Unless you already have dual citizenship or own a home in another country, retiring abroad may not be quite as easy as all the beautiful photos and home-and-travel shows make it seem.
Whether you’re motivated to live in another country for cost-of-living, quality-of-life or political reasons, there are many practical financial issues to consider before making the move.
“You need to do your due diligence,” said New Jersey-based certified financial planner Leo Chubinishvili at Access Wealth.
Whichever country you’re interested in, live there for a month or two before making any big moves. The last thing you want is to go through a lengthy legal and administrative process only to realize you don’t actually like living in the place you chose. Or you don’t feel welcome as a new immigrant.
“I personally recommend staying in an Airbnb for a month where you have to fend for yourself as a local to see if that is something you’re happy doing,” said Adalberto Pucca, who is head of global mobility services at Global Citizen Solutions, which helps people in more than 40 countries make the move to another nation.
Once you find a country you like, it might take anywhere from six months to two years to finalize the essential financial, legal and administrative matters.
That time will be spent doing research, consulting tax and other professionals, securing a visa, finding housing, setting up your finances and making sure you have the requisite type of health coverage once abroad. It also accounts for any delays in processing that you might encounter.
Research visa and residency requirements
A key organizing principle during that preparation time will be the type of visa you’re seeking and whether your end goal is to get temporary or permanent residency status or seek citizenship.
There are typically two visa types that might be a fit for US retirees, depending on your circumstances, Pucca noted.
In many countries, the first type is a retiree visa, or a passive income visa, for which you will need to prove that your assets (savings and investments) can throw off at least the minimum required income to support yourself. That minimum is set by the host country. Note, however, if you’re also planning to derive some income from working remotely for a US company, find out if earning active income from abroad is permitted under the rules of the visa you’re applying for, Pucca said.
(Here is GCS’ 2025 global retirement index, which compiles different countries’ minimum income and other eligibility requirements. The organization also breaks out a list of the top 10 countries for US retirees in terms of “balancing affordability, healthcare access, lifestyle perks, and ease of integration.”)
The second category is a so-called golden visa, which offers you residency or even citizenship in some places in exchange for a minimum required investment — whether by buying real estate in the country where you want to move, investing in other assets or entities in the country or even making a large deposit in a national bank.
The terms for golden visas are usually more flexible than a retiree visa — for instance, they typically have very low- to no-minimum-stay rules, Pucca said. Such minimum investment requirements might range from $250,000 to $1 million or more. (Here is the latest GCS list on the top 18 countries offering a golden visa.)
Even if you have paid in to Medicare your entire career, it will not subsidize your care in another country.
So, find out what is required to be eligible for care through the national health care system of the country you choose, or whether you need to purchase private international health insurance.
If, like many expats, you plan to come back to the United States frequently — or even move back at some point — you’re likely to get some of your medical care in the United States. That’s why Chubinishvili recommends, if possible, keeping up your monthly payments for Medicare Part B, which subsidizes costs for non-hospital care — such as doctor visits, preventative care, tests, home health services and medical equipment.
Keep in mind, too, if you don’t sign up for Medicare when you’re first eligible, the Social Security Administration, which processes your application for the program, notes that “if you do so at a later date, you will pay a 10% higher premium for each 12-month period you could have been enrolled but were not.”
Lastly, research the quality of medical care in your chosen destination because if it’s below par, you should budget for money to pay for the care you’ll seek in the United States.
You can receive Social Security benefits while abroad, depending where you live. In 2024, the agency reported that nearly 712,000 people were receiving Social Security benefits abroad, of which more than 463,000 were retired workers.
The Social Security Administration offers details here about what is involved, and offers a “payments abroad screening tool” to let you know if the agency is allowed to send benefits directly to the country where you’ll be living.
Check with your US-based banks and brokerage firms
While you may decide to open a bank account and brokerage account in the country where you move, Chubinishvili recommends his clients also keep their US-based bank and brokerage accounts as well as their 401(k)s, IRAs and Roth IRAs.
But, well before you leave, find out from each institution housing your accounts what their rules and requirements are for customers who move abroad. Ask about everything from the consequences of changing your address to rules governing whether and how you can make transactions from abroad. Or, if you have a financial adviser, how that person may do so in your stead. Also see what services they offer to transfer money from your US-based accounts to ones you open up abroad, and what, if any, costs are associated with them.
Both Pucca and Chubinishvili recommend having two certified public accountants who can work together on your behalf: one based in the United States and one based in the country where you’re going.
Why? Because it is complicated to figure out the intersection of US tax laws and those of other countries — and whether the country you’re going to has a tax treaty with the United States.
Having professional advice about each tax system can help you avoid inadvertently being double taxed on some types of income, savings or investments. Plus, a CPA will keep you up to speed on your tax reporting requirements since you may be required to fill out two returns — one to the IRS and one to the tax authority in the country where you relocate. And the CPA will make sure, if necessary, that you fill out a Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR) for the IRS. It’s a listing of your foreign financial accounts (eg, banks, brokerages and mutual funds). And failure to file or filing late can bring big penalties.