Fiji Retirement Visa 2026: Residence on Assured Income

This is residence by financial means: you show that you live on a pension, assets or income from outside Fiji and will not work there. The one capital condition, an FJD 100,000 remittance and/or property purchase that unlocks the full term, is administrative and is not a business investment. Amounts are in Fijian dollars (FJD).

What is Fiji's Residence Permit on Assured Income?

Fiji's Residence Permit on Assured Income is a residence permit of up to three years for a non-citizen aged 45 or over who is retired or lives on a pension, assets or a reliable income outside Fiji, will not seek work in Fiji and is not likely to become a charge on public funds. Its legal basis is the Immigration Regulations 2007 (LN 5 of 2008), made under the Immigration Act 2003: regulations 48 (criteria), 49 (conditions) and 50 (duration), with regulations 48 and 49 as amended by Decree 30 of 2011, effective 11 July 2011.

The Ministry of Immigration runs the permit; the Permanent Secretary decides each application, made online through the IMMI Hub portal, at discretion. The age of 45, the FJD 100,000 condition and the fees are Ministry practice, not statute, published on the Residence Permit on Assured Income page and in the residence terms and conditions of September 2025 (both read 11 October 2026). It is separate from Fiji's Investor Permit, and it gives residence, not nationality and not a passport; see residency versus citizenship.

Who qualifies, and how much income do you need?

Fiji publishes no fixed income or asset figure for the Residence Permit on Assured Income: you show a pension, assets or income outside Fiji sufficient for you not to become a charge on public funds (regulation 48(a)), and sufficiency is at the Permanent Secretary's discretion. The requirements are:

• Age 45 or over (Ministry practice).
• Means from outside Fiji: a regular pension or retirement income from overseas, or assets or a reliable income outside Fiji, shown by an offshore bank statement and a retired scheme statement.
• No work in Fiji: no employment, profession, religious vocation, research or study without the Permanent Secretary's written approval (regulation 49(b)).
• FJD 100,000 to unlock the full term: a six-month permit is issued first, and the balance of 2.5 years on receipt of a remittance of FJD 100,000 and/or the purchase of property worth FJD 100,000 or more.
• No extra income amount per dependant is published.

The route does not fit people under 45, anyone who wants to work or run a business in Fiji, or anyone who needs permanence from the start or certainty that a foreign pension stays outside Fiji tax.

Is Fiji's retirement visa a golden retirement visa?

Not fully: it is rated Partial, 54.9 out of 100, with confidence grade B, in the Mirabello Golden Retirement Index, scored on 11 October 2026 under methodology 1.1. Partial means the route meets most of the standard, with one gap. Golden needs at least 70 out of 100, confidence grade A or B and no fail on tax of foreign income, physical presence or renewal; Fiji falls short because its score sits below that line. Its two weakest pillars are processing, because no official processing time is published, and physical presence, because no official stay or absence rule is published either way. Durability also costs points, as the permit lasts at most three years. Its strongest pillar is the financial test, which sets no fixed income amount. Its renewal category is "1 renewal, then permanent residence". The standard is Mirabello's own and is scored from official sources: under it, a golden retirement visa is a residence permit, not citizenship, with no investment required.

Do you have to live in Fiji?

Fiji sets no published minimum stay for the Residence Permit on Assured Income: no stay or absence rule appears in regulations 48 to 50, the September 2025 terms and conditions or the Ministry's permit page. That is not proof that none exists: a permit lapses if any condition is breached (terms and conditions, clause 4), so we confirm the position for your case.

Presence still matters. A permanent residence permit needs five years of physical and lawful residence in Fiji (regulation 51). For tax, you are resident if you reside in Fiji, are domiciled there without a permanent place of abode abroad, or are present 183 days in any 12 months (Income Tax Act 2015, section 6), so a retiree who lives in Fiji is tax-resident whatever the day count. For routes with lighter presence rules, see our guide to residency without relocating.

Does Fiji tax a foreign pension?

Fiji taxes its residents on worldwide income (Income Tax Act 2015, section 14(3)(a)), with a credit for foreign tax paid (section 60); no tax regime is tied to this permit. Whether a foreign pension is exempt is unresolved: Schedule Part 6(3) of the Income Tax (Exempt Income) Regulations 2016 exempts a pension from an "approved or non-approved fund" without limiting it to Fijian funds, but Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) guidance names only Fijian funds. An FRCS ruling is needed, so the point is not yet officially confirmed.

Resident rates are nil up to FJD 30,000, 18% to FJD 50,000, 20% to FJD 270,000, then 33% rising to 39% above FJD 1,000,000, as read in the FRCS consolidation of the Income Tax Act 2015, revised to 1 August 2025 (read 11 October 2026). Budget changes from 1 August 2026 are not yet read in official text.

Tax follows tax residence, not the permit: the treatment applies once you are tax-resident in Fiji, and your home country may still tax you if you remain resident there. The country paying your pension may also tax it under its own rules and any treaty with Fiji. This is general information, not tax advice. See our guide to countries that don't tax foreign pensions.

How long does it take, what does it cost, and what documents do you need?

Fiji publishes no processing time for the Residence Permit on Assured Income, so we confirm the timeline for your case; the Ministry fees are FJD 650.05 for a new or extension application by the primary applicant and FJD 185.00 per dependant, plus a 2% Mpaisa or 2.5% Visa or Mastercard surcharge for online payment.

• New application: a medical report under three months old stating that you are fit to reside in Fiji; a police report from each country where you have lived for 12 months or more; an offshore bank statement and a retired scheme statement; documents translated into English and notarised.
• Extension: a local police report, a local bank statement in Fijian currency and a retired scheme statement.
• Family: your legal spouse and children under 18 may be included; a de facto partner and children aged 18 or over apply separately for a co-extensive permit (regulations 54 to 56).

Whether you apply in Fiji or from abroad, and whether health insurance is required, are not yet officially confirmed: an older policy text required insurance; the current page is silent.

Renewal, permanent residence and citizenship

The Residence Permit on Assured Income is capped at three years from grant (regulation 50) and is not permanent: six months are issued first, then the balance of 2.5 years once the FJD 100,000 condition is met. Extensions are considered on merit, with no published length or cap; the Index renewal category is "1 renewal, then permanent residence". A permanent residence permit (regulations 51 and 53) needs five years of physical and lawful residence in Fiji.

The naturalisation residence period often quoted rests on a secondary source and has not been read in the Citizenship of Fiji Act 2009, so it is not yet officially confirmed. The Citizenship of Fiji (Amendment) Bill No. 8 of 2026 (read 11 October 2026) would change the test to eight of the preceding ten years of lawful presence and, from 1 January 2035, require a permanent residence permit. It takes effect only on a Gazette date, and its passage is not confirmed.

What the market gets wrong

• Some guides say Fiji leaves a retiree's foreign income untaxed. Residents are taxed on worldwide income; the explicit foreign-income exemption covers temporary residents on short employment contracts, not retirees, and a pension exemption under Schedule Part 6(3) is not yet officially confirmed.
• Some guides describe a fixed statutory retirement deposit. Regulation 48 prescribes no sum; FJD 100,000 is an administrative condition on the Ministry page, a remittance and/or property purchase that unlocks the balance of the permit.
• Some guides call the permit long-term or permanent. Regulation 50 caps it at three years, and permanent residence needs five years of physical and lawful residence (regulation 51).
• Some guides add annual family deposits of FJD 30,000 to FJD 40,000. Those figures appear only in a legacy, undated Ministry of Foreign Affairs policy text, not on the current Ministry of Immigration page.

Fiji or another retirement route?

Fiji's assured income permit suits people aged 45 or over with means abroad who want to live in Fiji, can remit FJD 100,000 or buy property, and plan to stay long enough for permanent residence; the trade-offs are worldwide taxation, an unresolved foreign-pension position and a permit of at most three years. In the same region:

• The Vanuatu self-funded residence visa is also rated Partial. Vanuatu levies no personal income tax, so foreign income is not taxed there, but the visa carries no permanent status.
• The Philippines Special Resident Retiree's Visa is rated Golden: it is permanent from the grant, and the Philippines taxes only local-source income, so foreign pensions are generally untaxed.
• The Thailand LTR visa for wealthy pensioners, also rated Golden, is a long-term visa for pensioners with a higher income.

The Mirabello Golden Retirement Index ranks every route we have scored, and the retirement and passive-income residency guide sets them side by side.

What is not yet officially confirmed

• Whether a minimum income or asset level is applied in practice.
• Whether the FJD 100,000 remitted is held, refundable or freely usable, and on what terms it can leave Fiji again.
• The processing time, whether you apply in Fiji or from abroad, whether health insurance is required, and any stay or absence rule applied in practice.
• The tax treatment of a foreign pension and of foreign dividends (FRCS ruling needed), budget changes from 1 August 2026, and the absence of wealth and inheritance tax.
• The naturalisation residence period under the Citizenship of Fiji Act 2009, and whether Bill No. 8 of 2026 has passed.
• Any later amendment to regulations 48 to 50: we read the consolidated text from a mirror, as the official laws portal could not be reached.

Ask Mira, by Mirabello

For a first answer at any hour, ask Mira, by Mirabello, the AI advisor of Mirabello Immigration Intelligence. It reads the same verified programme data as this page and can compare this route with the other options in our retirement and passive-income residency guide. A specialist then checks the details that decide your case.

How Mirabello Consultancy helps

Mirabello Consultancy checks your pension and bank evidence against the Ministry's standard, prepares the translated and notarised file, files through IMMI Hub and plans the FJD 100,000 step that unlocks the full term. We put the open points to the Ministry in writing and flag the pension-tax question for your tax adviser. To find out whether the route fits you, book a free, confidential consultation.

Information only, not legal or tax advice. Requirements were read from the official sources linked above on 11 October 2026 and can change; we confirm them for your case.