Glossary

Ranges and percentiles

P50

The middle of the estimate range: half the observations fall below it and half above. It is the figure to read first — not a promise, but the most representative single number we have.

P25

The lower quartile of the estimate range: a quarter of observations fall below it. Read it as the cheaper end of what is realistic, not as a bargain you can count on.

P75

The upper quartile of the estimate range: a quarter of observations fall above it. Budget against this one if you want room to be wrong.

Median

The middle value of a set once it is sorted. Unlike an average, one very expensive or very cheap observation cannot drag it, which is why the report quotes medians.

Quartile

One of the three cuts that divide sorted observations into four equal parts. The report shows the first (P25), the second — the median (P50) — and the third (P75), so every cost is a range rather than a single false-precise number.

Verdict classes

Strong fit

Eligible on the rules as encoded, with no condition left for you to confirm, and the household clears the budget with room. A route reaches it only if it is verified and carries no requirement resolvable by the reader; eleven routes now do, so the class is reachable rather than theoretical. It stays rare: most routes carry a condition only you can answer, and a household that clears every rule can still be short on the money.

Fit with compromises

Eligible, but something real gives: the budget is tight, or a criterion you weighted highly scores poorly.

Conditional

Every requirement we can test against your answers is met, on rules read at the authority. What remains are conditions only you can confirm — insurance in force, a clean record, a signed contract. It is the strongest verdict available where a route carries such a condition, which most of them do. It is not a hedge and not a refusal.

Verification required

We will not issue a positive finding here, and the sentence beside the verdict says which of three things is missing. Either we read the rules at the authority and our own verification of them is unfinished; or the authority requires something your answers cannot test, quoted there in its own words; or we hold no read residence route of this kind for this state. Only the third is about the country, and it says whether we read the state's own list or have not got to it. None of the three is a judgement about you: it fails closed on purpose, because telling you that you qualify when we cannot show it would be the worse error.

Near threshold

A requirement that the bottom of your stated range does not meet but the top of it would. Because you gave a range rather than a figure, we cannot tell which side you are on, so we say so instead of deciding. It is not a pass, it is not a margin of tolerance, and it disappears as soon as you enter an exact figure.

Not eligible

A mandatory requirement is not met, or one of your own hard filters excluded the destination. The report names which.

Scores

Fit score

A 0–100 weighted blend of the seven sub-scores. It only ever compares destinations within the same verdict class — eligibility is decided first, and a high fit score never promotes an ineligible destination.

Feasibility

How readily this route can actually be obtained: eligibility status, and how long processing takes.

Affordability

How comfortably household income covers the local cost of living, measured against the median budget.

Income and career

What the route permits economically: whether a partner may work, and whether local employment is allowed.

Family

Schools, safety and healthcare, and whether the route admits dependants.

Lifestyle and environment

The city criteria you weighted yourself — climate, air quality, transport and the rest. This is the sub-score your own preferences move most.

Long-term settlement

What the route leads to: how many years to permanent residence, and to citizenship.

Fit for your reason for moving

Whether this destination can serve the reason you gave for moving, with the money and the people you have. The other sub-scores ask how good a place is; this one asks whether it is any use for what you came for — a pleasant country that cannot host your business scores low here and high everywhere else. It is null, and costs nothing, where we have no approved model for your reason or cannot run one on what we hold about this city.

Languages you speak

How far the languages you speak get you in a destination. Each city records which languages are in use there and how useful each is to a newcomer; you tell us which of those you speak and how well; we combine the two. Nothing is stored about you and a destination together, which is what keeps this from becoming a table nobody could keep up to date. If none of your languages is one we hold a figure for in a city, we say that rather than score you badly — a language missing from our data is missing, not useless.

Budget

Monthly surplus

Household net income minus the monthly budget. Quoted at P50, with the P75-cost figure alongside so the pessimistic case is visible too. A negative surplus is a shortfall.

Stress case

The same budget with housing 10% higher and income 10% lower. A destination that only works in the base case is a destination that only works if nothing goes wrong.

Runway

How many months savings would last at the current shortfall, after the one-off move cost is paid. Shown only when the median budget is negative.

Arrival cost

What arriving costs once, before any monthly figure starts: a deposit, an agency fee and a few weeks of temporary accommodation. It is the destination's side only — we do not price getting there from where you live.

Rules and sources

Route coverage: full

A residence route. It can yield a positive eligibility finding once its rules are verified against an official source.

Route coverage: limited

An entry mechanism only — an e-visa or a visa-free short stay. It never yields a residence finding, however well the household scores, because entering a country is not the same as being allowed to live in it.

Verification status

Whether a rule or cost figure has been checked against an official source. Eleven routes are verified — Spain’s non-lucrative residence permit, read against Real Decreto 1155/2024, and the ten EU/EEA free-movement routes, each read against its own state’s transposition of the free-movement directive — and everything else is an unverified draft, which is why those routes return no positive eligibility finding. No city and no cost figure is verified anywhere, which is why even a verified route reports low confidence.

Freshness limit

How long a source check stays good for a given route. Past it, the route returns verification required until someone checks the source again.

Gap

The distance between the figure used and what a requirement asks for, shown on every numeric requirement that is not met. It is measured against the threshold as it applies to your household, after any adjustment for extra adults or children.

Indicator

A figure published by a statistical office or a ministry that a law points at instead of naming an amount. Spain does not require a fixed sum each month; it requires a percentage of IPREM, and IPREM is set by a budget law that changes on its own schedule. We store the law as the law is written, so you can see where a threshold comes from, what it is a proportion of, and when it will next move. A requirement shown this way carries the date its figure took effect, and if we do not hold a figure that was in force when you ran the report, we say so rather than use an old one.

Published country list

A list of countries maintained by an authority — the member states of the European Union, for instance — that a rule points at instead of writing out its own copy. One list, shared by every route that needs it, so a country cannot be missing from one route and present in another. Each part of it cites the body that publishes that part, it carries the date we read it, and a requirement shown this way names which parts of the list it uses. If we hold no version of the list from before your report date, we say so rather than use a later one.

More than one way to meet a requirement

Some requirements can be satisfied in more than one way, because the law says so. Spain will accept savings that cover the first year instead of a monthly income; other countries halve what they ask for if your accommodation is already arranged, or take a lump sum in the bank. Where that is true we show every way, and which of them you meet — knowing that you qualify on savings and not on income tells you something a plain yes never would. Meeting any one way is enough. A way we could not check because you have not answered that question is shown as unknown, and it never counts as met.

Destination notices

Destination notice

Risk information attached to a destination and shown to every reader alike. A notice never changes eligibility, the budget, a score or the ranking, and it never depends on your nationality or where you live.

Check your own government before you act

A prompt, not a finding. Some countries restrict travel, payments or business dealings with certain destinations; only your own government can tell you which apply to you. Emigrator holds no information about any country's rules for its own residents and does not guess at them.

Decision Report

This is decision support, not legal advice. Confirm any route with a licensed adviser or the authority before acting.