Maldives
The Maldives has no long stay permit a foreigner can obtain on their own terms. Every route runs through a Maldivian employer, a Maldivian spouse, or USD 250,000 parked in a Maldivian bank, and the employer route is being deliberately reduced.
Can you stay in Maldives long term?
No. Ten years in the Maldives is ten years of renewals, not settlement.
The work route is not really an immigration route. The expatriate quota is the employer’s asset, granted against a sector ratio and an occupation that the Ministry of Homeland Security approves. The permit names one employer, one occupation and one worksite, so moving from one resort to another is a new application. Regulation 2025/R-120, in force 14 December 2025, bans new quotas outright for nurses, pilots, sea captains, taxi drivers, imams, photographers and entertainers, and phases quotas out over two to five years for hairdressers, electricians, tour guides, accountants, divers, engineers, dive instructors, front office managers, schoolteachers and a dozen other trades. Non-professional permits are capped at five years of continuous stay, with a two year gap before re-issuance.
Marriage is the only route that can plausibly last a lifetime, and even that gives a one year permit first, then discretionary renewals of up to five years. The residence is attached to the marriage. Divorce ends it unless there is a Maldivian child.
Nothing here accumulates into permanent residence. The Immigration Act allows a resident visa, but no service page publishes a permanent residence application, criteria or clock for ordinary foreigners. Naturalisation runs on twelve years of continuous residence, Muslim faith, age 21 and sound mind, at the Home Ministry’s discretion. That is a discretion, not a queue, and no residence permit shortens it.
Ways to move to Maldives
| Your situation | Route to investigate | Quick read |
|---|---|---|
| A Maldivian employer has offered you a professional or managerial job | Work Visa and Employment Approval | Partial family · no settlement · employer must hold quota |
| Your spouse or parent holds a professional work visa | Dependent Visa | Family · no settlement · MVR 750 |
| You are married to a Maldivian citizen | Marriage Visa | Family · discretionary renewal · no threshold |
| You have USD 250,000 of genuinely idle capital | Corporate Resident Visa | Family unverified · no settlement · USD 250,000 deposit for 5 years |
There is no fifth row, because there is no fifth route.
The programmes
Work Visa and Employment Approval. The only open long stay permit for an ordinary foreigner, and it belongs to the employer. There is no salary floor and no savings test on the worker. The binding test is whether the employer holds unused quota for your occupation, and whether that occupation survives the 2025 phase-out list. The employer pays MVR 2,000 per twelve months of quota and MVR 350 per month for the permit, both 2021 figures the ministry still publishes.
Dependent Visa. Covers a spouse, children under 18 and parents, but only where the sponsor holds a professional category work visa. Non-professional permit holders cannot bring anyone. The fee is MVR 750, the visa tracks the sponsor’s permit, and the holder may not work at all.
Marriage Visa (Resident Visa). One year first, then renewals of up to five years, decided on the same criteria each time. Marriage in the Maldives is registered at the Family Court under Islamic law, and a non-Muslim spouse is normally required to convert. A Thalassaemia screening was added to the requirements in 2025.
Corporate Resident Visa. The one investment route, and a legacy one. It requires USD 1,000,000 invested in the previous three financial years, or USD 250,000 on fixed deposit in a licensed Maldivian bank for five years, or USD 250,000 in a government-approved project. It grants a five year permit that renews on the same evidence, not permanent residence. The fee is MVR 15,000 (2026) and it is charged again at renewal.
A fifth scheme, the Maldives Pearl Residence, is announced and not open. As of 2026-10-22 the only official page is an expression of interest form with no gazetted rules, fees or qualifying criteria, so it is not listed above.
What the Maldives is bad at
There is no visa for a person who simply wants to live here. No retirement visa, no digital nomad visa, no self-sponsored long stay permit, no independent means route. A remote worker earning USD 40,000, a couple retiring with USD 300,000 and a founder with USD 50,000 all qualify for nothing.
Where routes do exist, the ministry holds the switch. The quota can be cut by regulation, the occupation can be deleted from the list, and the employer must fund repatriation from a deposit held with the ministry, so if the company folds the worker’s status goes with it. Family life is restricted to the professional category. The investor visa immobilises a quarter of a million dollars for five years and still buys only a renewable permit. And there is no published permanent residence status to work toward, which means the country cannot be a destination for anyone whose plan depends on staying.
Guides
- Work Visa and Employment Approval: quota, the 15 day arrival clock, and the 2025 occupation phase-out
- Dependent Visa: who qualifies, the seven day declaration, and the ban on working
- Marriage Visa: Family Court registration, conversion, and what divorce does
- Corporate Resident Visa: the three thresholds, the five year deposit lock, and the dependant gap
Sources
- Maldives Immigration, work visa, dependent, marriage and resident visa pages, 2026-10-22
- Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology, Regulation on the Employment of Expatriates 2025/R-120, 2026-10-22
- Ministry of Economic Development, Corporate Resident Visa Regulation 2021, and oneGov business portal guidelines, 2026-10-22
Last updated 2026-10-22.