How long can I stay in Andorra without a permit?

Andorra allows tourists, EU citizens included, 90 days counted from the day they enter, within the 365 days that follow. Staying longer or working needs an immigration authorisation. Visitors from outside the EU also travel through France or Spain and must respect the Schengen limit of 90 days in any 180 there.

Can I work remotely in Andorra as a tourist?

No. The immigration law says a tourist may not work in Andorra and counts any paid activity, employed or self-employed, as work, with no exception for a foreign employer. The legal route is the digital nomad residence permit.

How much does passive residence in Andorra cost in 2026?

Since 13 February 2026 you must invest €1,000,000 in Andorra, or €400,000 in the state housing fund, and pay a non-refundable €50,000 to the Andorran Financial Authority plus €12,000 per dependant. You also need yearly resources of more than three times the annual minimum wage, health insurance and at least 90 days a year in Andorra. Only 163 places are available in 2026.

No. Earned income is tax-free up to €24,000, taxed at an effective 5% up to €40,000 and 10% above. Investment income gets only a €3,000 allowance and is then taxed at 10%. There is no wealth tax and no inheritance tax, and the sales tax is 4.5%.

What does a sabbatical in Andorra cost per month?

About €1,750 to €2,500 a month for one person. Rent is the largest and least predictable part: new contracts signed in 2025 averaged €18.19 per m², and few flats are on offer.

Does the European Health Insurance Card work in Andorra?

No. Andorra is not in the EU. People insured in Spain, France or Portugal can use bilateral forms for immediately necessary care; everyone else needs travel medical insurance that includes mountain rescue.

Do I have a right to a sabbatical if I work in Andorra?

No. The labour code only gives unpaid leave to care for a child or dependent relative. Any other leave is an agreed leave of absence (excedència pactada) that your employer must accept, with the terms in writing.

Last updated October 202614 min read

Taking a Sabbatical in Andorra

Mountains, low taxes and the euro, outside the EU. Since February 2026 staying longer than 90 days has become expensive, and the tax is low but not zero. Here is how it works now.

Monthly Budget€1,750 to €2,500/month for one person

Visitors90 days from entry. No work, remote work included

ResidencePassive: €1M invested plus €50,000 non-refundable (2026)

Tax HighlightEarned income 0 to 10%, investment income 10%, no wealth tax

What a Sabbatical in Andorra Costs

Day-to-day spending is helped by a low sales tax: 4.5% in general and 1% on food. Housing is the problem. Andorra has about 90,000 residents, a long-running housing shortage and very few flats on the open market.

The government's contract registry puts the average new rental contract signed in 2025 at €1,339 a month, or €18.19 per m². What you can actually find online is scarcer and dearer: on the main property portal, pisos.ad, only 117 flats were listed in the second quarter of 2026, at a median asking rent of €2,200 and an average size of 105 m². Expect to search, and to pay a deposit and agency fees up front.

Item	Monthly	Notes
Studio or one-bedroom	€900 to 1,500	€910 to 1,090 for 50 to 60 m² at 2025 contract prices; listings often ask more
Food, utilities, phone, transport	about €770	Rough estimate for one person, from crowd-sourced price data
Health insurance	€80 to 250	Private cover, depends on age and plan; workers pay into CASS instead
Total	€1,750 to 2,500	Before ski passes, deposits and agency fees

Rent, not tax, decides whether Andorra works for a sabbatical budget. Secure a flat before you plan anything else.

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Visiting: The 90-Day Rule and Why Remote Work Needs a Permit

Andorra sets its own limit for tourists, and it applies to everyone, EU citizens included: you may stay 90 days counted from the day you enter, within the 365 days that follow. Staying longer, or working, requires an immigration authorisation. That rule comes from the Andorran immigration law (Llei qualificada d'immigració, articles 15 to 19).

There is no airport, so you arrive through France or Spain. Visitors from outside the EU, including Americans, Brits and Canadians, therefore have to meet the Schengen entry rules on the way in: no more than 90 days in any 180 inside the Schengen area. Andorra itself is not part of Schengen. How the EU's new Entry/Exit System records a trip into Andorra is not settled yet: an agreement between Andorra and the EU to avoid systematic checks was initialled in March 2026, but it is not in force. Keep proof of where you spent your days, and do not count on Andorra to stretch a Schengen stay.

Remote work on a tourist stay

The immigration law says a tourist may not work in Andorra, and it defines work as any paid activity, employed or self-employed, full-time or part-time. Managing your own assets is the only exception. There is no carve-out for remote work for a foreign employer. If you want to keep a remote job running, the legal route is the digital nomad residence described below.

As a tourist, an Andorra sabbatical is a 90-day sabbatical without work. Anything longer, or any remote work, needs a residence permit.

Residence in 2026: Much Harder Than Most Websites Say

Andorra tightened its residence rules sharply with Law 2/2026, in force since 13 February 2026, and cut the yearly quotas in March 2026. Many relocation websites, and even some official procedure pages, still show the old figures. The table uses the law as it stands in 2026.

Route	Main requirements	2026 places
Passive residence (no work)	€1,000,000 invested in Andorra, or €400,000 in the state housing fund, plus a non-refundable €50,000 payment. 90 days a year	163
Digital nomad	Employee of a foreign company, or self-employed with clients abroad. Approval from the Ministry of Economy first. 90 days a year	50 (quota set in 2023)
International professional	At least 85% of your services used outside Andorra, in sectors the government designates. €47,500 refundable deposit	10
Self-employed	Your own Andorran company (more than 34% stake), foreign investment authorisation, non-refundable €50,000 payment	200
Employment	A job offer the local market could not fill, at the minimum salary set for the occupation	624

Passive residence in detail

The €1,000,000 must stay invested in Andorra: property, shares in Andorran companies, Andorran public debt, life insurance with an Andorran insurer, or an interest-free deposit with the Andorran Financial Authority (AFA). A property only counts if it is worth more than €800,000. The investment has to be made within six months of approval. On top of that you pay €50,000 to the AFA, plus €12,000 per dependant. You also need yearly resources of more than three times the annual minimum wage (about €56,500 at the July 2026 minimum wage), plus the same minimum wage again for each dependant, and health insurance that covers 100% of medical costs in Andorra. You must live there at least 90 days a year and may not work there, apart from managing your own assets.

The €50,000 is gone for good: since February 2026 it is a payment to the state, not a deposit, and it no longer counts toward the investment.

Applications are decided within two months, and places are handed out in order of arrival. After approval you register with your parish council (comú) within three months. The permit runs for two years, then renews for two and then three years at a time. The application fee for residence without work is €3,000, plus €1,000 per dependant.

Renting beats buying for a sabbatical

Every property purchase by a foreigner needs prior authorisation, and since February 2026 foreign buyers pay a 6% tax on a single home and 10% on anything more, on top of the normal 4% transfer tax. People with less than three years of residence in the last ten count as foreign for this. For a year or two, rent.

Tax: Low, Not Zero

You become tax resident in Andorra if you spend more than 183 days there in a calendar year, or if your main centre of economic interests is there. Andorra presumes you are resident if your spouse and minor children live there. A passive residence permit, which only requires 90 days, does not make you tax resident by itself.

How the 0 to 10% income tax works

The law has a single rate of 10%. On work, business, rental and pension income you first get a €24,000 allowance, and a tax credit halves the tax on the slice between €24,000 and €40,000. The result: nothing up to €24,000, effectively 5% up to €40,000, and 10% above that.

Investment income is treated differently. Interest, foreign dividends and capital gains get only a €3,000 allowance and are then taxed at 10%. Someone living on €100,000 of foreign dividends pays €9,700. Dividends from Andorran companies are exempt. Gains on shares are exempt if you held no more than 25% of the company in the twelve months before selling.

For someone living on investments, Andorra is a 10% country, not a 0% one.

There is no wealth tax and no inheritance tax. The general sales tax, IGI, is 4.5%, and 1% on food. Andorra has tax treaties with 22 countries in 2026, among them Spain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands (since 2025) and the United Kingdom (since 2026). There is no treaty with the United States or Canada, and the one with Germany is not yet signed.

The country you leave still matters

Americans stay taxable in the US wherever they live. Andorra is not on Spain's or France's 2026 lists of non-cooperative jurisdictions, so Spain's rule that keeps citizens taxable for four years after moving to a tax haven does not apply; Spain can still challenge where you really live. Several countries tax unrealised gains when you emigrate, among them Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands, each above its own thresholds. Get advice in your home country before you move.

Healthcare: Your EU Card Does Not Work Here

Andorra is not in the EU, so the European Health Insurance Card is not valid. People insured in Spain, France or Portugal are the exception: bilateral agreements cover immediately necessary care in public hospitals and health centres, if you bring the right form from your own insurer. Everyone else, including visitors from the US, UK and Canada, needs travel medical insurance that covers hospital stays, evacuation, mountain rescue and winter sports.

If you work in Andorra: CASS

Employees pay 6.5% of their salary to CASS, the social security fund, and employers 15.5%. If you register with a GP of your choice and go through them, CASS reimburses 75% of GP visits, tests and medicines and 90% of hospital stays, calculated on its own tariffs. Outside that route the rates drop sharply, to 33% for a GP visit. You pay first and claim afterwards. Many workers add a complementary policy for the rest.

Passive residents must have private insurance that covers all medical costs in Andorra, and a newcomer cannot join CASS voluntarily. Insurers do not publish prices; expect roughly €80 to €250 a month depending on age and cover, and read the limits, because some plans cap total payouts.

Taking Time Off From an Andorran Job

The Andorran labour code (Law 31/2018) gives no right to a sabbatical. Unpaid leave of one month to two years exists only to care for a child or a dependent relative, after more than three years with your employer. Any other leave is an excedència pactada: agreed leave, possible only if your employer agrees, with the length and your return set in writing beforehand. Leave periods do not count toward holiday or seniority.

Saving up holiday will not get you far either. You are entitled to at least 30 calendar days a year, but accumulated holiday may never exceed 30 days.

No safety net for a voluntary break

Andorra has no unemployment insurance. There is a means-tested aid for people who lose their job against their will, of at most the minimum wage (€1,568.67 a month since July 2026) for six months, and it requires 36 months of contributions in the last five years. Quitting without just cause rules it out. After your contributions stop, CASS keeps covering your healthcare for 60 to 120 days, depending on how long you contributed, as long as you still live in Andorra. Arrange private cover before that runs out.

Where to Base Yourself, and What Andorra Is For

Andorra la Vella and Escaldes-Engordany run into each other and form the main town: shops, offices and the Caldea spa. Encamp and Canillo sit on the road up to Grandvalira; La Massana and Ordino are quieter valleys near Pal Arinsal and Ordino Arcalís. Sant Julià de Lòria is closest to the Spanish border. The capital lies at about 1,000 metres, so winters bring snow.

The mountains are the point. Andorra has 308 km of ski runs across three areas: Grandvalira (215 km), Pal Arinsal (63 km) and Ordino Arcalís (30 km), all on one Andorra Pass, €1,019 for a non-resident season in 2026-27. In summer there are 72 peaks above 2,000 metres, the highest being Comapedrosa at 2,942 metres, the UNESCO-listed Madriu-Perafita-Claror valley, and 28 km of the GR11 trail across the Pyrenees.

Getting there and getting by

There is no airport and no railway. Direct buses run from Barcelona airport and Sants station in about three hours, and from Toulouse airport in about three and a half. A small airport across the border at La Seu d'Urgell has a few flights a week to Madrid and Palma. Catalan is the official language and Spanish is widely spoken; French and Portuguese are common too. Andorra uses the euro but is not in the EU, which matters for health cover and residence.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Planning a remote-work sabbatical on a tourist stay. The law does not allow it. Use the digital nomad route or keep the work out of Andorra.

Using pre-2026 residence figures. €400,000 or €600,000 investments and a refundable €47,500 deposit are history for passive residence. Check that any adviser quotes Law 2/2026.

Expecting zero tax. Investment income is taxed at 10% above €3,000, and your home country may still tax you when you leave.

Buying property for a one-year stay. Prior authorisation and a 6% to 10% foreign buyer tax make it a poor fit for a sabbatical.

Arriving with only an EU health card. It is not valid here. Buy travel medical insurance that includes mountain rescue.

Forgetting the Schengen count. Visitors from outside the EU travel through France or Spain, and an overstay there blocks any later Andorran permit.