“A world of choices”: Digital Nomad Visas
Photo by Peggy Anke on Unsplash
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn on 2nd Mar 2022.
One of my most treasured travel souvenirs is from my first long-distance train journey, from Munich to Berlin in Germany. I collected a piece of the Berlin Wall in early 1990, I was 17 years old and doing an exchange program in Ottobrunn, outside Munich. When I returned to Galway, my home town, my family called it my piece of “rubble” but I have treasured it forever. It was a symbol of my first major trip away from Ireland on my own and also my first cross-country train journey, fuelling my passion for travel and exploring for the rest of my life.
Roll on until 2022, my location-independent family have “nomaded” for short periods in France, Italy, Vietnam, Indonesia, parts of Spain, Gran Canaria and Portugal. We are planning our next summer location on the Iberian Peninsula now, approximately 8 weeks over the summer months, during our daughter’s school holidays. We combine travel with work and we mainly “slomad” i.e. work and travel slowly in a place or region, not moving around much. Setting up a temporary base with a child who is only 8 years old is important. If myself or my partner work, we normally find some local activity or child care provision for her also during our stay.
Back in 1990, I remember the various border checks between Ireland, Germany and (the then) East Germany. Now, nomad travellers still have to complete paperwork, handle the pre-travel bureaucracy and be organised with visas etc. to ensure safe and legal passage in their journeys.
Moving beyond the pandemic: why visas are SO popular as restrictions ease
Individual workers are starting to emerge from their Covid Cocoon, a smaller bubble world where they have worked from home, in some cases in extreme isolation. It is no wonder that for many workers, as restrictions are easing, the wanderlust travel planning has begun to kick in. The one positive thing the pandemic remote-worked forced experiment has brought is increased flexibility from employers regarding their employees’ location: now, in fact, if you are a regular employee with a contract, in most cases you won’t need to be counting your due annual leave as you can finally take advantage of extended periods of travelling while working.
For others, professionals, such as freelancers and workers who have been generally free of the constraint of employment status, contract or employer permission can finally begin to move with more confidence and explore the various options of local and international travel.
“Visatastic”, the explosion of choices for nomads
In recent weeks, as of 10 February 2022, Romania was the latest country to add its new Digital Nomad Visa, taking the total number of digital nomad visas locations to 41. Many governments have taken this road in an attempt to lure Techpats or Digital Nomads, counteracting the economic impact of the pandemic and attracting this new profile or longer-stay visitors. Moreover, Digital Nomads can sometimes stay and become longer-term residents of a particular territory or country, which makes them an attractive target for countries needing an economic boost.
Where in the world could we go?
Back in June 2020, Estonia was the first country to invite Digital Nomads with a special visa that supported longer-term stay whilst working within their borders. More recently countries that would have been more obscure or harder to enter have added their names to Global Nomad Treasure Wishlist, with South Africa being one of the more exciting ones, in my opinion, providing a vast landscape of nature and cultural variety to explore over multiple months.
Back in the early nineties, I was planning my inter-railing around mainland Europe by train. My European Inter-railing experience took 3 months and took me to many parts of Eastern Europe which were yet undiscovered. Working and travelling was a very early concept then and my freedom in Europe was for travel only, little did I know that 30 years later travelling and Slomading would be possible in many of these places. Slomading is a slower version of usual Digital Nomading where you stay for longer (not just a few weeks or a couple of months) in one place.
As the total list of Digital Nomad Visas grows, let’s reflect for a moment on the possibility of visiting and experiencing life and work in the 5 continents. When we look at some of the lists, we can see where the 41 nomad destinations are located:
Europe
Caribbean
North and Central America
Middle East and Asia
Africa
Those countries “in the pipeline”
How many people are in your travel group?
I need to bust a myth here that all nomads travel alone! Some travel in pairs (romantically attached or otherwise), groups of friends, families or with pets. This is where nomad travel is more like regular than the business one, with various segments and types of groups, of course including solo travellers!
There is always some red tape!
Any internet search will throw up the terms and conditions of the available visas. We need to stay objective here, as what seems expensive and prohibitive in terms of visa costs for one person (or family) might be reasonable to another potential nomad or group.
An easy reckoner or calculator site, like that from the Work From Anywhere team on Digital Nomad Visas, lets you easily compare destinations within a region, for key criteria like:
Cost of living
Length of stay allowed
If the tax is locally applied
Eligibility Criteria
Wifi speed
Availability (or ease of access to the visa)
Moreover, since the pandemic, although regions have made some positive and proactive moves to introduce visas, local restrictions may apply and have to be monitored before any travel should be confirmed and undertaken.
Borderless by SafetyWing, is an excellent interactive map to check local and regional statuses of borders for nomad travellers given coronavirus restrictions. SafetyWing also offers a comprehensive package of global insurance for both nomads, remote teams and employers.
Still wondering where to go? Here are some top choices
With so many alternatives it is natural to feel overwhelmed. Many are the criteria to choose your next destination: you may want to be sun-kissed in a warm place, or try exotic cuisine, or be surrounded by an innovative and tech-oriented environment. To help you make the right choice, travel search engine KAYAK has launched the Work from Wherever Index, analysing 111 countries and ranking them against several categories, from health and safety to social life and weather. Another article by Euronews.travel, gives their top list of destinations based on varying criteria.
At the western edge of the European continent, Portugal made it to n. 1: the country scores incredibly well in the health and safety and social life categories with the lowest air pollution in the top 10, alongside high rates of English proficiency. Moreover, in Madeira island, the first digital nomad village was launched in 2021, in an attempt to create a community around the island.
A Final Note on the Ukraine Crisis: Speeding Up Visas Processes for Ukrainians
I cannot fail to comment on the current Ukrainian crisis: as someone who constantly advocates for liberty of movement and wellbeing, I am saddened and shocked by the recent events involving the country, a location with a large, professional, talent pool that has been welcoming remote workers for a long time.
International response to the crisis has been amazing. Many governments, associations, companies and individuals have volunteered to support the Ukrainian people. Portugal, for instance, has released a series of job openings with immediate visa opportunities for Ukrainian refugees. Digital Nomads Association Croatia has shared a similar statement, inviting all Ukrainian remote work professionals to go to Croatia, therefore taking advantage of the local Digital Nomad.
If you are a private company willing to help, you can access the Ukrainian talent pool database on Remote Ukraine.
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn on 2nd Mar 2022.