Morocco

Carte de séjour for people with means (visitor/retiree card). Show a steady pension or income and Morocco will let you live there on a renewable residence card, no investment required.

Free · The law behind every answer · Checked Sep 24, 2026

Carte de séjour for people with means (visitor/retiree card)

A one-year residence card (carte d'immatriculation) the first time, renewable, moving to a 10-year carte de résidence after continuous legal residence.

Who qualifies

Applicants without local employment must show regular income of roughly 3,500 MAD a month (about $350) from a pension or other stable source, paid into a Moroccan account, plus proof of accommodation.
Loi n° 02-03 relative à l'entrée et au séjour des étrangers au Royaume du Maroc, and residence-card guidance
The application is filed with the Bureau des Étrangers at the local prefecture within 90 days of arrival on a long-stay visa, with a passport, criminal-record check and, often, a local medical certificate.
Direction Générale de la Sûreté Nationale / service-public.ma, titres de séjour pour résidents étrangers

You keep your U.S. citizenship.

Does it fit your family?

One question, from the program’s own rules.

Steady monthly income, from any source?

Not legal advice.

What it takes.

Income: At least $350 a month, steady and documented.
Time: A few weeks for the long-stay visa, then up to 90 days after arrival to get the residence card issued.
Cost: About $200–500 in fees, translations and the medical certificate; no minimum investment.
The hard part: Proving the income is genuinely regular (recurring bank transfers), not a one-time balance.

Dollar figures are converted from the local currency at the rate the program’s research used; the official figure is in the local currency.

Citizens by 2033.

If your first permit is issued in 2027 and you keep living there, this is the road.

2027
First residence permit
1 year, renewable for 1 year at a time.
2028
Renew the permit
Filed before the old one lapses; renews for 1 year.
2029
Renew the permit
Filed before the old one lapses; renews for 1 year.
2030
Renew the permit
Filed before the old one lapses; renews for 1 year.
2031
Permanent residence
At least four years of continuous legal residence on the yearly registration card (carte d'immatriculation), then a ten-year residence card (carte de résidence), renewable, if the means of living are stable and sufficient.
2032
Apply for citizenship
With a language test.
2033
Citizenship

Language: Enough Arabic or Amazigh (either one) to get by; Amazigh was added in 2024. No set level or test is published.
Time away: Habitual and regular residence in Morocco for the five years right before applying. The grant is by decree after review by a commission; it is discretionary.
Two passports: Yes. You keep your U.S. citizenship.

A yearly card; after four years it can become a ten-year residence card, and after five years of real residence a family can ask for naturalisation.
The four-year wait for the ten-year residence card comes from a scholarly summary of Law 02-03, not the Official Bulletin; the official portal (service-public.ma) blocks automated reads.
Dual citizenship: the Nationality Code does not ask naturalising foreigners to give up their old nationality, and a Moroccan loses Moroccan nationality only with a decree authorising it; this is read from the Code, not stated on an official guidance page.
No official decision-time figure found; practitioners describe naturalisation of foreigners without Moroccan family ties as rare.
How long the decision takes isn’t published; we allow a year.

The law behind these dates

Centre Jacques-Berque — Law 02-03 on entry and residence of foreigners in Morocco (registration card and ten-year residence card) · checked 2026-09-25
Code de la nationalité marocaine (Dahir 1-58-250), consolidated to 16 May 2024, arts. 11–13 and 19, via ILO NATLEX · checked 2026-09-25

Living there.

Time you must spend there: No fixed day count to keep the card itself, but the income must keep arriving and the card must be renewed on time.
Tax: Residing more than 183 days a year makes you a Moroccan tax resident on worldwide income, though foreign pensions often benefit from an 80% abatement for new retiree residents under Moroccan tax law.

We never file a tax return. We tell you what applies and brief the professional who does.

Start today.

See the résidents étrangers section of Morocco's public-services portal.Open service-public.ma ↗
Round up the papers.
- Proof of steady income: at least $350 a month
- Request your FBI Identity History Summary
- Health cover for the move
- A lease or other proof of where you’ll live in Morocco

Or let us run it.

$900for your first year as a founding member. Then $399 a year, automatically.Standard first year: $1,200. Everyone renews at $399.One membership, the whole family. Accounts and activation included.

20 steps, from the first paper to the passport. You do 5 of them: send what we ask for, sign, and show up. We run the rest, and keep every permit renewed on time. Accounts and activation are included, whether you move now or keep the plan ready. Accounts depend on provider availability. Government, record and approved third-party charges are extra.

Run it for my family →

ISSUED TO

YOUR FAMILY

Cover