Countries offering retirement visas

I have a Thai Retirement Visa. It costs me $59 per year. To avoid keeping money in a Thai bank, 800,000 THB/$25,000, I get an "Income Verification Letter from the US Embassy, for a $50 fee. My annual Retirement visa expense is $109, plus incidental fees such as photos and photo copies. With a Retirement Visa I never have to leave the country.

If I do leave, I must apply for a "Re-entry Permit" cost $32 for a single or $118 for a multiple. Interestingly the Multiple Re-entry Permits costs more than the actual visa.

This is Thailand :)
 
Having lived in Singapore for 25 years and even retiring there for two years, the transition to Malaysia was easy. The Malaysian retirement visa (called MM2H- Malaysia My Second Home) was easy to get, and as already mentioned, the people generally are as friendly as anywhere in the world.

I gave up the MM2H retirement visa to return to the States to retire is because of several reasons. First, it's very difficult or impossible to get health insurance if you are over 60 (I'm 67), and if you do get it, it's expensive. I like Medicare in the US. If I ever got really sick in Malaysia, I'd need to pay out of pocket or sit in an air plane for 24 hours to get back to the States. Second, the air quality at certain times of the year is just awful, and in my 25 years in that part of the world, it's not improving. The burning of forests to clear land on Sumatra and even certain parts of Malaysia bring a haze that can last for months periodically with unhealthy air quality and poor visibility. Third, I have a Labrador Retriever at my current house in the States. The culture of Malaysian does not have the same love for dogs as we do (no criticism). Therefore, condos do not allow dogs at all, and that's at every condo I explored. Fourth, I guess after all these years in Singapore, I was tired of the hot humid weather. I was ready for a change.

When you fly to Malaysia, you automatically get a 3 month tourist visa on arrival. That visa can easily be extended by crossing over the Singapore and back. Many of the people in Malaysia on the retirement visa are not there full time anyway, so if you want to choose Malaysia as a place to spend part of the year there, you really don't need the retirement visa to do that.

Regards,
Rob
 
This is an extraordinarily valuable thread. There is information here that does not appear in the highly visible glib articles that pop up on the web.

Would it be possible to keep it in the FAQs at some point?
 
Lancelot said:
I have a Thai Retirement Visa. It costs me $59 per year. To avoid keeping money in a Thai bank, 800,000 THB/$25,000, I get an "Income Verification Letter from the US Embassy, for a $50 fee. My annual Retirement visa expense is $109, plus incidental fees such as photos and photo copies. With a Retirement Visa I never have to leave the country.
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That sounds like a great deal.

Heard people say the first visa run is an adventure, the second is fun, the third is something you gotta do, the fourth is a serious pain in the ass, the fifth....

Being able to pound in the tent spikes without that would be wonderful.
 
kramer said:
Another thing to consider now that was not as big of a consideration before is whether the country where you become a resident taxes you on worldwide income. Before FATCA it was difficult for any country (especially those without tax treaties with the USA) to find out anything about your worldwide earnings (including your passive earnings in the USA). But with FATCA, there will be full information exchange agreements with most countries.

I can still remember looking up the rules for foreigners who are Colombia residents and realizing that after 5 years of residency one pays taxes on worldwide income. When I explained this to a couple of friends with residency there, they both laughed and said how would the Colombian government ever find out about those earnings? The answer now is FATCA, reported straight to the foreign government from Uncle Sam.
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And I assume this also includes IRA's and ROTH IRA's, where any gain would be taxable in the current year in most foreign countries and not deferred as in the US?
 
george76 said:
And I assume this also includes IRA's and ROTH IRA's, where any gain would be taxable in the current year in most foreign countries and not deferred as in the US?
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Are you asking about gains or distributions? Capital gains in a Roth are not subject to taxation in the US, so I'm not sure how it would ever be reported to the foreign government. Roth distributions similarly are not taxed (provided you meet the age and 5 year requirement), and again I'm not sure how the foreign government would even find out about it.

I'm too young to be drawing on my Roth, but does the investment company even issue you any kind of 1099 for qualified distributions? I wouldn't think they would.
 
coldnose said:
Are you asking about gains or distributions? Capital gains in a Roth are not subject to taxation in the US, so I'm not sure how it would ever be reported to the foreign government. Roth distributions similarly are not taxed (provided you meet the age and 5 year requirement), and again I'm not sure how the foreign government would even find out about it.

I'm too young to be drawing on my Roth, but does the investment company even issue you any kind of 1099 for qualified distributions? I wouldn't think they would.
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I'm just referring to gains, not distributions. As I understand it, most foreign countries don't recognize deferred taxes as they are in IRA's.

The expat is supposed to report it (if the tax treaty warrants it). But I don't know how the foreign government would ever know. But I'm assuming that if they found out you cheated, you could be in trouble. Who knows what type of reporting between governments will be in place in 5 or 10 years.
 
george76 said:
I'm just referring to gains, not distributions. As I understand it, most foreign countries don't recognize deferred taxes as they are in IRA's.

The expat is supposed to report it (if the tax treaty warrants it). But I don't know how the foreign government would ever know. But I'm assuming that if they found out you cheated, you could be in trouble. Who knows what type of reporting between governments will be in place in 5 or 10 years.
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I think it will very much depend on the double tax agreement between the USA and the country. For example the UK does not tax gains within an IRA but does tax distributions, and does not tax gains or distributions in/from a ROTH, however the same courtesy does not go the other way. The equivalent to an IRA in the UK is an ISA and in the UK the interest is tax free during accumulation and distribution but the US taxes all ISA interest as it arises. Also, you can have stocks and bonds and MF's in an IRA and the UK doesn't treat them as PFIC's since they tax all IRA distributions as regular income, but if you have stocks and bonds and MF's in an ISA you have to report them as PFIC's to the US.
 
Ed_The_Gypsy said:
This is an extraordinarily valuable thread. There is information here that does not appear in the highly visible glib articles that pop up on the web.

Would it be possible to keep it in the FAQs at some point?
Click to expand...

Excellent idea, Ed. After discussing it, the moderators have agreed that we should move the thread to the FAQ sub-forum. Unlike the other FAQ threads, we plan to leave this one open (for now) so that people can update it as they learn more.


Edit: It appears that the way forum permissions are set, moving this thread means that no one can post to it, so I'm moving it to Life After FIRE and making it sticky.
 
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kramer said:
And with experience I can state that: You really don't "live" in a place until you have some kind of permanent visa. Border runs and temporary visas are simply not the same thing. Even a Retirement Visa which must be renewed from scratch each year (as in Thailand) is not really all the way there, in my opinion.
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Agreed. If I had to do it over again I'd have paid the price in time, money and hassle up front to get the official retirement visa instead of the unofficial one which must be extending every year. OTOH, if Thailand ever decides to stop extending as a blanket policy, that will probably be a symptom of other changes which would already have me planning an exit strategy.
 
Not really. The Thai Embassy's site lists only one "Retirement Visa."

A Thai "Retirement Visa" is actually an "Extension of Stay for Purposes of Retirement.

Starting from scratch entails applying for an O Visa Other- Retirement in your home country or an O visa in a country other than Thailand (often only successful in your home country) then converting the O Visa Other to an Extension of Stay- Retirement.

Renewing an Extension of Stay in Thailand omits the need to first receive an O Visa. One less major step :)

http://www.thaiembdc.org/dcdp/?q=Non_Immigrant_Long_Stay
 
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ItDontMeanAThing said:
If one is interested in general information about Thai visas, the worst place to ask is on a forum populated by expats in Thailand. They don't do 'general'.
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Uh, OK.

You referred to "An Official Retirement Visa" as opposed to the un official one.

I have the visa you described as unofficial, so what is the "Official" one? Got a link?
 
ItDontMeanAThing said:
Agreed. If I had to do it over again I'd have paid the price in time, money and hassle up front to get the official retirement visa instead of the unofficial one which must be extending every year.
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Erase, erase. Both visa types used by retired expats in Thailand must be extended every year. It appears that what I saw in 2007 as the benefits of the official retirement visa no longer exist.
 
FWIW, Peru has a retirement visa that is very easy to get. requires $1,000.00 month income and $500.00 more for each dependent. With that you can easily get bank accounts and Peru has no taxes on retirement income.

If you do not want the hassle then many expats come on a 183 day tourist visa and pay the $1 a day fine when ever they choose to leave.
 
DW and I have Residente Permanente visas in Mexico and they cost us about $375 each and they do not expire. Had to show a certain level of combined assets and/or income stream to qualify and it was not an excessive amount. We do not have to file federal taxes here if we have no earned income within Mexico and our retirement income from U.S. based assets don't count. We have no bank accounts here in Mexico so we don't have that extra issue with the IRS and FATCA.
 
BTravlin said:
DW and I have Residente Permanente visas in Mexico and they cost us about $375 each and they do not expire. Had to show a certain level of combined assets and/or income stream to qualify and it was not an excessive amount. We do not have to file federal taxes here if we have no earned income within Mexico and our retirement income from U.S. based assets don't count. We have no bank accounts here in Mexico so we don't have that extra issue with the IRS and FATCA.
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Do you have any financial complications from being Estadounidenses permanently living in Mexico?

Ha
 
haha said:
Do you have any financial complications from being Estadounidenses permanently living in Mexico?

Ha
Click to expand...

Nothing too daunting so far. Banking is the most difficult thing we've had to contend with but we were prepared by setting up numerous accounts with different banks before we left the U.S. This has allowed us flexibility in drawing funds from the U.S. in the most cost efficient manner without having to set up accounts in Mexican banks. We have shied away from this due to triggering FATCA issues with the IRS.

Other than that, I concentrate on watching exchange rates for the most advantageous times to convert USD to MXN.
 
BTravlin said:
Nothing too daunting so far. Banking is the most difficult thing we've had to contend with but we were prepared by setting up numerous accounts with different banks before we left the U.S. This has allowed us flexibility in drawing funds from the U.S. in the most cost efficient manner without having to set up accounts in Mexican banks. We have shied away from this due to triggering FATCA issues with the IRS.

Other than that, I concentrate on watching exchange rates for the most advantageous times to convert USD to MXN.
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Thank you for this information.

Ha
 
List of countries offering retirement visas?

Good thread ...

The philippines also has a retirement visa scheme. Can qualify as early as age 35 if I recall. Details follow:

http://www.pra.gov.ph/main/srrv_program?page=1




Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
 
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NYEXPAT said:
This is a link to the Peruvian retirement scheme:
Legally Speaking: Visa for Rentistas (Residual Income) - Peru this Week
There is no age requirement.
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NYEXPAT, there is a serious problem here, under Documents Required:
7. A bank account in Peru, to receive the funds in-country and to prove that you are receiving said funds in an effective manner. (For this purpose, it is necessary to first obtain the “special permission to sign contracts” before going to a bank. Some banks also require a reference or guarantee before opening the account for someone who does not yet have a Carné de Extranjería and many times the banks are reluctant to open an account at all without residency.)
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Banks in other countries are refusing to create accounts for Americans because of the onerous reporting requirements imposed by our gummint. You will not have this problem, being married to a Peruvian. Not everyone is so fortunate.

Are you aware of any bank in Peru that will accept Americans for an account?
 
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