Best Visas to Apply For Now

The Temporary Resident Visa isn't marketed as a digital-nomad product, which is part of why it's underused: a $56 consular fee, a 10–30 day decision, and an income bar of roughly $4,400/month (or about $74,000 in savings over 12 months) that most established remote workers already clear. It's granted for 12 months, renews annually up to four years total, and at that point you can apply for permanent residency, with citizenship a further route after five years overall. Foreign-sourced income isn't taxed while you hold temporary resident status.

Note: The $56 figure is only the consular fee: the in-country residency card that follows costs roughly $620 on top, and the visa can't be filed online — it has to go through a Mexican consulate in your home country.

At a $25 application fee, this is the least expensive filing on the entire site. The income bar is ZAR 650,976/year, about $3,100/month, foreign-sourced income may be exempt from local tax, and the initial 12-month grant renews up to three years total. The weak rand means the same USD or EUR income goes considerably further here than in most comparably-scored destinations.

Note: There's no path to residency or citizenship on this visa at all, it must be filed from outside the country with no tourist-visa conversion allowed, and the government's own documentation flags processing as slow and bureaucratic — budget for the full 30–60 day window and then some.

Croatia's Digital Nomad Visa grants up to 18 months in one approval — longer than any other active European programme on this site — with full exemption from Croatian income tax on foreign earnings and a $70 fee. The published consular decision window is 30–60 days and the application is filed online.

Note: It's genuinely not renewable — after it expires you must spend six months outside Croatia before reapplying — and applicant accounts describe the in-country residence-permit decision itself running months longer than the quoted consular timeline, sometimes over a year, even though the visa step is comparatively fast. Days spent waiting still count against the Schengen 90/180 allowance until the residence card is actually issued.

The Destination Thailand Visa is built around savings rather than income — 500,000 THB, about $14,500 — which opens it to freelancers and early-career remote workers who wouldn't clear a $3,000+/month bar elsewhere. It's filed entirely online with a 5–15 day decision, the visa itself stays valid for five years, and each entry grants 180 days, extendable to 360 within Thailand. Foreign income kept outside the country in the year it's earned isn't taxed.

Note: Each entry is capped at 180 days (360 with an in-country extension) and requires a further exit and re-entry to renew — it isn't a single continuous multi-year stay — and if you remit foreign income into Thailand in the same year you earn it, that income can become taxable rather than exempt.

The Nomad Residence Permit needs roughly $3,800/month (EUR 42,000/year), is filed online with a 30–60 day decision, and renews annually up to four years total. Malta is an EU and Schengen member, giving the same 90-in-180 travel rights as pricier Western European options.

Note: The tax exemption is not indefinite: authorised work income is only tax-free for the first 12 months, after which a flat 10% applies under the Malta Tax and Customs Authority's current guidance — and the $300 fee is among the higher ones on this site, with no path to permanent residency attached to the permit itself.