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      Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

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      Super Cheap

      • Chitré, Panama
      • Santa Marta, Colombia
      • Phuket, Thailand
      • Dumaguete, The Philippines

      Cheap

      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Kyrenia, Cyprus
      • Hua Hin, Thailand
      • The Algarve, Portugal

      Affordable

      • Valencia, Spain
      • Cascais, Portugal
      • Las Terrenas, The DR
      • Pisa, Italy
      • La Rochelle, France
      • Mazatlán, Mexico

      Luxury

      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Kotor, Montenegro
      • The Panama City Beaches
      • Paris, France
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      • Home
      • Countries

        Top Destinations:

        Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

        • Spain
        • Portugal
        • Panama
        • Belize
        • Colombia
        • Cyprus
        • Mexico
        • France
        • Montenegro
        • Browse All Countries

        Best For:

        • The Best Places To Retire
        • Health Care Abroad
        • Cost Of Living
        • Investing in Real Estate
        • Establishing Residency
        • Gun Laws In The World
        • English-Speaking Countries
        • Safest Places For Retirement
        • Best Places In Latin America
      • Budgets

        How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

        The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

        Super Cheap

        • Chitré, Panama
        • Santa Marta, Colombia
        • Phuket, Thailand
        • Dumaguete, The Philippines

        Cheap

        • Medellin, Colombia
        • Boquete, Panama
        • Kyrenia, Cyprus
        • Hua Hin, Thailand
        • The Algarve, Portugal

        Affordable

        • Valencia, Spain
        • Cascais, Portugal
        • Las Terrenas, The DR
        • Pisa, Italy
        • La Rochelle, France
        • Mazatlán, Mexico

        Luxury

        • Ambergris Caye, Belize
        • Kotor, Montenegro
        • The Panama City Beaches
        • Paris, France
      • Resources

        Global Living

        • Living & Retiring Overseas
        • Raising A Family Abroad
        • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
        • Offshore & Diversification

        Making Money

        • International Real Estate
        • Banking
        • Employment
        • Investing

        Follow Us:

        • Meet Our Experts
      • Real Estate

        Join our Weekly Newsletter
        Overseas Property Alert

        Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive expert insights on the best international real estate investment opportunities.






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          Buying Real Estate For Cashflow

          • Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

          Explore Our Latest Posts

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          Go To The Overseas Property Alert Site

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          International Property Summit

          Caribbean Virtual Conference

          Live and Invest In Spain Conference

          PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

          June 18-20, 2025

          VIRTUAL

          July 17-19, 2025

          Valencia, Spain

          Sep. 17-19, 2025

          LEARN MORE
          LEARN MORE
          PRE-REGISTER
          LEARN MORE
          PRE-REGISTER
          • MORE EVENTS

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          Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
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          From Outside North America:
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          Services

          overseas living letter offers affordable retirement guidance
          The Simon Letter Wealth Protection Insights
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          Home Countries Europe

          The Best Visa Options In Europe

          Portugal, Greece, Spain, And Beyond…

          by Kathleen Peddicord
          Jul 27, 2024
          in Europe, Retirement/Living
          0 0
          A sunny day in Assos village, Kefalonia island, Greece. visa options in europe

          AdeobeStock/Noradoa

          Recently, a reader wrote to me to ask whether she should buy property in Greece to qualify for residency under its golden visa program.

          She was considering the golden visa because she wanted more time in the Schengen Area than her U.S. passport allows (90 days in any 180-day period), but she had questions because she’d read that, even with a Greek golden visa, she’d still only be able to spend 90 days in any 180-day period in another Schengen country.

          Her question, understandably, was, “What’s the point of the golden visa then?”

          First, to clarify, a Greek golden visa would technically enable her to spend more time in the Schengen Area because she could base herself in Greece (which is in the Schengen Area) full-time. She could depart from Greece for each 90-day stint in another Schengen country and return to it to reset the clock on the 180 days.

          Start Your New Life Today, Overseas






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            Her point, however, was that the offer on the table with Greece’s golden program wasn’t as good as she thought. She, like many others, was under the impression that, for 250,000 euros, she’d be granted unlimited access to the entire Schengen Area.

            Her question raises a couple of important issues:

            1. There’s a lot of misconception surrounding golden visa programs. This reader isn’t alone in her misunderstanding of the benefits that a golden visa can bring.

            2. Golden visa programs don’t make sense for everyone. They only make sense for a handful of people with specific overseas objectives.

            3. Golden visa programs aren’t the only options for gaining residency in Europe. There are plenty of alternatives that are more straightforward and perhaps more suitable, depending on your circumstances and objectives.

            4. You don’t need to use a golden visa program to invest in property. If you’re looking to buy a home in Europe for investment or lifestyle, you don’t need a golden visa program to achieve this.

            Of course, much depends on your objectives, but for the average person who wants to live or invest in Europe, I’d likely suggest one of the following options instead of a golden visa.

            Start Your New Life Today, Overseas






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              If your objective is to retire in Europe, I recommend seeking out a “self-sufficiency” residency visa. Many of the European countries that are most popular for retirement (Greece, Spain, Portugal, etc.) offer these.

              The name of each country’s version of this kind of visa varies, as do the requirements to qualify, but the basic premise is the same: you apply for residency on the basis that you can support yourself financially long-term.

              In other words, if you can prove to the relevant immigration authority that you have enough money to live on without needing to seek local employment or rely on public funds in that country, you can usually get temporary residency.

              In the case of the reader who inquired about Greece, I’d suggest the Financially Independent Persons Visa instead, which grants a two-year residence permit. To qualify, that reader would need to prove a steady income of 2,000 euros per month.

              Portugal offers the Passive Income (D7) Visa. This grants a one-year residence permit if you can prove a steady income of at least 1,500 euros per month. (This is not the official amount, which isn’t publicly available; it’s the amount that my Portugal attorney recommends.)

              Spain offers the Non-Lucrative Residence Visa (NLV), which grants a one-year residence permit if you can prove an income of 2,400 euros per month.

              Of course, there’s more to these self-sufficiency residency visas than just proving that you’re financially stable.

              You’ll need to provide proof of accommodation (a long-term lease or the deed to property you’ve purchased) in the country where you’re applying for residency, as well as purchase private health insurance that covers you for the duration of your residence permit.

              Start Your New Life Today, Overseas






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                Despite these requirements, the financial thresholds you need to meet to qualify for a self-sufficiency visa are substantially lower than they are for a golden visa in every case.

                Living In Europe

                What if you want to live in Europe but you’re not retired and still earn an income.

                You can seek an employment contract with a local company, which could sponsor your residence permit, but these are difficult to obtain.

                Local jobs are usually reserved for nationals, and in most cases, you’ll need to have exceptional skills and speak the local language fluently to be considered for one.

                Digital nomad visas provide an easy alternative, however. Many European countries offer them, from Greece, Portugal, and Spain to Croatia, Estonia, Italy, Malta, and more.

                The basic premise behind this type of visa is the same as a self-sufficiency visa: you have enough income (coming from a company registered outside your country of interest) to support yourself, which allows you to qualify for temporary residency.

                There are other alternatives available as well, if neither the self-sufficiency nor the digital nomad visa suit your objectives. There are entrepreneur or startup visas, self-employment visas, student visas, and so on.

                Start Your New Life Today, Overseas






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                  Visa Options In Europe: Where It Makes Sense

                  There are a handful of cases in which investing in a European golden visa makes sense.

                  First, if you’re from a country that does not enjoy visa-free travel to the Schengen Area, a golden visa is really attractive. It allows you to circumvent the extra fees and administrative hassle of applying for a visa every time you’d like to visit

                  If you’re from the United States or Canada, you already enjoy this right, so this perk isn’t as significant to you.

                  Second, golden visas can allow you to avoid becoming a tax resident in Europe. The downside of self-sufficiency, digital nomad, and most other types of residency visas is that they stipulate physical presence requirements

                  Usually, you need to spend at least 183 days per year in your new country to maintain your residency status. This also happens to be the amount of time that triggers tax residency in most countries. In other words, most residency visas also make you a tax resident.

                  Physical presence requirements can also be problematic if you’re trying to obtain or maintain several residence permits from several countries at the same time, since you can’t be physically present in more than one place.

                  Golden visa programs usually have zero or no physical presence requirements. Greece and Spain, for instance, don’t require you to spend any time in the country to maintain your golden visa residence permit. Portugal only requires seven days per year.

                  This is ideal for someone who wants to avoid tax residency or who is collecting as many backup residence permits as possible to give themselves as many options as possible.

                  For the average person who just wants to live in Europe, however, this strategy is unnecessarily complicated.

                  The best approach is to choose the country where you genuinely enjoy spending time (rather than the one with the most favorable tax policies), apply for residency using the option that suits your objectives best, and address your local tax burden with the help of an advisor.

                  Until next time,

                  Kathleen Peddicord signature

                  Kathleen Peddicord

                  Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter

                  This article was first published in Forbes.

                  Tags: 'Property In Spain'backup residency Portugalgolden visa programGreece
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                  Kathleen Peddicord

                  Kathleen Peddicord

                  Kathleen Peddicord has reported on opportunities for Americans to live, retire, and do business overseas for 40 years. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 24, established businesses in 7, renovated and built properties in 6, and educated her children in 5.

                  Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets from the east coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland, then to Paris, France, and finally to Panama City, Panama, where she has based her Live And Invest Overseas business. Peddicord and her husband, Lief Simon, now divide their time between Panama and Paris.

                  Peddicord was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. She opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Waterford, Ireland; Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France. Peddicord launched Live And Invest Overseas group in 2008 and has built it into a successful multimillion-dollar business. Today, she shares her firsthand experience of expat life with more than 500,000 readers of her publications, including Overseas Opportunity Letter and Overseas Living Letter.

                  Kathleen has been featured often in The New York Times, MSNBC, AARP, CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, and more and writes monthly about expat matters, international real estate, and offshore diversification for Forbes and U.S. News.

                  Kathleen has written several books including the memoirs “At Home In Ireland” and “At Home At Los Islotes” and her latest title “At Home Abroad,” all published by Lahardan Books. Her best-selling "How To Retire Overseas: Everything You Need To Know To Live Well (For Less) Abroad” was published by Penguin Random House in 2018 and her “Buying Real Estate Overseas For Cash Flow (And A Better Life)” was published by Wiley in August 2020.

                  Start Your New Life Overseas Today!
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                        HOME

                        Top Countries

                        • Spain
                        • Portugal
                        • Panama
                        • Belize
                        • Colombia
                        • Cyprus
                        • Mexico
                        • France
                        • Montenegro

                        Best For:

                        • Health Care Abroad
                        • Retirement Living
                        • Cost Of Living
                        • Investing in Real Estate
                        • Establishing Residency
                        • Gun Ownership
                        • English Speakers
                        • Safety
                        BROWSE ALL COUNTRIES

                        Budgets

                        How Much Will It Cost
                        To Live Overseas?

                        Super Cheap

                        • Chitré, Panama
                        • Santa Marta, Colombia
                        • Phuket, Thailand
                        • Dumaguete, The Philippines

                        Cheap

                        • Medellin, Colombia
                        • Boquete, Panama
                        • Kyrenia, Cyprus
                        • Hua Hin, Thailand
                        • The Algarve, Portugal

                        Affordable

                        • Valencia, Spain
                        • Cascais, Portugal
                        • Las Terrenas, The DR
                        • Pisa, Italy
                        • La Rochelle, France
                        • Mazatlán, Mexico

                        Luxury

                        • Ambergris Caye, Belize
                        • Kotor, Montenegro
                        • The Panama City Beaches
                        • Paris, France

                        Resources

                        Global Living

                        • Living & Retiring Overseas
                        • Raising A Family Abroad
                        • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
                        • Offshore & Diversification

                        Making Money

                        • International Real Estate
                        • Banking
                        • Employment
                        • Investing
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