Tool · 8 countries · 55 routes

Where should I move to in Europe?

By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026

Nobody can tell you the easiest country without knowing what you will do for money, because the two answers point in opposite directions: the countries with the lowest income bars are usually the ones that forbid you to work. Across these 8 destinations there are 55 published routes and 7 of them bar local work outright. Tell us your situation below and we will show which countries publish something that matches it — and which publish nothing at all.

Match your situation

Every country stays on the page whatever you choose; this narrows the list rather than hiding the data. Nothing here is a judgement about whether any application of yours would succeed — it is what each government publishes, and each card links to the source.

What will you be doing for money? Monthly income you can show Do you need to work locally?

The eight, lowest published income bar first

Ordered by the lowest monthly figure any of that country's routes publishes. Read it with care: a low bar often belongs to a route with the tightest conditions, and a country with no figure at all is not cheap — it is testing something a number cannot capture.

Spain · 6 routes

Lowest published bar: €600 a month · 3 of its routes publish no single monthly figure
Situations covered: Living on savings or a pension · Working remotely for employers or clients abroad · Studying · Self-employed or starting a business locally · Taking a job with a local employer
Local work: At least one route permits it
Insurance rule: “Spain requires health insurance “contracted with an insurance entity authorized to operate in Spain” for the non-lucrative and digital-nomad visas — with no deductible, no copayment, no waiting period and no coverage limit. Most international policies fail this rule on registration grounds.” Official source: Consulates General of Spain (Los Angeles & London) — official visa requirements — July 2026

What Spain does not offer: Spain's investor “golden visa” was repealed and is closed to new applicants. See why.

Minimum time you must actually be there. Non-lucrative residence visa and authorisation

Spain insurance requirements · its routes in full

Portugal · 6 routes

Lowest published bar: €920 a month · 4 of its routes publish no single monthly figure
Situations covered: Living on savings or a pension · Working remotely for employers or clients abroad · Qualifying through investment · Self-employed or starting a business locally · Taking a job with a local employer
Local work: At least one route permits it
Insurance rule: “Portugal’s national-visa documentation page requires valid insurance covering urgent medical care and possible repatriation. In practice, consulates and visa centres commonly apply the €30,000 Schengen standard (Schengen-wide validity, urgent care, hospitalisation, repatriation), and some US visa centres ask for a full year of validity — treat €30,000 as the practical bar, with the published national-visa rule as the floor.” Official source: Portuguese MFA visa portal — national-visa documentation (vistos.mne.gov.pt); €30,000 = the MFA’s published Schengen-visa standard, commonly applied in practice — July 2026

Minimum time you must actually be there. Golden Visa / ARI — residence permit for investment activity

Portugal insurance requirements · its routes in full

Germany · 10 routes

Lowest published bar: €992 a month · 7 of its routes publish no single monthly figure
Situations covered: Self-employed or starting a business locally · Taking a job with a local employer · Studying
Local work: At least one route permits it
Insurance rule: “For Germany’s national visa, health insurance must include the benefits statutory-insured persons are entitled to under §11(1–3) SGB V, and the contract must be open-ended — no expiry or cancellation clauses tied to age, employment, or residence status. Travel insurance is insufficient.” Official source: German Federal Foreign Office — health insurance in the national visa procedure — July 2026

What Germany does not offer: Germany publishes no retirement or independent-means route; Germany publishes no residence-by-investment route. See why.

Capped by an annual quota. Freelance residence permit for the liberal professions; The over-45 condition on German self-employment permits; Student residence permit; EU Blue Card; Residence permit for business self-employment; Residence permit to prepare founding a company on a start-up scholarship; Skilled worker employment permit; Employment permit for workers with pronounced practical experience, including IT specialists; Job-search permit after study, research or training completed in Germany
Language required before you arrive. Freelance residence permit for the liberal professions; Student residence permit; EU Blue Card; Residence permit for business self-employment; Residence permit to prepare founding a company on a start-up scholarship; Skilled worker employment permit; Employment permit for workers with pronounced practical experience, including IT specialists

Germany insurance requirements · its routes in full

Austria · 10 routes

Lowest published bar: €1,308 a month · 6 of its routes publish no single monthly figure
Situations covered: Living on savings or a pension · Taking a job with a local employer · Studying · Self-employed or starting a business locally
Local work: At least one route permits it
Insurance rule: “Austrian residence permits require health insurance that provides benefits in Austria and covers all risks, with claims payable in Austria — a stricter standard than a Schengen travel policy.” Official source: migration.gv.at & oesterreich.gv.at — residence-permit general conditions — July 2026

What Austria does not offer: Austria publishes no residence-by-investment route. See why.

Capped by an annual quota. Settlement Permit excluding gainful employment; Red-White-Red Card — Other Key Workers; Red-White-Red Card — Skilled Workers in Shortage Occupations; Red-White-Red Card — Very Highly Qualified Workers, with the six-month job-seeker visa; Student residence permit; EU Blue Card; Red-White-Red Card — Self-employed Key Workers; Red-White-Red Card — Start-up Founders; Red-White-Red Card for graduates of Austrian universities
Language required before you arrive. Settlement Permit excluding gainful employment

Austria insurance requirements · its routes in full

France · 7 routes

Lowest published bar: €1,478 a month · 4 of its routes publish no single monthly figure
Situations covered: Living on savings or a pension · Taking a job with a local employer · Self-employed or starting a business locally · Qualifying through investment
Local work: At least one route permits it
Insurance rule: “For a long-stay visa (VLS-TS), you must hold private health insurance covering your full stay in France. Travel insurance and short-stay Schengen policies are not accepted.” Official source: France-Visas (france-visas.gouv.fr) & FrenchEntrée long-stay guide — July 2026

France insurance requirements · its routes in full

Greece · 4 routes

Lowest published bar: €3,500 a month · 2 of its routes publish no single monthly figure
Situations covered: Living on savings or a pension · Working remotely for employers or clients abroad · Qualifying through investment · Taking a job with a local employer
Local work: At least one route permits it
Insurance rule: “Greece’s national (type D) visas require travel medical insurance with minimum cover of €30,000, valid for the whole Schengen area and the full duration of stay, covering emergency care, hospitalisation, and repatriation.” Official source: Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs (mfa.gr) national-visa documentation — July 2026

Greece insurance requirements · its routes in full

Malta · 7 routes

Lowest published bar: €3,500 a month · 6 of its routes publish no single monthly figure
Situations covered: Working remotely for employers or clients abroad · Qualifying through investment · Self-employed or starting a business locally · Living on savings or a pension · Taking a job with a local employer
Local work: At least one route permits it
Insurance rule: “Malta’s Nomad Residence Permit requires health insurance covering the EU (including Malta) and the UK, for one full year with the premium paid in advance. Travel insurance is not accepted — but a foreign health policy that meets the requirements is explicitly acceptable.” Official source: Residency Malta Agency — Nomad Residence Permit health-insurance policy — July 2026

Minimum time you must actually be there. Malta Retirement Programme — special tax status

Malta insurance requirements · its routes in full

Italy · 5 routes

Lowest published bar: Published, but not as one monthly number — this country's figures come as annual ranges or as figures its own missions disagree on, and we will not average them into a total nobody published. See each figure and its source.
Situations covered: Living on savings or a pension · Working remotely for employers or clients abroad · Self-employed or starting a business locally · Qualifying through investment · Taking a job with a local employer
Local work: At least one route permits it
Insurance rule: “The elective residence visa is widely handled to the €30,000 Schengen insurance standard — hospitalisation and repatriation cover for the full visa year — though published consulate checklists vary: some ask for cover of 100% of medical expenses, and requirements differ by consulate.” Based on: Official esteri.it consulate checklists (Chicago, Boston et al., which vary) & widely-applied Schengen standard — July 2026

Capped by an annual quota. Digital nomad and remote worker visa; Self-employment visa; Subordinate employment visa

Italy insurance requirements · its routes in full

What actually decides it, and it is rarely the money

People compare European destinations on income thresholds because thresholds are the easiest thing to put in a table. In practice the conditions that decide whether a move is possible at all are the ones a table leaves out.

Capped by an annual quota — Germany, Austria, Italy. Meeting every condition is not enough if the places are gone. Quotas are allocated by application date and reset annually.

Minimum time you must actually be there — Spain, Portugal, Malta. These routes are not compatible with part-year living, and the bigger ones drag tax residency with them.

Language required before you arrive — Germany, Austria. A condition you cannot fix after landing, and the one most likely to delay a move by months.

And the bluntest condition of all is a route simply not existing. Germany publish no retirement or independent-means route at all, so no amount of savings opens one. Where that is the case the card above says so, and the visa finder shows the statutory basis.

“Which is cheapest?” has a shorter answer than you expect

For insurance, the destination makes no difference to your premium. Our cover is priced from a single EU-region rate card that applies identically to all 8 countries, so what moves your price is your age and the level of cover you choose. Cover starts from $392 a year, and our most-chosen level from $1,525 a year. Real figures by exact age are on the pricing page.

What does differ, sharply, is what each government asks you to prove. Across the 18 routes that publish a monthly figure the spread runs from €600 to €4,948 a month , and the remaining 37 publish nothing at all — they test a business case, a points score, an investment, or in a few cases genuinely nothing. The income requirement checker shows each figure with its derivation and official source.

Prices are USD, from the Regency Premium Rate Card 2026, last verified 2026-07-17. Cost of living, tax and housing are not ours to quote and we do not; this page compares only what the immigration and insurance rules require.

Once you have a shortlist

Narrow to a country and a route, then check the insurance condition before you buy anything — it is set by the destination, not by your route, and it is where otherwise strong applications fail. The free policy check reads cover you already hold against your destination's published rule, the visa checklist prints what your certificate must say, and the rules compared puts all eight side by side.

This is not immigration advice. We are an insurance introducer. This page reports what each government publishes and links to the source; it does not assess whether you would be accepted anywhere. Consulates keep discretion, and requirements can change. We show the published rule and its source; the final decision is the consulate’s. Covered Abroad is an insurance introducer, not an insurer. We cannot extend cover beyond the policy wording. We log rule changes as we find them on updates.

Get a certificate that meets the published rule

Tell us your destination, visa, and who’s moving. Our team reviews it against the current requirement and calls you with a quote — no obligation.

Get my quote Check my policy first

Cover underwritten by Regency Assurance · every rule on this site cited and dated · a person calls back within one business day.

Before you request a quote: cover is worldwide but excludes treatment in the United States, and pre-existing conditions are not covered — including conditions you did not know about. We say this up front so a quote is worth your time.

Questions about choosing a country

Which European country is easiest to move to?

There is no single answer, and any page giving you one is guessing. "Easiest" changes completely depending on what you will do for money: the country with the lowest income bar may forbid you from working, and the country that welcomes your business may cap places by quota. Across these eight there are 55 published routes; 7 of them bar local work outright. Decide what you will be doing first, and the shortlist follows.

Which European country is cheapest to move to?

On insurance, none of them — and that is worth knowing before you factor it into a comparison. Our cover is priced from one EU-region rate card that is identical across all eight destinations, so your premium depends on your age and the level you choose, never on which country you pick. Cover starts from $392 a year. What genuinely differs is the income each government asks you to prove, and there the spread is wide: from €600 to €4,948 a month.

Where can I retire in Europe?

7 of these eight publish a route for living on a pension or savings without working: Spain, Portugal, Austria, France, Greece, Malta, Italy. Germany do not — it has no retirement, pensioner or independent-means route at all, which is the single most useful fact on this page for anyone comparing on healthcare quality alone.

What is the lowest income I need to move to Europe?

The lowest published monthly figure across all 55 routes is €600, but treat that as a floor for one specific route rather than a realistic target — the cheapest bars attach to student and passive-income routes with the tightest conditions attached. 37 of the 55 routes publish no monthly figure at all, testing a business case, a points score, an investment or nothing.

Does the country I choose change my insurance premium?

No. The rate card is one EU-region card covering all eight, so age and cover level set your price, not the destination. What the country changes is the RULE your certificate has to satisfy — and those differ sharply. Spain requires an insurer authorized to operate in Spain; Germany tests equivalence with its own statutory system; Greece names a €30,000 figure. A policy priced identically can pass in one and fail in another.

Is this immigration advice?

No. We are an insurance introducer, and this page reports what each government publishes about its own routes, with a link to each source. It does not assess whether you would be accepted anywhere — consulates keep discretion and only they decide. The insurance condition attached to your destination is our own subject, and we quote it verbatim.