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Move & retire

Uzbekistan

A country opening fast, with a door that opens for founders.

4/4
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Living
~$1,000/mo
Couple, all in. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level behind it prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.
Safety
High
Thirty-seventh globally and second in its region behind Bulgaria — well above every other Central Asian state
Residency
Founders and employees, on unusually easy terms
Healthcare
Private in Tashkent, and abroad for the rest
Out-of-pocket spending is 64.1% of current health expenditure here (World Bank, 2023, CC BY 4.0). Read it with care: the measure counts only what insured people pay — not premiums, and not the uninsured — which is why the United States comes out at 10.9%, ahead of most countries on this site.

Where these figures came from

One row per ingredient. Open any of them for the source, how far we trust it, and when we last checked.

Living~$1,000/mo

Pathoff judgement directed by evidence, not computed from it: the country’s position comes from the World Bank household consumption price level for 2024 (0.267 of the United States, CC BY 4.0 — the ICP benchmark carried forward annually by the World Bank’s own method); the US reference budget is ours. See the Pathoff method, section 12.

Couple, all in. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level behind it prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.

Confidence
made by us from the source
SafetyHigh

Global Peace Index 2026: rank 37 of 163, score 1.726. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

Thirty-seventh globally and second in its region behind Bulgaria — well above every other Central Asian state

Confidence
made by us from the source
ResidencyFounders and employees, on unusually easy terms

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-4), residency band "Work, family or business only": Residence rests on employment, a business, family or study, and permits run up to five years. At the top of the band because the IT Park route is genuinely light — a founder holding at least $30,000 of a resident company gets a three-year renewable visa, property rights and simplified hiring — but there is still no category at all for someone arriving on income alone.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09
HealthcarePrivate in Tashkent, and abroad for the rest

Pathoff healthcare rubric (the Pathoff method, section 13-2), band "You buy your own, and it is affordable": The state system is a thin Soviet inheritance and a foreign resident uses private clinics in Tashkent, which are inexpensive and quick for ordinary care. Mid-band because this is the band’s standard case: complex treatment routinely means Turkey, India or South Korea.

Out-of-pocket spending is 64.1% of current health expenditure here (World Bank, 2023, CC BY 4.0). Read it with care: the measure counts only what insured people pay — not premiums, and not the uninsured — which is why the United States comes out at 10.9%, ahead of most countries on this site.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09

What it is like here

Uzbekistan is the safest and one of the cheapest countries in Central Asia, and it has spent a decade making itself easier to enter — visa-free for most of Europe, and an IT visa that gives a software founder three years for a thirty-thousand-dollar stake. What it does not have is a route for someone arriving on savings or a pension, and the health system is one you pay for yourself.

How the process works

1

Check whether you need a visa at all

Uzbekistan has gone visa-free for most European and many other passports.

⏱ 1 day
2

Find the basis: work, company or IT Park

Savings alone do not open a route; a founder’s stake does.

⏱ 1–4 months
3

Budget for private care and evacuation

Ordinary care is cheap in Tashkent; the serious cases leave the country.

⏱ 1–2 weeks

Where people settle

Tashkent
The clinics, the airport, and the whole foreign community
Samarkand / Bukhara
Beautiful, much cheaper, and a long way from a specialist

Open any ingredient above to see where its figure came from, how far we trust it and when we last checked. Nothing here is a substitute for the official source. Last reviewed 2026-09-04.

Photograph of Uzbekistan by Bobyrr, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.