Ecuador is still one of the most affordable places in the Americas to retire or settle on investment income — but the income you actually have to prove is no longer the figure most websites quote. Both the Pensionado (Jubilado) retirement visa and the Rentista passive-income visa peg their minimum to three times Ecuador’s Salario Básico Unificado (SBU), the national basic salary, which is recalculated every January. For 2026 the SBU is $482, so the minimum qualifying income is $1,446 a month. We have updated both the Ecuador Pensionado retirement visa and the Ecuador Rentista residency pages to the verified 2026 figure.
The number, and where the old one came from
For years the headline figure quoted across expat blogs was “$800 a month.” That was correct once — when the SBU was around $260–$270 — but it has not been the real threshold for a long time. Because the requirement is a multiple of a wage that rises almost every year, the figure drifts upward and the old articles do not. The 2026 numbers:
- Minimum income: $1,446/month — exactly 3 × the 2026 SBU of $482.
- Each dependent (spouse, child) adds roughly $250/month to the requirement.
- Pensionado: the income must be a genuine lifelong pension (government, Social Security, or private). Rentista: stable passive income from dividends, rent, interest, royalties or annuities.
It is a two-year visa that leads to permanent residency
Both visas are granted as temporary residency for two years and are renewable. After 21 months of temporary residency you can apply for permanent residency — and at that point the income test falls away entirely. Ecuadorian nationality becomes available after three years of continuous residence. Ecuador’s fully dollarised economy means a US-dollar pension carries no exchange-rate risk, which is a large part of the appeal for North American retirees.
Part of a wider Andean review
This correction came out of a broader verification pass over the Andean countries. In the same review we tightened Peru’s tourist-entry rules — Peru allows up to 183 days a year, but since late 2023 tourist-stay extensions are available only to Andean Community nationals (Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia), not to everyone — and corrected Colombia’s digital-nomad visa, which runs up to two years but cannot be renewed as a nomad visa. See the Peru tourist entry page and the Colombia Digital Nomad Visa.
How we verify this
We re-checked the 2026 SBU and the 3× multiplier against Ecuadorian visa guidance, corrected the figure across the visa name, description, document checklist and fee notes, and dated every change. Wage-indexed thresholds like this one move each January, so we re-verify them annually rather than treating a one-time number as permanent. Our full process is in our Editorial & Data Standards; start from the Ecuador destination hub.