How to retire on a tourist visa

In this report, I explain how to retire on a tourist visa. Certain problems seem to occur over and over again when you retire on tourist visas, so I want to explain how to overcome them. But first I want to explain how I learned about this.

I am an American. But I have lived outside the USA since 2007. During that 14+ years, I have lived in 67 countries. Some for just a month at a time, others for 3 months at a time, others for six months at a time, and just one for 8 months. But I have lived internationally for those 14 years without ever applying for a retirement visa.

That means I have been wandering around the world for 14+ years, 67 countries, on tourists visas. During that time, I have never bothered to apply for a retirement visa, not once. I just slow travel around the world staying only for the time that each country gives me as a tourist.

In fact, over the last 14 years, I have visited countries almost exclusively that welcome me with open arms asking only to see my passport upon arrival. I shy away from countries that ask for bank statements, pension information, in-person interviews, or any other personal information.

I have never applied for a retirement visa. I have never applied for residency in any country. In fact, I have rarely even applied for a tourist visa in those 14+ years.

I rarely go to countries that require me to apply for a tourist visa before I fly there. Call me spoiled if you like, but I don’t like going to foreign embassies and standing around waiting to give money to government officials for the privilege of spending money in their country.

I have no negative thoughts about any country’s right to decide who can visit and for how long. All the power to them. Every country has that right to decide its entry requirements. I just don’t want to encourage that sort of behavior by giving them my money or my time.

5 Tourist Visas (Countries) in My Passport

I just checked my passports, both old and new. Of the 67 countries I have lived in since leaving the USA in 2007, I have only applied for a tourist visa before flying to five countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Vietnam.

Those five required tourist visas before flying to them. I was very interested in seeing those countries for a few weeks or months, and there was no way to do it without applying for a tourist visa. That means that I have only applied for 5 tourist visas before flying. That is less than 10 percent of the countries I have enjoyed.

4 Visa Upon Arrival (Countries) in My Passport

In just a few more countries, Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar, and Laos, I had to complete a simple form upon arrival in the country and pay a small fee, but nothing was required from me before flying. That means that over the last 14+ years, I was able to travel to 62 of 67 countries with only my passport. No visa application was required to fly, only a passport.

Onward Tickets and Proof of Accommodations

Only half of those 62 countries that I entered with only my passport, required me to show an exit ticket, or explain where I would stay during my visit. So I traveled all over the world, basically with only my passport, and was asked for very little information upon entry.

One clarification. The title I gave this video was “How to retire on a tourist visa.” But what I am telling you is that if you are from a favored country, like the USA, UK, Europe, Japan, or about 20 other VIP countries, you can retire and travel most of the world without ever getting a visa.

So maybe I should have titled the report, how to retire all over the world without any visa at all. Not a retirement visa and not a tourist visa. Of course, this depends on the power of your passport.

I am in Panama today. I can hear your thoughts, “Dan, you can’t go anywhere right now because of the pandemic.” Well, I beg to differ. I have kept traveling almost the entire time. Since the day the pandemic hit the world news, I have been in Malaysia, the Philippines, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, and now Panama.

Traveled to 7 Countries During Pandemic

In the 21 months since the pandemic has been in the news, I was only stuck for 7 months when I was locked down in the Philippines. Other than that, we have been enjoying the world on tourist visas.

But don’t misunderstand me. I am not irresponsible. I follow all the rules and all the doctors’ recommendations in every country I have traveled to. And, I verify all of the safety requirements for each country I am entering before buying my flight there.

Then I fly to that country and follow all of their health crisis requirements. Now the rules change faster than I can write this report. So, the purpose of this report is not to share a list of countries open today, that will be closed tomorrow. I want to share something more valuable, a concept that you can use for decades as I have.

Since I am an American, I will use my passport as an example. I am going to speak in general terms with this example, but visa and COVID rules change all the time so you need to double-check for any new requirements on the date you want to travel, no matter where you are going in the world.

Instead of citing Visa and COVID rules for 180 countries that will be accurate for one day, I want to share a general concept with you that will be good for decades. Your retirement will hopefully last for decades, so you can use this idea to travel the world for decades.

How to Retire on Tourist Visa for 14 Years

You will run into various problems when you slow travel the world on a tourist visa. I am going to use actual problems we encountered along the way so you will know how to solve them in advance. But first I want to show you how to retire on a tourist visa for 14 years.

I flew into Mexico in September of 2020 and they stamped by US Passport with 180 days entry stamp. There was no visa required before flying, and no visa application on entry. They asked how long I would be in Mexico, and I said I would be touring around for 6 months and then I would go to Guatemala. I just handed my passport to the immigration officials and they stamped it for 180 days in Mexico.

I had printed out my accommodations in Mexico for the first week, but they didn’t ask for it. I didn’t have an onward flight and they didn’t ask for it.

We toured around Mexico for 6 months and then we flew to Guatemala. They stamped our passports with 90 days and didn’t ask for proof of onward flight or proof of accommodations. But the truth is, some countries will require proof of onward flight leaving their country and accommodations.

I will explain how to solve those two immigration requirements after I explain how to retire and travel the world for 14 years on a tourist visa. To retire on tourist visas, just slowly move forward through the world staying however long each country gives you on entry as a tourist without applying for a tourist visa.

The amount of time each country gives you will depend on what passport you have. So I will use my passport as an example. As an American, you can just start in Mexico and slowly move south through Mexico through Central America, and through South America.

Most of these countries have extensions available. But I almost never bother with that, I just move along slowly to the next country. If you fall in love along the way, you can apply for an extension or do a visa run to a neighboring country and go back to see your new love.

If the love lasts, then you can bring your new love to whatever country is next on the list. Just slowly head south through the Americas.

The Americas

Country	Time (Days)	Region
Mexico	180	North America
Belize	30	Central America
Guatemala	90	Central America
Nicaragua	90	Central America
Costa Rica	90	Central America
Panama	90	Central America
Colombia	90	South America
Ecuador	90	South America
Peru	90	South America
Chile	90	South America
Argentina	90	South America
Uruguay	90	South America
Paraguay	90	South America
Total	3.5 years

So, an American can retire in the Americas without getting tourist visas or a retirement visa for 3.5 years. They can just cycle back up to Mexico and start it all over again, or head to another part of the world.

You might be wondering, how long is the Asia slow travel circuit for Americans without getting tourist visas?

Asia

Country	Time (Days)	Region
Thailand	30	SE Asia
Philippines	1080	SE Asia
Malaysia	90	SE Asia
Indonesia	30	SE Asia
Singapore	90	SE Asia
Sri Lanka	30	Asia
Taiwan	90	Asia
Japan	90	Asia
Hong Kong	90	Asia
South Korea	90	Asia
Papua New Guinea	90	Oceania
Total	4.8 Years

How long is the Eastern European slow travel circuit for Americans without getting visas?

Eastern Europe

Country	Time (Days)	Region
Georgia	365	E. Europe
Armenia	180	E. Europe
Turkey	90	E. Europe
Bulgaria	90	E. Europe
N. Macedonia	90	E. Europe
Albania	365	E. Europe
Kosovo	90	E. Europe
Montenegro	90	E. Europe
Serbia	90	E. Europe
Bosnia	90	E. Europe
Croatia	90	E. Europe
Slovenia	90	E. Europe
Romania	90	E. Europe
Moldova	90	E. Europe
Ukraine	90	E. Europe
Latvia	90	E. Europe
Total	5.69 Years

So if you are from a favored nation like the USA, you can slow travel through the world, the Americas for 3.5 years, Asia 4.8 years, and Eastern Europe 5.7 years, for a total of about 14 years without a retirement visa or a tourist visa.

In most of these places you can live on around $1500 per month or less and you can travel on the ground between many of these countries that are within the same region near each other. So you move linearly forward through them on the ground whenever possible avoiding flights.

So you can retire on a tourist visa or no visa at all as you slow travel around the world for 14 years.

Actual Problems You Encounter on Tourist Visas

I promised to share some actual problems we encountered slow traveling the world on tourist visa exemptions.

Visa Exemptions Verifications and Period: Visit the embassy webpage in your home country for the country you intend to visit. Don’t do it now, do right before you go to each country because the rules change. For example, Americans would visit the embassy web page in America for Romania when they want to visit Romania.

At the Romanian embassy webpage in America, verify whether or not you are awarded a visa exemption when you go to Romania and how many days you can stay in Romania on the exemption. Read all the requirements.

Do you have to fly into Romania or can you take a train in and get your exemption at the border? Do you need to show a flight or train ticket leaving Romania before the end of the exemption period? Do you need to show where you will be staying in Romania while you are there? What else do you need?

Onward Flights, Buses, or Trains: If an onward flight or ticket leaving Romania is required in order to enter Romania, do you need a printout or can you just show them the ticket on your smartphone?

Also, do you need just the confirmation number or the eTicket number? When we tried to board a flight from the Dominican Republic to Panama, we showed a printout of an onward flight with a confirmation number and they said it wasn’t enough. They wanted to see the eTicket number on the printout.

You see, there are ticket companies that just book a reservation for an onward flight that only costs you about $12 USD. (Just Google “Onward Flights” to find them). They just rent you an actual reservation for 48 hours for $12 USD. Your name is actually in the system if the airline checks. But reserved tickets don’t have eTicket numbers until the reservation is paid.

So Onward Flight companies only rent the reservation for $12 USD during the 48 hours you need to clear boarding and immigration. So you only have a confirmation number but no eTicket number.

So when our reservation was refused by the airline, we had to jump out of line and buy an actual ticket on Orbitz.com before they would let us board the flight to Panama. Luckily, Orbitz let us cancel the flight during the first 24 hours for free. So we canceled the ticket once we landed in Panama.

We intend to exit Panama within 180 days as required, we just aren’t sure where we will go next so we don’t want to have a ticket we aren’t sure we will use. Luckily Orbitz had a 24-hour cancelation policy. So we didn’t waste any money.

Accommodations: If you need proof of where you are staying in Romania, is it just for the first few nights, or do you need it for longer?

Financial Requirements: Do you need any proof of your ability to pay your expenses in that country. It is not common for Americans but citizens of some countries need to prove they have enough cash or credit cards on them to pay for their expenses before they are allowed to enter.

Other Odd Requirments: Some countries now prohibit drones. Many countries prohibited guns or other weapons. Read carefully all of the requirements for each country before you try to cross the border.

Thank you for reading how to retire on a tourist visa.

Make sure to grab a free copy of my eBook: How I Fired My Boss and Traveled the World for 14 Years!    

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This is Dan of Vagabond Awake, the Youtube channel for VagabondBuddha.com. Thank you for stopping by.  The world is your home. What time will you be home for dinner?