Pensionado Residence in El Salvador: Retiring on a Foreign Pension

The conditions

• The pension must be paid monthly, permanently and stably from abroad and be meant for your living costs in El Salvador.
• It must reach 3 minimum wages a month. The law sets no higher amount for family members, unlike the rentista route.
• A pensionado may not do paid work, except for the State, municipalities or official autonomous institutions in specialised fields or teaching.
• The status is lost after more than 6 months away in a calendar year, unless there is a justified reason.

Source: Asamblea Legislativa: Special Migration and Aliens Law, Decree 286 of 2019 (PDF, in Spanish)¹

Documents for form F7

• The general documents: application, copies of all used passport pages, criminal record for the last 2 years and, where needed, the National Civil Police solvencia.
• An original certificate from the pension fund or institution that pays the pension, with the monthly amount.
• A sworn statement before a Salvadoran notary on the source and amount of the pension and that you will not do paid work.
• For a spouse or partner and children: marriage or birth certificates, or a notarial declaration of a common-law union, and the spouse’s criminal record.
• Foreign documents apostilled or legalised and translated into Spanish.

Source: DGME: temporary residence procedures and forms F1 to F31, form F7 for pensionados; Jurisprudencia: Regulations of the Special Migration and Aliens Law, Executive Decree 35 of 2019 (PDF, in Spanish)^3,4

Tax and customs benefits

• Income tax: the pension and other amounts declared as coming from abroad are exempt.
• Household goods: furniture and household items up to $20,000 CIF enter free of import duties, once.
• Vehicle: one vehicle up to $25,000 CIF free of import duties once every 5 years; it can be sold free of duties after 5 years with Ministry of Finance approval.
• The spouse or partner and children under parental authority share the benefits.

Source: Asamblea Legislativa: Special Migration and Aliens Law, Decree 286 of 2019 (PDF, in Spanish)¹

To use the customs exemption, you ask the Dirección General de Aduanas for the franchise with the DGME resolution and your pensionado card, plus the transport document and an itemised list of the goods with their values. Customs describes the exemption for these residents as covering import duties (DAI) only.^5,6

Keeping and upgrading the status

• Renew within the 30 days before the card expires.
• After 1 year as a pensionado you can apply for definitive residence ($345 for non-Central Americans).
• Changing to another residence category before 4 years means paying back the exempted taxes.

Source: Asamblea Legislativa: Special Migration and Aliens Law, Decree 286 of 2019 (PDF, in Spanish)¹