has no way into Germany’s public health insurance, at any age.

Public insurance is tied to a job.

No German job means no compulsory membership.

The catch-all rule that covers everyone else is closed to non-EU citizens on this kind of permit, and voluntary membership requires years of prior insurance time inside Germany that a newcomer does not have.

Past 55, even taking a German job no longer gets you in. Since January 1, 2026 that rule got tighter still.

I grew up inside this system and paid into it from my first paycheck in 2014.

The public system has long waiting times, and is overall badly staffed.

I don’t regret leaving this malfunctioning healthcare system at all.

The other big one is tax.

Since January 1, 2025, Germany taxes withdrawals from a traditional IRA or 401(k) in full.

Before that only the growth was taxed (Roth withdrawals are still taxed on growth only).

US Social Security is taxed only in Germany for a German resident, at German rates. I explained how the general mechanics work in How Taxes Work When You Retire Abroad.

Neither is built for someone who has stopped working.

In the Expat Insider 2026 survey, Germany finished last of 31 countries for the basics (housing, admin, language, digital life), and 61% of expats said dealing with the authorities is hard.

Imagine my surprise.

#4 Norway

Norway has no residence permit for a retiree from outside the EU.

Not a closed one, not a hard one.

None.

The UDI permit list has categories for work, study, family and protection.

The “own funds” route, where you show NOK 255,191 a year and support yourself, is for EU and EEA citizens only.

So an American with no Norwegian job and no Norwegian family cannot apply as a retiree, at any income level.

The people who do get in, usually through a Norwegian spouse, meet the second problem.

Norway taxes what you own, every year.

The 2026 wealth tax is 1.0% on net wealth above NOK 1,900,000 for a single person and NOK 3,800,000 for a couple, rising to 1.1% above NOK 21.5 million.

(NOK 1.9 million is about $200,000.)

It covers worldwide assets, and your US retirement accounts count in full.

Norway’s Tax Appeals Board refused to treat a US IRA as a pension scheme, so the December 31 balance of your IRA or 401(k) is taxed as wealth.

A couple with $2 million in retirement accounts and no other assets pays roughly $16,000 a year, on top of income tax, for the right to keep owning what they already own.

Do Norwegians get treated differently?

Partly.

A primary home is counted at 25% of its value up to NOK 10 million. A Norwegian couple with a NOK 8 million house and modest savings often sits under the threshold.

An American couple’s wealth is mostly financial, and financial assets count at 100%.

Norway finished last of 31 countries in the Expat Insider 2026 survey. 72% of expats said making local friends is hard, against 40% worldwide, and 25% said they were happy with their social life.

Norway’s border officers also made news in January for turning away holders of bought Caribbean passports.

What the four have in common

Each move happened for one good reason.

Price, language, roots, safety.

And in each case nobody checked whether the country’s system had a place for a retiree.

Remember this sentence:

Start with yourself, not with a country.

Then check, for every country on your list, the four things that went wrong here:

• The visa.

• The health insurance.

• The tax on what you own.

• What the prices do in your currency.

If one of these four reasons is your reason, here is where I would look instead.

Price.

Choose a country at the same price level that has a real retirement visa.

Panama’s Pensionado, Paraguay and Uruguay are in The 5 Easiest Residencies To Obtain In 2026.

Language.

Malta’s Retirement Programme is open to Americans.

The current terms apply only to complete applications received by December 31, 2026.

From January 1, 2027 a new programme replaces it and the minimum tax doubles to €15,000 a year.

I covered the routes in How US Citizens Can Move To Malta.

Roots.

Check first whether you can get a passport by descent.

Germany does not hand out citizenship by descent the way Italy or Ireland do.

Ireland goes back to a grandparent, and more than 30 million Americans claim Irish ancestry.

I am working on an article on the best passports you can claim through your ancestors, and it is coming soon.

Safety.

Look up the wealth tax before anything else.

Spain and Norway have one, and some other countries do as well.

A country can be safe for you and expensive for your IRA at the same time.

Conclusion

That’s it.

One thing worth doing this week:

Take the country at the top of your list and answer four questions in writing:

• Which visa would I apply for?

• Does the country tax what I own?

• Which health insurance strategy works here?

• How did prices develop over the last few years?

And remember:

Appreciate you being here,

— Ben

What safety feels like

Safety is a day when nothing happens.

• You leave your phone on a café table while you order, and it’s still there when you come back.

• The neighbor’s kid takes the bus to school alone.

• You walk home at 11 p.m. and don’t think about which street you take.

Fewer places feel like that every year.

The Global Peace Index 2026 came out in June, and it shows the world getting less peaceful for the 12th year in a row.

This guide points you to the five countries at the top of that index.

Who this guide is for

You want calm days and clear rules.

You want healthcare you can trust and streets where you can walk at night.

You’re planning to retire abroad in the next few years, and safety sits on your list next to cost and climate.

How I chose the 5

I started with the Global Peace Index 2026 and took the top five.

Then I checked each country on crime, healthcare, rule of law and natural disaster risk.

Some of these countries don’t make it easy, but you can still get in if you plan well and pick the right route.

Two countries are new this year, and we will look at them at the end.

The safety criteria

Six criteria:

1. Peace and stability: Is the country calm at home and with its neighbors?

2. Everyday safety: How much street crime is there, and do you feel fine walking home at night or riding the train?

3. Healthcare and resilience: Can you see a doctor quickly, and does the system hold up in an emergency?

4. Governance and trust: Do the courts and police work, and is corruption low?

5. Natural risk: Earthquakes, volcanoes, storms and floods, and how well the country prepares for them.

6. Visa practicality: Is there a clear legal way for you to stay, and how hard is it to get?

The list starts with the most peaceful country in the world.

1) Iceland

Street crime is rare, and people trust the police and each other.

Reykjavik is the capital, and it has most of the jobs, flights and culture.

Akureyri in the north is smaller and quieter.

Most people speak English.

Costs are high.

Rent and groceries will stretch your budget, and in return the public services work.

Healthcare is public and well organized.

The main natural risk is volcanoes.

Since December 2023, lava has erupted nine times near Grindavík, a town less than an hour’s drive from Reykjavik.

Getting residency is hard for Americans.

Iceland has no retirement visa.

Most people from outside Europe come for a job, to study, or to join family.

The remote work visa lets you stay 180 days if you earn ISK 1,000,000 a month (about $8,300), but you can’t extend it, and it doesn’t lead to residency.

If you also hold an EU passport, you can move under free movement rules.

2) New Zealand

Street crime is low, and the country is far from any conflict.

Auckland has the most jobs and flights.

Wellington is the capital, and it’s small and walkable.

Like Iceland, New Zealand is not cheap.

Housing and groceries cost as much as in the US, or more.

New Zealand has a retirement visa, but few people can use it:

• You must be 66 or older.

• You have to invest NZ$750,000 in New Zealand for two years.

• You also have to show NZ$500,000 to live on and NZ$60,000 a year in income.

The visa lasts two years.

You can apply again, but it never turns into residency.

Also, you also need your own health insurance for the whole stay.

One of my clients took New Zealand off her list for exactly this reason.

3) Switzerland

Switzerland has been officially neutral since 1815.

Trains leave on time, and the streets are clean.

Zurich and Geneva have the most jobs and international flights.

Lugano, in the Italian-speaking south, is warmer and slower.

Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries in the world.

Health insurance is private, required by law, and you pay for it yourself.

Switzerland has a retirement permit for people from outside the EU:

• You must be 55 or older and no longer working.

• You have to show enough money to live without public support.

• You also have to show personal ties to Switzerland, and each canton decides what counts.

Switzerland has to become your main home, which usually means at least 183 days a year there.

Once you meet the criteria, you can get a B permit that you renew every year or two.

As an American, you can apply for permanent residency (the C permit) after five years.

Read more

“Each investment product and service referred to on this site is intended to be made available only to U.S. residents.”

Wells Fargo went further.

In January 2021 it announced it was exiting all international business.

“Wells Fargo advisors will no longer be able to service clients abroad”

I wrote about where your wealth should be kept once you leave in The Bank Account They Can’t Touch.

Another question I get often is:

This article answers that question.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What each of the four accounts does for you abroad, and what it costs

• Where your money is held once you change the address

• Which one to open first, depending on what you need

Let’s start.

Upgrade To Paid

#1 Charles Schwab

Schwab has a separate international side, with a page written for Americans who live abroad.

You can open it two ways.

1. If you still live in the US, open a regular Schwab account now and change the address after you move.

2. If you already live abroad, you apply through Schwab’s international side, which asks for a passport or government ID, proof of where you live (a utility bill, a bank statement, or a mortgage statement), and your Social Security number.

What you get is a US dollar brokerage account that comes with checks and a Visa debit card.

A couple I’ve written about lives in Thailand exactly this way.

Digital Citizen

This American Couple Retired Abroad And Pays $400/Month For Healthcare (Their Full Setup)

Thailand is a retirement destination many people talk about, but few actually figure out…

Read more

9 months ago · 19 likes · 6 comments · Benjamin Hies

They live off ATM withdrawals from their Schwab account.

Once you use the account, remember this habit:

That is “dynamic currency conversion”, the machine’s own exchange rate, and Schwab’s rebate does not cover it.

And Schwab does not open accounts for residents of every country.

France and Italy don’t work.

Portugal, Spain, Greece, Mexico, Panama and Thailand all work.

Schwab doesn’t publish a list (at least I couldn’t find a reliable one, only Reddit threads, which I don’t trust enough to include here as facts), so the best way to find out is to use the dropdown menu on their website and check whether it’s possible with your destination.

#2 State Department Federal Credit Union

SDFCU is a credit union, and credit unions need a reason to let you in.

For Americans abroad the reason is membership in an association.

American Citizens Abroad charges $70 a year, and the Association of Americans Resident Overseas is the other route (I’m not affiliated here).

You join one of them, then apply to SDFCU through it.

ACA says on its own site that membership gets you the application, not an approval, and that processing takes about a week.

What makes SDFCU different is written into the application.

There is no need for a US phone number, because SDFCU sends login codes over WhatsApp.

The basic checking account has no minimum balance and no monthly fee, and comes with a Visa debit card.

The card charges a fee on foreign transactions, and this is where SDFCU is less generous than Schwab.

The refund depends on how much you keep in the account:

• With $2,000 in Advantage Checking, SDFCU refunds up to $15 a month in ATM and foreign transaction fees.

• With $25,000 in Privilege Checking, up to $25 a month.

Both need a direct deposit of at least $200 a month, which a Social Security payment meets, and Advantage also needs ten debit card purchases a month.

Two things to remember:

1. The SDFCU credit cards have no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee, so for paying at a restaurant abroad the credit card is the better card.

2. Wise is built into SDFCU’s online banking, so you can send money to a European account without leaving the app.

Read more about Wise (and fintechs in general) below:

Digital Citizen

Can Fintechs Really Replace Banks Abroad?

You arrive in a new country…

Read more

a year ago · 22 likes · 3 comments · Benjamin Hies

#3 Interactive Brokers

Schwab and SDFCU are dollar accounts.

Interactive Brokers is a broker, not a bank, and it opens accounts for people living outside the US.

You can deposit and hold up to 29 currencies in one account. A conversion costs $2 on anything up to $100,000, and cash you leave in the account earns interest.

If you move to Europe, the following happens.

Interactive Brokers moves you from its US company to Interactive Brokers Ireland, in Dublin, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

You open the account under your new address, and your cash and your positions move across.

Once you are an EU resident, you can no longer buy US-listed ETFs in that account.

You can keep the ones you own, and you can sell them.

And there is no card.

Interactive Brokers’ debit card is for US residents only, and its newer “Karta charge card” is for clients of the US company with at least $50,000 in the account.

#4 Wise

The fourth one is a fintech, not a bank.

Wise exchanges dollars into euros, or baht, or pesos, at the rate you see when you Google it.

Fees are transparent and reasonable.

People use it the following way:

1. Social Security arrives at Schwab or SDFCU.

2. You send dollars to Wise.

3. You convert when the rate is good (Wise lets you set an alert for that).

4. You pay your Portuguese rent from the euro balance.

Open it before you leave.

Wise is easy to open with a US address and a US phone number and much harder from abroad.

Once you move, you update your country of residence, and Wise suspends the account while it reviews your proof of address, which it says takes about two days.

Also, I would keep the balances small.

Remember, Wise is not a bank.

Your dollars there have no deposit insurance unless you turn on the interest feature, and even then the cover comes through a partner bank.

I took the reasoning apart in Can Fintechs Really Replace Banks?, and the short version is:

Move money through Wise, keep two or three months of spending in it, and keep the rest somewhere safe (for example Switzerland).

Which account does which job

So what should you use which account for?

• If you want cash out of any ATM in the world with the fees refunded, open Schwab.

• If you want a US checking account that takes your foreign address and your foreign phone number and treats both as normal, open SDFCU.

• If you are moving larger amounts between currencies, or you manage your own investments, open Interactive Brokers.

• If you need to pay rent in euros from a dollar income every month, open Wise.

Most people end up with three of the four.

That is the setup I described in The 3 Bank Accounts Everyone Retiring Abroad Needs.

And whatever you do, remember this:

Oh, and if you want to watch me talk about this topic, I recently started my YouTube channel.

You can check it out below.

Thanks for reading (and hopefully soon watching),

— Ben

“Non-lucrative” means exactly that.

No local job, no business of your own, no freelance clients, and no remote work for a US employer.

Italy and Greece wrote the same rule into theirs.

The visa type is important if you plan to keep earning after you move.

On 4 of the seven visas in this article, that income is legal, and the right to work is written into the law.

On the other 3, the same income is a reason to refuse your application or your renewal.

I compared four of these visas before in The 4 Best Retirement Visas In Europe.

This article asks one question of each:

Can you keep working?

Here’s what you’ll find for each:

• The income you need to qualify

• What you are allowed to do for work

• One important thing to know before you apply

Let’s get started.

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#1 Portugal (D7 visa)

The D7 is Portugal’s visa for people who live on passive income.

Pensions, Social Security, dividends, rental income.

Portugal also wrote the right to work into its immigration law.

Article 83 of Law 23/2007 gives every holder of a residence permit the right to employed work and to self-employed work.

Income requirement:

• €920 per month for the main applicant, which is Portugal’s 2026 minimum wage

• Add 50% for a spouse (€460) and 30% per child (€276)

• The income has to be passive. A salary or freelance income does not count toward the €920.

What you can do for work:

• Local job: yes, for a Portuguese employer, with a normal employment contract

• Your own business or freelance work in Portugal: yes, after you register the activity with the tax office (Finanças)

• Remote work for US clients or a US employer: yes. The law gives you the right to work and does not restrict where your employer or your clients are.

One thing to know:

• Working makes you a Portuguese taxpayer on that income once you live there more than 183 days a year.

#2 Uruguay (permanent residency)

Uruguay has no separate retirement visa.

You apply for permanent residency directly, whether you are a retiree, live on investment income, or plan to work. It is the same application.

Decree 394/009, Article 44, says permanent residents are authorized to work in Uruguay.

Income requirement:

• No fixed amount in the law. The rule says your monthly income has to be enough to support yourself.

• In practice, immigration lawyers file retiree applications with about $1,500 a month in pension or passive income.

• You prove it with notarized income certificates or a work history.

What you can do for work:

• Local job: yes, with a Uruguayan employer

• Your own business or freelance work in Uruguay: yes, after you register as self-employed

• Remote work for US clients or a US employer: yes

One thing to know:

• Uruguay taxes income from work you physically do in Uruguay, even when the client or employer is in the US. The rates run from 10% to 36%.

Thinking of moving money out of the US?

Read more

She gets up at that hour every day to meditate, then usually goes back to sleep.

That morning she stayed up for a call about her money.

Wendy is American, retired, and married to a European. She has lived in Europe for years, and her savings were still sitting in the US.

She had tried to move them before, but:

• One bank turned her down with no explanation

• The Swiss banks she contacted wouldn’t talk to her

• The advisors who work with expats wanted a minimum she didn’t have

So we had a chat.

And looked at banks that made sense for her situation.

After two months, her account was opened.

Her money is now finally out of the US.

She also has a private banking contact she can talk to directly.

Today, I’m telling Wendy’s story (and give some insights that will help with your own account opening).

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Why every bank said no to someone with clean money

• How we built a file so the bank accepted her as a private banking client

• What Wendy did before wiring a dollar, and what changed once the account was open

First, what happened before she met me.

Why every bank said no

Wendy had several US accounts and one local spending account in Greece.

The Greek one took weeks to open.

Several visits, many hours, a stack of documents.

Once the account was open, a new problem started.

Every time she moved money into it, the bank wanted to know exactly where that money had been earned.

So she looked for a bank outside Greece to park her savings.

(Which is a good idea in itself considering Greece’s banking history.)

What did Wendy do?

She applied for an expat account at a large international bank.

Denied, with no explanation.

She asked about Switzerland.

Nobody there would talk to her.

She contacted advisors who say they work with expats.

They said she doesn’t meet the capital requirements.

None of those paths worked.

Wendy hasn’t drawn a salary in almost 20 years. Her savings come from work she did long ago and from a few properties she sold over the past ten years. The money has moved between accounts many times since.

Here is how she put it on our call:

“This is my life savings. I haven’t worked for almost 20 years, and this money has moved around to different accounts, so it’s going to be really difficult to prove where it came from.”

A bank doesn’t only ask how much you have.

It asks where it came from.

And it usually asks for things like:

• Pay slips

• A sale deed

• An employment contract

Wendy had no pay slips.

Her old employment contracts were 20 years old and not easy to find. The property sales were on record, but under her company’s name, not her own.

To the person at the bank checking her file, that looks like holes. To Wendy, it was just her life.

How we built the file

Before Wendy collected a single document, I did one thing.

I put her case to my contact at the bank.

I told them what you read above: no pay slips, savings from work done 20 years ago, property sales booked under her company.

Then I asked: will you look at this file?

If the answer had been no, Wendy would have saved weeks of scanning documents for nothing.

But the answer was yes.

Her paperwork was an obstacle, and obstacles get sorted out.

Here is what went into the file:

• Her CV. The bank wants to see your working life, because your working life explains your money situation. Wendy’s showed the jobs she held before she stopped working.

• An old employment contract. She wasn’t sure she would find one. She did, and it backed up what the CV said.

• The property sales. Wendy had sold a few properties over ten years. The sale records were in her company’s name, so she had to show that she owns the company.

• Her US tax returns. The latest one showed one of those sales as income, which connected the property papers to her own name.

• A marriage certificate. The electricity bill for her home was in her husband’s name. The certificate connected her to the address.

Plus the usual: passport, Greek residency ID, tax numbers, phone and email.

No single document proved where her money came from.

Together, they told the story:

She worked, she saved, she put the savings into property, she sold, and here is where the money sits today.

And after two months of back and forth, the account was open.

What Wendy did before wiring a dollar

Wendy is careful with her money.

In June, before anything was signed, friends warned her the whole thing could be a scam.

So she wrote to me:

An account number in an email doesn’t prove the money lands at a real bank. How do we handle that?

My answer:

Once the account is open, we go through the wiring instructions together.

In July, the account contract arrived.

She read all of it and came back with questions.

We went through them together.

She signed the contract, and the account was opened.

Instead of wiring her money all at once, she did a “test transfer” with a small amount.

She emailed her banker that a test transfer was coming, sent it, and waited until he confirmed it had arrived.

Then the rest followed.

Two weeks later she had her online access and wrote:

“Everything is good now.”

She doesn’t like being on camera, but she recorded a video anyway.

“It’s the least I could do after all your help. It’s good to do things outside our comfort zone. I have recommended you to friends and family who talk about leaving the US.”

So here is where Wendy is now:

• Her life savings are out of the US

• Her money earning real interest

• Accessible with her own debit card

• With a private banker with a name and phone number, if she has any questions

In her words:

"I hope telling my story will help people who are confused and frustrated as I was. The process was a bit scary with a lot of unknowns, and I am grateful that I had Ben's help and guidance. I love that I now have a private banker I can contact, my money is safe, it earns good interest, and I can hold it in different currencies. I have possibilities now, whereas I felt stuck before. I feel more secure."

If you want an account like Wendy’s

Wendy’s account is one of three I open for clients.

For spending

An everyday account outside the US banking system, opened remotely at a large, publicly traded bank. Multi-currency balances, cards couriered to you wherever you live, no ATM fees worldwide, and airport lounge access. You can start it with $1,000, and most clients have a working account within three weeks. This is the account you pay for your life abroad from. It pays less interest than a parking account, but it costs less to send money in and out.

For parking savings

This is Wendy’s account. A private account at a regulated bank opened through the family office I work with. It can be opened in several currencies, with debit and credit cards, interest on the balance, and a banker you can email. It fits savings that are too small for a wealth manager and too big to leave earning nothing. Opening takes four to six weeks, longer if your file needs a second round (like Wendy’s did).

For $1 million and more

If your movable assets are above $1 million, the place for them is Switzerland. Through the same family office, your assets are held at a Swiss private bank, in your name, and managed there. The family office can also hold your US investments while you live outside the US, which solves the problem of US brokers who refuse clients with a foreign address. The entry is $1 million. Almost all Swiss private banks open their doors way higher than that. Those banks keep more capital in reserve than most banks do, and Switzerland is one of the safest places in the world to hold money.

All those accounts are in your name and reported to the IRS like any foreign account.

And you don’t need to travel for any of them.

You pay me, and I make sure the account opens.

What comes next

That’s it.

Three takeaways:

• Banks say no when they can’t see where your money came from, even when the money is clean.

• A proper client file, and someone who introduces you to the bank and helps at every step, make the difference.

• Being careful is important, so check who you work with, what their incentives are, and who gets paid by whom.

I hope this helps you open your own account outside the US.

Appreciate you being here,

— Ben

It was easy.

The last business account I opened abroad wasn’t.

I got interrogated:

• Where do you pay out to?

• Where do your clients come from?

• Can you provide another utility bill?

• Do you have another online presence?

• Why is one character different in two documents?

The account opened, but it took weeks.

I talk to Americans every week who are about to open their first account outside the US, usually the fourth account that sits outside both their home country and the one they moved to.

Some of them have questions prepared.

Others don’t.

So what I usually do is two things:

1. I give them answers to the questions I would ask

2. Make sure they understand what each answer means (and why it’s important)

Today, I will point out the 10 questions that I would ask any foreign bank, before opening an account.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• The ten questions I ask a bank before I open anything

• What a good answer sounds like, and what a bad one tells you

• Why most of them matter after the account is open, not before

We’ll start with the most important one.

#1 Do you accept US citizens?

Ask this first.

Because every other question doesn’t matter if the answer is no.

FATCA makes American clients expensive to serve. The bank has to report your account every year and carry the risk of getting it wrong, so plenty of foreign banks decline Americans rather than deal with it at all.

A yes is great, but not the whole answer.

Some banks take Americans but you still have to visit in person to open the account.

Flying to Panama City or Tbilisi adds a flight and a few nights in a hotel to your opening cost.

You want to hear that 1) you file a W-9 and 2) the interview happens over video.

#2 What do you do with my money?

Most people ask if the account is insured.

I care more about what the bank does with the deposit.

Insurance funds are small.

The FDIC holds $1.48 for every $100 it insures. That is enough for one bank failing, not a banking system failing.

Insurance also changes how banks behave.

I read a paper from two economists recently (Charles Calomiris and Sophia Chen) who studied banks in a large group of countries. After a country brought in deposit insurance, its banks lent out more and kept less of their own money in the bank.

A bank that knows it is covered has less reason to be careful.

So ask what they do with your deposit.

Then ask for the liquidity ratio, which is how much of the bank’s money is available now instead of lent out.

#3 What would make you freeze my account?

Every bank can freeze your account.

And it is always good to know what sets it off.

A bank with a real process will name the triggers, such as:

Read more

Become a tax resident.

Stay more than 183 days.

Immigrate fully.

Others don’t.

Those “other” options also include so-called “Plan B” residencies.

Here’s how I define a Plan B residency:

And by “keep without living there” I mean not living there fully.

For some of them, you need to be in the country a few weeks a year, in others you might only need to visit every few years to keep the residency alive.

Plan B residencies can also turn into a full move, but they don’t have to.

I have a client right now who is thinking about different scenarios, which we are working through one by one.

Their scenarios:

• Scenario 1: Plan B eventually becomes a full move.

• Scenario 2: Plan B for an immediate move, while Plan C, the full move decision, will be a different one for a long-term commitment.

• Scenario 3: Plan B will might not be used (but still obtained) and the move will happen straight to Plan C.

A scenario emerges from a strategy, 8 of which I use with my clients.

And depending on the goals for their global setup, the final residency strategy can have many nuances.

But I digress.

Today, I want to talk about 5 residencies that are suitable for a Plan B strategy.

Here’s what you’ll find for each:

• What it costs to qualify, in income, savings, or government fees

• How many days a year you have to be in the country

• What you get, how long it lasts, and where it leads

Let’s get started.

#1 Paraguay (Temporary Residency)

Paraguay is the only residency on this list with no income test at all, and the whole thing costs about $496 in government fees.

The old $5,000 bank deposit is gone. So is the direct permanent residency.

Under Ley 6984/2022, temporary residency comes first, and permanent is a second filing about two years later.

Timeline:

• You get “residente precario” status the day you file, which means you can leave Paraguay and come back while your application is processed

• Immigration does not publish a processing time for the card itself

• Permanent residency is a separate filing, made in the three months before the temporary card expires

Requirements:

• Valid passport

• Apostilled birth certificate

• Apostilled civil status certificate

• Apostilled police record from your home country

• Interpol and Paraguayan police clearances

• Two sworn declarations

• Government fee of about $496

• No income requirement, no bank deposit, no investment

Benefits:

• A Paraguayan cédula, which is what you need to open a bank account there

• Temporary residency valid up to two years, then convertible to permanent

• One entry a year keeps the temporary card valid, and one entry every three years keeps it valid after it converts to permanent

• Paraguay does not tax foreign income

• No wealth tax and no inheritance tax

• Citizenship possible three years after permanent residency is granted

How to apply:

• In person at the “Dirección General de Migraciones” in Asunción

• A Paraguayan immigration lawyer can handle the follow-up, but the filing and your signature cannot be delegated

One thing to know:

• Keeping the residency card and getting a Paraguayan passport are two different things. The card stays valid with one visit a year. The passport requires you to live in Paraguay, and Paraguayan courts look for at least 183 days a year across the three years before you apply.

PS: If you would rather skip the two-year temporary stage, the Investor Pass launched in April 2026 and grants permanent residency directly, starting at $150,000 in a tourism project or $200,000 in real estate or securities.

#2 Panama (Pensionado)

Panama has two main ways in, and the Pensionado is the one for retirees with a pension.

It grants permanent residency on approval.

The permit never expires.

Ley 9 of 1987 created it, and it still gives the holder the right to reside in Panama indefinitely.

Timeline:

• Permanent residency from approval, with no provisional stage first

• Migración does not publish a processing time, but expect several months

• Nothing to renew afterwards

Requirements:

• A pension of at least $1,000 a month, paid for life

• US Social Security qualifies, and so do government, military and corporate pensions

• $750 a month instead, if you own Panamanian property worth more than $100,000

• $250 a month extra for each dependent

• Spouses can combine two pensions to reach the $1,000

• A power of attorney notarized in Panama, a health certificate from a Panamanian doctor, three photos and a sworn personal history form

• If your retirement money is in accounts rather than a pension, a lifetime annuity paying $1,000 a month qualifies you

Benefits:

• Permanent residency immediately, with no renewals and no annual filings

• One entry every two years keeps it valid

• Panama does not tax foreign income

• The Pensionado discount program, which includes half off hotels and 25% off restaurants, for life

• Citizenship possible after five years, though Panama (technically) requires you to renounce your original nationality

How to apply:

• Through a Panamanian immigration lawyer, or directly at the “Servicio Nacional de Migración”

• One trip is usually enough, because there is no second filing to come back for

One thing to know:

• Two years is the limit. Panama can cancel permanent residency after an absence of more than two years. If you do go over, you can apply to have the permit reinstated for absences between two and six years, and you have to file within 30 business days of landing back in Panama.

#3 Uruguay (Rentista)

Uruguay grants permanent residency on the first application.

There is no temporary stage.

Ley 20.446 changed Uruguay’s tax holiday on January 1, 2026.

It did not change the Rentista residency, which still asks for about $1,500 a month in income from outside the country.

Timeline:

• Permanent residency granted on the first application

• The Dirección Nacional de Migración does not publish a processing time

• You open the file online, then attend a scheduled hearing in Montevideo

Requirements:

• Proof that your income supports you. Uruguay sets no figure in the law, and about $1,500 a month is the benchmark

• A notarial certificate stating what the income is, the monthly amount, and how you receive it in Uruguay

• Valid passport

• Apostilled birth certificate

• Police clearance from your home country and from anywhere else you have lived

• A Uruguayan health card and vaccination certificate, both issued in Uruguay

• Proof of a local address

• Government fee of about $95

Benefits:

• Permanent residency from the first application, with no temporary stage first

• Ley 18.250 sets no minimum stay. Articles 31 through 35 cover permanent residence and none of them allows cancellation for time spent outside the country

• A Uruguayan cédula

• Citizenship possible after five years, or three if you have family in Uruguay, but any absence longer than six consecutive months resets the time

• The cheapest government fee on this list

How to apply:

• Open the file online at gub.uy, then attend the hearing in person at the “Dirección Nacional de Migración in Montevideo”

• Or work with a Uruguayan immigration lawyer

One thing to know:

• Leaving while your application is pending costs you paperwork. If you spend more than six months outside Uruguay before the file is decided, you have to produce a police clearance from every country you were in during that time. So either stay until it is decided, or keep your trips under six months.

#4 Mauritius (Retired Non-Citizen Permit)

Mauritius offers ten years at a time, and how long you are staying there is irrelevant.

The requirement is financial, and it repeats every year.

USD 24,000 annually, or USD 2,000 a month, transferred into a Mauritian bank account.

Timeline:

• You apply from home through the online system, and the Prime Minister’s Office gives final approval

• The Economic Development Board publishes no processing time

• You have to be in Mauritius in person to collect the permit and present your original documents

Requirements:

• Aged 50 or over

• USD 2,000 a month, or USD 24,000 a year

• A certified bank statement from your home country showing the money

• An initial USD 2,000 into a Mauritian bank account within 60 days of the permit being issued

• Application fee of USD 50, which you pay whether or not you are approved

• Permit fee of USD 1,000 once you are approved in principle

• USD 400 for each dependent

Benefits:

• A ten-year permit, renewable for another ten

• Foreign income is taxed only when you bring it into Mauritius

• Your spouse, parents and unmarried non-working children can come as dependents

• A 20-year permanent residence permit possible after five years

How to apply:

• Online through the National Electronic Licensing System, from your home country

• Then one trip to Mauritius for identity verification and to collect the permit

One thing to know:

• Meeting the annual minimum does not get you permanent residence. The 20-year permit requires USD 200,000 transferred in total across the five years before you apply. Five years at the permit minimum of USD 24,000 comes to USD 120,000. If permanent residence is the goal, you need to move about USD 40,000 a year, not USD 24,000.

#5 Mexico (Temporary Resident)

Mexico asks for more income than anything else on this list.

It is also the only one where the right to leave is written into the law.

Article 52 of the Ley de Migración gives a temporary resident the right to enter and leave the country as many times as they want.

Timeline:

• You apply at a Mexican consulate in your own country. The application cannot be made from inside Mexico

• Waiting for a consulate appointment is the longest part, and the wait varies by city

• After the visa is issued you enter Mexico and exchange it for the card at an INM office within 30 days

Requirements:

• Proof of income for the last six months, or bank and investment balances for the last twelve months

• Mexico sets both thresholds as multiples of the daily minimum wage, which rose to 315.04 pesos on January 1, 2026

• The Mexican consulate in Las Vegas published USD 4,630 a month in income, or USD 78,025 in average savings, for 2026. Other consulates publish different numbers, because they update at different times and use their own exchange rates

• Valid passport

• Consular visa fee of USD 56

• INM card fee of about USD 657, which is more than double the 2025 fee

Benefits:

• Up to four years of temporary residency

• A written right to enter and leave as often as you want

• Permanent residency after four years

• If you draw a foreign pension, you may be able to apply for permanent residency directly and skip the temporary stage

• Citizenship possible after five years of residence, and absences adding up to more than six months in the two years before you apply interrupt the count

How to apply:

• Book an appointment at the Mexican consulate nearest you and attend in person

• Enter Mexico and complete the canje at an INM office, which includes biometrics. The full step-by-step is here

One thing to know:

• The first card is valid for one year and you have to renew it inside Mexico, in person, before it expires. There is no way to do it from abroad and no grace period once it lapses. If you miss the date, you start again at a consulate.

Conclusion

That’s it.

Five residencies across three continents:

• Paraguay costs the least to qualify for.

• Panama’s Pensionado gives you permanent residency on approval and never needs renewing.

• Uruguay also grants permanent residency on the first application, and its law sets no minimum stay.

• Mauritius gives you ten years at a time, in exchange for USD 24,000 a year.

• Mexico has the highest income requirement, and the only law that writes down your right to come and go.

Which of these five would you actually use?

Let me know in the comments, I read every one.

Appreciate you being here,

— Ben

PS

(Sorry, not sorry.)

If you have the capital and no plan to move full time, buying residency can still be the right tool.

I just don’t like it when the first thing out of anyone’s mouth is “Golden Visa” before they looked at any other options.

If you do buy residency, you need numbers:

• What you pay in 2026 (government fees included)

• Whether the money comes back (or is gone for good)

• Whether you have to live there to keep it (or can spend time elsewhere)

This list answers all three, country by country.

I hold residency in five countries and only one of them I bought.

Keep one thing in mind as you read.

Buying residency and moving somewhere are two different decisions.

None of the six asks you to live there.

Three want a visit now and then, once a year at most.

What we’ll cover:

• Six countries where you can buy residency today, from $27K to $465K

• Whether you buy permanent residency, a renewable permit, or only a visa

• The ones I would skip, even if I had the money

Let’s start.

1. Thailand

The cheapest option on this list, and the only one where you pay a fee instead of making an investment.

Thailand Privilege (the old Elite Visa) is a membership, not an investment.

You pay once and get a long-stay visa with no visa runs and no annual extensions.

The Gold tier costs 900,000 baht (about $27,000) for five years. Platinum is 1.5 million baht (about $45,000) for ten years.

I hold this visa myself.

The membership years don’t count toward Thai permanent residency.

If you want permanent residency, you need a different visa first.

Thailand asks for three consecutive years of one-year extensions before you can apply.

2. Malta

The lowest entry price for permanent residency in the EU, and you never have to buy property.

Malta’s permanent residence program (MPRP) charges a €60,000 administration fee, a €37,000 government contribution, and a €2,000 donation to a Maltese charity.

In total, that’s €99,000 (about $115,000).

On top, you rent a home for at least €14,000 a year for five years, or buy one for €375,000 or more.

You also have to show €500,000 in assets, €150,000 of it liquid.

What you get is permanent residency for life, no minimum stay, and visa-free travel across Schengen.

Citizenship by investment is off the table.

The EU court ended Malta’s passport sales in April 2025.

If you want citizenship in Malta, you have to use your MPRP years in the country, and work your way toward naturalization.

I covered Malta’s other routes here.

Read more

The final takeaway was one sentence:

That was advice from experience.

This week’s article shows why.

On January 11, 2027, a new EU banking rule called CRD VI takes effect.

From that day, a bank headquartered outside the EU can’t take deposits from you or lend to you while you live in the EU, unless it has a licensed branch in the country you live in.

The rule looks at where you live:

• A retired American in Lisbon lives inside the EU, so every non-EU bank she uses falls under the rule.

• The same American, still in Ohio, lives outside the EU, so her banking is none of the EU’s business, no matter what she opens or where.

Very important nuance:

The rule targets banks, not you.

No account becomes illegal, and no money gets taken from anyone.

The question it creates is which banks will still have you as a client once you’re an EU resident.

So if you plan to retire in France, Portugal, Spain, Italy or Greece, and you want part of your money outside the EU (your US accounts, or an account in Switzerland, Singapore, Panama or the Caribbean), the order you do things in is now more important than ever.

Why?

Because while you still live in the US, you are not an EU resident yet.

Banks can take you on, and this rule has nothing to say about it.

The day you register as a resident in the EU, you become the person this rule covers.

From that day, a bank outside the EU needs a licensed branch in the country you live in.

But there are few exceptions we’ll get to later in this article.

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

• What the EU decided, and who it applies to from January 11, 2027

• The two exceptions written into the law, and why one of them closed on July 11, 2026

• What to do if you’re moving in 2027, and what to do if you already live in the EU

We start with the rule itself.

What the EU decided

In May 2024, the EU adopted the sixth version of its main banking law, the Capital Requirements Directive, known as CRD VI.

For you, the whole law comes down to one article inside it:

Article 21c.

It says that a bank headquartered outside the EU must open a licensed branch in an EU country before it can provide “core banking services” to people living there.

Core banking services means three things:

1. Taking deposits

2. Lending (including consumer loans and mortgages)

3. Issuing guarantees (e.g. the bank promising a landlord they'll get paid)

In plain terms:

Holding your money and lending you money.

What the rule does not cover matters just as much.

Investment services are excluded.

Your brokerage account and your managed portfolio fall under a different EU law (MiFID), with its own regime for foreign firms.

Nothing in this article applies to them, so keep the two questions separate.

The rule applies in all 27 EU countries.

Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein agreed in March 2026 to adopt it as well, and it takes effect there once their national procedures finish.

Now, the part I find remarkable (but not surprising):

EU countries had until January 10, 2026 to write this rule into their national law.

Only five of them made the deadline.

In March 2026, the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against the other 22.

By August, twelve countries had finished the job.

EU countries are known for having extensive summer holidays. Combine that with ancient bureaucracy, and you understand why I’m not surprised.

None of that changes your date.

The rule applies from January 11, 2027 everywhere, finished paperwork or not.

A bank that wants EU-resident clients has three options:

1. Open a branch in every country where its clients live

2. Move those clients to a subsidiary inside the EU

3. Fit them into the exceptions written into the law

Skadden, a law firm advising US banks on this rule, expects most banks to use subsidiaries and exceptions.

Almost nobody opens branches in ten countries for a handful of retail clients.

Those exceptions are your options, so that’s where we go next.

The two exceptions

Exception one:

Grandfathering.

Contracts signed before July 11, 2026 keep working as they are. The bank can service them across the border, no branch needed.

Two things here, before you get overly excited about it.

First, the date already passed. If you signed before it, you’re protected. Nobody can get this protection anymore.

Second, the protection covers the contract as it stands, not the relationship. Law firms advising banks warn that material changes can break it. For example, extending a loan’s term, drawing additional credit or turning the product into something else. The safe assumption is that a grandfathered contract stays grandfathered for as long as you leave it alone.

Because the EU published all three dates back in 2024.

If protection had run until January 2027, every non-EU bank would have spent late 2026 signing up EU clients as fast as possible to lock them in.

The lawmakers saw that coming and closed the window early.

The directive says transition measures must be framed narrowly “to avoid instances of circumvention.”

Exception two:

Reverse solicitation.

When you approach a non-EU bank at your “own exclusive initiative,” the bank may serve you without a branch.

It comes with three conditions:

1. The initiative must be entirely yours. If an agent the bank pays brought you in, the law says that no longer counts as your initiative.

2. The bank has to prove it. Regulators can demand records, so the bank keeps proof on file that the request came from you.

3. It doesn’t extend to new products. The bank can keep providing what you asked for, but it may not market new product categories to you.

And here is what separates this exception from grandfathering: the bank decides whether to use it.

Some banks will rely on it for their EU-resident clients and keep the files. Others will decide the paperwork isn’t worth a few retail clients and decline.

A real case from my client work:

An American living in Greece opened an account at a non-EU bank in August 2026.

Grandfathering doesn’t cover her, since the date had passed a month earlier.

Reverse solicitation does, since she requested the account herself, in writing, and the bank onboarded her knowing where she lives.

From January 2027, the bank can keep serving her on that basis for as long as it’s willing to keep the file.

What to do now

Three situations.

Open every non-EU account you want before you register as a resident.

The US accounts, the fintech accounts, the account in a third country.

All of it.

As a US resident, you’re a normal customer everywhere in the world. No exemption needed, no compliance file, nothing to document.

One extra step I now build into this:

Ask the bank (in writing, via email is fine) how it treats clients who later become EU residents.

How a bank behaves after you move is its policy decision, and you want its answer in your file before you move, not a surprise after.

Don’t touch them.

Grandfathering protects the contract as it stands.

Closing and reopening, upgrading to a different account type, extending a loan: each of those can turn a protected contract into an unprotected one.

If you need a change, ask the bank first how it affects your grandfathered status (again, in writing, always).

Reverse solicitation is your path.

The law sets one condition:

The initiative must be yours.

That means you decided you want the account, and nobody selling for a bank talked you into it.

You can contact a bank directly, or you can hire someone to find the right bank and handle the whole application for you.

And here the law hands you a useful test for anyone you might hire.

The exemption is then invalid, and the bank can’t take you.

An adviser paid only by you leaves the exemption intact.

So ask one question before you hire anyone:

“Does any money flow to you from the bank?”

I also got this question from people, and my answer is always the same:

“I don’t take referral fees from banks, because it would compromise my neutrality.”

Expect some banks to decline anyway.

I had cases that were harder than others, but I always find a way to open an account for my clients.

Here is one of them (Wendy), speaking about her experience with her offshore account opening with me (full case study coming soon):

Conclusion

That’s it.

The whole rule:

• From January 11, 2027, a bank outside the EU needs a licensed branch, an EU subsidiary, or one of the two exceptions to hold deposits for EU residents.

• Grandfathering closed on July 11, 2026, and reverse solicitation belongs to the bank’s compliance department, not to you.

• Your residence date is the one lever you fully control: open your non-EU accounts before you register, and the rule never applies to the account opening.

One thing to do this week:

Appreciate having you here,

— Ben

PS

Her US banks had spent years making her life difficult, and every bank she approached on her own had said no.

She wanted her life savings at a bank with no reason to shut her out.

On paper, she should have been an easy client.

In practice, almost every document needed a second round:

• Her proof of address wasn’t in the format the bank wanted.

• The reference letter from her local bank couldn’t be confirmed: nobody picked up when the new bank called.

• The review took so long that her utility bill became too old to use, and she had to send a new one.

None of that was her doing.

She sent everything we asked for, every time.

In late August, two months after we started, her account was approved.

Here she is, speaking about her experience herself:

Last September, I wrote about the document stack that you need when you move abroad.

Digital Citizen

8 Documents You Need Before You Move Abroad (+Templates You Can Use)

Which documents do you need when moving abroad…

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a year ago · 64 likes · 4 comments · Benjamin Hies

Those are the “admin papers” for the move itself.

Today is the second stack: the “money documents” for the bank.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• The complete document stack, in the order the bank will ask for it

• The bank reference letter: why statements get rejected, and the two templates you can hand to your banker

• The six questions the bank asks on the onboarding call, and how long it all takes

First, why banks put you through this at all.

Why the bank asks

KYC stands for “know your customer.”

Before any serious bank takes your money, its regulator requires it to prove two things:

1. That you are who you say you are.

2. That your money came from somewhere legal.

And the process works in your favor.

The bank that spent two months checking my reader’s file applies the same checks to every other customer at that bank.

Compliance is what keeps the bank clean, and a clean bank is the entire point of moving your savings abroad.

The banks that ask few questions attract the customers who prefer few questions.

(And you don’t want your retirement at THAT kind of bank.)

All of it is reported, twice.

You file an FBAR with the US Treasury for any year your foreign accounts combined top $10,000, and the bank reports you to the IRS under FATCA.

Legitimate offshore banking is legal (and yes, a little boring).

The KYC file is what makes it that way.

Here’s what belongs in the file, and afterwards you get the templates to download and use.

The document stack

The full file is ten documents, and you have most of them already.

1. Passport photo page. A clean color scan. Every other paper in the file has to match the name on this page exactly.

2. CV. That might surprise some of you. The bank wants your career and education to explain your money: a retired dentist with $2 million reads differently than a file with no history. I’ve had a bank send a CV back because it didn’t list the client’s education.

3. Phone number and email. These go on record as the contact details for the account. Use ones you plan to keep for years, not a work email that dies the day you retire.

4. Proof of residency. The card or visa for the country where you legally live. If you haven’t left the US yet, this part is easy.

5. Tax numbers. Your Social Security number, always, because you’re American. Plus the tax ID of any country where you’re tax-resident.

6. Proof of address, under three months old. A utility bill or bank statement showing your name at your address. Two wrinkles here. If the utilities are in your spouse’s name, add your marriage certificate so the bank can connect you to the address. And the three-month requirement means you pull this document fresh when you apply, not when you start collecting. (This is the one my reader had to replace mid-review.)

7. Your last tax return. It shows your income with your Social Security number on it, which makes it the anchor for everything about your money.

8. Papers showing where the money was made. Sold a house? The sale contract or the deed. Earned it through a company you own? The ownership papers. Salary or pension? Pay slips or employment records.

9. Statements showing where the money is now. From the bank or brokerage holding it today. (Moving it over later is its own article.)

10. A bank reference letter. A short letter from a bank that knows you. It held up my reader’s application, so it gets its own section next.

All ten papers have to match each other.

If the money you deposit is bigger than the income on your tax return, the bank wants the paper that explains the difference (like the deed from a house sale).

Some banks want certified or apostilled copies of specific documents, often the passport or the marriage certificate.

Which ones varies by bank, so wait until yours asks before paying an apostille service.

The bank reference letter

Your new bank wants a note from a bank that already knows you.

That’s what a bank reference letter is.

A few lines on your current bank’s letterhead saying:

This person has banked with us since 2011 and has been a good customer.

Signed by a real employee, with a phone number.

The new bank will call that person to check the letter is real.

Three things that won’t work:

1. A balance printout.

2. An account screenshot.

3. The form US banks like to offer instead, called a verification of deposit (“VOD”).

None of them carry a person the new bank can call, so all three get rejected.

Go to your branch and ask the manager:

“I need a bank reference letter for opening an account abroad.”

Small banks and credit unions usually write it.

Big banks usually don’t, because there’s no branch manager who knows you, just a call center.

If every bank says no, ask your accountant or your lawyer instead.

A letter from a professional who has worked with you for years does the same job, and banks accept it.

Print them, and you are prepared for what comes next.

The interview and the wait

One step remains after the documents:

A short call with the bank.

Every serious bank does this before approving a new client. Someone from the bank asks, you answer.

The six questions:

1. What is your profession, and what did you study?

2. What will you use the account for?

3. Where does your money come from?

4. Where will you send money, and where will you receive it from?

5. How much do you plan to keep in the account?

6. How much will move through it in a year?

You already gave every answer in your file.

The call checks that the person matches the folder. Answer plainly and use the same round numbers.

Then you wait.

Most accounts open within a few weeks.

Some take up to two months in compliance review, like my reader’s did, usually because one document needs a second round.

And everything happens remotely at reputable banks:

The call is a video call, the documents are PDFs, and nobody has to travel anywhere.

What comes next

That’s it.

The whole system is a folder of PDFs and one phone call.

• The file decides. Ten documents, and nine can be ready before any bank ever asks.

• A reference letter counts only when the bank can call the person who signed it. Balance printouts and screenshots get rejected.

• Expect a few weeks, sometimes two months. Everything happens remotely, and a no from one bank says nothing about the next one.

Your step for this week:

One PDF per document, clearly named.

When a bank asks, you answer in minutes instead of weeks.

And if you want the account opened with me preparing and submitting the file, that’s the work I do with clients.

Appreciate you being here,

— Ben

And sometimes it is.

I lived in Cyprus for a year, and I have plenty of good memories from living there.

And every place I moved to, I always brought my parents over at least once. They loved Cyprus as well, although I doubt they would have loved the hot summer months.

Not every island is worth retiring to.

Don’t be fooled by the typical pictures of a hammock, a palm tree, water in that exact shade of turquoise.

What most stories leave out is the visa paperwork, the bank deposit you have to freeze, and the ferry timetable that ruins your winter if you pick the wrong island.

For this comparison, we are using the same rules as the European cities list from July.

What we’ll cover:

• What a retired couple spends a month (Numbeo figures)

• The visa each island takes, and the income or deposit you need to qualify

• The tax angle or the catch, from Malta’s 15% pension rate to Thailand’s remittance rules

Starting in Thailand.

1. Koh Samui, Thailand

Thailand’s second-largest island, in the Gulf of Thailand, an hour’s flight from Bangkok.

Warm all year, with everything from a $500 one-bedroom to a pool villa.

A couple lives well on around $2,000 to $2,800 a month.

Most retirees come in on the “O-A” retirement visa.

You have to be at least 50 years old with 800,000 baht (about $24,000) parked in a Thai bank, or 65,000 baht ($1,950) a month in income, plus health insurance of at least $100,000.

It renews every year, and the 800,000 baht has to sit in the account two months before you apply.

The other route is the Thailand Privilege Visa, which I hold myself.

900,000 baht ($27,000) buys you five years, with no income proof and no deposit.

It usually takes a few months to get it, but the process in very straightforward.

Since 2024, Thailand taxes foreign income you bring into the country if you spend 180 days or more there in a year (Social Security is exempt).

2. Mauritius

An island in the Indian Ocean, about 1,200 miles off the east coast of Africa.

English is the official language, but French and Creole are what you hear at the market.

A couple lives well on around $2,000 to $2,500 a month, more in Grand Baie in the north.

The retiree route is the “Retired Non-Citizen” permit.

You have to be at least 50 and transfer $2,000 a month ($24,000 a year) into a Mauritian bank account.

The permit is valid for 10 years, no work allowed, and after 5 years you can apply for a 20-year permanent residence permit.

Mauritius only taxes foreign income when you bring it into the country, at 0% to 20% for almost everyone.

The US has no tax treaty with Mauritius, so you rely on the foreign tax credit instead.

3. Gozo, Malta

Malta’s smaller island.

Gozo is a 25-minute ferry from the main island, with fewer than 40,000 people.

English is an official language, so the lease, the doctor, the bank, and the tax office all work in English.

Quieter and cheaper than Malta itself.

A couple lives well on around €2,000 to €2,500 a month.

The retiree route is the “Malta Retirement Programme”.

You need a pension that makes up at least 75% of your income, a home on Gozo (bought for €220,000 or more, or rented for at least €8,750 a year), and private health insurance.

You also have to spend at least 90 days a year in Malta on average.

The reward is a flat 15% tax on the pension you bring into Malta, with a minimum of €7,500 a year.

I went through Malta’s three residency paths with an immigration attorney here.

Gozo is quiet from November to March, and serious healthcare means the ferry to Mater Dei hospital in Malta.

The minimum tax doubles to €15,000 a year, the rent floor rises to €14,000 a year, and a purchase has to be €700,000 or more.

The status also stops being permanent.

Malta grants it for five years at a time, and each renewal costs €2,500.

If you apply by December 31, 2026, you keep the current terms until the end of 2031, even if the approval only arrives in 2027.

4. Madeira, Portugal

A Portuguese island in the Atlantic, about 600 miles southwest of Lisbon and closer to Morocco than to mainland Europe.

Spring weather most of the year, steep hills, and English everywhere in Funchal, a leftover from two centuries of British wine merchants.

A couple lives well on around €2,500 to €3,000 a month.

Same “D7” visa as Porto and Lagos in the July list.

About €920 a month in steady income for one person (€1,380 for a couple) from a pension, Social Security, dividends, or rent.

The benefit when it comes to Madeira is a nonstop to New York (about seven hours with Azores Airlines).

5. Las Palmas, Spain (Canary Islands)

The capital of Gran Canaria, in the Atlantic off the coast of Morocco.

Yes I know, Las Palmas was on the July list too.

I’m still repeating it on this one because it has the mildest winters in Europe, around 70°F (21°C) most of the year, with a beach in the middle of the city.

I ran the Las Palmas marathon in 2018 and the climate is made for being outdoors.

A couple lives comfortably on around €2,300 a month, and Las Palmas is one of the more affordable cities in Spain.

The visa is Spain’s “Non-Lucrative Visa”.

About €2,400 a month in income for the main applicant (plus €600 for a spouse), and you have to show you won’t work.

(I’ve had enough calls about this to say it twice.)

Spain has no special tax deal for retirees.

It taxes worldwide income, so of the five islands this is the least tax-friendly.

However, the Canaries charge 7% sales tax instead of the mainland’s 21%, which makes day-to-day spending cheaper.

Conclusion

Three things to take away:

• Three of the five only tax the money you bring in (Thailand, Mauritius) or give your pension a flat rate (Malta’s 15%). Portugal and Spain tax worldwide income.

• Check how you get on and off the island before you go apartment hunting. Madeira has a seven-hour nonstop to New York, while Mauritius is 20 hours with a stopover.

• Small islands do not have the same healthcare infrastructure as bigger ones. Gozo and Koh Samui both send serious cases to the bigger island or the mainland, by ferry or by plane.

Question for you:

Which of the five would you pick?

Tell me in the comments, I read them all.

Thanks for reading, and as always, appreciate having you here.

— Ben

PS

Near the end of that piece, I dropped one line and kept going:

“And even money that has to stay in US custody, like an IRA, has options.”

Several of you asked me what those options are.

So here is one of the five.

And the answer starts with a problem:

Your IRA cannot leave the country.

By law it sits with a US custodian, and if you pull the money out to move it yourself, the IRS treats that as a withdrawal.

Income tax on the full amount (for a traditional IRA), plus a 10% penalty if you're under 59½.

There is a workaround.

It’s called a self-directed IRA

And if you search the term, half the first page of results is custodians who earn a fee when you open one.

My view is this:

It’s the right answer for a small group of people.

It’s the wrong answer for almost everyone reading this.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Why your IRA is stuck in the US, and what “self-directed” actually changes

• The ownership chain that gets IRA money into a Swiss account (legally, fully reported)

• What it costs, what can blow it up, and the number below which you should walk away

First, what the word actually means.

Read more

The US, Portugal, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Spain, Mexico, the UK, Sweden, Greece, Serbia, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Cyprus and Switzerland.

You also called me from several states:

California, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Minnesota, New Mexico, Utah, Virginia, Missouri and North Carolina.

A few of you had already moved and wanted help with the next step.

Most of you are still in the US, looking for the best way out.

My calendar says 122 discovery calls since January.

(Most go for around 30 minutes, although sometimes I can’t help but ramble on and they go up to 45 minutes, those topics are just too interesting.)

I get to hear what people plan to do with the next 20-40 years of their lives, and many of the stories I hear include exciting scenarios.

Today I want to share some questions that I hear often, so that all the people I haven’t yet talked to also get answers.

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

• The 10 questions I hear most often on these calls

• My honest answer to each one, and one key takeaway (in purple)

• The one question almost nobody asks (and it might be the most important one)

Starting with the question I heard more than any other.

#1 Where do I open a bank account outside the US?

The question I hear on almost every call, usually within the first ten minutes.

Most people assume the answer is “in the country I’m moving to.”

You will need a local account there eventually, for rent and groceries.

But banks in your destination country rarely open accounts for people without residency and a local address, so it usually can’t be your first move anyway.

Why?

• Because your US bank can restrict or close your account once a foreign address shows up in your file.

• Because the bank in your new country has their own reasons to make your life harder (residency regulations, regulatory changes for foreigners, you name it).

An account in a neutral third country has neither problem.

I made the full argument in The Bank Account They Can’t Touch.

Also, I clarified the difference between the mechanics of an offshore account vs. a local spending account in this video:

#2 Will I be taxed twice if I move abroad?

The fear behind almost every money conversation I have.

The answer:

The US taxes its citizens no matter where they live (the only other country that does this is Eritrea).

Your new country will usually tax you once you become a resident there.

Now, there’s a difference between becoming a “resident” and a “tax resident”.

If you residency has a low minimum stay requirement (e.g. a “Plan B”) you might become a resident, but not a tax resident.

And sometimes, even becoming a tax resident can still mean not paying local taxes, if the country e.g. has a territorial tax system.

Tax treaties and foreign tax credits then decide who gets what, so the same income isn’t fully taxed twice.

Sounds confusing?

How much you are taxed depends on the income type.

Social Security, a government pension, an IRA withdrawal, and rental income from a US property all follow different rules, and every treaty handles them differently.

That’s why “how are taxes in Portugal?” is impossible to answer without knowing what your income looks like.

And those rules change constantly, so make sure what you read is up to date.

I broke down the full system in How Taxes Work When You Retire Abroad.

#3 What happens to my IRA and 401(k)?

Nothing.

It stays where it is.

Getting the money out means cashing out, and a cash-out is a distribution and a taxable event (Roth excluded).

(One exception: a self-directed IRA. The account itself stays in the US with a US custodian, but with the right structure, it can hold assets outside the country, including money in a Swiss bank account.)

Two things need your attention before you leave:

1. First, your custodian. Big US brokerages close accounts when a foreign address shows up in your file, so move your IRA to one that accepts Americans abroad while you still have a US address.

2. Second, your investments. The IRS punishes Americans who buy foreign mutual funds (look up PFIC if you want to lose an afternoon).

#4 Which country should I pick?

Half of my callers ask this with a country already chosen.

The other half have a spreadsheet with twelve.

A country is a set of trade-offs, and the right one depends on inputs only you have:

• Your monthly budget

• Your health and the care it needs

• How fast you want to reach your kids

• What you want a normal Tuesday to look like

Write those down first.

I ask my Blueprint clients almost 100 questions in our first session.

You can check how it works here.

#5 Will my US bank close my account when I move?

Some of them will.

Since FATCA passed in 2010, every bank in the world has to report its American customers to the IRS.

Serving Americans abroad became an expensive compliance job, and banks hate expensive compliance jobs.

A foreign address in your file is enough to start that process.

The answer:

1. Open accounts outside the US.

2. Move your account to an institution that accepts foreign addresses.

3. Set up a “bridge” for converting currencies, so you’re not paying crazy fees.

The full setup is in The 3 Bank Accounts Everyone Retiring Abroad Needs.

#6 Is my money safer outside the US?

Depends on where you move it to.

“Outside the US” is not one place.

How much capital banks must hold, and what happens to depositors when one fails.

Whether your deposits are protected, and who pays for that protection.

Some countries set the bar far above international minimums.

Others barely have a bar.

I ranked the best options, by currency strength, bank capital, government debt, and track record, in The 3 Safest Countries To Park Your Money.

#7 Can I still work a little on a retirement visa?

Sometimes you can.

Often you cannot.

Some visas ban work of any kind, for example Italy’s Elective Residency Visa or Spain’s Non Lucrative Visa.

Some include the right to work, such as Portugal’s D7.

Which is a bad trade for a few consulting hours.

So decide before you apply.

If remote income is part of your plan, digital nomad visas exist for exactly this, with income minimums that you need to meet.

I compared the 4 European options in The 4 Best Retirement Visas In Europe.

#8 How does healthcare work abroad?

There are three strategies.

1. Public-Primary

   You join your new country’s public system once you’re a legal resident. Cheapest of the three. The trade-off is waiting, both to qualify and for non-urgent care.

2. Private-Primary

   International private insurance from day one. Fast access and your choice of hospitals. The trade-off is that premiums climb with your age, and insurers care about your medical history.

3. Dual-Track

   Both at once. The public system as your base, private cover for speed and comfort. It costs more than public alone but still far less than what you pay in the US today.

I broke all three down in 3 Healthcare Strategies Expats Use Abroad (And Which One Fits You).

#9 Can I split time between countries without becoming a tax resident anywhere?

Yes.

This is actually a real strategy, one of eight I deploy for my clients.

The anchor is the 183-day rule.

Spend less than half the year in a country and, as a general rule, you don’t become a tax resident there.

Days are only one test.

Tax offices also look at your ties such as a home, a spouse, a bank account, a registered business.

Treaties call this your “center of vital interests”, and it can make you a tax resident at less than 183 days if your life is anchored there.

When two countries both claim you, tax treaties have tiebreaker rules that decide which claim wins.

The full set of rules, including the reporting requirements most people miss, is in The Tax Residency Cheat Sheet.

#10 Do I have enough money to retire abroad?

The question is very hard to answer without knowing a lot of things about who I talk to.

I know people who retired on $500k and make it work.

I also know people who had millions and blew it, because they did not plan it right.

But a good starting point is to:

1. Estimate your cost of living abroad, e.g. with this prompt: How to Estimate Your Cost of Living Abroad.

2. Map out scenarios for what your investments will yield over the next decades (best case, middle case, worst case).

3. Always plan for a buffer, and unexpected things happening.

At the same time, don’t let your “worst case scenario” bring up so much anxiety that you scrap your idea of moving abroad altogether.

The question almost nobody asks

Ask yourself this:

I’m not trying to make that country work for you.

I ask because of what comes after.

When you say Fiji, I ask why.

And then the real answers show up:

• The food

• The pace

• The ocean

• The people

• The taxes you’d leave behind

Those reasons become our compass.

Conclusion

That’s it.

This truly is the work I was meant to do, and I enjoy every minute of it.

If you ever want to book a call with me to bring clarity into your moving abroad plans, you can do so here.

I don’t work with everyone.

If you show up with good energy and you’re ready to do your part, we’ll get along well, and the process will be more fun than you’d expect.

Here’s what they say about our work together:

Appreciate have you here,

— Ben

I walked into a branch with my passport, and 20 minutes later it was done.

I figured banking abroad would always be that easy.

(It wasn’t.)

A few years later I did an internship in China and got turned down at every single bank (half the time because my Chinese wasn’t good enough to explain what I wanted, and this was before fancy translation apps).

Since then I’ve opened accounts across Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Asia and made most of the mistakes I now warn readers about.

Today, my money sits in 7 countries.

But I built all of that on a German passport.

You’ll be building yours on an American one.

FATCA makes you expensive to service, so foreign banks hesitate and US banks push you out.

In 2025, US banks closed an increasing amount of accounts held by Americans living abroad, most of them for nothing more than a foreign address on file.

So today I’m giving you the full setup, start to finish:

• The institutions that work for Americans abroad

• The 4 money roles, and which account does each job

• The exact order to open everything (most of it happens before you leave the US)

We start with the framework.

The 4 money roles

Every dollar you own is doing one of four jobs, whether you manage it that way or not.

I broke this framework down in How To Move Your Money Abroad, so here’s the short version:

• GROW is the money working for your future, such as retirement accounts and your brokerage.

• PARK is the money you protect, like savings accounts and term deposits that pay little and lose nothing.

• MOVE is how money gets from one country and currency into another, whether you travel or stay somewhere long term.

• SPEND is the card in your pocket and the checking account behind it. Money you use to pay for everyday expenses.

Right now, all four roles are probably in one country.

Your IRA grows, your savings sit at your bank, Zelle moves money between friends, and your debit card spends it.

Moving abroad splits every role in two.

From here on, every role has a US side and an International side, and your setup only works when both are covered.

If that sounds too complicated already, I recorded a short video below explaining the logic.

We build them in reverse order, starting with SPEND.

SPEND: the money you live on

Daily money works with two accounts, one on each side of the border.

The US side comes first, and it starts with a decision about your income.

Social Security pays directly into foreign accounts in most retirement destinations.

So no, you don’t need a US account for the check to arrive.

I recommend one anyway.

The reason is control over the amount and the timing.

Paid into a Portuguese account, your full benefit becomes euros at that day’s rate, every month, whether you need it all in euros or not.

SSA’s own sign-up form for Portugal states:

“The account must be in euros, and the payment converts automatically.”

If you deposit it in the US instead, you decide when dollars become euros, and how many of them.

Direct deposit abroad suits people who are fully settled and spend every cent locally, and the conversion rate itself is fair.

The second decision is which US bank.

Most big banks don’t want customers with foreign addresses.

Chase and Bank of America have both closed accounts over one. The standard answer for expats is Charles Schwab.

Their checking account accepts foreign addresses, charges no foreign transaction fees, and refunds ATM fees worldwide.

The abroad side is the local account.

Every country has its own payment system that locals use for everyday transfers:

• In Mexico it’s SPEI

• In Portugal it’s MB Way

• In Thailand it’s PromptPay

These systems only work with an account at a local bank.

I keep two accounts here in Thailand for spending money and the local payment systems.

Opening a local account usually takes a passport, your visa or residency permit, and proof of a local address.

Some countries let tourists open accounts, most don’t, and requirements change by branch as much as by bank.

By now, the setup looks like this:

How the money gets from Schwab to your local account is the next role: MOVE.

MOVE: getting money across the border

The tools you use to move money today stop working at the border.

Zelle and Venmo are domestic only.

Your bank will happily send an international wire instead, for $25 to $50 per transfer, converted at an exchange rate 2 to 4% worse than the real one.

If you do this every month, you lose money (simple as that).

You connect your US account, convert dollars at the mid-market rate (the one you see when you Google “USD to EUR”), and send the money to your local account for a fee under 1%.

The same transfer often costs way less than sending a direct wire from your US bank.

And you control the timing.

This is the Social Security argument from the SPEND section.

Dollars sit at Schwab as dollars, and they become euros only when you decide.

Wise lets you set a rate alert, so you convert when the rate is good instead of when the calendar says so.

Now the warning.

Wise is not a bank.

There’s no branch, US balances are insured only through partner banks and only if you opt in, and accounts do get frozen over verification issues, and there's no branch to walk into while you wait.

Move money through it, never store wealth in it.

With MOVE in place, the typical month finally works:

1. Social Security arrives at Schwab.

2. You send it to Wise (and you decide when).

3. Then you convert it to euros and send it to your Portuguese account.

4. Local rent goes out by IBAN transfer, groceries go on the local debit card.

Now spending is covered and money moves.

Your setup looks something like this by now:

The next role is where your reserves sit: PARK.

PARK: the money that sits safe

“MOVE and SPEND I get. But what is PARK supposed to be, Ben?”

Fair question.

PARK is the money you’re not spending this year and not investing either.

You already have it, you just call it something else:

• “Your emergency fund”

• “The cash bucket for bigger purchases”

• “Money you keep ready, not invested in the market”

That money probably sits in a high-yield savings account.

And those are the first accounts to close when you move.

Ally’s own account rules require "a U.S. street address."

Marcus and the other online banks paying the best rates work the same way.

So the accounts holding your safety cushion are the most “residency-sensitive” accounts you own.

Your checking account might survive the move.

Your HYSA probably won’t.

PARK gets rebuilt on both sides, and you choose how.

Keeping part of it in the US works fine.

Interactive Brokers accepts foreign addresses and pays interest on cash that just sits in the account.

Just know that the US share is optional.

American obligations (the IRS, the credit cards) might already go through your US checking account.

The international side is where I would now add another form of de-risking assets.

Most movers want to park the cash in their new country.

Don’t.

You already keep one to two months in the local account, and the rest has no business there, for one reason: you might leave.

Maybe the tax rules change, maybe the grandkids pull you back, maybe year three feels different from year one.

If your reserves live in the country you’re leaving, you rebuild the whole setup from zero.

Disconnect PARK from your new country and it stays the same, even when you move again.

The third country means a stable jurisdiction where you don’t live and never have:

• Switzerland or Singapore for larger amounts

• Panama, Georgia or the Caribbean for simpler remote openings

How much goes where is personal.

Keep half in the US and half in the third country, or a low amount (or zero) in the US.

Any scenario works.

What matters is that your reserves don’t all sit in one country, and that none of them depend on the country you happen to live in.

Your setup now might look something like this:

Now, this leaves the biggest role of all.

Your 401(k), your IRA and your brokerage.

Who grows your money once you’ve left, and in what exact order should you open everything?

The next section: GROW.

Read more

(No politics here.)

But a lot of you are looking around and asking:

Why is this so hard?

Healthcare costs are through the roof.

Rent prices (even in mid-tier cities) cross new thresholds.

And every year brings new compliance requirements, new reporting thresholds, new reasons to consult yet another specialist.

Some of you stay and push back.

You call your insurance company, haggle with landlords, spend weekends on hold with the IRS.

Others are asking a different question:

Is there a place where I can just live without all this?

Countries where government stays in the background.

Where nobody tracks your address or audits your income.

Where the default setting is “let people live.”

And at the same time, where you can eat at a restaurant without wondering if something bad is about to happen.

This piece covers five options across four continents.

But some of them might spark your interest.

What we will look at:

• What “hands-off” actually looks like (visas, reporting, enforcement culture)

• Whether each country works as a place to live beyond the “light touch”

• The honest trade-offs that come with each (nothing is perfect)

What “hands-off” means

Every country has rules.

The difference is how often those rules affect your daily life.

For each country in this piece, we looked at four things:

• Do rules change often?

  Annual updates to tax codes and visa requirements make planning impossible. Stable policy for a decade means you can actually build a life.

• Does the government track you?

  Bank transactions, border crossings, phone data, digital IDs. How much gets recorded? How much gets shared between agencies?

• What do you owe?

  Income tax, wealth declarations, worldwide reporting. And what happens when you miss a deadline?

• How often do you see the government?

  Police checkpoints, permit requirements, inspections, random ID checks. Can you go a month without interacting with an official?

Now, the five countries.

#1: Georgia

Americans get 365 days in Georgia without a visa.

The policy has been this way since 2015.

365 days visa-free is generous.

What happens after you land is even better:

1. There’s no address registration.

   On the 365-day visa-free stay, there's no address registration. You rent a place, move in, done. Nobody in government tracks where you live.

2. There is no tax on passive foreign income.

   Passive income from abroad isn’t taxed. Investments, dividends, interest, crypto gains. If you’re retired and living off a portfolio, Georgia takes nothing.

3. Banking takes 30 minutes (but you need to go in person).

   Walk into Bank of Georgia or TBC with your passport, open an account same day. No proof of address or local tax ID required upfront.

4. Foreigners can buy property (with the same rights as Georgians).

   Registration takes 1-3 days and costs 1% of the purchase price. No residency requirement.

Now:

Does anyone actually want to live here?

Tbilisi is far from polished like Prague or Lisbon.

Buildings crumble next to new construction. Stray dogs roam everywhere.

But there’s a warmth to the place that’s hard to explain until you’ve been there a few weeks.

The cost of living is low.

One-bedroom apartments in the center are around $600-750/month, while places outside the center are more like $450-550/month.

Groceries are cheap.

A full meal at a local restaurant costs $8-12, and the food is good. Khachapuri, khinkali, grilled meats (and great wine with everything).

Georgians take eating seriously.

Internet is fast ($15-18/month for fiber) and the expat scene has grown enough that you will find your people.

A single person can live well on $1,200-1,500/month total.

When you want to get out of town, there are great options as well.

The Caucasus mountains are a few hours north and Black Sea beaches (Batumi) reachable by train.

Wizz Air flies out of Kutaisi (4 hours west) with $50 fares to Europe. Tbilisi's airport costs more but has direct flights to most major cities.

Now, the downsides.

Georgia has problems you can’t ignore.

In late 2024 there were street protests.

The country is caught between Western aspirations and Russian pressure, and that tension is public and ongoing.

Daily life for foreigners hasn’t been disrupted that much, but the political situation is genuinely unstable.

Infrastructure outside Tbilisi gets rough.

Poor roads, spotty internet, old buildings without central heating, while winter temperatures drop below freezing.

Also, the regulatory window is changing in some areas.

Which is normal to a degree, and not a reason for general concern (but worth mentioning).

One example: since March 2026, foreigners who register as Individual Entrepreneurs need a work permit.

If you're retired and living off investments, or holding crypto, Georgia is tax-free.

If you're actively working remotely, that's where it gets more complicated.

#2: Paraguay

Paraguay grants temporary residency without asking how much you earn.

The process of obtaining temporary residency takes about a week, and a few months later, you hold the card in your hands.

After two years you can convert to permanent residency, and since April 2026 there is also a direct route for investors (with permanent residency from day one).

What happens once you’re a resident:

1. There is no tax on foreign income. Paraguay has a territorial tax system since 1991. Pensions, Social Security, dividends, capital gains from abroad: 0%. No wealth tax, no inheritance tax. Local income is taxed at 10%.

2. Nobody checks where you live. No address registration, no 90-day reporting, or check-ins. You declare an address once during your application and that’s the last time anyone asks.

3. The presence requirement is near zero. Temporary residency allows absences of up to 12 months. Once you have permanent residency you can stay almost three years abroad.

4. Citizenship becomes an option. Three years of permanent residency makes you eligible, if you actually live there (you need to stay 183+ days per year in order to qualify).

Now:

Does anyone actually want to live here?

Asunción is hot, the country is landlocked, and the expat scene is small.

But your money goes far.

A one-bedroom in central Asunción is between $450-700 per month. Lunch at a local spot costs $6-8, fiber internet $30-45. A single person lives well on $900-1,400 per month, total.

Healthcare is limited.

Private care in Asunción handles routine needs at low prices, but for anything serious, expats fly to Buenos Aires or São Paulo.

And the rules are tightening a little.

A 2026 resolution added a documented-income requirement to the permanent stage, and background checks slowed down after Paraguay strengthened Interpol verification in late 2025.

Nothing dramatic, but the days of “residency in a week with almost no questions” are ending.

#3: Albania

Albania offers Americans a full year, visa-free.

(Only Georgia and Palau matches that number.)

The difference:

Albania’s rule applies to US citizens specifically.

Most other nationalities get 90 days.

I covered it in my roundup of visas that need no degree, job, or investment, and it still stands in 2026.

Here’s what the year looks like:

1. No application, no forms, or fees. You show your passport at the border and you’re in. The US Embassy in Tirana confirms this.

2. No registration for the entire stay. Albania requires no address registration for stays under one year. When you rent an apartment in Tirana or Saranda, no government office needs to know.

3. The tax threshold follows the 183-day rule. Spend more than 183 days in a calendar year and you become an Albanian tax resident. Stay under it, or split the full year across two calendar years (arrive July 1, leave June 30), and Albania has no claim on your income or your filings.

4. There is a path past year one. Leave for 90 days and come back for a fresh year, or apply for a residence permit from inside the country (retiree is one of the categories). Permanent residency is possible after five years.

Now:

Does anyone actually want to live here?

Cost wise, Albania makes a strong case.

A one-bedroom in central Tirana runs €500-750 per month, €350-520 outside the center. A full restaurant meal costs €8-15 and fiber internet €15-25.

A single person lives comfortably on €800-1,200 per month.

When you want the sea, the Albanian Riviera around Saranda and Vlora is a day’s drive south, with Corfu a 30-minute ferry away.

Now the trade-offs.

Infrastructure gets rough outside Tirana.

Healthcare handles routine needs cheaply, but for anything complex, expats cross to Italy or Greece.

Be careful when it comes to taxes.

Albanian tax residents owe tax on worldwide income: dividends at 8%, interest and capital gains at 15%. Albania exempts foreign pensions for EU/EEA citizens and people of Albanian origin, but a regular American does not qualify.

One more thing for your future plans:

Albania is an EU candidate in accession talks, aiming for membership around 2030. EU members follow EU visa policy, so the US-only year probably has an expiration date.

#4: Philippines

The Philippines sells permanent residency for a $15,000 bank deposit.

The program is the SRRV (Special Resident Retiree’s Visa), run by the Philippine Retirement Authority.

It was restructured in September 2025.

The current terms work in your favor if you’re over 50:

1. Permanent residency for a deposit, not a purchase. At 50+, you park $15,000 in a Philippine bank and show a lifetime pension of at least $800 per month ($1,000 for couples). Without a pension, the deposit is $30,000.

2. The government stops asking about you. Regular foreigners in the Philippines file an annual report with the Bureau of Immigration. SRRV holders are exempt: no annual report, and no alien registration card either. You leave and re-enter as often as you want, no permits needed.

3. Foreign income is not taxed. The Philippines taxes foreign residents only on Philippine-source income. Your US dividends and capital gains are tax-free, and the SRRV adds a written exemption on foreign pensions and annuities.

4. Renewal is a fee, not a process. $360 a year to the PRA and your status continues.

Now:

Does anyone actually want to live here?

One thing I like about the country: English is an official language.

Doctors and bank staff speak it fluently, and contracts come in English.

Doctors, contracts, and bank staff usually all speak English fluently.

A one-bedroom condo in Cebu costs around $500-800 per month, $300-400 in quieter districts.

A meal at a local eatery costs under $4.

Most foreigners live comfortably on $1,200-1,800 per month.

The trade-offs are healthcare and traffic.

While private hospitals in Manila and Cebu are good, outside those two cities, coverage is thin.

And if you’re looking at Manila (the capital) you can brace yourself for some brutal traffic.

#5: Panama

Panama grants permanent residency on day one.

If you have $1,000 a month in lifetime pension income, you qualify for the Pensionado (Social Security counts as well).

I broke down Panama’s two main residency routes in July.

What makes Panama hands-off:

1. Permanent from day one. No temporary stage. The status you get at approval is the status you keep for life.

2. Your only obligation is showing up. Enter Panama once every two years and your residency stays alive.

3. Territorial tax. Foreign pensions, dividends, interest, capital gains: 0%. If all your income comes from abroad, you don’t file a Panamanian return at all.

Panama is also the most livable country on this list.

Punta Pacífica hospital in Panama City is affiliated with Johns Hopkins.

Boquete and Coronado have decades-old American communities, and the Pensionado card cuts 25% off restaurants and utilities, 50% off hotels, 20% off doctor visits.

But, you pay for all that.

A one-bedroom in central Panama City costs between $900-1,500, and a realistic single budget is $2,000+ per month (at least).

Two more things:

1. Outside Panama City’s expat circles you need (at least) functional Spanish.

2. And opening a bank account is a slow, document-heavy process, even more so at the best banks.

One Question For You

Conclusion

That’s it.

Three things to take away:

• Countries that leave you alone still exist, and getting in is easier than you think.

• What they have in common is that nobody tracks where you live. And in three of the five, your foreign income is completely tax-free.

• None of them are perfect, you always need to pick trade-offs you can live with.

One thing to do this week:

Draw three buckets:

• Money

• Lifestyle

• Freedom

You have 100 coins, distribute all of them, no even splits.

If most of your coins land on Freedom, this list is your shortlist.

Where did your coins land?

Reply and tell me. I read every single one.

Thanks for reading, and as always, appreciate having you here.

— Ben

PS

If you’re thinking about retiring abroad in the next 5 years but not sure what happens to your money when you leave, you can book a free call with me here.

We’ll look at your situation and map out what to sort before you make a move.

Portugal’s D7 lets a single applicant in on €920 a month.

Spain’s non-lucrative visa requires €2,400, and France’s long-stay visitor visa sits between the two.

Greece requires €3,500 a month in passive income, plus 20% on top if your spouse comes with you.

I still like Greece despite the higher threshold, because of its tax regime:

7% flat on foreign income for 15 years.

Italy has a similar deal, but only if you settle in a southern village of under 30,000 people.

I’ve only been to Greece once (to Athens), and lived in the Greek part of Cyprus for a year.

I loved Athens, and also tried to learn Greek for a few months, but can’t reproduce much more than the occasional “Kalimera” by now.

This guide has two angles.

First, I want to talk about the paths and requirements, and who Greece makes sense for.

Second, I want to talk about the tax deal, and how it compares to the other ones European countries offer.

Along the way I will look at 1) the income definition from the September 2024 ministerial decision, 2) the savings-account “fallback” if your income falls short, and 3) what a tax treaty signed in 1950 fails to cover.

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

• What the FIP visa requires in 2026 and how the application works

• When the golden visa makes more sense, plus the family route

• How healthcare and the 7% flat tax work once you hold the card

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Why Greece and who this guide is for

Greece is a good choice if you want Mediterranean life on your own income, with an attractive tax deal attached.

The main residency route requires stable passive income.

What qualifies as passive income are the following:

Social Security, pensions, IRA distributions, dividends, rental income.

There is no need for a job offer (work is not allowed on the main retiree route), and you don’t need to buy property (unless you go for the golden visa).

Who this guide helps:

1. You are retired (or close) and live on a pension or Social Security.

2. You are financially independent and fund your life from savings or investments.

3. You work remotely and want to know which Greek route covers that.

4. You own or want a vacation place in Greece and keep hitting the 90-day Schengen wall.

5. Your spouse or partner is Greek or holds Greek residency.

6. You have wanted to live in Greece for years and want to know what it takes.

One more group deserves a mention: if you have a Greek parent or grandparent, you may have a citizenship claim by descent.

The citizenship by descent path will not be covered in this article.

What you will get:

1. A map of the routes that fit the situations above.

2. The status each route leads to and what it lets you do.

3. Typical timelines and costs, plus the traps that show up in practice.

4. Official links so you can verify every step.

What to know up front:

1. Rules change and consulates differ, always check the latest updates (if you comment with updates in three months, this article will be updated too).

2. Confirm the details with your consulate or a Greek immigration lawyer before you act.

The permits

An American can be in Greece two ways:

1. As a tourist

2. As a resident

Tourists get 90 visa-free days per 180, and those days can’t be turned into residency from inside Greece (one exception, at the end of this section).

Becoming a resident follows a sequence, and this is it:

The long-stay entry visa, issued by the Greek consulate covering your US state, before you move.

You apply for it under a specific route (e.g. FIP, Digital Nomad visa), and the consulate will ask you for the same evidence as that route’s evidence.

To make this a little bit easier to understand:

• Person A applies for the type D, and wants the FIP visa after. To get the type D, Person A shows the evidence needed to get the FIP.

• Person B applies for the type D, and wants a Digital Nomad Visa after. To get the type D, Person B shows the evidence needed to get the Digital Nomad visa.

Basically the type D is the “middle step” for any type of visa that comes after.

Makes sense?

The consulate issues the type D for up to a year, and it lets you live in Greece that whole time (unlike a tourist stamp).

Your Greek tax number, and you need it no matter which route you take.

Greece requires an AFM on almost any contract you sign there: the apartment lease that becomes your proof of accommodation in step 3, and the bank account you’ll pay rent from.

The AFM has nothing to do with your immigration status and anyone can get one (even a tourist buying a holiday house).

You might ask:

Why is it so easy to get a tax number?

To which I would say:

Well, who benefits from you getting a tax number?

… Exactly.

The tax number is not a bottleneck, so you can get it after you land.

While your type D is still valid, you file for the residence permit (άδεια διαμονής), the card you’ll actually live on.

The moment you file, you get the blue certificate (βεβαίωση), a receipt that keeps you legal while the ministry decides, which can take months.

The FIP card is valid for three years at a time; the golden visa card for five.

And if you complete step 1 but never file for the card, nothing dramatic happens: the visa expires, and you’ve paid consulate fees for a long test run.

The exception: the golden visa does not need step 1.

Investors can enter on tourist status and file for their card from inside Greece.

Still with me?

• Route = what your plan is (retire, invest, work)

• Type D visa = middle layer (don’t need it for golden visa)

• AFM = tax number (not a bottleneck)

• Blue certificate = receipt showing you applied for residence permit

• Residence permit = what you want at the end, “the card” (e.g. FIP card)

Route 1: the FIP visa

This is the retiree route, and the main event of this article.

Read more

Local accounts, fintech accounts, investment accounts, IRAs, brokerage accounts.

I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, and I’ve written about them here before.

Then a client of mine, a retired American, set out to move roughly $1 million out of the US.

Most of it headed for a private bank in Switzerland.

Everything arrived, and the fees were small.

But it took some time.

Sometimes, wires between countries route through a third bank in the middle.

Her US brokerage needed a month (!) to find the one person who understood how to send securities to a foreign bank.

And two bank holidays almost delayed a visa deposit with a deadline attached.

And still, every dollar landed exactly where she wanted it.

Today I’m walking you through that move from the inside, so yours goes faster.

We’ll cover:

• Why a six-figure wire (almost) never travels straight from bank A to bank B

• The transfer her US brokerage couldn’t complete for over a month

• Five things that you should note down, if you plan to do the same

The plan

My client wanted two things:

1. Less of her wealth tied to the dollar

2. Banking spread across more than one country

(The logic of splitting money this way is in How To Move Your Money Abroad.)

The split looked like this:

• Roughly $200,000 went into a three-year CD at a Panama bank, the deposit behind her residency visa there.

• About $50,000 went to a second Panama bank.

• And roughly $750,000 in securities moved from her US brokerage to a private bank in Switzerland, the first transfer of several, with more of her portfolio following the same route.

All of it stays visible to the US, of course.

Foreign accounts come with FBAR reporting, and larger holdings with Form 8938.

Before any of it moved, she had to pick a structure.

There are about five ways an American can set this up (that I recommend), depending on where your bank sits, where your assets sit, and who manages them.

They range from keeping everything US-managed to going fully Swiss.

She went fully Swiss.

The decision took a few conversations.

Executing took months, and the rest of this article is about the gap between those two.

The middle layer

Her first wire went from her US bank to the Panama bank holding her CD.

It did not travel directly.

Most banks in different countries have no relationship with each other.

So the money routes through a correspondent bank in the middle, a larger institution that holds accounts on both sides and passes the transfer through.

None of this is a red flag.

It’s how cross-border payments have worked for decades.

But it surprises almost everyone the first time, because nothing about a domestic wire prepares you for it.

My client had sent international wires before.

She still described the route as “convoluted.”

Her US bank, her in-country lawyers, and the receiving bank each walked her through the steps more than once before the money moved.

Each bank in the chain can charge for its part:

• The sending bank charges to send.

• The correspondent can take its cut on the way through.

• The receiving bank charges to receive, and in her case the Panama bank took about $31.

On a six-figure wire, $31 is a rounding error.

On a small wire, those same flat fees start to eat real percentages.

Her rule now: never wire less than $2,500 to $3,000 at a time, so the flat fees stay small relative to the transfer.

She also checked whether Wise gets around all this.

For transfers like hers, it doesn’t. The wire fees still applied.

I use Wise every month and I’ve written about where fintechs fit and where they don’t.

One more thing to expect: after ordering every international wire, her US bank called to confirm she wasn’t being scammed.

Every single wire.

US banks screen large international transfers for fraud as a matter of routine, so take the call as a sign the system is paying attention, and answer your phone in the days after you send.

Bank holidays in three countries

The $200,000 CD was more than a savings decision.

It anchors her Panama residency application, and the deposit had a date attached.

(Why she picked that route over Panama’s more popular visa is its own article.)

Banks don’t process wires on holidays.

And if your wire passes through three countries?

Each one has its own holiday schedule:

• The sending bank closes for US holidays.

• The correspondent closes for its own.

• The receiving bank closes for Panama’s.

Her transfer window happened to contain two bank holidays, and a wire with days to spare suddenly had almost none.

The money landed in time, but it was close.

Now she does two things differently:

1. Anything with a deadline gets a week of buffer.

2. Before she sends, she checks the holiday calendar of every country the wire touches, including the correspondent’s country (which is the easy one to miss).

By the way, the same thing can happen with a property closing, a tax payment abroad, or renewing your residency permit.

Always plan with some buffer time.

What her brokerage did not understand

Now the most interesting part.

The $750,000 sitting in stocks and funds at her US brokerage.

She did not want to sell them, because selling means paying capital gains tax.

She wanted to move the securities themselves, as they are, into the Swiss bank.

That is called an “in-kind transfer”.

Between two US brokerages, this is routine.

There is a system for it called ACATS, and it runs mostly on its own. You fill out a form, you wait a few days, the assets show up.

Sending securities to a bank outside the US works differently.

The Swiss bank is not part of that system.

The transfer needs the receiving bank’s DTC number (an ID for routing securities in the US system) and people on both sides who handle it by hand.

Her US brokerage did not know how to do it.

The first people she reached had never seen a transfer like this (her own broker doubted the Swiss bank was real, imagine my surprise).

Finding the right person at the brokerage took more than a month.

Once she had them on the phone, the transfer closed in under a week.

While all this dragged on, her securities sat untouched in her account. The delay cost patience, and nothing else.

Two things made it work in the final week:

• First, the letter of instruction. This is a letter to the brokerage that lists every security she was moving and the exact details of the receiving account. If the letter is complete, the transfer moves. If details are missing, it stalls, and every correction costs days.

• Second, the route. The securities did not go straight to Switzerland. They went first to a US sub-custodian bank (a US bank that holds securities on behalf of the Swiss bank) and from there into her Swiss account. That middle step is normal for this kind of transfer.

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If you’re planning a move like this

I recommend writing these five down somewhere:

1. Start at your brokerage. Ask one question: who here handles transfers to banks outside the US?

2. Prepare the letter of instruction before you approach the brokerage. Work with the receiving bank to list every security and the exact details of the receiving account.

3. Give every deadline a week of buffer. Check the bank holidays in every country your wire touches, including the correspondent’s country.

4. Answer your phone after every wire. Your US bank will call to make sure you’re not being scammed (this is routine).

5. If the receiving bank works in another language, line up local help. An English-speaking banker at the branch is enough.

More than one way to do this

My client’s setup is one version of this.

There are more ways to do it than most people think.

You can go fully Swiss, like she did.

You can also keep your accounts in the US and have them managed from Switzerland.

And even money that has to stay in US custody, like an IRA, has options.

You can change who holds it and how it’s invested without moving it abroad.

Between those ends sit the five setups I mentioned earlier, and one of them fits almost every situation I’ve seen.

None of this is “hidden” money.

Every account gets reported to the US.

The best time to start this is now.

Completing this process takes 1-2 months, and the sooner you have your money in a safe place, the better.

What comes next

That’s it.

Moving seven figures out of the US took her months, and the hardest part was one fight with her brokerage over a transfer type they didn’t know.

Nothing was lost, nothing was frozen, and the money now sits in the structure she chose.

It required patience and people who knew the route.

Banks she trusts, and a guide who had done it before.

Where are you with your banking setup?

Reply in the comments, I read every single one.

Appreciate you being here,

— Ben

PS