Technical article

How Long Can You Stay Before You Need a Permit? Visitor Limits Country by Country

The answer runs from 30 days to a full year, and it often depends on the passport.

By Neil Solomon · 6 min read

Picture a couple named Jim and Carol. They want to spend the winter somewhere warm. Not forever. Four or five months. They do not want to apply for residence on a trial. They want to know how long they can simply stay as visitors.

The answer runs from 30 days to a full year, and it often depends on the passport. Three things to know before the list.

First, I used each country's own immigration page where it would load. Many would not. For those, I used the travel advice that the UK, Canadian, US and Australian governments publish for their own citizens. Those pages describe the rule. They are not the destination's page. Every line below says which kind it is.

Second, the passport matters. If two sources disagree, they may be describing different passports.

Third, no page for any country that says whether leaving and coming back resets the clock was found. Do not assume it does.

Under 60 days

Mongolia. The UK says 30 days without a visa until 31 December 2026. Canada says 30 days and asks you to register within 48 hours if you stay longer. The US says 90 days. Mongolia's own page says "up to 90 days" and that it depends on each country's agreement. I do not pick.

Sri Lanka. The official portal describes a free 30-day visa for 40 listed countries from 25 May 2026. It did not name them in the text I read, so I cannot say your passport is on it.

Vietnam. The 45-day exemption is for twelve countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK. The US, Canada and Australia are not on it. Other passports use an e-visa, valid up to 90 days according to the UK and Canada.

60 to 90 days

Central America's four-country rule. Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua share a border agreement. The UK says the 90-day clock "does not restart when you cross borders" between them. The US says expulsion from one of the four applies to all four. So hopping between them does not give you a new 90 days. For El Salvador, the 90 days with one extension of up to 90 more comes from the country's migration law text, as published in 2019. I do not know whether it has changed.

Namibia. Canada says visa-free for 90 days. The UK describes a visa on arrival that costs NAD 1,600. These are probably different passports.

Zambia. The cap is 90 days in any 12 months, which is the number that surprises people. The immigration site says a visiting permit is valid for three months and cannot be extended beyond nine months within twelve months. So there are two different rules on two different pages. I show both.

Beyond 90 days

Belize. The immigration page gives the extension fee, BZD 200 for each extra 30 days, for all nationals. The UK page gives the 30-day start. The US page says US$100 a month and a limit of six months. The Belize page itself states no maximum. If you plan more than six months, ask.

Georgia. From 1 January 2026, the US page says all tourists must show health and accident insurance of at least GEL 30,000. The sources do not show what happens at the one-year limit.

Tanzania. Foreigners staying more than 90 days must hold a residence permit, per the immigration service.

When days count for tax

A visitor stay is one clock. Tax residence is another. In Kazakhstan, the State Revenue Committee said in 2016 that a person is a resident if he is in the country 183 days or more in any twelve months in a row. It also looks at where your family, property and citizenship are. A new tax code took effect on 1 January 2026, and it could not be read, so the 2016 wording may have changed. I read no tax rule for the other countries here. Do not treat a visitor stay as a tax answer.