Immigration routes · By reason

What takes you there?

10 reasons · 7,861 routes · 227 countries

Every country decides who may move there by asking one question first — why are you coming? Each answer is its own body of law, with its own thresholds and its own paperwork. Pick yours below.

Counts, not scores — more routes never means an easier move, and “countries” means countries where at least one route of that kind is on record with us. Work is on record in 225 of the 227 countries covered; remote work and digital nomads in 53.

Every reason, one by one

The 10 reasons a country will let you move

Each one is a distinct legal ground, not a marketing label — the question under each heading is the one the country is really asking. A reason's count is the routes where it is the primary ground a country grants them: 5,589 of the 7,861 total; the rest sit with the supporting categories at the end. Where one side of a reason's coverage is the exception — 56 countries or fewer — it is listed in full, and every country links to its page.

Work

1,406 routes

Do you have — or can you get — a job offer?

Routes that let you live somewhere because you work there. Most are tied to a specific employer or occupation, and many require the employer to prove no local candidate was available.

1,406 routes on record
225 of 227 countries
8,099 proven facts

The 2 of 227 countries with none on record

Guinea-Bissau

North Korea

Also relevant

Starting a business360 routes · 164 countries
Talent and merit310 routes · 106 countries
Remote work and digital nomads61 routes · 53 countries

Open Work — the countries with the most routes, named and linked →

Remote work and digital nomads

61 routes

Do you work remotely for clients or an employer elsewhere?

Permits for people whose income comes from outside the country they live in. Many are marketed under the "digital nomad" name but are legally an independent-means or self-employment permit — so read the requirements, not the branding.

61 routes on record
53 of 227 countries
290 proven facts

The 53 countries where this is on record

Also relevant

Work1,406 routes · 225 countries
Starting a business360 routes · 164 countries
Living from your own income161 routes · 100 countries

Open Remote work and digital nomads — the countries with the most routes, named and linked →

Starting a business

360 routes

Do you want to run something of your own?

Routes for founders, freelancers and the self-employed. Some ask for a business plan and job creation; others simply for clients and an income.

360 routes on record
164 of 227 countries
2,639 proven facts

Also relevant

Work1,406 routes · 225 countries
Investment328 routes · 146 countries
Talent and merit310 routes · 106 countries

Open Starting a business — the countries with the most routes, named and linked →

Investment

328 routes

Are you investing a substantial sum?

Routes granted in exchange for investment — property, funds, business capital or government bonds. The amounts are high and the rules change often, so the date on any figure matters.

328 routes on record
146 of 227 countries
1,819 proven facts

Also relevant

Starting a business360 routes · 164 countries
Living from your own income161 routes · 100 countries

Open Investment — the countries with the most routes, named and linked →

Study

534 routes

Have you been accepted onto a course?

Routes for enrolled students. Whether they lead anywhere afterwards — work rights during study, a post-study stay — is the part that differs most, and the part worth reading closely.

534 routes on record
198 of 227 countries
1,774 proven facts

The 29 of 227 countries with none on record

Also relevant

Culture, faith and volunteering296 routes · 129 countries
Youth mobility225 routes · 54 countries

Open Study — the countries with the most routes, named and linked →

Family

1,173 routes

Do you have a partner, parent or child there?

Routes based on a relationship with someone who already has the right to live there. What counts as family, and what proof is accepted, varies sharply between countries.

1,173 routes on record
202 of 227 countries
6,429 proven facts

The 25 of 227 countries with none on record

Also relevant

Long-term residence542 routes · 187 countries
Free movement363 routes · 108 countries
Ancestry and return157 routes · 86 countries

Open Family — the countries with the most routes, named and linked →

Living from your own income

161 routes

Can you support yourself without working there?

Routes for people funded by pensions, savings, rental income or remote earnings from elsewhere. They usually set a monthly income floor and ask you to prove it.

161 routes on record
100 of 227 countries
943 proven facts

Also relevant

Long-term residence542 routes · 187 countries
Remote work and digital nomads61 routes · 53 countries

Open Living from your own income — the countries with the most routes, named and linked →

Humanitarian protection

591 routes

Are you seeking asylum or another form of protection?

Asylum, refugee status and complementary protection.

591 routes on record
183 of 227 countries
2,501 proven facts

The 44 of 227 countries with none on record

Also relevant

Special cases263 routes · 110 countries

Open Humanitarian protection — the countries with the most routes, named and linked →

Short stays and visits

712 routes

Are you visiting or passing through, not moving there?

Tourist and short-visit permissions — for people passing through or visiting, not moving there. It is one of the 10 reasons a country asks about, even though, unlike the other nine, it does not lead anywhere permanent.

712 routes on record
224 of 227 countries
1,886 proven facts

The 3 of 227 countries with none on record

Andorra

Finland

Vatican City

Also relevant

Transit161 routes · 128 countries
Medical treatment127 routes · 83 countries

Open Short stays and visits — the countries with the most routes, named and linked →

Special cases

263 routes

Does none of the above describe you?

Routes that do not fit the common categories — retired military, specific bilateral agreements, and one-off national schemes. Worth checking precisely because they are easy to miss.

263 routes on record
110 of 227 countries
511 proven facts

Also relevant

Talent and merit310 routes · 106 countries
Culture, faith and volunteering296 routes · 129 countries
Medical treatment127 routes · 83 countries
Sport91 routes · 56 countries

Open Special cases — the countries with the most routes, named and linked →

Categories that don't stand alone

Every category is referenced somewhere above

2,272 of the 7,861 routes belong to 9 supporting categories — talent, ancestry, free movement and the rest — that serve more than one reason above rather than standing as a reason on their own. Each is referenced under every reason it supports, with its own numbers here:

How these numbers are made

The base holds routes under ~19 technical categories; a separate table maps each one to the reason (or reasons) a reader would actually search for, with one category chosen as the primary match for each reason. The route counts come from the same published inventory the 227 country pages are generated from — one row per route, per country. A route is counted under a reason once and only once. Coverage means “at least one route of this kind is on record for that country”; it does not mean the route is open to you, and it never means a country has no other way in that we have not yet recorded.

A “proven fact” is one that carries all four things a claim about your life needs: a value, the official page it came from, a quotation that demonstrates that value, and the date it was checked. Anything short of all four is not counted, and is shown as unproven on the page that uses it. Only eligibility criteria are counted — the rules that decide whether a route is open to you — 36,506 proven eligibility facts in all, and the figures under the reasons and categories above add up to exactly that total. Evidence was read from the live database on 2026-08-07 across 4,091 distinct official sources; the database is worked on daily, so these figures move while the route counts, taken from the published inventory, do not.

How we verify our data · Where the data comes from · Browse the same inventory by country

Compiled by António Mira, founder · How we verify our data · Not legal advice — rules change; confirm with the official source on the country page before deciding.

Which of these reasons actually works for you?

Answer 14 questions and get a verdict per country — eligible, almost, or not eligible — against this same inventory.

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