Guide to living in Andorra, residency, personal advice on relocating to Andorra

Some years ago, the Andorran Government issue 500 permits for residency. As at 18th December 2009 there were 197 remaining. Each family counts as just 1 for the purpose of the quota.

1) Do you satisfy the criteria for residency in Andorra?

a) Are you over 18 years old ?

b) Do you have sufficient capital, currently 3 times the annual minimum wage of €915.20 as at 1st Jan 2010, amounting to a total
of € 32, 947.20 ? For each additional family member, applicants will require an additional 100 % of the minimum annual wage or in real terms € 10,982.40 for each person within the family (including ALL children regardless of age). This is proven by a local bank certificate which states that the required funds have been deposited in an Andorran bank.

c) Do you have or will you be able to obtain private medical insurance to satisfy the insurance requirements for medical coverage in Andorra? (Very basic and cheap cover is readily available with a local company which satisfies this criteria with Immigration and costs about €900 per person per year. The coverage is minimal but simply satisfies the residency criteria).

d) Can you afford to pay €30,000 for the head of household plus €7,000 for each member of the household on a non interest bearing bond ? (Please note that the funds that were deposited to obtain the bank certficate in b) above CAN be used to pay the bond). This bond is fully refundable less administrative costs of clearance when you decide to leave Andorra.

e) Can you afford to purchase or rent a property in Andorra?

f) Are you prepared to spend 183 days per year in Andorra, or at least in principle as there are no checks (This is a declaration on an immigration form).

2) If the answer is yes and you decide to proceed you should do the following:-

a) Contact me for preliminary advice.

a) Apply for a police report both from your country of origin, and the country where you currently reside (BUT speak to me first, this may not be necessary). Also be reminded that from the date of issue of this document the clock is ticking and you have 3 months from the date of issue of the police certificate to complete and present all the correct documents to Immigration, failing which you will be required to apply for a new police certificate. Please click here for information on how to obtain police reports and have them apostillised. Please also note that one or more previous convictions does not at all prevent you from applying for residency and, unless very serious, should not hinder your application. Clean police reports do NOT have to be translated but if there are previous convictions, they will need to be translated into catalan (this is better done in Andorra by an official translator).

b) At the same time of legalising the police report(s) you should apostillise your marriage certificate whether or not your spouse is accompanying you.

c) Arrange private medical insurance. ( At a later stage this can be done locally and painlessly in Andorra within a day or two, and can cost about € 900 for a single applicant and € 1800 for a couple, no medical required ), alternatively any existing medical cover may be sufficient if it covers you in Andorra AND your Insurance company agrees to sign a very wrongly worded declaration, some do but most don't.


3) At the same time you should consider a preliminary visit to Andorra to:-

a) Meet with me to explain and assist in completing the documents since they are all done in Catalan. At that point also we can go over and clarify all other outstanding requirements.. We will visit the insurance company locally to arrange for cover and the certificate if your private insurance compnay has indeed refused to sign this wrongly worded document.

b) We will look at property and set in motion any purchase or rental agreement.

c) We will open a bank account in Andorra.

d) We will obtain and complete the relevant documents and declarations from Immigration.

4) Once all documents and certificates are ready you will need to return to Andorra to do the following :-

a) Deposit the necessary funds in your bank account here that you opened and we will obtain a certificate from the bank that such funds are available in the account.

b) We will arrange a meeting with the Immigration Officer responsible for passive residency where you will need to produce amongst all the other documents your original passport(s) and recent passport sized photograph.

c) Once accepted you will be required, normally within one to two days but within a maximum of one month to attend a medical, this is two visits one for blood tests and basic analytics, and the second visit is for you to see a doctor who should then issue his medical approval. The two visits are normally 2 days apart. Fear not, this is really the basic of all medicals !

d) On the day of the second medical, the doctor will sign the approval and then the funds for the Government bond will then need to be transferred to the Government. This CANNOT be done online as you need to produce the original transfer advice at Immigration.
Within a few weeks you should be the proud owner of a passive resident's permit !