In recent years, loads of people have realised that they don’t actually need to work in an office. Even though life has pretty much returned to normal after the pandemic, remote working has remained popular. And that’s also led to an increase in countries offering so-called ‘digital nomad’ visas, which are designed to attract remote workers to live and work abroad.
The latest country to offer a digital nomad visa is Colombia and, excitingly, it might be much more affordable than similar schemes around the world. Often digital nomad visas are reserved for high earners, but to qualify for Colombia’s digital nomad scheme you’ll only have to be earning $684 (£567) per month.
Sure, it’s not a really low amount, but it’s much less than the comparative scheme in Costa Rica, which requires nomads to be earning at least $3,000 (£2,500) per month. Importantly, the Colombian threshold is also well below the average wage in countries like the UK and USA. Plus, Colombia is one of the cheapest places to live and work.
Thanks to the country’s new scheme, if you want to live and work in Colombia, all you need is a valid passport, health insurance, and a letter from your employer to prove your employment. Then, using bank statements, you will show that you earn more than 3 million Colombian pesos, which is €655 a month.
The digital nomad visa will grant remote workers permission to stay for up to 2 years and equip them with a state identification known as ‘Cedula de Extranjeria’, which is needed to rent a property and sign up for a mobile phone contract.
If your income is over the threshold, you’re from a country that doesn’t ask for a short-stay visa to enter Colombia (like the US, Canada or the UK) and you only plan to stay in the country for six months or less, you might not even need to formally apply for the digital nomad visa. You can simply move over and complete your 90-day allowance before using an Entry Permit to extend it to 180 days without going through an application process.
All of which sounds pretty simple, right? Just think: you could be going about your daily life in some of the world’s best cities (third-best, in fact, when it comes to Medellín), grooving it out to some of the incredible nightlife and tucking into some globally-renowned nosh in no time at all.
You can find out more about Colombia’s new digital nomad scheme – including a run-down of the best Colombian cities for digital nomads – on their website.
Now, here's how you can now live and remote work in Costa Rica.
Plus: this sunny Australian town will pay you £10,000 to move there.
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out Travel newsletter for the latest travel news and the best stuff happening across the world.