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You have the means to live in South Africa without a salary. Should you take the Retired Person Visa, which is temporary but quick to obtain, or apply straight for permanent residence as a financially independent person, which costs more and takes far longer?
The two routes are often mentioned in one breath because both rest on money rather than work. The Retired Person Visa asks whether you have a guaranteed monthly income or assets that produce one. The Financially Independent Permit asks whether your net worth reaches a set figure, and charges a once-off payment on approval. Which one fits depends on whether you want to work, how soon you want to arrive, and how long you intend to stay.
Side by side
Figures below are those published by the Department of Home Affairs for the Retired Persons’ Visa and for permanent residence as a financially independent person, checked on 26 September 2026. Both thresholds are set by the Minister by notice in the Government Gazette and can change, so we confirm the current figure before any application is prepared.
| Retired Person Visa | Financially Independent Permit | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal basis | Section 20 of the Immigration Act | Section 27(f) of the Immigration Act |
| What you get | A temporary visa for up to four years, renewable | Permanent residence |
| Financial test | A pension, irrevocable annuity or retirement account paying a prescribed minimum for life, currently ZAR 37,000 a month, or a net worth producing that amount | A net worth of at least ZAR 12 million, the current figure |
| Payment to Home Affairs | The standard application fee | A once-off ZAR 120,000, payable only on approval, on top of the application fee |
| Work | Not a right; the Director-General may authorise it case by case | No restriction: employment, consulting, board seats or running a business |
| Minimum age | None in the Act | None |
| Family | Each spouse or life partner meets the threshold in their own right, or the other takes an accompanying visa as a spouse or life partner | Close family members may be able to apply on the basis of your status, each in a separate application decided on its merits |
| Time to a decision | Roughly eight weeks in our recent caseload | Commonly more than a year, in our experience |
| What it leads to | A separate application for permanent residence, if you want it | The five-year clock towards naturalisation |
What the Retired Person Visa is good at
It is fast, and it lets you live in South Africa on either a seasonal or a continuous basis, which suits people who divide the year between two homes. The income can come from a pension or annuity, and capital or rental income also counts.
It does not include the right to work: section 20(2) lets the Director-General authorise work on terms he or she sets, but in our experience that discretion is untested, and we do not plan a case around it. Spouses and life partners cannot add their incomes together to reach the threshold; a partner whose own income falls short comes in on an accompanying visa as a spouse or life partner. And holding the visa, however many times you renew it, never turns into permanent residence on its own.
When a retiree does want permanence, there are three routes: section 27(e) for someone with a guaranteed lifelong pension or annuity, section 27(f) on net worth, and section 26(b) after five years as the spouse or life partner of a citizen or permanent resident.
What the Financially Independent Permit is good at
It is permanent from the day it is approved. There is no investment requirement, no business to run, no income stream to prove, and nothing to renew. Once approved you can work in any capacity, which the Retired Person Visa cannot promise. The net worth is proven by a summary of certified statements and documents covering property, investments, balances and liabilities; it does not need to be audited or signed off by an accountant, but the format and the value placed on each line must stand up.
The costs are time and the once-off payment. A permanent residence application is adjudicated far more slowly than a temporary visa, and you cannot wait it out in South Africa on a visitor’s visa. An application made inside the country needs an existing long-term visa, which must then be renewed for as long as the application is pending, because a pending application is not itself a status. An application made at a South African mission abroad avoids that, and you settle once it is approved.
After approval, under section 28(c) of the Act, Home Affairs may withdraw permanent residence from a holder who has been absent from South Africa for more than three years, unless it agreed in advance, on good cause shown, to extend that period.
Two profiles
The seasonal retiree. A retired Dutch engineer, 67, receives a pension of roughly ZAR 45,000 a month for life. His wife’s pension is smaller. They want to spend the northern summer in the Netherlands and the rest of the year near Hermanus, and neither plans to work. The Retired Person Visa suits him: it is quick, it allows seasonal stays, and his pension alone clears the threshold. His wife comes in on an accompanying spouse visa. Because his income is a guaranteed lifelong pension, section 27(e) permanent residence may be open to him later if they decide to stay year-round.
The early leaver. A 52-year-old founder sold her company and holds well over ZAR 12 million in property and investments, but no pension yet. She wants to live in Cape Town permanently, sit on two boards and consult for a few days a month. The Retired Person Visa would bar that work unless separately authorised, so the Financially Independent Permit is the better fit. If she wants to be in South Africa while it is decided, she first needs a long-term visa and must keep it valid until the permit is approved; if she can wait abroad, she applies at a mission and arrives as a permanent resident.
These are composites, not clients, and most real cases have a complication one of them lacks. Once you hold permanent residence, citizenship becomes a separate question, covered in our guide to how South African citizenship is acquired and kept.
Choosing between them
If you need to be in South Africa soon and do not plan to work, start with the Retired Person Visa. If you want permanence and freedom to work, and your net worth clears the threshold with room to spare, the Financially Independent Permit is the more direct route. If your figures sit close to either line, or you want both at once, send them through our eligibility assessment and we will tell you which route the evidence supports.
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