Mauritius Residency by Investment: The Complete 2026 Guide

Mauritius residency by investment is a family of government-administered permits that allow foreign nationals to live, work or retire in Mauritius in exchange for a qualifying property purchase, a business investment or guaranteed retirement transfers. Mauritius does not sell citizenship: every route leads to residence, and naturalisation remains a separate, discretionary process under Mauritian citizenship law.

Quick answer. The retired non-citizen permit is the cheapest durable route: transfers of USD 1,500 a month (USD 18,000 a year, as at August 2026) support a 10-year permit from age 50. Property buyers need USD 375,000 in an approved scheme. Business investors currently need USD 50,000; the 2026 Bills remove that option, leaving USD 100,000.

2026 is the most consequential year for Mauritian residence rules since 2020. The Budget Speech of 19 June 2026, implemented by two Bills introduced in the National Assembly on 24 July 2026, raises several entry thresholds, abolishes one permit entirely and creates the country’s first golden visa. This guide states the rules in force today and flags every proposed change with its source and status. Figures verified 17 August 2026.

Key facts at a glance

Minimum financial criteria for each Mauritius residence route, with the changes proposed in the Bills of 24 July 2026. Figures checked 17 August 2026.

Sources: Passport and Immigration Office; Economic Development Board Mauritius; KPMG Mauritius analysis of the Finance Bill 2026 and the Economic and Financial Measures (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026, 27 July 2026. The Bills implement the Budget Speech of 19 June 2026 and had not completed their passage into proclaimed law when this page was checked on 17 August 2026.

What are the routes to residency in Mauritius?

Mauritius offers four main families of residence route, administered through the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Passport and Immigration Office. The first is property: buy a home worth at least USD 375,000 in an EDB-approved scheme and hold a residence permit for as long as you own it. The second is the Occupation Permit, a combined work and residence permit for investors, professionals and the self-employed. The third is the retired non-citizen residence permit for the over-50s. The fourth is the 20-year Permanent Residence Permit, reached either through years on one of the other permits or directly with a larger investment.

Dependants travel with the main applicant on every route: the spouse, children and, on most permits, parents of the holder can apply for residence permits of the same duration as the main holder (EDB). A separate Premium Visa exists for remote workers and long-stay visitors who do not need a work or investment permit.

For comparison points, see our guides to the Portugal Golden Visa and the UAE Golden Visa, the two programmes clients most often weigh against Mauritius.

How does the USD 375,000 property route work?

The Mauritius property route grants a residence permit to any non-citizen who buys residential property worth at least USD 375,000 in a scheme approved by the Economic Development Board: the Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS), the Real Estate Scheme (RES), the Property Development Scheme (PDS) or the Smart City Scheme. The USD 375,000 threshold has been stable since 2020, and the 2026 Bills do not propose to change it (checked 17 August 2026).

The permit’s defining feature is that it is tied to the asset. It remains valid only for as long as you own the property; sell, and the residence right ends. That makes it closer to Greece’s model than to Portugal’s fund-based route, where the investment and the permit are more separable. Non-citizens can also buy apartments outside the schemes, in buildings of at least ground plus two floors, where the price exceeds MUR 6 million (EDB), though scheme purchases are the standard route to a permit.

Government registration costs apply on top of the purchase price, and buyers should budget for transaction and advisory costs, which vary with the deal and are confirmed in a personalised quote.

How do the occupation permits work, and what is changing?

The Mauritius Occupation Permit is a combined work and residence permit issued in three categories: Investor, Professional and Self-Employed. Investor and Self-Employed permits run for up to 10 years and the Professional permit for up to 3 years, each renewable against business or salary criteria (Passport and Immigration Office, checked 17 August 2026).

The investor threshold is commonly reported as USD 50,000. The actual position, as at 17 August 2026, is that USD 50,000 and USD 100,000 exist as two parallel options, and the Economic and Financial Measures (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 removes the USD 50,000 option altogether, leaving USD 100,000 as the sole entry point (KPMG, 27 July 2026). The widely quoted USD 50,000 figure dates from the September 2020 reform announced by the EDB in January 2021; sites still quoting it without a date are describing a rule that is on its way out.

The other proposed changes move in the same direction. The Professional permit’s minimum basic salary rises from MUR 30,000 to MUR 50,000 per month across all sectors, with transitional protection for existing holders at their first renewal, and the ProPass and ExpertPass sub-categories are discontinued. The renewal tests for investors arrive earlier and get steeper: minimum annual turnover of MUR 5 million from year three and MUR 8 million from year five, replacing a single MUR 5 million test from year six. The Self-Employed permit keeps its USD 35,000 entry investment but faces a renewal test of MUR 3 million turnover from year five. The Family Occupation Permit, which granted 10-year residence for a USD 250,000 contribution, is discontinued entirely (KPMG, 27 July 2026).

What is the new Mauritius golden visa?

The Mauritius golden visa, proposed in the Budget Speech of 19 June 2026 and given legal form in the Bill of 24 July 2026, is the country’s first residence route aimed squarely at high-net-worth investors. It would be issued under the Passports Act on the recommendation of the EDB as an initial two-year residence permit, renewable and extending to the holder’s spouse and dependants (KPMG, 27 July 2026).

The substance sits behind the visa: a golden visa holder who invests an aggregate of at least USD 1,000,000 within 12 months of issue, in any business activity other than buying residential property under the EDB property schemes, becomes eligible for the 20-year Permanent Residence Permit. The exclusion of residential property is deliberate. Mauritius keeps its property route at USD 375,000 with a permit tied to the asset, while the golden visa channels seven-figure capital into operating businesses in exchange for a permit of fixed 20-year duration.

Two caveats matter. The qualifying sectors and application machinery are left to regulations that had not been published when this page was checked on 17 August 2026, and the parent Bill itself still required passage and proclamation. A parallel route offers the same 20-year permit to AI founders investing at least USD 1,000,000 under the new AI City Scheme, inserted as section 14AA of the Economic Development Board Act.

How do you retire in Mauritius?

The Mauritius retired non-citizen residence permit is open to anyone aged 50 or over who undertakes to transfer at least USD 1,500 a month, or USD 18,000 a year, in freely convertible currency to a Mauritian bank account (EDB criteria, checked 17 August 2026). The permit runs for 10 years and is renewable; no property purchase is required, and the EDB charges no processing fee for the application.

The arithmetic is worth setting out, because it is rarely published. Over the full ten-year life of the permit the minimum commitment is USD 180,000 (USD 18,000 multiplied by 10). That is under half the USD 375,000 property threshold, and unlike a property purchase the money is never locked in an asset: it is the retiree’s own income, transferred to their own Mauritian account and available to live on. On that arithmetic, the retirement permit is the cheapest durable residence Mauritius offers.

After three years, a retiree who has transferred at least USD 54,000 in aggregate can apply for the 20-year Permanent Residence Permit (Passport and Immigration Office, checked 17 August 2026). Retirees comparing jurisdictions should read this alongside our guide to retiring and relocating to Europe, where the trade-offs run in the opposite direction: higher cost, but European access.

How do you get the 20-year permanent residence permit?

The 20-year Permanent Residence Permit (PRP) is the most durable status Mauritius offers a foreign national, and there are five main ways in as at 17 August 2026. A retiree qualifies after 3 years with USD 54,000 transferred. A professional qualifies after 3 years on a basic monthly salary of at least MUR 150,000. A self-employed permit holder qualifies after 3 years with annual business income of at least MUR 3 million. An investor can qualify directly, without a waiting period, by investing at least USD 375,000 in a qualifying business activity (Passport and Immigration Office, checked 17 August 2026). And investors holding an Occupation Permit qualify on turnover, which is where the record needs correcting.

The investor path to the PRP is commonly reported as three years with a minimum annual turnover of MUR 15 million or MUR 45 million in aggregate, and the Passport and Immigration Office page still carried those criteria when we checked it on 17 August 2026. The position actually in force is stricter: an investor must have held the Occupation Permit for at least 5 years, with annual turnover of MUR 15 million for the 5 years preceding the application or an aggregate of MUR 75 million over 5 consecutive years (KPMG’s statement of the pre-Bill law in force, 27 July 2026). The 2026 Bill leaves those investor criteria unchanged and adds AI founders investing USD 1,000,000 as a new qualifying category. Where an official page and the consolidated law diverge, have the current position confirmed before you plan around it.

How are residents taxed in Mauritius?

Mauritius treats an individual as tax resident once they spend 183 days in the country in an income year, 270 days in aggregate over that year and the two preceding years, or when domiciled there (PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, reviewed 15 June 2026). The income year runs to 30 June.

Three features drive the planning. First, rates are low: from 1 July 2025, annual chargeable income is taxed at 0% on the first MUR 500,000, 10% on the next MUR 500,000 and 20% on the remainder. Secondly, foreign-source income of residents is taxable only to the extent it is received in Mauritius, a remittance-style rule that matters greatly to retirees and investors living on offshore income. Thirdly, there are no inheritance, estate or gift taxes and no net wealth tax in Mauritius (PwC, 15 June 2026).

High earners need to watch a moving target. The Finance Act 2025 introduced a Fair Share Contribution of 15% on net income above MUR 12 million, legislated for income years from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. The Finance Bill 2026 proposes to abolish it for individuals and replace it with a permanent 35% income tax band on chargeable income above MUR 12 million, with no sunset clause (KPMG, 27 July 2026). Anyone whose planning assumed a 20% top rate should revisit it. For how residence choices interact with a business sale, see our guide to moving abroad after a company sale.

Our view: is Mauritius right for you?

Our position is that Mauritius is the strongest Indian Ocean residence option for three profiles: retirees over 50 who want a low, predictable cost of entry; families with business or personal ties to southern and eastern Africa, India or the Gulf; and internationally mobile investors who value a stable, bilingual common-law jurisdiction with light personal taxation. In our advisory work the Mauritius conversation usually starts as a tax question and ends as a lifestyle decision; the clients who proceed are those who genuinely want to live there, not those hunting the lowest headline rate.

It is equally important to say what Mauritius is not. A Mauritian residence permit confers no right to live in or travel visa-free to the European Union, so it is not a substitute for a Portugal Golden Visa or an Italian investor visa for anyone whose real goal is Europe. And the direction of travel in 2026 is unmistakable: entry thresholds are rising, renewal tests are arriving earlier, and the top tax rate for high rupee incomes is set to climb. Mauritius is moving upmarket, deliberately. If it fits your plans, the current rules reward acting while they still apply; if the Bills’ final form matters to your numbers, wait for proclamation and confirm before committing.

Frequently asked questions

Does Mauritius offer citizenship by investment?

No. Mauritius offers residence by investment only. Naturalisation as a Mauritian citizen is a separate, discretionary process, and no investment shortens it. The new golden visa leads to a 20-year permanent residence permit, not a passport.

Can I get permanent residency in Mauritius by buying property?

A property purchase of USD 375,000 or more in an EDB-approved scheme gives a residence permit that lasts as long as you own the property. It is not the 20-year Permanent Residence Permit; the direct investment route to that permit requires USD 375,000 in a qualifying business activity instead (as at 17 August 2026).

What is the minimum investment for the Mauritius golden visa?

USD 1,000,000, invested within 12 months of the visa being issued, in a business activity other than residential property under the EDB schemes. The regime was still awaiting final passage and regulations on 17 August 2026.

How much income do I need to retire in Mauritius?

USD 1,500 a month, or USD 18,000 a year, transferred to a Mauritian bank account, from age 50. The permit lasts 10 years and is renewable (as at 17 August 2026).

Is Mauritius tax-free for residents?

No. Residents pay 0%, 10% and 20% bands on chargeable income, and net income above MUR 12 million currently attracts a 15% Fair Share Contribution, proposed to become a 35% tax band. The attractions are the remittance-style treatment of foreign income and the absence of inheritance, estate, gift and net wealth taxes (PwC, 15 June 2026).

Does a Mauritius residence permit give visa-free access to Europe?

No. A Mauritian residence permit confers rights in Mauritius only, and residence does not lead automatically to citizenship.

When do the 2026 changes take effect?

The two Bills implementing the Budget Speech of 19 June 2026 were introduced in the National Assembly on 24 July 2026, and most immigration measures commence on gazetting or proclamation. They had not been proclaimed when this page was checked on 17 August 2026, so confirm the current status before acting.

Figures verified 17 August 2026.

Sources

• Passport and Immigration Office, Republic of Mauritius, Occupation Permit (passport.govmu.org), checked 17 August 2026
• PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Mauritius, Individual sections, last reviewed 15 June 2026, checked 17 August 2026
• KPMG Mauritius, The Finance Bill 2026 and the Economic and Financial Measures (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026, 27 July 2026
• Economic and Financial Measures (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026, National Assembly of Mauritius, introduced 24 July 2026
• Boolell Advisory (via Polity.org.za), An AI City and a golden visa: Mauritius opens two new doors to foreign capital, 31 July 2026
• Economic Development Board Mauritius, e-newsletter, January 2021 (Occupation Permit reform of September 2020)
• Budget Speech 2026-2027, Republic of Mauritius, 19 June 2026

This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Investment migration rules and tax rules change frequently and depend on your personal circumstances. Figures are correct as at the date shown and should be confirmed before you act. Speak to a qualified adviser, and contact Citizenship360 for guidance specific to your situation.