The easiest European country to get residency, measured by published rules

For the retiree or passive-income mover, "easiest" mostly means the income bar, and the published figures rank cleanly. Portugal's D7 sits lowest: pegged to the minimum wage, €920 a month in 2026, moving every January. Spain's non-lucrative visa runs on IPREM multiples — the underlying index frozen at €600 a month since 2023, though the NLV asks a multiple of it. Greece's FIP asks a flat €3,500 a month. Italy's elective residence sits near €31,000 a year with consulates free to ask more. Belgium's B17 pegs to the living wage for a single person. And two big economies publish no route at all — Germany and the Netherlands — which no income makes easy.

The honest caveat that keeps this ranking useful: a low bar is not a high approval rate. Consulates test the durability and source of the income, not just its size — Portugal wants passive income that keeps arriving, and Ireland (outside Schengen, income bar €50,000) wants it certified by an Irish accountancy firm. Every figure above is quoted with its source and reset date in our income comparison.

Self-employed American: nothing in Europe beats the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty — €4,500 of invested capital, no points test, a route reserved for US (and Japanese) nationals. That is a nationality privilege, not a general rule: Britons face the standard Dutch points assessment.

Remote employee: five nomad visas exist (Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Malta), and Spain's €2,442 a month is the lowest bar of the five — with the catch that employees may work only for companies outside Spain.

With a job offer: employment routes are the fast lane everywhere, and the Dutch machine is the fastest we cover when the employer is a recognised sponsor — decision periods of 30 to 90 days with no quota.

What makes an easy route hard: quotas and language. Austria caps its non-working settlement permits by an annual quota allocated by application timestamp, and demands A1 German before arrival. Italy's self-employment visa runs on 650 places a year nationally. A route with no quota and no language test — Portugal's D7, the Dutch treaty — is structurally easier than any bar-lowering can make a capped one.

Whatever route wins for you, the insurance line survives every ranking — and it is where otherwise-easy files fail, because the tests are structural rather than financial. Portugal takes the €30,000 Schengen standard at the consulate, then expects fuller cover at the residence stage. Spain requires an insurer authorised to operate in Spain — the test most international policies fail regardless of richness; the Spain hub explains how that is handled. Ireland's Stamp 0 wants an original policy in your own name with no travel-insurance substitute. Even the "no requirement at the visa stage" Netherlands turns strict the day you arrive.

So the honest easiest-country method: shortlist by your situation with the where-to-move tool, check the current income figure from the source, and read your destination's written insurance rule before you buy anything — every country page on this site carries it, cited and dated. Easy is a property of the whole file, not the headline bar.