Future Pathways for Remote Worker Visas

Several years after the pandemic lockdown, remote work remains accessible to many, granting ever more on-site professionals the opportunity to become digital nomads. Governments globally have responded by adjusting existing visa requirements or offering an entirely new category of visa entitlements to cater to working nomads looking to enjoy simultaneously the spoils of visiting foreign lands for extended periods.

What alternatives to the remote worker visa exist and what policy considerations will affect the survival of the remote worker visa options? Below we summarise some key points from a recent report from the Migration Policy Institute (‘MPI’) on the impact of remote work on immigration policies globally, including whether governments are likely to continue to offer the digital nomad visa for years to come.

 Adapting existing visas for remote workers

As an alternative to the digital nomad visas, some governments may simply opt to extend the permitted duration of stay on tourist or visitor visas, which digital nomads already use regularly as a part of their travels. A plethora of other amendments to existing visa options also provide practical ways to welcome remote workers, for instance, the introduction of a medium- or long-duration stay visa that does not require employer sponsorship but is based on the rights and obligations for extant work visas. 

One of main advantages of adapting existing policies rather than establishing a new visa category for remote workers lies in the reduction of costs and time. Governments with comparatively decentralised executive power such as the US are likely to find governmental agreement on and administrative actualisation of a new visa category far too complicated. Countries may lean towards already popular measures such as an extension of time on a visitor visa to generate the entitlements that attract remote workers.

The Digital Nomad Visa

More than 25 countries and territories now offer a ‘digital nomad visa’, that is, a visa enabling applicants to work for a foreign entity online whilst in the host country. Although initially introduced in the wake of the Corona virus both to manage travel restrictions and compensate for lost tourism revenue by allowing for longer visitor stays, this model of visa entitlements now has a strong potential to remain a fixture of immigration policies globally.

In addition to allowing remote workers to work for a foreign employer while remaining in a country for longer periods of time than on a visitor visa, digital nomad visas usually also require the visa holder to refrain from working for or establishing a local business and prove they have sufficient funds for their stay.

Current or potential remote workers looking to take advantage of the visa can expect entitlements in the visa category to expand as countries compete with one another for what are essentially long stay tourists. Amongst the additional benefits being offered by various countries to present a more attractive remote work visa option, are: discounted rates for visa renewals, fast-tracked application processes, and even income tax exemptions. The proliferation of ambitious real estate projects specially constructed to facilitate the work and leisure of digital nomads (e.g. the Digital Nomads Madeiria Islands project in Portugal and Tech Zity in Lithuania) further indicate the ethos of mutual benefit that governments globally are willing to practice with respect to the migration of digital nomads.

Differences and Trends

Although adapting existing visa categories may have the same effect, setting aside a specially assigned visa category for remote workers also works as a ‘callout’ to remote workers searching for extended travel opportunities – the offer of a tailored pathway as well as (in most cases) specially designed websites and government information paraphernalia effectively advertise the visa pathway to prospective applicants. Countries interested in more proactively leveraging tourist spending as a means of compensating for lost revenue (in tourism or elsewhere) are therefore more likely to maintain and even expand access to the digital nomad visa — Iceland already offers six-month stays under its remote worker visas, Croatia and Dubai one-year stays, Antigua and Barbuda two-year stays, while Bermuda is considering offering digital nomads several years of residency.

It is not entirely clear however if the digital nomad as a distinct category can remain a focal point of immigration policy in other parts of the world, i.e. where the resurgence of economic growth through tourist revenue is not as much of a concern. The MPI report highlights in particular the difficulty of gearing the benefits of welcoming digital nomads when a proper understanding of their economic impact is still unclear and the application of any research to policy would require the cooperation of multiple government portfolios. The patience to understand both the economic impact of a new category of medium-duration visitors (comparable but distinct in their behaviour from short-term tourists) and the real civic aims of attracting skilled migrants who cannot directly alleviate labour shortages may lie beyond the more erratic motivations and siloed capabilities of government departments.

Borderless Counsel’s Take

Despite the difficulties of fiscal and political planning around remote worker visas, however, the number of countries introducing the separate visitor pathway is growing, and often with the intention of benefitting their economies in more inventive ways than merely through local spending. Canada for instance offers an additional three years of residency to six-month digital nomad visa holders who manage to find work with a Canadian employer. Contrary to many policy considerations surrounding the visa which assumes the holder will remain for a one-time medium-duration stay, Canada is attempting to use the attractions of a visitor stay to lure longer term workers and therefore fill labour shortages and inject tech talent.

This attempt to gear emerging professional norms towards satisfying more conventional immigration policy aims demonstrates the willingness of governments to adjust to or actively leverage evolving civic and corporate practices. For this reason, it is not unlikely that countries will continue to offer standalone digital nomad visas and even expand entitlements under them for years to come even in the face of associations of the visa with limited economic strategies.  

If you would like to know more about your travel options as a digital nomad or other migration pathways, don’t hesitate to contact Borderless Counsel at info@borderlesscounsel.com.