• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
FREE REPORT
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE
*No spam: We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Panama
      • Portugal
      • Colombia
      • Northern Cyprus
      • Belize
      • Spain
      • Mexico
      • France
      • Indonesia
      • Vietnam
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Panama
      • Portugal
      • Colombia
      • Northern Cyprus
      • Belize
      • Spain
      • Mexico
      • France
      • Indonesia
      • Vietnam
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
No Result
View All Result
Home Residency/Citizenship

Figuring Out Your Best Choices For An Alternative Residency

How To Save Your Retirement Post-Pandemic, Step 1

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
May 21, 2020
in How to, Offshore, Residency/Citizenship
0 0
0
dominican republic beach in the morning

Image Source: iStock/sborisov

273
SHARES
3.9k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

A Plan B has never been more important than it is right now.

Your all-important backup plan

starts with the legal right to live in another country.

It’s a simple strategy that can reduce your tax burden and make it easier for you to open an offshore bank account.

Most important in the context of our current circumstances, it also could be the only legal way to travel to another country in the event of another lockdown… meaning establishing residency overseas can be the key to real independence and ultimate control over your future.

The good news is that you have several easy and quick options for gaining the legal right to spend as much time as you want somewhere else.

Among the 200+ countries in the world, how do you choose where best to establish alternative residency?

Start with what kind of lifestyle you think you’d most enjoy.

Immigration law, tax incentives, available paths to citizenship, and potential investment return are all important secondary considerations. These opportunities, challenges, and restrictions can help you choose among a shortlist of places you think you might like to live, but they should not alone determine your course.

Thinking broadly, you have three options for

how to establish residency

in another country… by qualifying for:

  • A retiree or pensioner visa,
  • An investor visa,
  • An entrepreneur visa.

Understand, as you’re shopping options, that not all residency visa programs allow you to work (that is, a residency visa is not the same as a work permit)… and, as well, that not all residency programs lead to citizenship. If a second passport is an agenda for you and you hope to acquire it through residency, make sure the residency track you decide on obliges in this regard.

Other practical considerations when choosing among the many available residency options are taxes (will you be liable for them in the country where you’re thinking about becoming a resident?); required time in the country (temporary residency permits in Colombia require you to be in the country at least once every 6 months, for example, and Belize requires you to spend at least 30 days a year in residence); and ease of access (this is especially important if you intend to divide your time between or among more than one country).

If you’re considering making a move overseas as a retiree, here are countries offering attractive pensioner residency options right now. In each case, I indicate the current minimum monthly income requirement to qualify:

  • Belize (US$2,000)
  • Colombia (US$700 at the current exchange rate)
  • Ecuador (US$800)
  • Panama (US$1,000)
  • Portugal (US$1,400 at the current exchange rate)

If you’re shopping backup residency country options… not planning to make a move imminently but wanting an escape hatch should you decide you need one… following are your best current options. The physical presence requirement for each of these countries is nominal:

  • Colombia
  • Dominican Republic
  • Panama
  • Uruguay

If you’re hoping to acquire second citizenship and a second passport through residency, here are your best choices today:

  • Colombia
  • Dominican Republic
  • Paraguay
  • Portugal
  • Uruguay

Note that, in each case, I qualified my recommendations as being the best available today.

These programs and options are not static; countries adjust immigration law all the time.

This is why I strongly recommend that, when you identify a residency visa that allows you to realize your objectives, act on it sooner rather than later…

Immediately, if possible.

Lief Simon

This article was first published in 2019 and has been recently updated.

Share110Tweet68
Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

Related Posts

A farmhouse in Croatia
How to

4 Lessons We Learned Renovating Rental Property Overseas

by Kathleen Peddicord
March 26, 2023
0

In advance of the purchase of the property known as Lahardan House, the 200-year-old Georgian manor home we bought years...

Read more
Senior couple sitting on chairs at summer beach

Your Plan For Retiring Overseas Can It Be Part-Time?

February 28, 2023
Sunset landscape on Atlantic Ocean, south Portugal

The End Of Golden Visas In Europe

February 23, 2023
Picturesque lane with flowers in an Italian hill town

5 More Things To Check Before You Move Overseas

January 11, 2023
What We’re Planning For The Next Stage Of Life

What We’re Planning For The Next Stage Of Life

January 8, 2023
Plane model with world map, passports and tickets as airplane traveling and tickets booking concept

The Importance Of Getting A Second Passport

October 17, 2022
Beautiful beach with palms and turquoise sea in Jamaica island.

11 Essential Tips To Plan Your Retirement Overseas

October 9, 2022

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas ...

A world full of fun, adventure, and profit awaits! Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we'll send you a FREE report on the 10 Best Places To Retire In Style Overseas Today.

LIOS Resources


  • New To LIOS
  • Ask An Expert
  • Media Center
  • Contact Us
  • FAQs

Quick Links


  • Best Places To Live
  • Best Places To Retire
  • Finding A Job Overseas
  • Real Estate

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and get your FREE report: The 10 Best Places To Retire Overseas In 2023

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe

© 2008-2023 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Countries
  • Budgets
  • Archives
  • News
  • Events
  • Bookstore
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Members Area
  • Contact Us

© 2008-2023 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Download your FREE report on

The Best Places To Retire In 2023

New Year, New You, New Life Overseas

Sign up for FREE and learn how to live the good life on a modest budget, find bargain property, and more. Plus, check out our free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE.

RETIRE OVERSEAS AND LIVE LIKE ROYALTY