Visas · Updated 17 Sept 2026
Digital nomad visas compared
Twenty-four countries that come up in this space, checked one at a time against an official government source — including the ones with no digital nomad visa at all, which most comparison lists quietly skip. Income and savings requirements, duration, renewal, fees and a short tax note for each, plus how to think about picking one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Income figures, fees and durations change; confirm current requirements with the official source linked in each row before you apply.
Quick take: if you want X, look at Y
- Lowest income bar: Malaysia’s DE Rantau (~$24,000/year) and Colombia’s Visa V (~$800–900/month) sit well below most of the field.
- Longest single grant without renewing: Thailand’s DTV (five years) and South Korea’s F-1-D (up to three years, as a permanent program from 30 June 2026).
- A real path to permanent residency: Portugal’s D8, and to a lesser extent Spain’s Digital Nomad Visa, which renews up to five years.
- Zero or near-zero local tax on the income that qualified you: the UAE’s Virtual Working Programme, Costa Rica’s remote-worker status, and Panama’s territorial system.
- Cheapest to apply for: Colombia and Costa Rica, both under $100 in government fees; the UAE’s AED 200 (~$54) plus VAT is close behind.
- Skip it entirely if your target is Vietnam, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Serbia or Bulgaria — none has a dedicated nomad visa as of this writing, and Peru and the Philippines have one in law but not in practice yet.
The comparison
| Country | Visa | Income / savings required | Duration | Renewable | Fee | Tax note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇹🇭 Thailand | Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) | 500,000 THB (~$14,000) in bank funds, held 3 months | 180 days per entry, 5-year validity | Extendable +180 days once per entry | 10,000 THB (~$280) | No Thai work permit granted; Thai tax residency triggers at 180+ days/year on remitted foreign income |
| 🇮🇩 Indonesia | Remote Worker Visa (E33G) | ~$60,000/year from a foreign employer | 1 year | Yes | Varies | Indonesian tax residency generally triggers at 183+ days |
| 🇲🇾 Malaysia | DE Rantau Nomad Pass | ~$24,000/year | 1 year | Once (2 years total) | ~$220 | Malaysian tax residency generally triggers at 182+ days |
| 🇵🇭 Philippines | Digital Nomad Visa (Executive Order 86) | Not published — no application channel exists yet | 1 year, renewable once (per the EO, once live) | Not applicable — not accepting applications | Not published | Not applicable until the program opens |
| 🇻🇳 Vietnam | None — no dedicated nomad visa | — | — | — | — | No legal route to remote work on an e-visa or tourist entry |
| 🇨🇴 Colombia | Visa V — Nómada Digital | ≥3x Colombian minimum wage (~$800–900/month) | Up to 2 years | Reapply after expiry | ~$50–60 | Colombian tax residency triggers at 183 days in any 365 |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | VITEM XIV | ≥$1,500/month or $18,000 in savings | 1 year | Once (2 years total) | ~$100 (varies by consulate/nationality — $290 for US applicants in Washington, DC) | Brazilian tax residency generally triggers around 184 days |
| 🇲🇽 Mexico | None — Temporary Resident Visa instead | ~$4,300–4,500/month income or ~$74,000 in savings (2026, not nomad-specific) | 1–4 years | Yes | $36–48 + card issuance | Must apply at a Mexican consulate abroad — cannot be converted from tourist status inside Mexico |
| 🇦🇷 Argentina | Digital Nomad Visa | Documented remote income (no published fixed minimum) | 180 days | Once | ~$200 | Argentine tax residency generally requires 12 continuous months |
| 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | Estancia para Trabajadores o Prestadores de Servicio Remoto | $3,000/month (individual) or $4,000/month (with dependents) | 1 year | Once (2 years total) | $100 | Exempt from Costa Rican income tax on foreign-earned income |
| 🇵🇦 Panama | Visa de Corta Estancia como Trabajador Remoto | $36,000/year (~$3,000/month) | 9 months | Once (18 months total) | $250 + $50 card fee | Territorial tax system — foreign-sourced income is not taxed in Panama |
| 🇵🇪 Peru | Digital Nomad Visa — legislated, not operational | Not published — no application procedure exists | Up to 365 days (per the 2023 law, once implemented) | Not applicable | Not published | Peru still taxes remote workers as ordinary tourists or independent workers in the meantime |
| 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | None — Rentista residency instead | ~$2,000/month in documented passive income (Rentista) | Renewable, path to permanent residency | Yes | Varies | No dedicated remote-work legal status; tourist-card entrants have no work authorization |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | Digital Nomad Visa | ≥€2,650/month (2026 figure) | 1 year initial | Renewable up to 5 years total | ~€75–80 | A reduced "Beckham law"-style personal income tax rate is available to qualifying applicants for several years |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | D8 Digital Nomad Visa | ≥€3,280/month (4x Portuguese minimum wage, 2026) | 1 year (or a 2-year residence permit option) | Yes, path to permanent residency | ~€90 + consulate fees | Portugal narrowed its former NHR tax regime in 2024 — get a current tax consult before assuming any special rate applies |
| 🇨🇿 Czech Republic | Živnostenský list (trade licence) + long-term residence | No fixed minimum — must show a viable registered business | 1 year | Yes | Varies | Registers as self-employed; pays Czech income tax and social contributions, not a foreign-income exemption |
| 🇭🇺 Hungary | White Card | ~€2,000/month gross, documented over the prior 6 months | 1 year | Once (2 years total) | ~€110 | Cannot hold a stake in a Hungarian company or earn Hungarian-sourced income |
| 🇷🇴 Romania | Digital Nomad Visa (D/AD visa) | ≥3x average Romanian gross salary (~€5,550/month, 2026 — adjusts yearly) | 1 year | Yes | Varies | Foreign employer/company must have operated 3+ years |
| 🇷🇸 Serbia | None — no dedicated nomad visa | — | — | — | — | Long-stayers commonly register as freelancers or use property ownership instead |
| 🇧🇬 Bulgaria | None — no dedicated nomad visa | — | — | — | — | Long-stayers use the standard long-stay (D) visa route |
| 🇹🇷 Turkey | Digital Nomad Visa | $3,000/month or $36,000/year; ages 21–55 with a university degree | 1 year | Yes | Varies | Open only to nationals of a published eligible-country list — confirm your passport qualifies before applying |
| 🇦🇪 UAE | Virtual Working Programme | $3,500/month (employee) or $5,000/month + 1 year of ownership (business owner) | 1 year | Yes | AED 200 + 5% VAT, plus mandatory health insurance | Zero personal income tax for individuals under UAE law |
| 🇰🇷 South Korea | F-1-D Workation Visa | 2x prior-year GNI per capita (~$66,000–76,000/year), or 1x GNI (~$37,000) for ages 18–34 based outside the Seoul metro area | Up to 3 years | Made a permanent program on 30 June 2026 | Varies | Korean tax residency generally triggers at 183+ days |
| 🇹🇼 Taiwan | Employment Gold Card | NT$160,000/month (~$5,000) average salary, or approval via a qualifying professional field | 1–3 years | Yes | ~$150–200 | Taiwan tax residency generally triggers at 183+ days |
Country name links to that country’s hub page; visa name links to the official source used to verify that row. Checked 17 September 2026.
Legislated but not usable: Peru and the Philippines
Two entries in the table above are genuinely different from a country that simply never wrote a nomad-visa law: Peru and the Philippines both passed one, and neither has a working application process. Peru’s government announced a digital nomad visa in November 2023; the underlying law creating the category has been on the books since, but successive updates to Migraciones’ own procedures manual (the TUPA) in 2024 and again in 2025 came and went without ever adding it, and no fee schedule or application form exists to file against. The Philippines is further along on paper — President Marcos signed Executive Order 86 in April 2025, creating a Digital Nomad Visa that took effect the following month — but as of this page’s verification date the visa still does not appear among the types the Department of Foreign Affairs issues through its e-Visa portal, so there is no channel to submit an application through. In both cases, treat any site or agent offering to “process” the visa for a fee as, at minimum, premature, and check the official portal listed in the table before assuming either program is actually live by the time you read this.
How to pick
Start from income, not destination — most of these programs set a hard financial floor, and it varies by nearly 4x across the table (from roughly $24,000/year in Malaysia to over $75,000/year at South Korea’s standard tier). Once you know which countries you actually qualify for, narrow further on what you cannot change later: duration and renewability (Panama’s 18-month cap versus Portugal’s path to permanent residency are different products, not just different paperwork), whether the visa is consulate-first or can be finished after arrival, and the underlying cost of living — a $3,000/month income bar means something very different in Panama City than in Seoul. Countries with no visa at all (see the table) are not a subtler option; they mean no compliant path to stay and work remotely long-term exists yet, full stop.
Tax residency basics
A digital nomad visa is an immigration status, not a tax status, and the two are decided by separate rules that do not always move together. The most common trigger used worldwide is some version of the 183-day rule: spend more than roughly half the year (the exact threshold and the period it is measured over — calendar year, tax year or rolling 12 months — vary by country) physically present in a country, and you generally become a tax resident there regardless of what your visa says, which can mean filing obligations or tax on some or all of your worldwide income. Several countries in the table pair their nomad visa with an explicit tax benefit for qualifying holders — Thailand’s DTV avoids local taxation of unremitted foreign income, Costa Rica’s remote-worker status exempts foreign income outright, and Spain’s Digital Nomad Visa carries a reduced-rate option — but these are specific, conditional programs, not a general rule that a nomad visa means no local tax. This page does not give tax advice for a reason: the right answer depends on your citizenship, your home-country filing obligations, days spent in each country during the year, and treaties between them. Get a cross-border tax professional before you commit to a country for tax reasons rather than working it out from a blog post.
Working on tourist status: not covered here
Every country in this table treats a tourist entry as exactly that — permission to visit, not to work, local or remote. This page does not provide, and will not provide, advice on working informally while on a tourist entry; several governments represented here have visibly tightened enforcement of exactly this in recent years. If a country you want to spend real time in has no digital nomad visa (Vietnam, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Serbia and Bulgaria, per the table above), the honest options are a different visa category that does authorize your situation, a shorter compliant stay on tourist status with no work attached, or a different country.
FAQ
What actually counts as a "digital nomad visa"?
A legal, government-issued status that explicitly permits someone to live in the country while working remotely for an employer or clients based outside it. It is a distinct legal category from a tourist entry, which permits neither local nor remote work in almost every country on this page, and from a work permit, which is tied to a local employer.
Which countries here have no digital nomad visa at all?
Vietnam, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Serbia and Bulgaria have no dedicated nomad visa as of this writing; Peru passed a law creating one in November 2023 but has never published a procedure to apply for it, and the Philippines signed an authorizing executive order in April 2025 that still has no live application channel as of September 2026. Each of those rows says so directly rather than listing a workaround as if it were the real thing.
Will getting a digital nomad visa make me a tax resident there?
Usually not automatically, but it depends entirely on how many days you actually spend in the country. Most countries here use some version of the 183-day rule: cross that threshold within their specific tax year or rolling period and you generally become a tax resident regardless of your visa type, with obligations that can include reporting or taxing worldwide income. The visa is an immigration status; tax residency is a separate legal question — get advice from a cross-border tax professional before you plan around any specific number of days.
Can I apply for one of these after I have already arrived as a tourist?
It varies by country and is stated in each row above where it matters — Mexico's Temporary Resident Visa, for example, must be started at a consulate abroad and cannot be converted from tourist status inside the country, while several of the European nomad visas are also consulate-first applications. Assume you need to apply from outside the country unless the official source for that specific visa says otherwise.
What happens if I just work remotely on a tourist entry instead?
It is against the immigration law of every country on this page, tourist entries do not authorize any work, local or remote, and enforcement has tightened in several of them in recent years. This site does not provide informal-work advice; use the correct visa category, or one of the countries with no visa (see above) and accept that a longer, formal stay isn't currently available there.
Which of these leads to permanent residency?
Portugal's D8 is explicitly framed as a path to permanent residency and, eventually, citizenship. Spain's Digital Nomad Visa can be renewed up to five years, which is close to Spain's general permanent-residency threshold. Most of the others — Thailand's DTV, the DE Rantau and White Card programs, Panama's and Costa Rica's remote-worker visas — are explicitly temporary, capped-duration categories with no automatic residency track; check the official source in the table if that matters to you before choosing a country.
Sources
Each visa’s own official source is linked from its name in the table above. General references used across the page, verified 17 September 2026:
- EY — “Philippines announces new Digital Nomad Visa” (Executive Order 86)
- Fragomen — “Peru: New Law Introduces Digital Nomad Visa” (status update)
- European Commission — Schengen Area (official)
See the country and city pages
Full visa, safety and cost detail for every country and city on the site.