Fiji · Residence Permit on Assured Income
Fiji's retirement permit needs FJ$100,000 sitting in a local bank
You have to be 45 or older, you can't take a job in Fiji, and the permit runs up to three years at a time.
Fiji calls it the Residence Permit on Assured Income. Everyone else calls it the Fiji retirement visa. It's the ministry's route for people living on money earned outside Fiji, and the test is a deposit rather than a monthly income floor.
- Currency
- Fijian Dollar (FJD)
- English proficiency
- 90/100
- Capital
- Suva
Who qualifies
Forty-five is a policy, not a law
Fiji Immigration's own page is blunt about the age: applications must be made by people 45 years and above. Plenty of commercial sites still print 60. They're out of date. Here's the part nobody explains. The statute behind this permit, regulation 48 of the Immigration Regulations 2007, names no age at all. It asks that the applicant be retired, or in an age group the Permanent Secretary approves. So 45 is an administrative decision sitting on top of the law. It has moved once. It can move again without Parliament touching anything. The other tests are steadier. You need assets outside Fiji big enough that you won't become a charge on public funds, plus health insurance. Spouse and dependent children go on the same form.
- 45 or older on the ministry's current policy
- Assets held outside Fiji, plus an assured income
- Health insurance in force before approval
- Evidence you speak adequate English
Priced in Fijian dollars
FJ$100,000
Deposited in a local resident account on approval
about US$45,000
FJ$30,000
Added every year for a family of two
FJ$40,000 for up to five
FJ$650.05
Application fee, new permits and extensions alike
about US$290
3 years
The longest single term regulation 50 allows
extensions are case by case
The money
Easy to send in, slow to bring home
The FJ$100,000 isn't a fee or spent. It's parked. Once you're approved, you open a resident account with a local bank and move the money in. It stays there. Buy property in Fiji instead and the deposit can be waived, with proof of the purchase and its value. Then it grows. A couple adds FJ$30,000 a year to that account. A household of up to five adds FJ$40,000. Renewal is where it gets checked: a first application asks for your latest offshore bank statement, an extension asks for your latest local one. Fiji wants to see the money still sitting in Suva. Now for the part almost nobody writes down. Fiji runs exchange controls. Before the Reserve Bank of Fiji will even consider letting you send capital out, you need clearance from Immigration. Two agencies stand between you and your own savings; it sits in the permit policy itself, not buried in banking rules. Don't park money here that you might need in a hurry.
- Waived if you buy Fijian property instead, with proof of value
- Annual top-ups go into the same resident account
- Sending capital out needs Immigration clearance first
Residence Permit on Assured Income
US citizens wishing to reside in Fiji long-term must apply for a residence visa before arrival. This requires demonstrating financial self-sufficiency, a clean criminal record, and approval from immigration authorities.
- Processing time
- ~60 days
- Timeline
- Before arrival
- Difficulty
- Moderate
About that data card
The card above reads "Timeline: Before arrival." Fiji's own new-application checklist asks for a certified copy of your current immigration arrival stamp, and there's no way to produce one of those from Ohio. Americans land visa free and file once they are in Fiji. Two other lines are off. The ministry publishes 21 working days as its standard processing period, not the roughly 60 days shown, and the difficulty word stops at Moderate because that score runs one to five against a 10 point label. We turned the requirements list off, too. Every line on it is accurate and still omits the age floor and the FJ$100,000, which are the two tests that actually decide this.
Filing
You file from inside Fiji, with a stamp in your passport
Where the application goes
The Ministry of Immigration sits at 40 Robertson Road in Suva, and applications run through its online portal. The usual pattern is to fly in, look around, and lodge while you're there.
What the folder holds
A request letter, two passport photos, a certified copy of your passport biodata page and of that arrival stamp, your latest offshore bank statement in Fijian dollars, a retirement scheme statement, a police report from your country of citizenship less than a year old, a medical report less than three months old, and the signed terms and conditions. Anything not in English needs a registered translator.
You pay twice
The FJ$650.05 is the application. If you're approved, there's a separate issue fee and a bond, both set out in the schedule to the regulations. The bond comes back when the permit expires and is forfeited to the State if you breach a condition.
Conditions that come attached
No work, paid or unpaid
Regulation 49 bars any profession or employment, whether or not for reward.
No study either
The same clause covers research and study, which surprises people planning a course.
Your spouse can't work
Dependants ride on a co-extensive permit, and that permit carries the same bar.
Insurance is a document
Cover isn't optional here. The ministry makes it a condition of the grant itself.
Breach voids the permit
Break a condition and the permit is void, with a FJ$20,000 fine on the table.
Five years before anything permanent
Regulation 51 asks for five years lawfully resident, and permanent residence then runs in five year blocks.
Tax
Eleven countries have a tax deal with Fiji. America isn't one.
Live in Fiji and you become a Fijian tax resident, assessed on income from everywhere, not just money earned on the islands. IRA withdrawals, dividends and Social Security all sit inside that net on paper. Fiji Revenue and Customs publishes its double tax agreements. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the UK and seven others are on that list. The United States is not. So the treaty tie-breakers and pension carve-outs that make a Portugal calculation workable don't exist for Americans here. What does exist is unilateral relief for tax paid in a non-treaty country, plus the foreign tax credit on your 1040. The rates themselves are gentle. The first FJ$30,000 is free of tax, then 18 and 20 percent on the excess. VAT came down to 12.5 percent on 1 August 2025. Capital gains tax is 10 percent. Settle the residency question before you assume any of it applies.
Four people worth a call before the wire goes out
Moneycorp
Currency Exchange
Moneycorp handles the currency leg. Worth a call because this permit makes you a repeat transferrer, not a one-off: the deposit goes first, then a top-up lands in the same account every year.
ExpatInsure
Global Health Insurance
ExpatInsure places international health cover. Here the certificate is paperwork with a deadline: it has to be live when Fiji decides, and live again when you file for an extension.
Hunter Schultz
Healthcare Coach
No employer plan is coming, because the permit bars the job that would carry one. What you buy is what you've got for the whole stay. Take that question to Hunter Schultz before you pick a policy, not after.
Find Your Feet Fiji
Fiji Relocation Plans
The weeks between landing and a decision are the awkward part. You need housing, a doctor and a bank willing to open an account before you hold a permit. Find Your Feet Fiji handles that settling-in work.
Sticking points people write to us about
Can I work in Fiji on a residence permit on assured income?
No, and the condition is broader than a job ban. It reaches unpaid work, and a separate limb of the same clause rules out research and study. Whether remote work for a client back home is caught is something Fiji does not spell out, so ask before you rely on it. A written waiver is possible.
How much money do you need for Fiji's retirement permit?
Fiji publishes no monthly income floor, which is unusual for a retirement route. The test is capital, not cash flow: FJ$100,000, roughly US$45,000, locked up inside Fiji, then FJ$30,000 a year for two people or FJ$40,000 for as many as five. Immigration also has to be satisfied your assets abroad will keep you off public support.
How old do you have to be to get Fiji's retirement permit?
Forty-five today. If you have read 60 somewhere, that figure is years out of date. Worth knowing where the number lives, though. It comes from ministry policy, not from the Immigration Regulations, which leave the qualifying age to the Permanent Secretary's discretion. Check it again before you build a plan around a birthday.
Can I get the FJ$100,000 back out of Fiji?
Eventually, but not on your schedule. Fiji still runs exchange controls, and moving capital home needs an Immigration sign-off before the central bank will even look at the request. Nobody is confiscating your savings. You are simply not the one deciding the timing.
How long is the permit good for, and does it lead to permanent residence?
Three years is the maximum single grant, and shorter terms are allowed, so don't assume the full run. Each extension costs another FJ$650.05 and is judged on merit. Permanent residence opens after five years of lawful residence, and even that is a renewable five year card rather than status for life.
Does Fiji tax my Social Security and my pension?
On paper, yes. Fiji assesses residents on income wherever it arises, and this permit makes you resident. The relief Americans lean on elsewhere, a treaty article that protects pensions, has no Fijian equivalent, because the two countries never signed one. You keep filing a 1040 regardless. Price a specialist into the move.
Can my spouse and kids come too?
Yes, on co-extensive permits granted off the back of yours and expiring the day yours does. Children qualify below 21, or above it while they stay unmarried. The trap is employment. A co-extensive permit carries the same prohibition the principal's does, so a spouse who expected to pick up part-time work in Nadi cannot.
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