The Problem with Digital Nomad Visas

as more people than ever are working remotely thanks to the pandemic there have been a rash of new digital nomad visas as countries scrambled to attract these remote workers to their shores today i'm going to share with you what i believe could be the problem with these digital nomad visas [Music] hi i'm andrew henderson i'm the author of the book nomad capitalist and the founder of the company nomad capitalist where we help seven and eight-figure entrepreneurs and investors legally go where you're treated best those the five magic words that's what we believe in you can learn more at nomadcapitalist.com now i do love the idea of any kind of new program new visa new anything where countries are getting into the game they're being competitive they're trying to attract people this is what we've been talking about from day one of nomad capitalist is more countries are going to be more competitive to seek human capital and financial capital as more countries build up their infrastructure and build up their ability to compete in the global marketplace but the reason why we say legacy brand countries are really not that attractive anymore why do you need to be in a country that was a great place to be in the 60s when you can go out and go where you're treated best so i'm all for the advent of these new visas now what i do want to put out there is i do feel like anytime there's a new buzzword out there the media picks up on it people pick up on it digital nomad visa has become something that you've seen from barbados to croatia and so many points in between there's a lot of these new programs however you already have had self-sufficient visas freelancer visas general residence programs available to people that would have worked for remote workers and so i think while there are certainly countries coming out and saying hey here's a one-year you know digital nomad visa there have always been options for people who wanted to do this they just weren't packaged perhaps as nicely and so in the same way that golden visas has attracted a lot of media attention things that aren't golden visas get get labeled as golden visas by the media you know i think you want to be careful with this because countries like france for example have had freelancer visas if you can prove you make a certain amount of money you can move into france and i've had friends who are freelancers who have their own small businesses or are solopreneurs and i've said hey listen you know get together your two grand a month print out your statements and go do it um and so what i think is good about the digital nomad visas is they're perhaps putting together easier requirements because you have had countries in central and south america that have said hey 600 600 bucks a month in income come and get your uh residence permit and that could have been good for a year two years however many years okay it's just a normal second residence permit that you can keep long-term you could keep renewing it um you've had other countries that have said hey you know show us you have 20 grand in the bank or 30 grand or whatever it is again come and move here um so you're going to have some easier requirements that are designed for hey we just want you to come in and work here now with these easier requirements comes a problem and it's the same thing i've said about the freelancer visas pre-coded was what are you getting yourself into first of all these digital nomad visas may or may not really be very permanent you're seeing some of these programs where they're saying hey come for a year are they going to let you renew that after a year in many cases it is unclear in some cases i think it's going to be an issue of hey come for your year and then go somewhere else now is that a bad thing no i'm the inventor of the trifecta method where we say live in three different places over the course of a year now you could theoretically do this as a tourist and just forego the need for a digital nomad visa i certainly think living a nomanic lifestyle can work very well for remote workers but if you want to stay in one place this visa could be good for do it for a year then next year go somewhere else and theoretically you've got enough countries that are throwing their hat into this ring including a lot of countries in europe that this could be something that's sustainable for the long term the other question that i have though that i always have with these freelance programs is what are the tax consequences okay immigration we've got figured out you get a visa you can live there let's call it in theory you can spend a year there now you've had historically programs like portugal's non-habitual residence program you've had italy which has really come up with a number of tax incentives with if you're living in the south you can exempt yourself from a lot of income living in the north you can exempt yourself from less certain other types of income pensions and small businesses you could get dramatic tax reductions and so you've had some of these programs come out and say hey you don't need to pay tax you've had others come out for example i believe greece said okay we're going to give you a 50 tax discount you know generally speaking if you're spending a year in a country you are going to be by virtue of a day's test or something under of a similar name you're going to be a tax resident in that country now if you're a u.s citizen or a u.s person that could pose some challenges because now you've got two different competing tax systems and so you want to look at is what is your tax status in that country are they going to tax you a lot of the countries with these digital nomad visas are not zero tax and so again some of them are exactly saying hey we're going to exempt your income don't worry about it others may not so those are the things that i want you to look at i think that what i would take away from these digital nomad visas is it's great that more countries are throwing their hat into the ring i fear anytime there's a lot of marketing around it you know estonia said okay we're going to have a program like this and we're going to be pretty tax friendly about it um but their their idea was hey we need to keep furthering our image as an electronic state and then have a bigger seat at the table because we have people participating in this electronic state who are from all around the world again i love that competitive nature are we making it a little bit too ballyhooed much as the estonian e-residence program really confused a lot of people thinking they were becoming residents of a country or really had any rights at all in that country when a lot of estonian e residents couldn't even open a bank account right the idea that you need to be an e-resident of a country with a card that you get an embassy that you know you need to do that to open a a company you can open a company in a lot of jurisdictions without having any residential status so to me it was a lot of marketing hype people have picked up on that over the years i don't see as much talk about the e-residence program in estonia again as much as i love the effort it just wasn't working and it showed that the government court and coordinate with the banks and it brings up the issues with these kind of freelancer and now digital nomad visas that make me think you want to make sure all of your affairs are in order so on the immigration side sure get a digital nomad visa but first ask yourself would a tourist visa work you know people can go to georgia for example 360 days many different passports you can get in and spend a full year there you know you don't need some kind of other visa the tax system there pretty good there's we talked about the one percent flat tax if you're a freelancer or do certain types of business up to about 150 000 a year uh but do you need a visa do you want to be traveling in different places you know don't get sucked into just following everybody else i've talked to some people who they like the idea of this of this digital nomad visa and then i say well you know want to just travel around oh i never thought about that you know they never thought they could be a perpetual tourist is it more difficult now yes have i been doing it you know for the last year yes i have i've been traveling among a lot of different countries and so if you choose your country's you know carefully you can do that even in the era of coven and so you don't want to get sucked into it for that if you're looking to this longer term some of the digital nomad visas may not be as flexible you might want to get a residence permit where i see the digital nomad visa as a great thing is if you want to go to some of the more difficult european countries that may not have the ability to get in croatia is one country i went there a number of years ago talked to a number of lawyers and basically figured out from a tax perspective investment perspective immigration perspective there just weren't that many great options now they've got what seems like a decent looking digital med uh visa so if you want to go and spend time in croatia which generally you wouldn't be able to spend the full year there just as a tourist yeah i like that um you know norway for example difficult country to to immigrate to right and so this is a great program in my opinion for countries that would be otherwise tough to go to um norways and germany's and and to a certain extent estonia but there's also been a lot of residence programs historically many of those in europe have focused around hiring employees or putting a certain amount of money into your company so you're again you're getting rid of those requirements but if you're looking at a central america south america southeast asia those countries generally have residence programs that you can get into that might be more flexible for long-term work look at the thai elite visa look at maybe you set up a company in malaysia you can get in that way maybe at the best place right now look at some of the deals that are still open in the philippines look at countries in central america and south america where again countries like mexico and others where you can show wealth and you can go there and you can have something that lasts long term and potentially even work your way towards a permanent residence of citizenship something like that you're going to have some of the same tax concerns in some of those countries and you're not going to have tax concerns in some of the other countries but i want you to know what you're getting into before you get one of these digital nomad visas don't stop now we've got well over a thousand more videos here on youtube for you to watch and learn how to go where you're treated best and if you want to work with nomad capitalists personally go to nomad capitalist.com apply learn about our unique tried and true process garnered over years of 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Channel: Nomad Capitalist

Views: 36,883

Keywords: nomad capitalist, go where you're treated best, digital nomad visa, work and travel, become a digital nomad, living abroad, best places to live, best countries, digital nomad lifestyle, working in estonia, estonia, travel to estonia, freelancing, make money freelancing, travel to georgia, taxes in georgia, thai elite visa, thai visa, visa in europe, mexico visa, travel in mexico, moving to mexico, where to work, working remotely, remote work, travel around the world

Id: p4R4P1BodmA

Length: 9min 26sec (566 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021