[HN Gopher] Show HN: Nomad Visa - Working remotely? Explore your...
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       Show HN: Nomad Visa - Working remotely? Explore your visa options
        
       Author : svnsch
       Score  : 257 points
       Date   : 2021-08-13 10:30 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (nomadvisa.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (nomadvisa.io)
        
       | dagw wrote:
       | Nice site! However it did take me quite a long time to realize I
       | could scroll down on the landing page to see more options.
       | Perhaps you can add something to make that clearer.
       | 
       | Also, and this might just be me, I need a "Skiing" filter much
       | more than I need a "Warm" filter.
        
         | svnsch wrote:
         | Thanks! Oh, that explains some of the comments... i didn't
         | realise that myself. So great feedback! Will add the skiing
         | filter in the future :)
        
       | sdze wrote:
       | Clean WebApp but Safari alerts that the page uses a lot of
       | memory... Not nice!
        
         | svnsch wrote:
         | Thanks! I know about the issue and couldn't figure out how to
         | really solve it, yet. Still a beginner in web development. If
         | anyone has a link/info. Let me know.
        
           | sdflhasjd wrote:
           | It seems to run a bit oddly on Firefox on Android for me
           | (Samsung S10e) even changing the theme from dark to light
           | took a few seconds.
        
       | jll29 wrote:
       | I think the European Union has great mobility rules, so one can
       | now live anywhere, without needing papers to travel or move; now
       | if it can manage to create nomadic visas that permit qualified
       | workers from outside to join this system (like the US O-1 visa,
       | but valid for all EU countries), it would be a great driver to
       | innovation in Europe. (I will share that idea with the
       | Commission.)
       | 
       | Can't speak to the legal elements other than suggest work with a
       | specialized law firm to get through arcane rules for living in x
       | working in y (as lawyers say when you ask them a question, "it
       | depends") - it's expensive but perhaps you can bake it into your
       | cost of contracting. Not just the visa and work permit questions
       | are tricky, also taxation: the UK has something called IR35,
       | which has recently made it harder for freelancer even _in_ the
       | country to do contract work.
       | 
       | PS: From November and May onward, I will likely need 1-2 data
       | science researchers for 36 months, so if you are potentially
       | interested in working in Germany and have a curious mind and a
       | background in machine learning and NLP, e-mail me at leidner at
       | acm dot org.
        
         | hutzlibu wrote:
         | Yes, there are many valid criticism about the EU in lots of
         | things.
         | 
         | But the open border part (once you are in), is just awesome.
        
         | klipt wrote:
         | The EU lets EU citizens move around freely. But if you're a
         | non-EU citizen on say, a German work visa, that wouldn't let
         | you work in Spain. For truly free movement they would have to
         | replace all the country specific visas with EU wide visas, so
         | that once a foreigner has for example an EU wide work visa,
         | they can use it in all EU countries.
        
       | raviisoccupied wrote:
       | This is cool, but I feel like I should be able to select my
       | country of origin immediately when I select the destination I'm
       | interested in, rather than having to reselect each time I explore
       | a visa.
        
         | jobigoud wrote:
         | I don't even see where you can change your origin
         | citizenship... Neither on the front page or on each
         | destinations.
        
           | svnsch wrote:
           | You can adjust your origin country on the tourist visa page.
           | On mobile just refresh the page.
        
       | milross wrote:
       | I'm planning to become a digital nomad but don't have any ideas
       | about the visas yet. Now, this can certainly give me some
       | insights into the future.
        
       | Luuseens wrote:
       | The visa recommendations seem wrong, at least for my country
       | (Latvia).
       | 
       | The site claims I need a tourist visa for all EU countries
       | (wrong), and do not need a visa to visit Russia (also wrong).
        
         | jarofgreen wrote:
         | I saw a similar project on HN before but I can't find it now.
         | I'll make the same comment tho, and it builds on this comment:
         | 
         | Please provide links back to official information pages. For
         | something as important as a visa, I'm just never going to trust
         | a random third party source.
        
       | dcdc123 wrote:
       | I was hoping to put in my Visa and country where employer is and
       | see a list of countries I could go work remotely from.
        
       | Beached wrote:
       | nice concept, however when I select a country I am shown visas
       | that are not available to me. the first step should be a list of
       | where I hold passports, THEN I can select countries that then
       | have their results filtered by my citizenships
        
       | digianarchist wrote:
       | Worth noting that it isn't legal to work on a tourist visa in
       | most countries.
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | You're almost universally not allowed to take local work.
         | 
         | But many (the vast majority in my personal experience which
         | tends not to extend to countries with a lot of paperwork
         | requirements) either explicitly allow business purposes like
         | conferences and meeting with customers or don't care.
         | 
         | If you decide to remote work from someplace for a month or two,
         | I might not get a co-working space or blog about it, but in
         | most cases no one cares.
        
           | digianarchist wrote:
           | Businesses purposes usually has a strict definition that
           | doesn't extend to operating a business from said country for
           | extended periods of time. Nevermind the tax implications.
           | 
           | Other countries are far more explicit in law that any paid
           | (or unpaid) remuneration is a visa violation. Thailand for
           | example.
           | 
           | > don't care
           | 
           | That's the key phrase here. Personally I don't care that
           | authorities don't enforce their immigration laws but it
           | should be explicitly stated that you are violating your visa
           | on sites such as this and Nomadlist.
        
         | Mikeb85 wrote:
         | But there's definitely legal grey areas. Like, if you're on
         | vacation but have a job back home, are you prohibited from
         | answering work emails? Sending a commit from your hotel room?
         | When does it go from doing work on vacation to 'working'?
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | For that matter, even if I'm attending an event, meeting with
           | customers, talking to press, etc. I think the only place I've
           | ever needed to get a "business visa" is China. I'm guessing
           | there were other cases where I was _technically_ supposed to
           | but no one does.
        
       | jamal-kumar wrote:
       | The first thing I did was check for Costa Rica's new digital
       | nomad visa, which they don't list on this site yet because it
       | just got signed into law a few days ago:
       | 
       | https://ticotimes.net/2021/08/11/costa-rica-signs-law-to-att...
       | 
       | Highly suggested! This country is the best, I've been here for
       | the better part of a decade now and can't recommend it enough.
       | There's fibre to the home rollout in more of the country than
       | I've seen in north america, I don't want to strangle anyone here
       | and the people are so open and friendly, the weather is great as
       | long as you can stand some 15-60 minutes of heavy rain every day
       | during the rainy season. Bring battery backup for internet on a
       | 4g modem and you're good to go for a couple of hours of power
       | outages before the cell tower battery goes out too (Rare that
       | it's out that long!)
       | 
       | Personally I'm up in the mountains instead of the beach because I
       | prefer the climate but it's crazy how little I pay comparatively
       | on rent and food in this part of the world. The most expensive
       | thing here is honestly just electronics -- Bring them in from out
       | of the country because they tax those like mad. People ask me if
       | it's dangerous here, and whenever something bad happens to Puerto
       | Rico my inbox gets flooded with people asking if I'm OK (haha
       | check a map for once!) but pretty much as long as you stay the
       | fuck away from the 10$ grams of cocaine you'll be fine. Don't do
       | that shit in any country, they grind up the bones of narco
       | victims into the cut and it's just a general bad karma magnet.
       | It's my first bit of advice to anyone in the country asking me if
       | it's safe because 95% of the problems I see people encounter have
       | to do with them not being able to heed this type of advice.
        
         | maerF0x0 wrote:
         | Hooked me with talk of Costa Rica and it's safety, got a free
         | lesson about drugs along the way...
        
         | zebnyc wrote:
         | Any recommended resources / tips on how to go about buying real
         | estate in Costa Rica? Am also a fan of the mountains.
        
           | jamal-kumar wrote:
           | Yeah for sure! You want to consider foreclosed properties
           | purchased through the bank in order to mitigate risks that
           | you might face if you just go through some shady real estate
           | agnet or whatever:
           | 
           | https://www.bnventadebienes.com/
           | 
           | My best advice is to be competent in Spanish before starting
           | any business negotiations here and that includes buying
           | properties.
        
         | MrRiddle wrote:
         | Excuse me but you're talking how the country is great then go
         | on talking how they grind peoples bones into cocaine? WTF
        
           | jonfw wrote:
           | Every country would look pretty terrible if we judged them by
           | the bottom of their barrel
        
           | 4r4r4r wrote:
           | Chicago Crime 2021 https://heyjackass.com/
           | 
           | A person is shot every 1:56 A person is murdered every 10:44
           | Thru 8/12
           | 
           | August To Date Shot & Killed: 35 Shot & Wounded: 184 Total
           | Shot: 219 Total Homicides: 36
           | 
           | Chicago Crime 2021 Week in Progress (8/8 - 8/14) Shot &
           | Killed: 12 Shot & Wounded: 80 Total Shot: 92 Total Homicides:
           | 12
           | 
           | Chicago Crime 2021 Year to Date Shot & Killed: 475 Shot &
           | Wounded: 2306 Total Shot: 2781 Total Homicides: 501
        
           | jamal-kumar wrote:
           | haha yeah don't do that stuff the world would be so much
           | better without it in general
           | 
           | it's actually incredibly easy if you just hang out with
           | locals and avoid tourists/expats
        
         | vaidhy wrote:
         | I have been thinking about CR.. Does Spanish become a
         | requirement for daily life? I am sure I can pick up a
         | smattering of any language as long as I live there.. but I do
         | want to get through the first few months :)
         | 
         | Edit: One other thing - How about international/English schools
         | for middle school kids?
        
           | jamal-kumar wrote:
           | Yeah it's pretty good to learn the language of any foreign
           | country while being there. It's not that hard to just power
           | through a book or two and pick up pronunciation by making
           | friends with people who barely speak English. If you REALLY
           | want to accelerate it get into a relationship with someone
           | who barely speaks your language, actually - I have a lot of
           | fun dating girls who are trying to learn English but my
           | Spanish is good enough to give me some better chances
           | starting out
           | 
           | Response to edit: Yeah the international schools here are
           | really good, I actually have a friend teaching at a German
           | language one for kids which is well renowned so there's even
           | options outside of English immersion
        
             | vaidhy wrote:
             | Thanks.. I do not think I can convince my wife that I am
             | dating girls to learn the language.. but I will power
             | through the books..
             | 
             | CR has been my top retirement destination for long..
             | between the forests and scuba diving, it would be my ideal
             | country.
        
               | jamal-kumar wrote:
               | Yeah you're a family man, that's great, I've met a lot of
               | people who have actually moved their families out this
               | direction to do stuff like start businesses, and many of
               | them are quite happy. Feel free to make some local
               | friends though, really the best way to get to know the
               | language in any case
        
         | sureglymop wrote:
         | So are you working a remote job? Or why is it so inexpensive to
         | live in this specific country for you?
        
           | jamal-kumar wrote:
           | Of course
           | 
           | Currency in my home country is crap, USD stretches out really
           | far in any country that's not in North America or EU
        
       | hunter-2 wrote:
       | 'Working remote' visa options all look great till I start
       | researching on how the job market is, in general. Because my
       | spouse is going to have to do something too.
        
       | wingerlang wrote:
       | Maybe at least mention that it IS sometimes illegal to work in
       | the countries.
        
       | zerr wrote:
       | Regarding Freelance visas, some countries (e.g. Germany [1])
       | require you to have local clients. So not an option for self-
       | employed/indies. Would be nice to have similar info about
       | countries that doesn't require you to work for someone else.
       | 
       | EDIT: 1. https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/how-to-get-a-german-
       | freela....
        
         | jacquesm wrote:
         | This is to the best of my knowledge incorrect. I know more than
         | one person that came to Germany as self employed without having
         | customers prior to immigration.
        
         | jamil7 wrote:
         | I don't know about that exact rule (most of my clients are not
         | German). Honestly in my experience of living here and
         | freelancing on this visa a lot of these requirements seem to be
         | up to the discretion of the person doing the interview /
         | checking your documents.
         | 
         | Edit: See here https://www.gesetze-im-
         | internet.de/englisch_aufenthg/englisc...
         | 
         | (1) A foreigner may be granted a temporary residence permit for
         | the purpose of self-employment if
         | 
         | 1. an economic interest or a regional need applies,
         | 
         | 2. the activity is expected to have positive effects on the
         | economy and
         | 
         | 3. personal capital on the part of the foreigner or a loan
         | undertaking is available to realise the business idea.
        
           | nicbou wrote:
           | I can confirm. I wrote the guide above and spend a lot of
           | time dealing with the immigration office. They're a real box
           | of chocolates, and some are filled with raisins.
        
             | jamil7 wrote:
             | Thanks for that resource, it was extremely helpful when
             | renewing my visa.
        
         | bravura wrote:
         | Actually, Germany only requires non-binding letters of intent
         | from potential clients, upon which they extrapolate your
         | income, which they want to be above the poverty line (1500 EUR
         | a month in Germany, IIRC).
         | 
         | Sources: Many friends getting freelance visas, a visa lawyer.
        
           | drusepth wrote:
           | The Germany Freelance Visa link lists you having an address
           | in Germany as one of the requirements, though. I'm not sure
           | if that's an existing address or just a general "you have to
           | stay somewhere and not be homeless".
        
           | nicbou wrote:
           | I wrote the guide linked above. You are right, but when it's
           | time to renew your visa, they aren't so lenient. You can also
           | get a shorter visa if your case isn't compelling enough.
        
         | svnsch wrote:
         | That's a valid point. I need to adjust that. Thanks!
        
           | nicbou wrote:
           | Give that linked guide a good read. You can actually get the
           | visa without local clients, but you can't get it renewed.
        
           | bko wrote:
           | I'm sure a lot of people look up their home countries or
           | countries which they are familiar with. You may want to
           | consider a simple form where people can issue corrections
           | that get emailed to you. Essentially crowdsource data.
        
             | svnsch wrote:
             | Thats a good idea!
        
       | unixhero wrote:
       | It would be useful to change HOME COUNTRY. All your users are not
       | from the States you know.
        
       | sanmak wrote:
       | App Looks good! Mind to share from where did you collate data. I
       | believe data is the key and it should be regularly updated.
        
         | svnsch wrote:
         | True! Tourist visas are crawled daily by wikipedia. Not a big
         | thing. Open data. The other visa types are acquired manually
         | from official resources. If Nomad Visa reaches at least some
         | traction, i will build scripts that notify me when changes
         | occur or built scraping scripts. Not sure if the effort is
         | worth it, yet.
        
       | KaiserPro wrote:
       | Is there any hard data about the benefits of a digital nomad type
       | visa to the _host country_?
       | 
       | The obvious answer is that they have a similar impact as long
       | term holidaymakers. But I'd like some sort of evidence, rather
       | than my own uninformed gut feeling
        
         | Proven wrote:
         | Digital nomads create CO2 pollution
        
       | merrvk wrote:
       | Excellent resource, thanks for putting this together
        
         | svnsch wrote:
         | Thanks :) Glad that you like it
        
       | intricatedetail wrote:
       | So you let company underpay you and then you move to a cheaper
       | country in order to survive? Bum-engineer visa sounds more
       | appropriate. Why engineers don't value their skills?
        
         | mynameisvlad wrote:
         | Who said anything about letting a company underpay you?
         | 
         | Most do a digital nomad setup in order to have fewer living
         | expenses and therefore more quickly save up and retire early.
         | Nothing about working for less money while doing it.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | I expect most digital nomads don't work for employers--though
           | I've known limited time exceptions within the US. For
           | employers, I imagine it would create tax and accounting
           | headaches and, while people can and do have working vacations
           | and such, that's different from heading to Thailand for three
           | months to work remote.
        
       | lastofthemojito wrote:
       | I think your list of countries is too long.
       | 
       | First off, North Korea - really? Is anyone seriously considering
       | being a digital nomad in North Korea? There doesn't seem to be
       | any information of value on that page. Same with other places
       | like Vatican City where one isn't realistically going to go as a
       | digital nomad.
       | 
       | I also see US territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, USVI and
       | American Samoa as their own countries, but they don't handle
       | visas/immigration. They're just part of the USA. I suspect the
       | same is true of the British Virgin Islands, Falkland Islands, etc
       | as part of the UK.
       | 
       | Rather than have a long, noisy list that seems like it's probably
       | dynamically generated from something like an ISO 3166 country
       | list I think it'd be better to only create entries for countries
       | where you have meaningful content.
       | 
       | Outside of those objections, I do think this idea has value - it
       | certainly is a nice idea to have this information in one place,
       | presented in a consistent way.
        
         | lastofthemojito wrote:
         | Speaking of silly data - the page for Antarctica doesn't render
         | - I see "TypeError: t.selectedCountryData.cities[0] is
         | undefined" in my console:
         | 
         | https://nomadvisa.io/antarctica
        
         | mynameisvlad wrote:
         | The countries at the top of the list are known for being nomad-
         | friendly, so there is likely some curation going on there.
        
       | totetsu wrote:
       | New Zealand isn't processing most visa applications at the moment
        
       | cultofmetatron wrote:
       | I'm a digital nomad. I've been interested in a trip planner that
       | takes into account both mine and a significant other's visa.
       | (very high chance we dont' share citizenship to the same country)
       | 
       | Something that lets me plan for a multi month to a year long
       | campaign while minimizing flight costs/living expenses or takes
       | my budget into account would be amazing.
        
       | Tiktaalik wrote:
       | I think you should add a "I don't know" button on the front page,
       | in answer to the "where do you want to work remotely" question.
       | 
       | I don't know where I want to work, im flexible, but show me what
       | is good.
        
       | sascha_sl wrote:
       | This might be another interesting dataset to add:
       | 
       | https://ilga.org/downloads/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2...
        
       | whall6 wrote:
       | The country list was not in alphabetical order. That would be
       | helpful
        
       | noisy_boy wrote:
       | Instead of me choosing the country first, why not ask me about
       | the passport I hold and then show all the countries that have
       | visas that allow me to work remotely? I tried a few places and I
       | only got Tourist Visa as available visa - gave up after a while.
        
         | svnsch wrote:
         | You can go to "digital nomad visas" for e.g. and explore all
         | countries with this kind of visa. Also in "country view" you
         | can see and filter countries for the types of visas you are
         | interested in. The origin country mapping is currently only
         | done with tourist visas.
        
           | goodpoint wrote:
           | The pattern is completely backward. The visitor should input
           | their current visas, their savings and ability to invest and
           | get a map accordingly.
        
             | svnsch wrote:
             | Good point goodpoint! Great feedback!
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | MattGaiser wrote:
         | I find this to be a common problem with websites. They should
         | take the customer from their starting point instead.
        
         | svnsch wrote:
         | As mentioned in another comment, you can also scroll down on
         | the landingpage and explore other visa types.
        
         | mouzogu wrote:
         | It's right there on the homepage.
         | 
         | I'm not sure how accurate these are though.
        
       | is0tope wrote:
       | Looks really good! Did you do both the backend and the front end
       | yourself?
        
         | svnsch wrote:
         | Thank you! Yes, it has been quite a ride learning it. Backend
         | is Django (i am familiar with Python). Frontend is Nuxt (total
         | noob in JS).
        
           | is0tope wrote:
           | I've done django. Can't say I've done nuxt, though I have
           | done vue before. I think your design skills are great! I've
           | always been a backend guy and that's the part I've found
           | really hard.
        
             | svnsch wrote:
             | Thank you! Sounds good! Well nuxt is a vue famework and
             | yeah, vue is amazing. I use vuetify which makes it easy to
             | "design" the frontend. You should check that out.
        
       | dutchbrit wrote:
       | https://nomadvisa.io/united-states/eb-5-visa seems to have a bug
       | (ReferenceError: chosenVisa is not defined) - not encountered
       | this issue with any other countries yet but cool app!
        
         | svnsch wrote:
         | True, thanks!
        
       | moonchrome wrote:
       | Does anyone know a good site where I can compare tax rates for
       | freelancers - using a single person business what's my net take
       | home at what income ?
       | 
       | Would people be willing in contributing this info for their
       | country if I made a calculator for this on GH pages ?
        
         | docdeek wrote:
         | Would be happy to contibute to something like that for France,
         | though there are a couple of different ways of setting up a
         | freelancer business that impact that number here.
        
           | xyzzy_plugh wrote:
           | Right, I think that's the problem. Things get complicated so
           | I'm not sure there's a single answer. Usually the easiest way
           | to do things is to just declare everything as normal
           | individual income. Dealing with corporate taxes is a whole
           | ball game.
        
             | moonchrome wrote:
             | The difference in Croatia can be >20% of gross and it isn't
             | much more work than reporting your individual income, the
             | only gotcha is shutting down the legal entity takes a very
             | long time.
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | mellavora wrote:
             | it often isn't so easy. In many jurisdictions, there needs
             | to be a system to make sure the proper social taxes are
             | paid.
             | 
             | In a 'normal' employment situation these are handled by the
             | employer. As a freelancer, no. So the law requires some
             | additional structure to make sure these taxes get paid.
             | 
             | If you simply declare your freelancing income as 'normal
             | income', you are not paying these taxes, which probably
             | makes you guilty of tax fraud.
             | 
             | Also, if you are freelancing, you may be required to charge
             | sale tax or VAT or similar. In the EU, you need to be VAT
             | registered to collect VAT. As an individual, only certain
             | countries allow this, but only if you have a business
             | license in that country. Otherwise you need a corporate
             | form, or you are commiting tax fraud.
        
               | xyzzy_plugh wrote:
               | Just because you take the income personally doesn't mean
               | you don't pay taxes or collect VAT. You absolutely do,
               | the difference is that after the business is cconducted
               | _you_ pay income tax rather than a company paying a
               | corporate tax rate. Taxes are paid in one spot, not
               | multiple spots. It 's not always the right answer, but it
               | is definitely simpler.
        
         | nicbou wrote:
         | Here are the numbers for Germany:
         | https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/start-a-business-in-german...
        
         | mellavora wrote:
         | For US citizens, be really careful with freelancing overseas.
         | You will probably need to file US self-employment tax
         | statements quarterly, and face some scary penalties if you
         | forget.
        
           | bigdollopenergy wrote:
           | Important addition I'd like to add here is that you almost
           | certainly won't owe any US tax. You just need to file the
           | return. AFAIK You get a crazy high deduction and can also
           | deduct all your local taxes, so it's almost always 0 or near
           | 0 taxes owed. That said it can be expensive to actually
           | prepare and file the return, as you need to find a tax
           | specialist proficient in Local AND US tax law to prepare it
           | for you and they charge higher than normal rates.
           | 
           | Another thing to know is that the US imposes worldwide
           | reporting requirements on banking institutions for their US
           | citizen customers. This problem is far less severe than it
           | initially was, but depending where you go some
           | banks/institutions may deny or restrict your access to
           | financial products because they don't want to deal with the
           | reporting requirements attached to you. Again, it's probably
           | fine anywhere in Europe (nowadays anyway), but elsewhere in
           | the world it may be extremely difficult to do something as
           | simple as get a simple checking account.
        
             | junar wrote:
             | Not zero for self-employed folks. Self-employment tax
             | (Social Security and Medicare) is unaffected by the Foreign
             | Tax Credit or the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. Unless
             | you're paying into a foreign social security plan in a
             | treaty country, you'll owe that 15.3% tax.
             | 
             | https://brighttax.com/blog/expats-self-employment-tax-
             | foreig...
        
         | welder wrote:
         | You also need to watch out for "false freelancer" laws in the
         | EU, meant to protect workers who should receive full-time
         | benefits from the company. It makes freelancing a gray area
         | when you have a repeat long-term client.
        
           | moonchrome wrote:
           | Yeah that's a useful note, although that's not on EU level,
           | I'm in a EU country and the tax authorities are extremely
           | vague about this.
           | 
           | I know people who worked like this for a single client for >5
           | years, and the only cases I've heard of it being audited is
           | when workers actually complained about these schemes denying
           | them employee rights (it was never in IT).
           | 
           | And like the other sibling mentioned on international clients
           | it's even more vague.
        
           | nivenkos wrote:
           | These never apply to international clients AFAIK. At least in
           | the UK that's the case.
        
           | vladvasiliu wrote:
           | In France, this is usually an issue for the client, because
           | the contractor can then ask to be considered as a full-time
           | employee [0]. As a freelancer yourself, if you don't involve
           | the state, they won't come after you. The idea of the law is
           | to protect the employee.
           | 
           | However, speaking of freelancing in France, legally, there
           | isn't such a thing. You have to have some form of company.
           | There is some paperwork, but all in all it's pretty easy and
           | quite fast (by French standards).
           | 
           | Taxes are high, though, so it may not be the best place to
           | incorporate. It should also be noted that anything above
           | basic social security isn't free nor included in said high
           | taxes, so you'll have to pay out of pocket either for a
           | complementary insurance or for the hospital if you need it,
           | although I think it may be cheaper than in the US.
           | 
           | ---
           | 
           | [0] Some criteria have to be met, but basically if you're
           | working full time several years for the same client, you can
           | ask to be considered a full-time employee with a full
           | employment contract, etc.
        
             | docdeek wrote:
             | > It should also be noted that anything above basic social
             | security isn't free nor included in said high taxes, so
             | you'll have to pay out of pocket either for a complementary
             | insurance or for the hospital if you need it, although I
             | think it may be cheaper than in the US.
             | 
             | Complementary insurance (mutuelle) isn't all that expensive
             | compared to the US. I cover myself and two kids for EUR118
             | a month - very reasonable considering I pay very little out
             | of pocket for any care or medicine during the year.
        
         | igammarays wrote:
         | If your income is high enough to be paying 5 figure taxes,
         | check out Nomad Capitalist. They specialize in legal tax
         | reduction through global residency.
        
           | q3k wrote:
           | > They specialize in legal tax reduction through global
           | residency.
           | 
           | Dodging taxes. They specialize in dodging taxes.
        
             | spitfire wrote:
             | > Dodging taxes. They specialize in dodging taxes.
             | 
             | Not really. Their Schtick is to move to a different low
             | cost of living country and live there.
             | 
             | Preferably several - one for the summer one of the winter
             | and another for fall/spring.
             | 
             | It's more radical lifestyle design than "dodging taxes".
        
             | codegeek wrote:
             | If it is legal, why is it dodging taxes ? As an individual,
             | I want to maximize retaining my hard earned earnings and
             | nothing wrong with that in my opinion as long as you do it
             | legally.
        
               | truckerbill wrote:
               | People really need to start seeing taxes as a good thing.
        
               | mellavora wrote:
               | Tax-funded health care saved my brother, when in his
               | early 20s a brain anuyrism required north of 100K in
               | medical bills-- paid for by the State of MN because he
               | didn't have health insurance at the time.
               | 
               | He would have been bankrupt for life without that. Or
               | dead.
               | 
               | Tax funded health care has saved my wife's life twice.
        
               | stiltzkin wrote:
               | I find it debatable as there are countries with high
               | corruption which have bad uses of people taxes.
        
         | pvm3 wrote:
         | PwC has a nice overview of individual and corp taxes by
         | country. https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/
        
         | carbeewo wrote:
         | This site will calculate your take home pay after tax in many
         | European capitals: https://freelance.tax
        
       | Tiktaalik wrote:
       | surely something is messed up with the "Work Hours Overlap for
       | Remote Teams" input field . Incredibly slow and unresponsive.
        
       | drik wrote:
       | Start from this page: https://nomadvisa.io/touristvisa
        
       | q-rews wrote:
       | I don't think think this is particularly useful and it looks like
       | a Nomad List copy.
       | 
       | There are plenty of more comprehensive options for visas (I think
       | VisaHQ is one). The website doesn't even mention that some
       | countries don't require a visa at all to enter.
       | 
       | I've been using Wikipedia's great "Visa requirements for COUNTRY
       | citizens" which will give you a list of countries you can enter
       | and for how long. For the rest of the information displayed here
       | one can open Wikipedia's page for the country too.
       | 
       | If the intent is to list countries with nomad visas, then list
       | them. As it's setup currently you're just asking me to pick a
       | country I already know.
        
       | Youden wrote:
       | Why are tourist visas listed? Isn't it basically always illegal
       | to work on a tourist visa?
        
         | svnsch wrote:
         | I address that topic in the FAQ which is linked on the tourist
         | visa page. Maybe i'll make it more prominent. Would love to
         | hear other thoughts on that.
         | 
         | The note: Disclaimer: This is not legal advice. Generally
         | you'll need special visa or permit to enter a country and work
         | there. That means, that a tourist visa would not be enough. But
         | remote work means that you are not working there, but working
         | from there? The problem is, that these clauses or exceptions
         | are often not yet defined by the law which makes remote work on
         | a tourist visa generally illegal or at least a grey zone. If
         | you are not hired by a local company or interfere with local
         | business, then remote work on a tourist visa seems to be
         | sometimes tolerated (e.g. Thailand -
         | https://e27.co/immigration-officers-raid-co-working-space-
         | pu...). This is not the case with every country, so if you are
         | planning to work remotely on a tourist visa, make sure to
         | research specifically for the target country. The solution:
         | Check out the special digital nomad visas or research work
         | holiday visas. No visa runs needed.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | dagw wrote:
         | _Isn 't it basically always illegal to work on a tourist visa?_
         | 
         | It is also very common. Everybody I know who's done the
         | "digital nomad" thing in South East Asia did so on tourist
         | visas.
        
       | svnsch wrote:
       | Hey HN!
       | 
       | Over the past few months I've been coding my first side project
       | (Nuxt Frontend, Django Backend). It's been quite a learning
       | experience tumbling down the rabbit hole of web development, as a
       | data scientist. Nomad Visa is a database of tourist visas and
       | visas suitable for digital nomads, remote workers, founders and
       | expats.
       | 
       | More and more countries issue special visas for digital nomads to
       | stay in their country for an extended period of time though they
       | often come with high income requirements or high fees. Therefore,
       | Nomad Visa allows you to compare all types of visas that are
       | eligible for remote workers.
       | 
       | Let me know what you think.
        
         | bko wrote:
         | I love the site!
         | 
         | Not sure if this is the feedback you were looking for but I
         | noticed its a bit slow though. I would look at the GET to
         | https://api.visum.so/api/country_data/
         | 
         | It returns all countries data which is slow and uncompressed.
         | Either hit it once and keep it in memory so you can switch
         | countries easily, or better yet break it up to
         | api/country_data/<country> and just send back the info for that
         | country
         | 
         | I would also get rid of stripe if you're not using it yet.
        
           | svnsch wrote:
           | Yes, great feedback, thx! I really need to adjust the API,
           | calls and cache. As this is the first website i have ever
           | built, i still have a lot to learn.
        
             | bko wrote:
             | This is still pretty good and incredible considering its
             | your first site. You have a great design sense and concept.
             | The rest you'll get. There's more or less a right way to do
             | the eng stuff which you'll figure out.
        
             | weird-eye-issue wrote:
             | That endpoint actually is already being properly cached at
             | Cloudfront's edge and is compressed so it could be a lot
             | worse
             | 
             | edit: Just noticed this gives a Server Error btw:
             | https://nomadvisa.io/betteruptime
        
         | huhtenberg wrote:
         | In a recent Firefox on Windows there's no text visible. None at
         | all. As if its color was set to 'transparent'.
         | 
         | The culprit appears to be "Atkinson-Hyperlegible" in font-
         | family. If it is commented out, text becomes visible. The TTF
         | [1] is recognized and rendered by Windows Font Viewer just fine
         | (though in a dear need of hinting), though I'm not sure if
         | Firefox uses Windows native font rendering engine or has its
         | own.
         | 
         | [1] https://nomadvisa.io/_nuxt/fonts/Atkinson-Hyperlegible-
         | Regul...
        
           | svnsch wrote:
           | Oh damn, thx. Found this font on a website of a nuxt-package
           | and it's supposed to be a well readable font even for people
           | with limited eyesight. Guess not if it's not shown at all...
           | Suggestion? Use a regular font or adjust browser-specific?
        
             | huhtenberg wrote:
             | It's 6 hours later and the issue is still there.
        
             | jfk13 wrote:
             | Doesn't seem like there's any compelling reason to use a
             | webfont at all for this; the default sans-serif would be
             | fine.
             | 
             | Or you could use a font-family list that includes a few
             | specific Windows and Mac fonts that you like, with the
             | generic sans-serif as a fallback in case none of them are
             | present.
        
         | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
         | Very bad UX. Site is constantly (slowly) reloading on mobile
         | and instead of showing the details always somehow brings you
         | back to start screen.
         | 
         | It would benefit greatly by using js more sparingly
        
         | bellyfullofbac wrote:
         | Huh, something is blocked on my browser (even using incognito
         | mode with no ad-blocking extensions) that all I see are empty
         | rectangles, the text are all invisible...
        
           | svnsch wrote:
           | It should work fine even though the traffic is high currently
        
         | noja wrote:
         | Why are tourist visas shown for people who want to work in
         | another country?
        
           | neurotrace wrote:
           | Depending on the country, you may be able to work remotely
           | while on a tourist visa. This is true, for example, in
           | Mexico. The tourist visa allows you to stay in the country
           | for up to six months and you aren't allowed to work for a
           | Mexican company but they have no issues with you working for
           | a company in another country.
        
             | ghaff wrote:
             | Many times they're actually "temporary visitor" visas or
             | something like that. Which, as you say, typically prohibits
             | working for a local company, otherwise use local resources,
             | etc. But I've attended business events all over the world.
             | With just a few exceptions, e.g. China, there's never been
             | any question of getting some special visa--which usually
             | requires letters of introduction and so forth--to do
             | whatever combination of business and pleasure I'm there
             | for.
             | 
             | That said, I'll note that e.g. Indonesia 30 day visa-on-
             | arrival seems to theoretically be only for non-business
             | purposes but when I've gone there's never been any question
             | of using anything else.
        
           | svnsch wrote:
           | Some tourist visas allow you to stay quite long in a country.
           | Of course it's illegal to work in a foreign country on a
           | tourist visa. I added a note in the bottom of the filter
           | section on remote work with a tourist visa. Maybe make in
           | more prominent? The issue is also mentioned in the FAQs.
        
             | noahjk wrote:
             | My initial suggestion would be to at least list it below
             | work visas - it caught me off guard to see it at the top on
             | a website about working :)
             | 
             | I really like the site design, by the way! Did you use
             | anything to achieve the consistent look?
        
         | jobigoud wrote:
         | Feedback: This looks very interesting but it's unclear what the
         | site is really listing. For example I select Germany. How does
         | it know whether I need a visa or not to work in Germany, it
         | hasn't even asked for my country of origin?
        
         | robk wrote:
         | this should have the UK Tech Nation visa.
         | https://technation.io/visa/
        
         | moontear wrote:
         | I get the intention of the website. I also do like your design.
         | I just don't think the information is helpful as it is
         | represented right now as others has also commented already.
         | 
         | You are supposed to start by selecting a country. Let's say
         | "Australia". Your website tells me: Tourist Visa: Tourist Visa.
         | With a general link to https://nomadvisa.io/australia Working
         | Holiday Visa: Working Holiday Visa. Besides these two visas the
         | whole Australia is filled with information that doesn't concern
         | Visas at all, but the country itself.
         | 
         | Either I have not understood what information the website shows
         | or the information isn't there. You state I "can compare all
         | types of visas" - what comparison can I do by knowing "Tourist
         | Visa" and "Working Holiday Visa". Can I compare these somehow
         | to different countries?
        
         | jamal-kumar wrote:
         | Cool site!
         | 
         | Out of curiosity, where's your personal favorite places to be a
         | digital nomad in? Also do you list places with a specific
         | digital nomad visa like the new one in Costa Rica which lets
         | you stay for an entire year? (Didn't see this yet!)
        
         | jamil7 wrote:
         | When looking at United States EB-5 Visa I get "ReferenceError:
         | chosenVisa is not defined"
        
         | poutrathor wrote:
         | https://nomadvisa.io/france centers the map on the French
         | Caribbean rather than the main landmass in Western Europe
        
       | fnord77 wrote:
       | error loading spain                   4357980.js:1
       | ReferenceError: chosenVisa is not defined             at
       | f.selectedAPIData (f552d2d.js:1)             at En.get
       | (4357980.js:1)             at En.evaluate (4357980.js:1)
       | at f.selectedAPIData (4357980.js:1)             at
       | f.orderedAPIData (f552d2d.js:1)
        
       | Tiktaalik wrote:
       | around the topic of "Work Hours Overlap for Remote Teams"
       | 
       | Would be interesting to type in your current town, and then
       | generate a list of the other countries (+major cities?) on the
       | same time zone or like +/- 1-2 time zones away.
       | 
       | I do think the time zone thing can be crucial.
        
       | Kinrany wrote:
       | They recommend NordVPN, which makes me think all their
       | recommendations are just ads.
        
         | svnsch wrote:
         | It's an affiliate link where i hope to earn a buck to pay at
         | least for the server and domain cost, otherwise Nomad Visa is
         | free of ads and has no paywall (yet). What do you prefer? :) Is
         | NordVPN bad? I only found great reviews. Please share your
         | opinion.
        
           | Kinrany wrote:
           | I use mullvad, which is also behind Mozilla VPN.
           | 
           | NordVPN spends a ton of money on marketing, but their
           | security and customer support are garbage.
           | 
           | For one thing, you can't cancel your subscription easily,
           | which is a dark pattern, which is a big no for a company you
           | want to trust. First link in DDG for "nordvpn reddit cancel":
           | https://www.reddit.com/r/nordvpn/comments/kryt69/can_someone.
           | ..
        
         | totololo wrote:
         | Monetization is not a crime
        
           | Kinrany wrote:
           | Having a website whose whole purpose is to recommend stuff
           | and then being paid for recommendations by the sellers is
           | both a scam and a common marketing tactic. It's hard to tell
           | when this happens. I'm not saying OP is doing this, I'm
           | saying it's hard to tell and I'll err on the side of looking
           | for better sources.
        
       | fred_is_fred wrote:
       | For people who really do this, do you get paid in your home
       | country dollars and home country bank account and just not tell
       | your employer that you moved?
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | If you decide to become a digital nomad for a year and just
         | hope your employer doesn't find out, you'll probably be sorry
         | _when_ they do. Have a working vacation somewhere for a month?
         | Try to work it out with your manager. I effectively do it all
         | the time around conferences.
         | 
         | But actually move? Lots of implications for visas, salary
         | adjustments, and whether your company even has employees in a
         | given country.
        
       | notJim wrote:
       | It should let you put in your country of citizenship so it can
       | filter the visas down before showing you visas you can't get.
        
       | wintorez wrote:
       | What happened to the Nomad List? Is it still being actively
       | updated?
        
       | throwawaysleep wrote:
       | I get that everyone should follow the law, but how would they
       | ever distinguish you from a tourist unless you blogged about it?
        
         | neither_color wrote:
         | I've heard of people in Indonesia(Bali) getting caught because
         | they post in public Facebook groups about the work they do,
         | like "Hey guys I'm a yoga instructor/web designer/surf
         | teacher/English teacher and I'm available for hire!"
        
           | svnsch wrote:
           | Thats interesting. I would also find it interesting if they
           | distinguished between e.g. yoga instructor/surf teacher since
           | they are working locally (sounds pretty illegal to me) and
           | remote work like web design. Has anyone further info?
        
         | drusepth wrote:
         | I don't think "whether you'll be caught or not" is the only
         | reason to follow the law.
        
         | dagw wrote:
         | One obvious way to 'fuck up' is to do work with or for a local
         | company. I've also heard rumors that they sometimes check co-
         | working spaces and pick up any 'tourists' that have been
         | renting space there for an extended period of time.
         | 
         | But basically as long you work for a foreign company or clients
         | and don't draw attention to yourself I doubt they care too
         | much.
        
         | digianarchist wrote:
         | People do blog about it and encourage others to work as
         | "digital nomads".
         | 
         | There was a startup founder on HN circa 2017 that blogged about
         | bouncing between Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore.
         | 
         | Working in Singapore on a tourist visa is particularly stupid
         | because they will actually enforce their laws.
        
         | jeromegv wrote:
         | If you don't plan to stay long, sure, but if you start making
         | an interesting life over there, you might be interesting in
         | regularizing your situation.
        
       | tekknolagi wrote:
       | It looks like sorting by duration is subtly broken, sorting by
       | number without considering units (6 months > 5 years, etc)
        
       | [deleted]
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-13 23:02 UTC)