In short: of the 97 countries we track, 44 have a digital nomad visa or a remote work visa, 19 of them in Europe. Income thresholds range from none in Albania, Kyrgyzstan and Uruguay to $60,000 a year in Indonesia. Almost everywhere the visa bars you from working for local companies, and most of the time it does not lead to permanent residence: it is a way to live in a country for a while, not to move for good.
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A digital nomad visa, a remote worker visa or a residence ground for remote work for a foreign client. Within each group, countries are in alphabetical order; each card shows the country's place in our ranking.
The conditions are stricter than for a nomad visa: a business plan, capital or proof of income, and longer processing.
In these countries we found no route to residency for a remote worker without a local employer. Details are on each country page.
As of our check on 1 October 2026, 44 of the 97 countries we track have a digital nomad visa or a remote work visa, 19 of them in Europe. The full list with income thresholds and terms is above on this page.
Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Malta, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary (the White Card), Slovenia, Czechia (only for a closed list of nationalities), Iceland (up to 180 days), Albania, Serbia, Montenegro (the programme closes at the end of 2026) and Moldova.
Albania, Kyrgyzstan and Uruguay set no fixed threshold. Among countries with one, the lowest are in Latin America: Colombia (about $1,200-1,435 a month), Ecuador ($1,446), El Salvador ($1,460), Brazil ($1,500), plus Mauritius ($1,500).
Indonesia ($60,000 a year from a foreign employer), Malaysia for non-IT professions ($60,000), Barbados ($50,000), Malta (€42,000 a year) and Taiwan ($40,000), while Japan asks for ¥10 million a year.
Usually not. It does not lead there or does not count towards it in Taiwan, Mauritius, Uruguay, Argentina, Panama, Colombia, Croatia, Estonia, Malta, Barbados, the UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Iceland, Hungary, Sri Lanka and Costa Rica. In Spain the remote work permit leads to long-term residence after 5 years, and in Mexico temporary residence based on income leads to permanent residence after 4 years.
As a rule, no: the visa is built for income from abroad. Local work is expressly banned, for example, in Estonia, Greece, Slovenia, Moldova, the UAE, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico and Panama. To work for a local employer you need an ordinary work permit.
Look at the self-employment route: a freelancer visa in Germany, entrepreneur or liberal profession status in France, a startup visa in the Netherlands, your own business in Armenia and Georgia. The conditions are stricter than for a nomad visa, but this is a residence permit, not a temporary remote work visa.
We checked the line on digital nomad visas and self-employment routes in the index cards of all 97 countries in our ranking and matched it against the published country pages. Thresholds, terms and restrictions are given as the sources in those cards state them; where a source does not name a term or a path to permanent residence, that field is not shown. The Philippines approved a nomad visa by decree but has no rules for issuing it yet, so we do not count it.
The list is built from the index cards of the 97 countries in our ranking and the country pages, where every fact has a source. Checked 01/10/2026.