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Iceland long term visa for remote workers
- ghaff 4y agoSo basically not much different from a 90-day tourist visa except that you can legitimately remote work which, in practice, there are no real restrictions to doing anyway so long as you're low-profile about it.
- devoutsalsa 4y agoI’d guess it also doesn’t as staying in the Schengen area (aka free movement area the includes most of Europe, including Iceland). An American visiting as a “tourist” can’t spend consecutive 90 days in Iceland & then hop over to Spain, as that could take them over the 90 day Schengen visit limitation. https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/ https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/
- epolanski 4y agoAliens from US generally find bullshit english-teaching work visas in eastern europe they go to few weeks and then get two years of schengen visa. Knew two guys from Indiana abusing this trick, they complained 24/7 how difficult it was for them to live in Europe (jobless) legally, but never hear them mention it's the same for foreigners in their country.
- KMag 4y ago> so long as you're low-profile about it. And your employer is fine with it, or willing to turn a blind eye. That rules out lots of people working for large companies, particularly in highly regulated industries. I would have loved to work remotely from Thailand in my previous job, and my previous employer would have been fine with it, had I been able to show them a work visa. Unfortunately, the Thai SMART Visa would have required my employer to have a Thai subsidiary. I could have created my own Thai single proprietorship and perhaps gotten my employer to hire me indirectly via that Thai entity, but at a minimum, that would have required lots of high-level approvals. I got an email from the Ukrainian authorities (pre-2022) saying they didn't care if I worked remotely for a foreign company on a 90-day on-arrival tourist visa, and that was sufficient for my employer (as long as I didn't visit post-2014 conflict zones). (The Ukrainian ministry's email reply was along the lines of "Why are you asking us? Why would we care if you work remotely as a tourist, as long as you aren't doing any labor that requires a presence in Ukraine?") I worked from Kiev for a couple of months after a couple of high-level approvals. Here's hoping more countries adopt digital nomad-friendly work visas. Lots of countries currently turn a blind eye, but it's much better to have everything explicit and above-board.
- ghaff 4y agoI'm guessing most employers who wouldn't be fine with employees working in another country on a tourist visa for a few months also wouldn't be OK with them doing so on a work visa at least without lots of paperwork and approvals. Of course, people who don't require special business visas to enter a country for, say, an event routinely do work when traveling in many cases. I've never done months at a time but I've certainly had ~1 month trips in Europe that were some combination of business and pleasure.
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- yodsanklai 4y agoMy company is very strict about work permit when working abroad. That rules out most countries for me. Also I find that remote work only makes sense in countries where cost of living is low. I did a bit of remote work in France/Italy, but it feels like throwing money away. Unless you want to rent an apartment on a long lease and cook, it boils down to spending tourist money while being locked in your hotel room. I considered the Thai visa which has crazy requirements. My income makes me eligible (I believe), but the visa costs $1000+ and you're not even sure to get it.
- jyscao 4y agoI suppose it also allows one to stay for >90 days (but <=180 days) if one so inclines. Personally, having yet to visit Iceland, and hearing from friends who have that it's not the cheapest place, plus its northernly latitude, 90 days for me to first scout it out is more than enough for me.
- ghaff 4y agoI would guess that there isn't a lot of overlap between "90 days isn't nearly enough" and "no interest in this being an open-ended sort of thing" people.
- eunos 4y agoThe minimum salary requirements is quite huge, almost 90000 USD per annum. Seems for now targeting American.
- robopsychology 4y agoIt’s European too, you can pretty easily hit $90k in fully remote contract jobs
- School-Cotton 4y agoMost Europeans can already live in Iceland without needing a visa.
- robopsychology 4y agoAh yeah, I forget this as a Brit (:
- devoutsalsa 4y agoThat’s likely due to the high cost of living in Iceland. You can live cheap-ish anywhere, but it takes a bit of local knowledge to do that, and I suspect the cheaper housing options in Iceland are not what most digital nomads seek. One data point, in spring of 2021, I saw 1kg of cherries (imported from the Netherlands) in the store for the equivalent of 25 USD.
- diceduckmonk 4y agoA Domino’s pizza there is $30 for a medium.
- ambicapter 4y agoSounds like a mid-size american city.
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- cm2012 4y agoIceland is such a beautiful country. I loved my visit there. I long for the day energy is cheap and clean enough everywhere that we can have hot tubs and pools in every town in every country like in Iceland.
- diego_moita 4y agoIceland? Ouch! People are lovely and awesome but the place is barren, cold, windy and desolated. I'd take a lot of places in southern Europe, instead.
- Aachen 4y agoWindy: can confirm. It's not that cold, like, it gets just as cold in a lot of countries a lot further south, but the wind is what kills you if you don't wear enough layers. One of the things I also didn't like about Amsterdam: always windy. Desolated: I wouldn't say that, but then we went at a time where the F-roads were closed so we didn't go into the interior. When driving around, it was very rare not to see another soul for so much as an hour even in late autumn. For the country with iirc the lowest population density of Europe, this surprised me a lot. I thought that it was a Dutch and Rhine-area feature not to be able to get away from other humans. Bare nature and ice features (cold): that is what you go to Iceland for! If you aren't into that, either you picked the wrong place or you've picked an expensive place to pick up on that! I can definitely accept the wind for how cool the nature is in Iceland. Southern Europe, on the other hand, is where I'd not want to go, at least not outside of winter! Heard of the first forest fire in Spain last week already, no thank you.
- mataug 4y agoHaving visited Iceland previously, I'd love to work there over the summer. > you can show a foreign income of ISK 1,000,000 per month or ISK 1,300,000 if you also apply for a spouse or cohabiting partner. > you do not need a visa to enter the Schengen area Unfortunately this ^ disqualifies me, despite meeting the income requirements, since I need a visa to enter the Schengen region. This seems to be an odd requirement, they are already issuing a visa, why require people to have powerful passports as well ?
- ilrwbwrkhv 4y agoNo third world countries.
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- rauljordan2020 4y agoI'm from Honduras and don't need a Schengen visa. Many other poor countries can also get in without one
- narag 4y agoProbably the reason is more political and cultural than economic. FWIW, the origin of "third world" is political, being the NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries the first and second. The poverty implication came later. Is a visa needed to enter Spain from any Spanish-speaking country? (Spain is in Schengen)
- cromulent 4y agoYeah, Finland and Switzerland are 3rd world countries, in the Schengen, but not developing countries.
- avgcorrection 4y agoDid ya’ll get your daily well actually out of the system?
- bmelton 4y agoTook a vacation to Iceland for this past new year's, and am thrilled to hear any news that might allow me to stay there for longer. When I left Iceland, it felt very much like I was leaving a fairy tale. I was delighted by the whales off the coast, and the northern lights felt like a spiritual event, but (at least according to lore) the Vikings invented the modern new year celebration by considering it a good enough time for everyone to dispose of their old flares and replace them with new, and so new year's in Iceland was better than the greatest fireworks show I'd ever witnessed, despite exactly 0% of the fireworks having been municipally provided. It felt like every member of every home had spent their life savings on fireworks and were setting them all off for hours. Impossible to describe, but here's some drone footage (not mine) that captures about 10 minutes of what went on for hours, and the experience from the city center on the ground was even more encompassing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAnQ7ECC2LA&t=245s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAnQ7ECC2LA&t=245s
- mixmastamyk 4y agoWhat is the temp on a winter night? I once spent NYE in NYC and froze my butt off... much preferred my time in Rio DJ. :-D Would love to try Iceland in the summer.
- bmelton 4y agoDepends on the night, obviously, but "very cold" is a safe assertion. The first day there I had a hard time, thinking that my casual cold-weather gear would keep me comfortable was a mistake I learned the hard way tracking the northern lights on a mountaintop at 2 in the morning on the coldest night they'd had in 50 years. But, the next day I picked up a pair of (expensive) sweatpants to act as a third layer, and I was just fine. Toasty enough that at night times I'd casually take off a hat or some gloves. If you absolutely hate cold weather, maybe check it out in summer time. If you're willing to layer (and not just throw on dumb layers like I did) then it's totally manageable. I found the magic combo to be: * Thermalsilk top and bottom base layer * An intermediate layer for very cold nights (https://www.icewear.is/us/fodurland-wool-underwear-baselayer) * I got away with those two and a pair of Amazon Basics chinos, but a hard shell outer layer is probably smarter if you're trekking through snow Otherwise, normal layering rules apply. Have a scarf and gloves (ideally, with liners) and a good hat, then Thermalsilk and a winter coat were all I needed, but I would often have a niceish sweatshirt layered in there as we often had dinner plans and I didn't want to violate any dress-code norms.
- melenaboija 4y agoSpain also provides a nomad visa: - Digital nomads (Official) [1] - ‘Digital nomads’ can now live in Spain with their families — if they earn enough [2] [1] https://prie.comercio.gob.es/en-us/paginas/teletrabajadores-caracter-internacional.aspx https://prie.comercio.gob.es/en-us/paginas/teletrabajadores-... [2] https://www.immigrationspain.es/en/visa-for-digital-nomads/ https://www.immigrationspain.es/en/visa-for-digital-nomads/
- outworlder 4y agoPortugal too.
- dejawu 4y agoWhile this seems awesome (and I do hope to make use of it) I do find it a little funny that an application for a visa for remote work must be submitted by snail mail.
- xenospn 4y agoYeah, I was surprised by that. Wouldn’t that make processing incredibly inefficient?
- tenpies 4y agoThere is something deeply ironic about: > visa for remote workers > remote > Applications can only be submitted in paper form. What a fantastic way to attract people who will work through the internet: by having them submit paperwork through well, paper. 20,000 ISK says the forms get scanned as soon as they arrive too.
- BigCryo 4y agoIceland is too expensive I would imagine.. go Latin America or Southeast Asia, problem is that it's hard to get to stay there long-term unless you go through the bureaucracy.. some expats have speculated for years that America uses its influence overseas to prevent Americans from moving overseas permanently to cheap Nations like the third world
- IntelMiner 4y agoReminded me of an ancient King of the Hill joke "Hank and I used to go to Mexico every time they devalued the peso!" "Yeah, that got old fast..."
- mrleinad 4y agoI'm curious. What prevents an American from living in Argentina long term? I believe the country is quite friendly in terms of long term visitors. Have you done some research on that?
- BigCryo 4y agoThe speculation says that America uses its power to coerce cheap Nations to throw up bureaucratic obstacles and restrictions that prevent Americans from moving overseas easily.. America protects this financial capital for moving overseas but it also protects social capital for moving overseas by keeping Americans here and stopping them from taking their savings and moving to cheap countries and therefore robbing America of social capital... Let me be specific.. it would financially benefit third world countries to allow Americans with money to move in easily and without restrictions without Visa time limits and so forth.. and when I say any American with money I mean any person who's had a job and worked and saved the money from the job... I'm not talking about rich people ... the idea is that America uses its power against the third world Nations to coerce them to throw up restrictions to moving easily overseas
- carlosjobim 4y agoIt makes much sense, considering that European emigrants to America were the force that conquered Europe during WWII. Maybe the American government doesn't want that to happen to them.
- FpUser 4y ago>"it is not your intention to settle in Iceland" I assume one can be working remotely and at the same time applying for permanent residence. What is the problem with that?
- meheleventyone 4y agoYou’d need a different visa presumably.
- lr4444lr 4y agoWhat's the incentive here? A rotating cast of high income earners paying state and local taxes without the benefit the pension system(s)? The country has about 1.73 births per woman with a barely positive net migration. Maybe they should think about getting interested people on a citizenship path.
- carlosjobim 4y agoThose people would not be Icelandic. The purpose of a nation is to serve their people, not to replace them with other people.
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- johntiger1 4y agobigoted take
- carlosjobim 4y agoOK, I dare you to support replacement immigration / colonization against any native people who are not Europeans. The world agreed that it was a horrible thing when it was done against American natives, against Aboriginals and against other people. Why do so many cheer on doing the same thing against European natives? Slavers used to defend the trans-Atlantic trafficking with the argument that the American natives were too few, didn't produce enough and didn't breed enough. I hear a lot of similar arguments being used against native European peoples today. Should we always repeat history?
- oneeyedpigeon 4y agoAllowing immigration is a long way short of the dystopian scenario painted by the racism of the replacement theory. Iceland willingly calling for people to move there is nothing like the European colonization of the Americas.
- version_five 4y agoI see these visas and I understand there are some circumstances where maybe you have to get one (employer letting you work remote, maybe certain kinds of rental housing) but honestly I don't understand why they have any requirements, and opposed to just asking an otherwise admissible person to declare they're there for work. Like others, I can already go for 90 days if I want for tourism, just with my passport. I don't have to prove income or insurance or submit a photo. What real risk are they taking by just letting my say I'm coming for 6 months to work remotely? All the "remote" visas I've seen are similar, and it all just seems like some silly think bureaucrats dreamed up because they can't let go of control, that really is pointless.
- resonance1994 4y agoThere are several nationalities belonging to the third world for whom this is a godsend (not this one particularly, but others in the region). As an Indian national, I have to undergo a painful process to procure a tourist visa, which is often valid only for a few days. Something like this which let's me work remotely for clients based over Europe and North America, and let's me travel through Schengen without any stress is really a game changer.
- Algemarin 4y ago> As an Indian national As an Indian national, you are not eligible for this visa program. One of the requirements is: > you do not need a visa to enter the Schengen area
- version_five 4y agoThat's even stranger then, so it's exclusively targeting people who could effectively just come there anyway.
- Algemarin 4y agoCorrect. It is very explicitly targeting tourists who want to stay for more than 90 days, up to 180 days. Basically this is a convoluted method of extending tourism to rich tourists for a longer (specifically, a double) period of time to have them pump more of their money into the country. That's all.
- xingped 4y agoOnly 180 days (and only if you're currently in your home country)? That's pretty lame and makes it not really worth it. If I want to live in a country on a remote worker visa, I'd want it to be at least 1yr minimum in length. As it stands, that's barely any better/different than a normal tourist visa.
- distances 4y agoExcept that you can't work with a tourist visa? Seems like a major difference.
- Retric 4y agoMost countries allow you to do some remote work on a tourist visa. Banning people from checking work email is simply untenable if you want tourism. UK for example has a fairly explicit line: “The applicant must not receive payment from a UK source for any activities undertaken in the UK.” The idea of someone working fully remotely gets tricky as for example the US wants you to pay US taxes if you’ve made more than 3k/year while working in the US.
- r00f 4y agoI have always been blown away by money requirements for such visas, in many countries. Show monthly income of 1000000 ISK. Over 7k USD. Why? I used to live in Dubai, which is considered pretty expensive place, and never spent over 2500 per month, despite dining out almost all the time. Maybe 3000 if I needed some purchases like clothing or hobbies stuff. I get it, Numbeo says Iceland is 13% more expensive, but 7k? What exactly kind of lifestyle are they expecting from humble nomad? Not all nomads work remotely for FAANG. Some live happy nomad life with much lower income.
- triceratops 4y agoThey want rich nomads who will spend lots of money in the local economy.
- slaw 4y agoOnly high earners are welcomed.
- whichfawkes 4y agoWell, of course they're going to set the requirement high enough that they can be confident you'll survive without them needing to pay to deport you. Beyond that though, they want you to spend your money in Iceland - why else? Presumably you aren't paying any income tax. So the only advantage to letting you into the country is that you'll spend money on goods and services.
- ashconnor 4y agoYour FAANG job probably wouldn't allow you to work from Iceland anyway. Still the requirements are less strict than Thailand's remote work visa [0] but that lasts for 5 years renewable for another 5. In Thailand's case the existence of a work-from-Thailand visa also clarifies that working remotely on other visas (Tourist, Non-O, Non-B) is not permitted. [0] - https://kpmg.com/th/en/home/insights/2022/11/legal-news-flash-issue-19.html https://kpmg.com/th/en/home/insights/2022/11/legal-news-flas...
- __s 4y agoIndeed, tried to get the go ahead with this at Microsoft, HR was very clear about not letting it through
- RomanPushkin 4y agoI don't know why these countries do everything to _not_ attract human capital - limitation of 180 days means no-go for me. Maybe I would love to explore a new country for a couple of years, and settle down there with my salary component of ~200k instead of SFBA. But I need my kids to stay at least 1 year in their schools, and 2 years if they like it. And the way to become a resident. It's so easy for them just to attract high-skilled labor everyone is fighting for. But nope, they pretty much say: "We know you're skilled because we have requirement of 90k/year, but we don't want skilled workers to be able to stay here, because go somewhere else". Well, ok, Iceland..
- Algemarin 4y ago> But nope, they pretty much say: "We know you're skilled because we have requirement of 90k/year, but we don't want skilled workers to be able to stay here, because go somewhere else". Well, ok, Iceland.. Correct. It's not a difficult concept to grasp, especially as they are being very overt about it. They don't want foreigners settling into their country. They want foreigners coming in for a short time, pumping money into it, then buggering off.
- dopeboy 4y agoOne reason might be that it hurts native high skilled labor, a demographic that probably votes often.
- epolanski 4y agoBecause Iceland is part of Schengen, and you need a job in Schengen for long stays. I don't think in US it would be different.
- momirlan 4y agoone of the most expensive countries in the universe, unfortunately.
- Aachen 4y agoWould be interesting to know what the most expensive places in the universe are if you could get to other citilizations and trade currencies with them. Probably at least an order of magnitude more, discounting the cost to get there.
- bengalister 4y agoThe limit to 6 months is pretty disappointing. Also the 1,000,000 ISK monthly salary for workers in the Schengen area is pretty restrictive, except for Switzerland, Norway, not that many people earn that level of salary.
- itslennysfault 4y agoYou can stay 90 days on a visitor visa and just leave for a weekend every 90 days and start the clock over. When I was on my last stint as a "digital nomad" I did this a couple times over in a couple different countries. There really isn't any way to get "caught". Your host country doesn't care because you're importing money and spending it there. The country where you have your job doesn't care because you're still paying income tax there. Only catch is you have to keep a residency in your country of origin. Also, of course, your employer needs to be cool with it, but truthfully if you're remote anyways they can't really tell where you live as long as you're online during the expected hours. Although for me I thought it better to be honest/transparent. All of the above assumes US country of origin, but I'm sure it'd work the same with many countries.
- matthews2 4y ago> You can stay 90 days on a visitor visa and just leave for a weekend every 90 days and start the clock over. In what country is this the case? For countries in the Schengen area, the rule is 90 days out of any 180 day period.
- Aachen 4y agoGreenland is the closest if you don't care to find citilization but just want to cross the border, but maybe that counts as Denmark?
- runarberg 4y ago> Greenland and the Faroe Islands are not included in the Schengen Area. However, persons travelling between the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the Schengen Area are not subject to border checks.[29] The list of countries whose citizens require a visa for Greenland or the Faroe Islands is the same as for the Schengen Area,[30][31] but a Schengen visa will not allow the holder access to either territory, only a Danish visa stamped with either "Valid for the Faroe Islands" or "Valid for Greenland", or both.[32] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area#cite_note-38 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area#cite_note-38
- connectsnk 4y agoI am afraid I will get downvoted for this heavily. But in my experience Iceland (just like its name) is a desert with no vegetation and consequently has minimum biodiversity. No matter what is the carrot being hung, I would not wish to be in this land. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_f90pXw5sQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_f90pXw5sQ
- darknavi 4y agoI think it's really just a matter of opinion. Would I like to live there forever? No way. Would I work remotely there for 3-6 months to explore a unique,bio diverse island? Hell yea!
- Reubachi 4y agoAs OP said, iceland is about as un biodiverse as it gets. I've been a few times and it's as close to the moon as possible. That said it is beautiful and kind of feels like....you're on a giant desert island surrounded by mountains that's very cold, and very expensive.
- sidewndr46 4y agoMy secondhand understanding of Iceland is that the entire island is grazed by herds of domesticated animals. It's like a small, cold, remote version of Texas.
- rgmerk 4y agoWhatever floats your boat but Iceland is absolutely spectacular to look at as a visitor; Texas…is not (though I’m sure in a state that big there are going to be some scenic spots somewhere). As you say, the biodiversity is minimal, but the topology is stunning. Also, Reykjavik is an amazing little city. Yes, the weather is often terrible (the cold is bad, the grey skies and wind are far worse), but some people like that sort of thing. If I were a digital nomad I’d absolutely spend a few months in Iceland.
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- beardedman 4y ago...long term visa for high earning remote workers...
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- xwdv 4y agoWe shipped our 4x4 to Iceland and went off roading for several months while working remotely. Truly an incredible lifetime experience that I would recommend to anyone if they love nature. Unfortunately I have never really been able to see the beauty of my urban surroundings again ever since spending all that time in Iceland.
- runarberg 4y agoPlease don’t do that. Icelandic flora is very vulnerable and driving off roads will cause sever damage that will last for decades. It is highly illegal to drive off roads except for glaciers and beaches. In fact there is a huge social stigma against off road driving. Tourists that get caught regularly get ridiculed on national television, and rightly so.
- xwdv 4y agoWe’re not “tourists”, we’re expeditionists, and Iceland has incredible off-road trails to see. Ridiculous.
- runarberg 4y agoNo you were tourists, that spent their time on an expedition. I don’t understand what you have against that term. However if you did indeed stay on the mountain roads, than I advice you to please be careful with your vocabulary. Off road driving is a huge problem in Iceland, and we don’t need people reading posts like these on HN, going to Iceland thinking they can drive off the roads.
- lazyasciiart 4y ago> We’re not “tourists”, we’re expeditionists awwww that's ridiculous.
- rnk 4y agoYeah, that was an incredibly embarrassing comment.
- mytailorisrich 4y agoI believe Iceland is in the EEA, which means EU, Norwegian, and Swiss citizens have free movement and can move there unrestricted.
- alexanderchr 4y agoNot unrestricted, but easily. You only have to prove that you’re self sufficient.
- zahma 4y agoYou'd damn sure better be earning well over 7,000 USD a month. Iceland is so expensive, and I'd imagine those prices have gone up with inflation. Even the locals have a secondary pricelist. It's a nice place to visit, but I'm not sure the cost is worth the living.
- yodsanklai 4y agoCost of living is way too high, it's not a great place for nomad workers.
- rurp 4y agoI was expecting a long term visa to be for longer than 90 (or 180) days. Iceland doesn't seem like the easiest place to zip in and out of, and folks moving there to work will probably want to stay for a while.
- mustafabisic1 4y ago[dead]
- soferio 4y agoWould this work for Australians given the you-don’t-need-a-Schengen-visa requirement?
- soferio 4y agoIs schooling in English in Iceland? Are there international schools?
- Aeolun 4y agoHoly crap, that’s some income barrier
- BrentOzar 4y agoLate to the comments here, but I was literally the first guy to use this program when Iceland unveiled it in 2021. I moved there in January 2021, and lived there for 9 months. I was interviewed by the NY Times and NBC about it. I wrote about my experiences here: https://ozar.me/tag/iceland/ https://ozar.me/tag/iceland/ I see a lot of people saying Iceland is expensive - well, if you're coming from California, it's not that bad. I'd say it's comparable, aside from the gas/diesel prices. If you have any questions about the process or living in Iceland, I'd be glad to help. Email's on my profile.
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