Findings
Among 34 passive-income and pension-style routes, 31 mark paid local employment as restricted, and 3 mark it as allowed (Jamaica, New Zealand, Norway).
Clear local-work permission is the minority. Most rentista and pension products expect you to live on foreign or passive means, not a local paycheck.
Restricted
31
Allowed
3
This index answers one question: how often do passive-income and pension-style residence routes allow paid local employment?
We only include routes we label as passive income in our catalog. Each row uses that route's published local-employment flag (allowed or restricted). Digital nomad and investment routes stay on their own indexes.
Restricted means the product is built around foreign or passive means, not a local paycheck. Allowed still needs a careful read of the live official source: some routes leave room for later work authorisation while others stay silent. This page is a catalog snapshot, not immigration advice.
Full table
Embed / cite
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HTML iframe
<iframe src="https://www.countrytolive.com/embed/passive-income-local-work-rules" title="Passive income local employment rules - Country To Live" width="100%" height="1616" style="border:0;border-radius:12px;max-width:100%;" loading="lazy" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe> <p style="font-size:12px;margin-top:8px;">Source: <a href="https://www.countrytolive.com/insights/passive-income-local-work-rules">Country To Live - Passive income local employment rules</a></p>
Markdown link
[Passive income local employment rules (2026)](https://www.countrytolive.com/insights/passive-income-local-work-rules) - Country To Live Research
Method
Rows are generated automatically from Country To Live residence permits where type === passive_income. Each row reports the catalog localEmploymentAllowed flag. Adding or editing a passive-income permit updates this page, the table, and the CSV. This is a catalog status snapshot, not immigration advice and not a ranking of the "best" retirement countries.