Digital nomad visa countries for 2027, and the number that decides it
Almost every nomad visa is a single income test and the thresholds move each January. The 2027 numbers, what they exclude, and the tax question nobody answers.
Photo · cottonbro studio · Pexels
Almost every digital nomad visa in the world is one income test with paperwork attached. You prove you earn above a number, from work for clients or an employer outside the country, and you get a year or two of legal residence.
So the number is the whole thing, and it is the thing that changes.
Most thresholds are pegged to a national minimum wage and rise every January. Portugal's went up about 21% in one step in January 2026. A list published a year ago is not merely stale: it will get an application refused, because these are pass-or-fail tests rather than guidelines.
Here are the current numbers, read in September 2026.
The income tests
| Country | Income required | Length | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | €2,849 / month | 1 yr, renewable | At least 80% of income from outside Spain |
| Greece | €3,500 / month net | 1 yr, renewable | +20% spouse, +15% per child |
| Portugal (D8) | €3,680 / month | 2 yrs, renewable | 4× minimum wage, +50% spouse, +30% per child |
| Estonia | €4,500 / month | 1 yr | Highest in Europe |
| Indonesia (E33G) | USD 60,000 / year | 1 yr, to 5 | Foreign income statutorily tax-exempt |
| Japan | ¥10,000,000 / year | 6 months, no extension | A long visit, not a move |
Those figures are in the currency each regulation is written in, not converted by us: Portugal's rule is a euro rule, Indonesia's is written in US dollars, Japan's in yen. If you need them in your own money, our converter does it live rather than at a rate that was true the day this page was written.
What the application actually asks for
The documents are more alike than different. Every one of these will want:
- Proof of income at the threshold, usually as six to twelve months of
bank statements plus either an employment contract or client contracts. Statements are the document people underestimate: they must show the money arriving, consistently, at the level claimed.
- Proof the work is foreign. A contract with an entity registered outside
the country, or evidence of clients who are.
- A passport with real validity left, generally six months beyond the
permit's end, and blank pages.
- Private health insurance covering the country for the full period.
- A clean criminal record certificate, apostilled, from every country you
have lived in recently. This is the slowest item and it is the one that delays applications.
- Proof of accommodation, which for some countries means a signed lease
before you have ever set foot in the place.
- The fee, and often a separate residence-permit fee on arrival.
Budget three to four months from starting to holding the permit, most of it spent waiting for the criminal record certificate and a consulate appointment. Several countries require the application in person at a consulate in your country of residence, which is the constraint that catches people who are already travelling.
The tax question, answered honestly
This is the part the listicles leave out, and it is the part with consequences.
A nomad visa is permission to stay. It is not an exemption from tax.
Nearly every country in the world treats you as tax resident once you spend more than 183 days there in a tax year, and several use additional tests that can catch you sooner. Spending a year in Portugal or Greece on a nomad visa generally makes you tax resident in Portugal or Greece, with an obligation to declare worldwide income there, whatever your home country also wants.
Some countries offer reduced rates or special regimes for these permits, and those regimes change with each government. Indonesia's E33G is the clearest exception: Indonesian law explicitly exempts foreign-sourced income earned remotely for non-Indonesian employers while you hold the KITAS, and the exemption is statutory rather than discretionary.
We are not tax advisors, and this is the point in the process to hire one. An hour with an accountant who works in both countries costs less than one mistake, and the mistakes here are the expensive kind: double taxation, exit taxes, and a social security position nobody thought about.
The other thing to check before you commit: whether the years count toward long-term residency. Some of these permits accumulate toward it and some explicitly do not, and it is a completely different life decision depending on the answer.
If you do not meet the threshold
Most people do not, and they still do this. The honest routes:
Long visa-free stays. Georgia allows many nationalities a full year without a visa. Albania allows a year for some. These are not nomad visas, they carry no right to work locally, and they create exactly the same 183-day tax question.
Non-European options with different structures. Thailand's longer-stay destination visa, Malaysia's professional pass and several Latin American permits use different tests, some of them asset-based rather than income-based.
The 90-day rotation, which is what most of Europe's nomad population actually does: 90 days inside the Schengen area, 90 days outside it in Albania, Georgia, Turkey, Montenegro or the UK. It is legal, it is exhausting, and it does not build toward anything.
Or earn more first. Unglamorous and it is frequently the right answer, because these thresholds are rising faster than most freelance rates.
What to skip
Any list of nomad visas without a date on it. The numbers move every January and half of what is published is a year out.
Applying at the old threshold because you found it on a blog. These are pass-or-fail. Below the number is a refusal, not a conversation, and the fee is not refunded.
Assuming the visa answers the tax question. It answers the immigration question. Those are different agencies with different interests in you.
Choosing the country before checking whether you can apply from where you are. Several require an in-person consulate appointment in your country of residence, which is a real problem if you are already living out of a suitcase.
A one-year visa for a three-month idea. Three months is a tourist stay almost everywhere and needs none of this. The visa is for people who are actually moving.
Before you apply
The best digital nomad cities for 2027 is the other half of this decision, and it is filtered by whether you can legally stay rather than by how the coffee looks. Bali for digital nomads works through one country's version end to end, including the E33G above and what living there actually costs in rupiah.
For the shape of ordinary tourist entry rules, which is a different question with a different answer for every passport, our visa tool checks yours and prints the date it was checked. Plugs, water and driving side are in the essentials pages, and the currency converter handles the thresholds above in your own money.
If Portugal or Spain is where this is heading, the Lisbon and Porto area guides cover the two cities most of this traffic lands in, and ten days in Portugal is the reconnaissance trip we would do first. More in the nomad life hub.
Income thresholds read in September 2026 from each country's own published requirements, including Portugal's visa portal, Estonia's official nomad visa page and Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Most of these are indexed to minimum wages and rise in January, so check the current figure on the government's own page before you apply rather than trusting any list, this one included. Here is how we research and re-check guides.
