Digital Nomad Visa: What You Need to Know in 2024
Being a digital nomad promises a life of adventure:
- Exploring new and exotic locations.
- Meeting interesting people from all walks of life.
- Enjoying the freedom to work wherever you want in the world.
Sadly, it also comes with less exciting aspects, like making sure you can live and work abroad while complying with local laws.
Many countries now maintain a digital nomad visa program that allows remote workers like you to stay and work legally in their nation. Here’s a quick guide to what these visas are, the benefits they can offer, and how to apply for your digital nomad visa.
What is a Digital Nomad Visa?
A digital nomad visa is a visa explicitly designed for use by digital nomads, which will allow you to live and work in a particular country for a specific period.
Unlike some other visas, for example, a working passport or an entrepreneurship visa, digital nomad visas are explicitly designed for people who work remotely and whose primary source of income is linked to businesses outside of the country.
These kinds of visas are typically short-term, though some can last for several years, like the Georgia digital nomad visa. This is because the visa is intended for temporary stays and doesn’t offer permanent residency or a path to citizenship like some other visa products.
Benefits of Having a Digital Nomad Visa
Entering a country on a digital nomad visa has a number of great benefits, including:
Making your stay legal: The most obvious benefit of a digital nomad visa is that it offers a way to ensure your stay is 100% legitimate and keeps you on the right side of the law when living and working in the relevant country. While it’s possible to live and work in many countries illegally on a tourist visa, if you’re found out, it could seriously impact your chances of being able to enter the country again.
Access to local amenities: Many digital nomad visas help you to access important amenities in the country you’re visiting, such as healthcare and banking, meaning you won’t have to navigate complicated bureaucracy based in your home country to access essential services.
Longer stays: Many digital nomad visas allow you to stay in a country longer than a standard tourist visa, allowing you to explore to your heart’s content and really get to know the country you’re visiting.
Challenges of Having a Digital Nomad Visa
By and large, the benefits of having a digital nomad visa will outweigh the drawbacks. There are specific challenges that all digital nomads should be aware of, including:
Long, bureaucratic processes: The exact requirements for a digital nomad visa will vary significantly from one visa to another, but many of them will require you to organize and submit several different documents and forms, such as criminal record checks and proof of citizenship or residency.
Financial obligations: Your digital nomad visa may come with additional financial requirements, such as making sure that you can prove sufficient funds to qualify for the visa or showing that you have minimum insurance coverage.
Difficulties accessing services: While many digital nomad visas will help you access essential services like nationalized healthcare and banking, others won’t be so comprehensive. When looking at different visa options, it’s important to research the kind of services exclusive to citizens or permanent residents as opposed to digital nomads and the extra steps you’ll need to take if you require access to these services.
How to Obtain a Digital Nomad Visa
The precise steps required to obtain a digital nomad visa will vary considerably from one country or visa scheme to the next. The process of getting a digital nomad visa generally involves the following steps:
1 - Research Countries that Offer Digital Nomad Visas
Several countries offer digital nomad visas, each with its eligibility criteria, limits on how long you can stay in the country, and other variables.
Some popular countries that currently offer digital nomad visas include:
- Spain
- Portugal
- Croatia
- Malta
- Barbados
- Georgia
2 - Research the Eligibility Criteria
Though there’s a lot of variance from one digital nomad visa to another, all of these visas will
have specific eligibility criteria you’ll need to research and make sure you can meet before your application.
Some common requirements for digital nomad visas include proof of a clean criminal record in your country of residence, proof of sufficient income either from remote permanent employment or self-employment and proof of health insurance coverage that aligns with the relevant country’s minimum standard of care for permanent residents.
3 - Gather Necessary Documentation
Armed with the research of the eligibility requirements, the next step is to gather and organize all the documentation that the relevant country’s authority will want to see as part of your visa application. This might include:
- Your passport has a minimum remaining validity.
- Proof of residence in a consular district (e.g., utility bills).
- Proof of meeting the minimum income requirements (e.g., bank statements going back a certain length of time).
- Proof of insurance coverage (e.g., copies of your policy documents).
4 - Submit the Application
Once you’ve got all your necessary documentation in order, the final step is to fill in and submit the application itself.
In some countries, like Georgia, this process can be handled entirely online. Other countries, for example, Spain, will require you to make an appointment with your local consulate and visit the establishment in person to complete your application.
If your chosen country requires you to make the application in person, be aware that they may need to keep your passport. In contrast, your application is processed, and it can take a long time to get a new appointment. With this in mind, it’s essential to be sure you’ve met the eligibility requirements and supplied all the necessary documentation.
Getting adventure-ready…
Obtaining a visa may not be the most exciting part of being a digital nomad. Still, it’s an essential step to making sure your travel plans can go ahead.
We hope this introduction to your digital nomad visa application has helped you understand the requirements you’ll need to meet and the process you’ll need to plan for as you embark on your digital nomad journey.