Mauritius Digital Nomad Visa

The Economic Development Board's Premium Visa FAQs, dated November 2023 and uploaded in December 2023, set the income condition as a figure rather than leaving it open:

A minimum of USD 1,500 per month for each adult applicant, and a minimum of USD 500 per month for each dependent child. The English half sets no age on the words dependent child, but the French half of the same bilingual document gives the two figures with a limit attached: USD 500 for each dependant who is a child under 24. The two halves of one document therefore do not say the same thing on this point.

Income is proven by bank statements for the last three months together with an employment contract or an attestation of monthly revenue.

Three conditions on the nature of the money accompany the threshold, and they matter as much as the number: the applicant may not enter the Mauritian labour market; the main place of business and the source of income and profits must lie outside Mauritius; and the file must document that this is so.

One thing must be said plainly so that a reader does not knock at the wrong door: the Premium Visa page of the Passport and Immigration Office carries only a short description, the application link and a recommendation to visit the Economic Development Board's website. The list of conditions, including long-stay plans and travel and health insurance for the initial period of stay, sits on the Board's Premium Visa page, and that page does not restate the two figures.

The threshold exists; it simply sits in the FAQs rather than on the pages most readers open first.

What is received is a long-stay visa, and the most important part of it is what it is not: neither a work permit nor a residence permit.

The agency makes the onward route explicit by pointing at two different documents, each a separate application: a Premium Visa holder who intends to work or invest in Mauritius applies for an occupation permit, while one who wants to stay on as a retired person applies for a residence permit as a retired non-citizen.

This route is therefore the lowest of three tiers, and it does not convert itself into either of the other two. Beyond those two permits there is a residence route that does not pass through the visa: under section 8(1)(d) of the Immigration Act 2022, a non-citizen who purchases immovable property under the Integrated Resort Scheme, Real Estate Scheme, Invest Hotel Scheme, Property Development Scheme or Smart City Scheme for a price of not less than USD 375,000 is eligible for a residence permit, and that too is a separate application.

The FAQs do answer whether a Premium Visa holder may buy a home, but the answer does not describe a right peculiar to the visa.

A foreign national may acquire residential property developed under any of four schemes: the Integrated Resort Scheme, the Real Estate Scheme, the Property Development Scheme or the Smart City Scheme. Beyond those four, a foreign national may also acquire an apartment in a building of at least ground plus two floors.

The Economic Development Board's guidelines on the acquisition of apartments by non-citizens state that any non-citizen, with or without an occupation permit, residence permit or permanent residence permit, may acquire apartments, and that non-citizens are not restricted from acquiring residential units under those schemes. The visa therefore neither creates nor widens this right.

The condition on the apartment route is also measured in money, not only in storeys: under section 3(3)(c)(v) of the Non-Citizens (Property Restriction) Act, the purchase price may not be less than 6 million rupees, and the transaction requires an authorisation from the Economic Development Board granted after it has obtained the approval of the Minister. On the form of issue: this is an electronic visa, and the agency sends it by email.

The authority publishes no processing time, and this is a finding read from two documents rather than an unresearched gap.

The first is the Economic Development Board's Premium Visa FAQ: wherever it mentions days, it speaks to validity or length of stay.

The visa is valid for a period exceeding six months up to one year and is renewable, and it is required only for those intending to stay beyond 180 days in a calendar year.

It never addresses how long the authority takes to decide, and states no period in working days or weeks.

The second is the Premium Visa page on the Passport and Immigration Office portal, the right page for this route, and it states no processing time and no period in days, working days or weeks.

What the authority does publish is an alternative path: a person already in Mauritius on a tourist visa may apply for the Premium Visa during that stay, so there is no requirement to wait abroad.

For holders of a Vietnamese passport this is not an alternative but the only path. The annex to the FAQs lists the 114 countries whose nationals may apply before entering, Viet Nam is not on that list, and the document states that nationals of countries not listed must enter Mauritius on a tourist visa and submit their online application during their stay. According to the Passport and Immigration Office's 2025 list of visa requirements, Vietnamese nationals are granted a visa for sixty days on arrival.

This route is measured in one hundred and eighty days, and inside it two clocks do not run together. The trigger: anyone intending to stay more than 180 days in a calendar year must hold a Premium Visa; anyone below that is granted a tourist visa on arrival, for a cumulative period not exceeding 180 days in a calendar year.

The visa is multi-entry, so the holder may leave the country and re-enter while it remains valid.

The two entry conditions listed in the capital threshold cell, the bar on entering the labour market and the requirement that the main place of business and the source of income lie outside the country, belong to this cell from a different angle.

The document table requires the same income evidence again at renewal, the three months of bank statements and the attestation of monthly revenue, so those conditions are not satisfied once but must be kept.

The part most easily miscalculated is the pair of clocks, and it applies only to those applying from abroad: the visa is issued for one year where all required documents are submitted, but it remains valid for travel for only six months, and day 1 of that year begins only on the date of arrival in Mauritius.

The year therefore does not run from the grant: delay the flight beyond six months and the whole visa is lost, not merely a part of the year.

The dependant list has only two categories, and the trap lies in the language of the documents rather than in the relationship. The first is a spouse, evidenced by a marriage certificate.

The second is a child, evidenced by a birth certificate, together with a letter of consent where the child travels with only one of the two parents.

For both categories the agency states one requirement plainly that many files stumble on: the documents must be in English or French. The French half of the FAQs states the route for documents in any other language: every document in a foreign language must be accompanied by a certified translation into English or French.

One favourable point can be read off the document table itself, in the column that separates a first application from a renewal: the marriage certificate and the birth certificate are both marked required at the first application and not applicable at renewal.

The family link is therefore proved once rather than proved again each year — the same treatment that table gives to the passport-size photograph.

Two points on scope must also be recorded, because without them a reader will supply them: the English half sets no age on the words dependent child, while the French half limits the USD 500 figure to a child under 24; and there is no category for a parent, a sibling or any other relative.

The separate monthly figure for each child is recorded in the capital threshold cell of this table.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Mauritius passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Mauritius passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Mauritius passport reaches 163 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

Mauritian-sourced income of a Premium Visa holder, including emoluments for work performed remotely in Mauritius, is taxed on a remittance basis. Money spent in Mauritius through foreign credit or debit cards is not deemed remitted.

Money brought in and deposited in a Mauritian bank account is liable to income tax, unless a declaration is made that the required tax has been paid in the country of origin or residence.

Those three sentences are the Economic Development Board's paraphrase; the binding basis is the Income Tax Act. Section 73B, in force since 1 November 2020 and last amended with effect from 13 August 2026 to cover Golden Visa holders as well, provides that where a holder derives income for work performed remotely from Mauritius, that income is deemed to be derived in Mauritius when it is remitted to Mauritius, and it applies «Notwithstanding sections 5, 73 and 74». The next two subsections of the same section set the foreign card rule and the bank deposit rule with its declaration that tax has been paid in the country of origin or residence.

Section 74A(2) adds the employer's side: the gross income attributable to work that an employee performs remotely in Mauritius is not reckoned as income derived from Mauritius by a person carrying on business outside Mauritius, where that employee holds a Premium Visa or Golden Visa and the person's core business activities are outside Mauritius.

The general test of tax residence sits in section 73: an individual is resident if present in Mauritius for 183 days or more in an income year, or for an aggregate of 270 days or more in that income year and the 2 preceding income years. Section 73B applies notwithstanding that definition, but only to income from remote work.

One further point belongs here, because two cells of this table read in sequence look as though they contradict each other.

The condition recorded in the residence cell requires the main place of business and the source of income to lie outside Mauritius, while the tax rule here expressly anticipates emoluments for work performed remotely in Mauritius being Mauritian-sourced income.

The two do not contradict, because they measure different things: the visa condition measures where the business sits and where the source arises, while the tax rule measures where the work is performed.

The practical consequence falls on exactly the person this route targets: someone working remotely for a business in another country still satisfies the visa condition, yet the part of the pay that corresponds to days worked while sitting in Mauritius is still Mauritian-sourced income — merely untaxed until the money is remitted.

The visa itself costs nothing, and the agency says so in terms: the Premium Visa is issued free of charge, and no processing fee applies. The application is a simple online process with no payment step attached to it.

But the real cost of this route does not sit in a fee; it sits in two documents that must be bought. The first is travel and health insurance for the whole intended period of stay — the agency lists it among the required documents, and because this route is measured in months rather than weeks the sum is not small.

The second is a letter of accommodation for that same period: a hotel booking, a rental agreement, or a letter of invitation. And there is a consequence that makes the insurance more than a cost: it sets the length of what is received.

For an applicant already in Mauritius on a tourist visa who applies from within the country, the agency states that the duration of the Premium Visa will be aligned with the validity of the health insurance and the return ticket, both of which must run for more than six months.

Buying short insurance therefore shortens your own visa: here the amount spent is not only a cost to bear but also what decides how many months may be stayed.