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Permanent residence routes by country

Current permanent-residence pathways by destination, without inferring eligibility across countries.

32 destinations have a current sourced route in this family. The table now shows the main conditions available in the route registry and links directly to each authority.

Items compared
32
Countries represented
32
Last checked
2026-07-16

Source-backed answers

Compare each answer with its unit and checked date; the complete source ledger is below.

Showing all 32 rows

CountryRoute and main conditionsOfficial source
AustraliaPermanent Residence route — Applicants who held an eligible regional provisional status and lived and worked in designated regional Australia can qualify for permanent residence after meeting the required residence, work and income-record conditions.2026-07-13Official source
AustriaLong-term Resident - EU — Applicants generally need five years of uninterrupted lawful residence in Austria, the general residence-title conditions and Module 2 of the Integration Agreement; the long-term status gives free labour-market access.2026-07-13Official source
BulgariaPermanent Residence route — Applicants may qualify for permanent residence under Bulgaria's statutory categories, including after five years of legal residence on consecutive long-term residence permits.2026-07-13Official source
CanadaPermanent Residence route — Applicants must qualify under one of Canada's listed permanent-residence programs, including economic, family, refugee or humanitarian programs; each program has its own eligibility test and no single residence period applies.2026-07-13Official source
CroatiaPermanent Residence route — Applicants qualify only under statutory categories; examples include family or life partners of Croatian nationals after four years of continuous temporary residence, or ethnic Croats after three years, subject to category-specific conditions.2026-07-13Official source
CyprusPermanent Residence route — Third-country nationals who have legally and continuously lived in Cyprus for five years and hold a valid residence permit may seek long-term resident status; the initial permit is valid for five years.2026-07-13Official source
CzechiaPermanent Residence route — Applicants generally qualify after five years of qualifying temporary residence in Czechia, with statutory exceptions and special continuity rules for some EU Blue Card and family cases.2026-07-14Official source
DenmarkPermanent residence permit in Denmark — Applicants normally need eight years of lawful residence in Denmark; some statutory situations allow eligibility after four years, subject to the other permanent-residence conditions.2026-07-13Official source
EstoniaLong-term residence permit — Applicants generally need five years of qualifying residence in Estonia plus legal income, health insurance, registered residence, integration and B1 Estonian; long-term residents can work or run a business without a separate permit.2026-07-16Official source
FinlandFinland permanent residence permit and P-EU permit — For requests lodged from 8 January 2026, applicants generally need six years of qualifying continuous residence, although some paths allow four years with additional conditions such as language skills or Finnish work history.2026-07-16Official source
FrancePermanent Residence route — Applicants generally need five years of regular and uninterrupted residence in France, adequate resources, health coverage and republican integration; the permanent-resident card authorizes work in France.2026-07-16Official source
GermanyPermanent Residence route — Applicants generally need five years of lawful residence in Germany, self-support, sufficient living space, 60 months of pension contributions, German and civic knowledge; settlement residence permits employment without the temporary-purpose restriction.2026-07-14Official source
GreecePermanent Residence route — Greek long-term resident status is for a third-country national who has lived legally and permanently in Greece for at least five years; absences must not exceed six consecutive months or ten months total. The authority also requires proof of income, health coverage, housing and Greek language or civics knowledge.2026-07-16Official source
IcelandPermanent residence permit — Applicants generally need four continuous years on a qualifying Icelandic residence permit, no more than 90 days abroad per year, secure means of support and 150 Icelandic language-course lessons with at least 85% attendance, subject to exemptions.2026-07-14Official source
IrelandIreland Long Term Residency permission — Applicants generally need five years of qualifying legal residence in Ireland, normally built through eligible employment-permit residence, while continuing to meet the conditions of lawful residence.2026-07-16Official source
Italylong-term resident permit (permesso CE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo), Article 9 route — Applicants generally need five years of lawful residence in Italy and must meet the Italian-language knowledge condition for the EU long-term resident permit.2026-07-14Official source
LatviaPermanent Residence route — Applicants generally need five years with a Latvian temporary residence permit, a permanent place of residence, means of support and Latvian language knowledge at A2 level, subject to statutory exceptions.2026-07-13Official source
LithuaniaPermanent residence permit — Applicants generally need five continuous years in Lithuania holding a qualifying temporary residence permit; the applicable statutory ground also determines the language, civic-knowledge and other conditions.2026-07-13Official source
LuxembourgLong-term resident status for third-country nationals — Applicants generally need five years of legal and uninterrupted residence in Luxembourg, stable resources, health insurance and suitable accommodation; absence and continuity rules restrict eligibility.2026-07-14Official source
MaltaMalta Permanent Residence Programme (MPRP) — Third-country nationals may qualify as the main applicant or family dependants under Malta's permanent residence programme; the residence certificate does not expire while its programme obligations are met.2026-07-13Official source
NetherlandsPermanent Residence route — Applicants generally need five consecutive years with a valid Dutch residence permit, main residence in the Netherlands and a non-temporary residence purpose; the permanent status has no end date.2026-07-13Official source
NorwayNorway permanent residence permit — Applicants normally need three years of continuous residence with qualifying Norwegian permits, or five years for some permits, plus income, conduct, absence and current permit conditions; Norwegian language and social-studies requirements are also required.2026-07-13Official source
PortugalPermanent Residence route — Applicants generally need at least five years holding a temporary residence authorization in Portugal, sufficient means, compliance with tax and social-security obligations, basic Portuguese and no qualifying prison sentence during the previous five years.2026-07-13Official source
RomaniaLong-term residence — Applicants generally need five years of continuous legal residence in Romania, adequate means and accommodation, health insurance, and no public-order or security bar; absence limits also restrict eligibility.2026-07-13Official source
Saudi ArabiaUnlimited Duration Premium Residency — Applicants for Saudi Arabia's unlimited-duration premium residency must prove financial solvency; the product provides permanent residence without a universal conversion period stated by the authority.2026-07-13Official source
SlovakiaPermanent residence for five years, unlimited duration or long-term residence — Slovak permanent residence for five years may be granted to a third-country national who is a spouse or dependent direct-line relative of a Slovak citizen with permanent residence, certain unmarried children under 18, a dependent adult child with long-term ill health, or a person whose residence is in the interest of Slovakia; refusal grounds must not apply.2026-07-16Official source
SloveniaPermanent residence permit — Applicants generally need at least five years of continuous lawful residence in Slovenia, health insurance, sufficient means of subsistence, basic Slovenian language knowledge and a clean criminal record; a valid travel document is also required.2026-07-16Official source
South KoreaPermanent Residence route — Applicants may qualify through a listed Korean permanent-residence category, including general residence after more than five years in Korea or specified family, investor and technology-startup categories; employment and profit-making activities are not restricted by the status.2026-07-13Official source
SpainPermanent Residence route — Applicants generally need five years of legal and continuous residence in Spain immediately before seeking the status; national long-term residence permits indefinite residence and work under the same conditions as Spanish nationals.2026-07-13Official source
SwedenPermanent Residence route — Applicants must meet the prior residence-permit period for their current permit type, show financial maintenance and good conduct; permanent residence has no time limit while the holder remains resident in Sweden.2026-07-13Official source
United KingdomIndefinite Leave to Remain / settlement — Applicants generally need five years on a qualifying UK route, subject to route-specific residence and suitability rules, English and the Life in the UK test; indefinite leave permits work without a time-limited route restriction.2026-07-15Official source
United StatesPermanent Residence route — Applicants may obtain U.S. lawful permanent residence (a Green Card) only by qualifying under a USCIS immigrant category, including family-based, employment-based, immigrant investor, special immigrant, refugee or asylee categories; the applicable relationship, job, investment or protection basis must be met.2026-07-13Official source

What this measures

Select current sourced routes in the permanent_residence family, keep one route per destination, publish available conditions and link the responsible authority.

  • A listed route confirms an official pathway exists; it does not establish that a specific applicant qualifies.
Rows
32 places
Geographic grain
country legal route
Observation period
2026-07-13
Last checked
2026-07-16
With an official source link
32 of 32

Cite this page

Open a format to select or copy this ImmigrationDB compilation citation. The native disclosure and text fallback work without JavaScript.

APA citation
ImmigrationDB. (2026, September 12). Permanent residence routes by country [ImmigrationDB compilation; snapshot approved-static-d7ed373c115d60d0; version approved-static-d7ed373c115d60d0]. ImmigrationDB. https://immigrationdb.com/reports/permanent-residence-routes-by-country/ Retrieved 2026-09-12. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
BibTeX citation
@misc{immigrationdb_immigrationdb_permanent-residence-routes-by-country_c883fec39e63,
  author = {ImmigrationDB},
  title = {Permanent residence routes by country},
  publisher = {ImmigrationDB},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-09-12},
  version = {approved-static-d7ed373c115d60d0},
  snapshot = {approved-static-d7ed373c115d60d0},
  url = {https://immigrationdb.com/reports/permanent-residence-routes-by-country/},
  note = {Retrieved 2026-09-12. ImmigrationDB compilation. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/},
}
Markdown citation
[Permanent residence routes by country](https://immigrationdb.com/reports/permanent-residence-routes-by-country/) — ImmigrationDB; ImmigrationDB; snapshot approved-static-d7ed373c115d60d0; version approved-static-d7ed373c115d60d0; retrieved 2026-09-12; built 2026-09-12.

This citation identifies the ImmigrationDB compilation/page. Underlying source publishers and datasets retain their own terms; inspect the Sources section and cite those records separately. View the underlying source records.

Sources

  1. immi.homeaffairs.gov.auimmi.homeaffairs.gov.au · Checked 2026-07-13
  2. www.migration.gv.atwww.migration.gv.at · Checked 2026-07-13
  3. www.mvr.bgwww.mvr.bg · Checked 2026-07-13
  4. www.canada.cawww.canada.ca · Checked 2026-07-13
  5. mvep.gov.hrmvep.gov.hr · Checked 2026-07-13
  6. www.gov.cywww.gov.cy · Checked 2026-07-13
  7. ipc.gov.czipc.gov.cz · Checked 2026-07-14
  8. www.nyidanmark.dkwww.nyidanmark.dk · Checked 2026-07-13
  9. www.riigiteataja.eewww.riigiteataja.ee · Checked 2026-07-16
  10. migri.fimigri.fi · Checked 2026-07-16
  11. www.service-public.frwww.service-public.fr · Checked 2026-07-16
  12. www.make-it-in-germany.comwww.make-it-in-germany.com · Checked 2026-07-14