Retiring in Albania: Permit, Tax, Health & Where to Settle

If you’re retired, Albania’s Law on Foreigners has a permit with your name on it: the residence permit for pensioners, in Article 85. It’s issued for up to a year at first, renewable every year after that, and it doesn’t let you work. The figure that has anchored the pensioner route since 2021 is a pension of ALL 1,200,000 a year, roughly €13,050, $14,640 or £11,065 (about €1,090 a month) at the Bank of Albania’s rates of 5 October 2026. But in June 2025 parliament took that number, and every other item on the checklist, out of the law and handed them to a government decision, so it’s the first thing to confirm with the migration office. The pension test gets the attention, but the clocks shape the move more: five years of lawful, continuous residence to a permanent permit, and 183 days in a tax year, one of the tests that makes you an Albanian tax resident. You’ll reach 183 days years before you reach five, so give the tax section below as much attention as the permit.

Check this against your own case. It reflects Albanian law and official pages as we read them on 6 October 2026. It isn’t legal, tax or immigration advice, and the pensioner rules changed in 2025, so confirm the details with the border and migration authority, and with an Albanian tax adviser, before you sell a house or file anything.

Before any permit: how long you can simply stay

With a visa-free passport you don’t need to arrive with a permit in hand. US citizens can stay up to a year without a visa, which our US visa-free year guide explains, and that’s a generous trial run: a full winter and a full August before you commit. British, Canadian, Australian and EU passports get the standard 90 days in any 180; the Albania visa guide has the country-by-country rules.

That matters because the pensioner permit is granted to someone who is already staying in Albania lawfully, in the law’s own words. If your passport lets you in visa-free, you apply from inside the country during that stay. If it doesn’t, the law’s type D visa exists for people who need a visa before they can get a permit, and the implementing decision has a separate pensioner category for it.

The pensioner permit, as the law reads now

Article 85, as amended by Law 43/2025 of 26 June 2025, keeps it short. Foreigners who have retired in their own country can apply to the border and migration authority. The first permit runs up to one year and can be renewed every year, as long as you keep meeting the criteria set by a Council of Ministers decision. You can bring a spouse or partner who hasn’t retired through family reunification. And the permit gives you no right to any economic or professional activity, so if you plan to consult or freelance on the side, look at the Unique Permit for remote workers instead.

If you’re buying a home anyway, there’s a parallel route: the law has a separate permit for foreigners who own property in Albania, which the property buyer’s page covers. Neither route is automatic, and both renew yearly.

What happened to the ALL 1.2 million figure

Until mid-2025 the law spelled the requirements out. The Interior Ministry’s English translation of the original text lists six: an annual pension of at least ALL 1,200,000, proved with documents from your home country authenticated by a notary; enough income to support yourself and any dependants; an Albanian bank account into which the pension is regularly paid; proof of accommodation and an address; a one-year health insurance policy; and a criminal record certificate from your home country.

Law 43/2025 repealed those six letters from Article 85 and now points to the government decision for the criteria. That decision, No. 858 of 29 December 2021, used the same 1.2 million figure in its original text for the pensioner visa, and it has been amended since. We couldn’t read a consolidated current version on the official publications site, so expect to be asked for something close to the old list, and check the current version with the migration office when you apply. Applications go online, and you appear in person to apply and again to collect the card.

The threshold is set in lek, so what it means in your currency moves with the exchange rate: at the October 2026 rates, it’s about $1,220 or £922 a month. The bank account requirement also means you’ll want an Albanian account set up early, and the bank account walkthrough lists what Albanian banks ask foreigners for.

Five years to permanent residence

Permanent residence (a type C permit) is where the yearly renewals stop. Article 87 sets the conditions: at least five years of lawful, continuous residence; enough lawful income for you and your family; health insurance under the Albanian system used for citizens; suitable housing; and proof you’ve paid your taxes and other dues. You apply 60 days before your current permit runs out.

The law caps your time away. Absences of up to six months at a stretch, adding up to no more than ten months across the five years, don’t count against you. Spend three months abroad every summer and the fourth summer takes you past the ten-month allowance. If you’re aiming for permanent status, keep a simple log of your exits and entries from the start.

Health cover and the age limits

The original pensioner checklist asked for a one-year health insurance policy, and the permanent permit asks for cover under the Albanian scheme, so you’ll be dealing with insurance from the first year to the fifth. A pensioner who doesn’t work isn’t on the fund’s insured list by default: the law allows voluntary enrolment, and the practical route is something to settle with FSDKSH and the tax office well before year five. How the public scheme works for foreigners, and how the residence permit number becomes your health insurance number, is set out on our Albania healthcare page.

Where you’ll be treated shapes where you live. The WHO’s European Observatory counted 43 public and 18 private hospitals in Albania in 2022, says the private ones are mainly in Tirana, and notes that patients pay for private hospital care themselves.

Then there’s age, and here the limit is the insurer’s, not the state’s. SafetyWing, the nomad insurer we link to on this page, won’t sell its Nomad Insurance Essential plan to anyone older than 69, and its Complete plan only signs up new members aged 18 to 64 (you stay covered past that if you renew without a gap). Essential is also built for travel, not for living somewhere: SafetyWing defines your home country as where you principally reside and receive mail, covers only 30 days in every 90 there (15 if that’s the US), and calls Essential temporary cover that shouldn’t be used as ongoing health insurance. Complete covers your country of residence, but neither plan covers pre-existing conditions. If you’re 70 or over, you’ll need an insurer that writes cover at your age, and whichever policy you choose, ask the migration office whether it meets the permit requirement before you pay for a year.

When Albania counts you as a tax resident

Albania’s income tax law treats you as a tax resident if you meet any one of several tests, including having a permanent home in Albania during the year, spending 183 days or more there in a tax year, or having your centre of vital interests there. A pensioner living on a residence permit will usually meet at least one. Residents are taxed on income from all sources, inside or outside Albania.

The law then lists income that isn’t subject to personal income tax. For a retiree, look at income received from insurance in the mandatory social and health insurance scheme, and at income exempted under international agreements Albania’s parliament has ratified. The law’s wording names no country, but the tax administration’s own instruction on the law reads the first item as payments from Albania’s Social Insurance Fund and Health Care Fund, so don’t assume it covers a pension paid from abroad. In April 2026 the government approved a bill under which Albanian tax residents wouldn’t be taxed in Albania on income earned abroad and taxed there, and the minister presenting it pitched it at people who retired abroad; it wasn’t in the consolidated law on the tax administration’s site when we checked on 6 October 2026. Get a written opinion from an Albanian tax adviser on your state pension, your workplace pension and any private savings before you count on either.

Treaties change the picture by nationality. The UK is on the tax administration’s list of double taxation treaties in force, and Article 17 of the UK-Albania treaty says pensions arising in one country and paid to a resident of the other are taxable only in the country they arise in, so a UK pension stays taxable in the UK, not in Albania. The United States wasn’t on that list when we checked, or on the IRS’s A-to-Z list of US income tax treaties, and the IRS taxes US citizens on worldwide income wherever they live. For Americans that means two tax systems to square, which is one more reason to hire an adviser who knows both before your first Albanian tax year closes. Canada and Australia weren’t on that list either when we checked, so Canadians and Australians shouldn’t assume any treaty relief.

Tirana, Durrës, Vlorë or Sarandë

Distance to Tirana International Airport decides more than people expect, because it’s also roughly the distance to the private hospitals. These drive times are OpenStreetMap routing estimates without traffic.

Tirana. About 15 km and under half an hour from the airport, with the private hospitals the WHO places mainly in the capital. You trade the sea for convenience. For a walk under trees, the Grand Park and its lake are the capital’s answer.

Durrës. About 37 km and 37 minutes from the airport, on the coast, and close enough to Tirana for specialist appointments to be a half-day trip. Out of season it’s a different town: winter there is quiet and mild, and the beach scene shuts down, as our Durrës guide puts it.

Vlorë. About 154 km and a little over two hours from the airport, with the Lungomare and the bay in front of it, so every flight means a longer run. In winter the boat trips thin out; the Vlorë guide fills in the city itself.

Sarandë. About 250 km and four hours from the airport by road, which is the trade for the far south. The compensation is Corfu across the strait: a short ferry to Corfu puts the island and its airport within reach, though sailings thin out outside summer, so check the winter timetable before you count on it. Our Sarandë guide has the town itself.

If none of the four fits, look north: Shkodër is about 84 km and under two hours from the airport, a lakeside city whose winters are quiet and often wet; our Shkodër guide covers it. Rents and everyday prices vary a lot between these places, so build your budget from the cost of living in Albania breakdown, not from the pension threshold.

Your first year, in the order it happens

The steps every newcomer shares, from shipping your belongings to registering your address, are in our moving to Albania checklist; the order below is the retiree’s version.

Before you leave home. Get your pension statement and a criminal record certificate from your own country, and ask an Albanian notary or lawyer what authentication the migration office currently wants on foreign documents. Sort a tax adviser now; it’s cheaper than unpicking a year later.

The first weeks. Rent before you buy, keep the rental contract as proof of your address, and open the Albanian bank account your pension will be paid into. Line up health insurance that matches your age and the permit requirement.

Within your visa-free stay. Apply online for the pensioner permit, then go in person to apply and later to collect the card. The permit number is also the number the public health fund (FSDKSH) would insure you under, but a retiree who doesn’t work isn’t enrolled automatically, so ask the fund about voluntary enrolment in your first year. Under the health insurance law, cover for voluntary members starts after a six-month waiting period from registration and the first payment, so keep private cover running until then.

Every year after. Renew on time, keep proof of your pension and insurance current, and track your days out of the country. Five tidy years are what the permanent permit asks for, and a lapsed permit is the quickest way to break the continuous part.