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Show HN: Nomad Visa – Working remotely? Explore your visa options

nomadvisa.io

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Re: Show HN: Nomad Visa – Working remotely? Explore your visa options

#95
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.

Re: Show HN: Nomad Visa – Working remotely? Explore your visa options

#96

I get that everyone should follow the law, but how would they ever distinguish you from a tourist unless you blogged about it?

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.

Re: Show HN: Nomad Visa – Working remotely? Explore your visa options

#98
post #2

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…

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!)

Re: Show HN: Nomad Visa – Working remotely? Explore your visa options

#99

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 ?

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.

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.

Re: Show HN: Nomad Visa – Working remotely? Explore your visa options

#100
post #22
post #15

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... .

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.

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.
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