What would the retirement visa cost you?
The Special Resident Retiree's Visa lets you stay in the Philippines indefinitely, with no exit-and-return runs and no annual extensions. What it asks for is a bank deposit, and the amount swings from $1,500 to $50,000 depending on your age, your pension, and one question most people never think to ask: whether you were born Filipino.
That deposit is your money, not a fee — it sits in a Philippine bank in your name and comes back if you cancel. But it is locked up for as long as you hold the visa, which is the real cost.
SRRV Classic — required time deposit
$15,000
Age 50 or over, with a qualifying monthly pension
This is a deposit, not a fee. It sits as a time deposit in a PRA-accredited Philippine bank in your own name for as long as you hold the visa, and it is returned if you ever cancel. PRA's own application and annual fees are separate and are not estimated here.
Retired diplomats, officers of international organisations recognised by the Philippine government, and retired foreign military personnel who served in the Philippines have their own Courtesy category on different terms. Ask PRA directly — the tiers are narrow enough that an estimate here would mislead.
Deposit tiers as published by the Philippine Retirement Authority, read August 2026 — confirm on PRA's own page before moving money. PRA restructured these tiers recently, and the retirement-visa consultancies that dominate search results are selling a service and often quote superseded figures. General information, not immigration advice.
Before the visa, the budget
The visa is the easy half. Whether the plan works depends on what a month actually costs where you intend to live — the retirement budget calculator builds that line by line, and healthcare is the line retirees underestimate most.
If you were born a Filipino citizen, read reacquiring Filipino citizenship before anything else: it is cheaper than every SRRV tier, has no age floor, and is the only route that restores the right to own land. The consular outreach tracker shows when the consulate brings that service near you, and Social Security while retiring in the Philippines covers what happens to a US pension once you live there.