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Retiring in Mauritius: The Residence Permit Rules

By Rory Phillips · Updated October 2026

The usual route for retiring in Mauritius is the Retired non-citizen residence permit, open to anyone aged 50 or over who is not a Mauritian citizen. You show at least USD 24,000 in funds when you apply, pay a USD 1,000 permit fee once the Economic Development Board (EDB) approves you, and put USD 2,000 into a Mauritian bank within 60 days of the permit being issued. The permit lasts up to 10 years, and the EDB then expects USD 24,000 a year or USD 2,000 a month.

If you are 50 or over and thinking about retiring in Mauritius, the rules sit in three places: the Immigration Act 2022, the EDB’s Occupation Permit Guidelines and a few EDB web pages, which do not always agree. What follows sets out who qualifies, the money asked at each stage, the fees, the application, the medical, tax and the UK State Pension, and says plainly where we found a gap.

Who can apply for the Retired permit

The Guidelines define a retired non-citizen as someone who is not a Mauritian citizen and is aged 50 or above. We found no upper age limit. You apply to the EDB through its online National E-licensing System (NELS), and the Passport and Immigration Office (PIO) issues the permit once the EDB has registered you.

The Guidelines let a holder invest in a business, provided they are not employed in it and take no salary or employment benefits from it. They add that foreign retirees will be allowed to take up employment in specific sectors, through a work permit or an Occupation Permit, without saying which sectors.

A negative police or character report makes an applicant ineligible. The Guidelines also say an application is not recommended where the medical shows an infectious, contagious or communicable disease.

The money asked at each stage

If you cannot show the first USD 2,000 in time, the Guidelines say the EDB deregisters you and the PIO cancels the permit. Section 19(1)(b) of the Immigration Act 2022 separately ends resident status once a non-citizen stops meeting the requirements the permit was issued on. Our reading is that the Mauritian bank statement is due after the Approval in Principle, which comes before the permit is issued, so the account probably has to be open before the 60 days begin. Ask the EDB to confirm the order. Our guide to opening a bank account in Mauritius covers what banks ask of new customers.

Fees

The Guidelines list three charges for a Retired permit application (Annex 1 and section 7):

• USD 50 for the application, non-refundable, paid at the start by credit or debit card. It has applied since 1 December 2025.
• USD 1,000 for the 10-year permit, paid only after the Approval in Principle email, by USD credit card on NELS or by card terminal at the EDB office in Ebene. The EDB books your appointment once the money has arrived.
• USD 400 for each dependant, paid by card terminal at the EDB office.

Older lines on the Retired and Senior Living pages still call applications free of charge. The Guidelines and a notice across the residency.mu site give the USD 50 fee, so we follow those. Medical tests, police certificates, translations and flights come on top, and we found no official price for any of them.

How the application works

Section 7 of the Guidelines sets out the steps:

1. Register on NELS, pay the USD 50 fee and attach every document on the checklist. The signed Form of charter for foreign residents goes in under “Other document”. The Retired page says you can start the application online without travelling to Mauritius.
2. An acknowledgement email arrives at once. The Occupation Permit Unit and the PIO flag anything missing, and a Joint Committee of the EDB and the PIO, chaired by the Prime Minister’s Office, assesses the complete file.
3. If the Prime Minister’s Office approves, you receive an Approval in Principle email, valid for 90 days from issue for a new application and 30 days for a renewal. It is not a visa.
4. Inside that window you pay the USD 1,000, take the medical in Mauritius, finish the other formalities and send the application back through NELS.
5. The Occupation Permit Unit books an appointment. The PIO identifies you and the EDB and the PIO check your originals; if they are in order and your visa is valid, the EDB registers you and the PIO issues the permit. The 60 days for the first USD 2,000 start from that date.

If an application is not recommended, you are told by email and can appeal once, within 30 days of that email, through NELS. Keep your visa valid while the appeal is decided: if it lapses first, the Guidelines say you must leave Mauritius and wait for the result from outside.

Start the clock from the email date: the 90 days of an Approval in Principle run from the day it is issued, not the day you open it. Plan the flight and the medical inside that window and, because the Retired checklist asks for a Mauritian bank statement at this stage, the account too. Keep the email as your record of the date.

Documents and the medical examination

Before the Approval in Principle you upload your original birth certificate (with a certified or sworn translation if it is not in English or French), the bio page of your passport, a police clearance covering the last ten years and under six months old, three recent colour photographs and a signed undertaking. After it come a statement from your Mauritian bank account, your marriage or divorce certificate, the medical certificate with its reports and the pages of your last entry visa. A renewal asks for a Mauritian morality certificate covering the last three years, a Mauritian bank statement, photographs, a copy of the permit and a signed undertaking.

A registered medical practitioner in Mauritius issues the medical certificate, and the Guidelines say you must travel there after the Approval in Principle to complete it. The compulsory tests are blood tests (haemoglobin and full blood count, hepatitis B surface antigen, anti-HIV and VDRL), urine tests for albumin and sugar, a stool test for parasites and a chest X-ray. Leprosy and lymphatic filariasis tests apply only to certain nationalities. The hepatitis B, HIV and chest X-ray tests must be done in Mauritius at a private laboratory or clinic registered with the Ministry of Health and Wellness; the rest can be done in your home country or in Mauritius. Results must be under six months old when submitted. Children under 12 need a clinical examination certificate, with tests only if the doctor requires them.

Family members

Dependants are a spouse (the Guidelines extend this to an opposite-sex common-law partner), parents, and unmarried children up to 24, stepchildren and lawfully adopted children included. They apply to the PIO for a permit that cannot run longer than yours, at USD 400 each. Each needs a valid tourist visa when applying and a medical certificate, and none may take paid work without a Work Permit or an Occupation Permit of their own.

Time in Mauritius, visas and renewal

The permit is issued for up to 10 years. The Retired page says it can be renewed for another 10, while the Guidelines refer only to established criteria. We found no minimum-stay rule for Retired permit holders in the Immigration Act 2022, the Economic Development Board Act or the Guidelines, so if long absences are part of your plans, ask the EDB to confirm the position in writing.

An Approval in Principle is not a visa. The Guidelines tell retired applicants and dependants to hold a return ticket, ask for a tourist visa on arrival, extend it at the PIO before it lapses and keep a valid visa throughout the application. Whether you need a visa before you fly depends on your passport, and our visa checker covers that.

Tax and foreign pensions

Tax residence does not follow from the permit. Section 73 of the Income Tax Act makes you resident for an income year (1 July to 30 June) if, among other tests, you spend 183 days or more in Mauritius in it, or 270 days or more across it and the two years before. A resident is taxed on income from abroad when it is received in Mauritius or dealt with there on their behalf (section 5(3)), and the Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) counts a pension for past services as foreign income.

We found no exemption in the Income Tax Act for foreign pensions or for retired non-citizens. You may read elsewhere that retirees get a tax grace period or an exemption on money brought in; we could not trace either to the Act or to the MRA’s pages. The Retired page says a pension’s treatment depends on the double taxation agreements and on whether the income is remitted to Mauritius.

The United Kingdom has a double taxation agreement with Mauritius, in force since 19 October 1981 and amended since, including by protocols in 2003, 2011 and 2018. How it applies to your own pension is a question for a cross-border tax adviser. Our Mauritius tax guide sets out the 2026-27 rates and the remittance rule. Retirees should also give the EDB details of any other residences, tax residences included, which the Guidelines say will be shared with the Mauritian tax authority in line with the Common Reporting Standard.

UK State Pension and healthcare

From the UK. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) says you can claim your UK State Pension or the new State Pension if you retire in Mauritius, and points you to the International Pension Centre. It warns that payments may be suspended if you do not answer a life certificate promptly. A Department for Work and Pensions page on yearly increases, dated 2014, lists Mauritius among the countries where recipients will usually get an increase each year, so confirm today’s position with the International Pension Centre.

The FCDO describes public hospitals as of a reasonable standard but not often equipped for serious illness, with foreign nationals expected to pay, and private hospitals as better equipped and favoured by foreign nationals. Some procedures are unavailable on the island, so a serious case can mean evacuation. Mauritius has no reciprocal health agreement with the UK, and UK travel insurance will not generally cover healthcare costs once you live overseas. Our healthcare guide goes through the options.

Other routes for over-50s

Buying property. A purchase of at least USD 375,000 in an approved scheme, or in an apartment in a building with at least two floors above ground, makes the buyer eligible for a residence permit, and the main holder then needs no work or occupation permit. The published wording of that threshold is not consistent, so read our guide to buying property in Mauritius before relying on it.

Senior Living Residence. The EDB lists homes for adults aged 50 and over in approved Property Development Scheme projects. The page says a non-citizen retiree can acquire a unit or “life rights” with no minimum price, and that the permit covers the holder and a spouse or common-law partner until the property is no longer owned or occupied by the retiree. The Immigration Act ties a permit through a property purchase to at least USD 375,000, so ask the EDB which permit a cheaper unit brings.

Premium Visa. A visa, valid for more than six months and up to a year, renewable, for people whose main place of business or income is outside Mauritius. Our Premium Visa guide has the rules.

Permanent residence. A Retired permit holder can apply for a 20-year Permanent Residence Permit after at least five years on the permit, with at least USD 200,000 transferred across those five consecutive years, by instalments or otherwise. Five years at the permit’s USD 24,000 a year comes to USD 120,000, so this test asks for more. See our Permanent Residence Permit guide.

Frequently asked questions

Sources, checked 28 October 2026

These are the pages of the Mauritian and UK authorities that set or describe the rules above, read on the date shown.

• Occupation Permit Guidelines (Economic Development Board): eligibility, the USD 24,000 and USD 2,000 funds rules, fees, the application steps, the medical, dependants and the 90-day Approval in Principle
• Retired Non-Citizen +50 years (Economic Development Board): the 10-year permit, the funds alternatives, document lists and the tax questions
• Senior Living Residence (Economic Development Board): homes for adults aged 50 and over in approved Property Development Scheme projects
• Mauritius Premium Visa (Economic Development Board): the length of the visa and who it is for
• Immigration Act 2022, as first enacted (residency.mu copy): the sections on residence permits and on losing resident status
• Economic Development Board Act, consolidated 2026 (Economic Development Board): the retiree criteria, including the USD 2,000 deposit and the permanent residence test
• Foreign income (Mauritius Revenue Authority): what counts as foreign income, pensions for past services included
• Income Tax Act, consolidated (Mauritius Revenue Authority): section 5(3) on foreign income and section 73 on residence for tax
• Living in Mauritius (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, updated 23 December 2024): claiming the State Pension, life certificates, healthcare and tax pointers
• Countries where we pay an annual increase in the State Pension (Department for Work and Pensions, dated 2014): Mauritius among the countries where the State Pension usually rises each year
• Mauritius tax treaties (GOV.UK): that the UK treaty exists and the protocols of 2003, 2011 and 2018
• Double Taxation Relief Manual, DT13100: Mauritius, agreements in force (HM Revenue and Customs, updated 4 August 2026): the date the UK treaty came into force

General information only, not immigration, tax, legal or financial advice. Mauritius often changes these rules in its June Budget, so check the official pages above and speak to a qualified professional before you act.