Dominica

Dominica makes sense for a narrow slice of expats: people who genuinely want to disconnect, tolerate real infrastructure limitations, and are not chasing beach-resort convenience. The island's Citizenship by Investment program, which requires a minimum $200,000 donation to the government fund, attracts a separate high-net-worth crowd entirely. For the person actually living there day to day, you are looking at a small English-speaking Caribbean island of roughly 73,000 people where the appeal is volcanic terrain, low crime relative to the region, and a slow pace that either suits you or drives you out within three months. The State Department rates it Level 2, the same boilerplate "exercise increased caution" applied to dozens of countries, not a meaningful warning. A safety index of 64.3 is genuinely decent for the Caribbean. This is not a place for someone who needs reliable logistics, fast internet, or easy access to specialists.

The numbers are more honest than most Caribbean destinations. A single person without rent runs about $974 a month, and a one-bedroom in a city center averages around $284. That puts a realistic all-in budget for a single person at $1,300 to $1,600 monthly, depending on how much you eat out, run air conditioning, and move around. Those figures are 20 percent below US averages, which is real savings but not the dramatic arbitrage you get in Southeast Asia or Latin America proper. Groceries lean expensive because most food is imported. A liter of milk runs close to $2, and a basic dinner out in Roseau can cost $15 to $20. The Eastern Caribbean dollar pegs to USD at roughly 2.7 to 1, so there is no currency volatility to track, which simplifies budgeting considerably.

The friction is real and predictable. Internet is the biggest daily problem. Speedtest does not even have enough data points to rank Dominica, which tells you something concrete about connectivity. Remote workers dependent on video calls or large file transfers will find this genuinely difficult, not just occasionally annoying. The island has one main hospital, the Princess Margaret in Roseau, and the healthcare index of 53.9 reflects a public system that handles routine care but routes serious cases to Barbados, Martinique, or the US. Medical evacuation insurance is not optional here. Hurricane exposure is severe. Maria in 2017 destroyed roughly 90 percent of the island's structures, and while rebuilding has progressed significantly, the infrastructure is still catching up. Roads outside Roseau can be difficult after heavy rain, and power outages remain more common than in most retirement destinations people compare this to.

US citizens living abroad owe the IRS on worldwide income regardless of where they live, and Dominica has no tax treaty with the United States to complicate or simplify things. Dominica does not tax foreign-sourced income for residents, so the local tax picture is clean if you are living on US investment income or a pension. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion covers up to $126,500 in 2024 for earned income if you meet the bona fide residence or physical presence tests, and the Foreign Tax Credit applies if you are paying Dominican income tax on locally sourced earnings. Since most US expats here live on retirement income, Social Security, or remote work paid in dollars, the practical interaction with Dominican tax law is minimal. FATCA reporting and FBAR requirements apply the same as anywhere else, and the absence of a US embassy in Dominica means consular services run through Barbados, which is worth knowing before you have an emergency.