Retiring Overseas – Practical Concerns to Consider

Have you ever dreamed about retiring overseas? Perhaps you’ve imagined yourself restoring a historic farmhouse on a Tuscan hillside, growing your own grapes and olives. Maybe you’ve daydreamed about a luxurious home at the edge of a Costa Rican jungle, where parrots fly overhead and howler monkeys hoot from the trees. You might have thought about retiring to a tropical beach in Thailand, where you can stroll the white sands every day. Wherever your imagination takes you, there are some practical concerns you should think about before you retire to a foreign country.

Visa Issues for International Retirees

Many countries around the world welcome retired people from the United States. If you are planning to spend long periods of time in a foreign country – especially if you intend to live there year-round – you are likely to need a residence visa. Researching the visa requirements for your destination should be one of your first steps!

You can start your research by visiting the US State Department’s Country Specific Information page. There, you can learn how long you can stay in your retirement destination without a visa. For example, consider Panama, which was ranked by InternationalLiving.com as the #1 top international retirement destination for 2016. Panama allows US citizens to stay for up to 180 days without a visa. This means that if you’re just looking to escape the cold winters in the northern US, you can stay in Panama for up to six months every year without any documentation other than your valid US passport.

After you’ve found out how long you can stay in the country without a visa – or if you need a visa just to enter, as you do for countries like Brazil – your next stop should be the website of that country’s embassy to the United States. There, you can learn more about the procedures to obtain the visa you will need. You can also contact a visa expediting service for assistance.