How Country Match Works

Every country is scored on visa eligibility, budget, healthcare, lifestyle and stability. Visa eligibility carries the most weight, because without a suitable visa route the other four don't apply.

Each score stands on its own, so the report can tell you a country is excellent on three counts and impossible on a fourth.

Countries don't have one retirement visa. They have several routes, each with its own minimum age, minimum income, capital requirement, insurance rule and renewal schedule. We test you against all of them individually.

A country's score comes from the best route you qualify for, and the report tells you what that route is. Where a route didn't fit, the report says which requirement you missed and usually by how much. A country can score well on one less-common route while a better-known route is closed to you.

There is no single retirement age in the region. Most retirement routes start at 50 or 55, one starts at 40, and several routes retirees use are long-stay or investor permits with no age requirement at all. We check your age against each route's own minimum where a minimum exists.

A partner raises the minimum income on some routes and not on others. Some routes charge a fee for each additional person. A few can't host dependents at all, and we don't score a country on a route your household can't use. We do not assume a single applicant. We test your actual household.

There are three ways to commit money for a visa: park a refundable deposit in a local bank, spend money you don't get back on a bond, a property, a business or a non-refundable fee, or show proof of funds you keep at home. Some routes accept only one of the three.

Country Match asks which of these you would be willing to do, and a route that requires a form you excluded doesn't count as open to you, even if you have enough funds available on paper.

We convert your savings into the amount they can produce each year without running out. The rate rises with your age, because the money has fewer years to cover.

The rate is conservative at every age because overstating what savings can fund would tell you that you can afford a move you can't.

Costs come from our country guides, city by city, as a low, typical and high monthly figure for a single person and for a couple. We err high rather than low, and as a baseline, we cost the life of a retiree who wants expat-quality healthcare and a livable neighborhood.

Health insurance is priced for your specific age band. For two retirees of different ages in the same city, insurance is usually the largest difference in what they spend.

Meeting a visa's income requirement and being able to live on what a country costs are separate tests, and the report keeps them separate. If you qualify for a country whose typical monthly cost is above what you told us you expect to spend, the report will say that.

If your income is sufficient but you don't meet the legal requirements for a visa, the report says that instead.

The requirements for each visa route are based on official, government sources. Our cost research is in the guides.

We don't publish the weight on each of the five scores, the points a verdict starts from, the withdrawal rates, or the adjustments that move a score up or down. That "algorithm" is our own work.

This is a tool for research and a starting point for your own decision-making. We don't give financial, tax or legal advice, and we don't prepare visa applications.

Rules change, sometimes with little to no notice. We publish updates to each guide as visa requirements change. You should verify requirements yourself, preferably with qualified counsel.

Opinions differ on budgets, and some online sources publish "live-like-a-local" budgets that are significantly lower than ours. As noted, our budget figures err high rather than low, and assume a higher cost of living based on a particular standard of living that we believe is more realistic for most retirees. Decisions you might make that we generally caution against, such as a decision to go without health insurance, can significantly influence budget assumptions.