Since Brexit, a British passport no longer gives you the right to settle into an EU country and work from a kitchen table in Lisbon or Valencia. The Schengen 90-in-180 rule still governs short trips, but anyone planning to base themselves abroad for months at a time needs a residence permit. Remote work visas — sometimes called digital nomad visas — are the most straightforward route for people whose income comes from outside the country they want to live in. Here's how they work, and what UK applicants actually have to prove.
What a remote work visa is, and what it isn't
The names differ from country to country, but the shape is consistent. You're granted temporary residence on the basis that your income is foreign: a UK employer, overseas clients, or your own company registered elsewhere. Permits usually run for six to twelve months, are renewable in some countries and not others, and rarely count towards permanent residence or citizenship.
In most cases you are explicitly barred from taking a local job. Some countries also cap how much you can earn from local clients. Treat the visa as permission to live somewhere, not permission to join the local labour market.
Which European countries offer one
The list has grown quickly since Portugal launched its D8 visa, and the details shift every year. The options most worth knowing about:
- Portugal — the D8 remote work visa, renewable, with family members included.
- Spain — a dedicated digital nomad visa introduced under the 2023 startup law.
- Greece — a one-year permit that can be renewed, plus a separate tax incentive for people who move their tax residency there.
- Croatia — a remote worker residence permit; the original one-year, no-renewal rule has since been relaxed.
- Estonia — one of the earliest schemes, aimed at people working for foreign employers.
- Malta, Cyprus, Latvia and Romania — all operate some form of nomad permit with their own income thresholds.
- Italy — brought in a remote work visa in 2024; the practical detail is still settling.
- Iceland — a long-term visa for remote workers from outside the EEA.
- Hungary — has a "white card", though eligibility has been narrowed, so check before building plans around it.
Germany and France don't offer a simple digital nomad visa. Germany does have a long-standing freelance visa for self-employed professionals, which is a different proposition. Outside the EU, Georgia lets many nationalities including UK citizens stay for up to a year visa-free, and Albania runs a one-year permit aimed at remote workers.
The evidence UK applicants usually need
Proving your income
This is where most applications succeed or fail. Consulates want to see a pattern, not a spike. Expect to provide three to six months of bank statements alongside contracts, invoices and evidence of who pays you and how regularly.
If you're employed, that means a contract, recent payslips, and often a letter from your employer confirming they're happy for you to work remotely. If you're freelance, client contracts and invoices carry the most weight — but an SA302 and tax year overview from HMRC, which you can download free from your Government Gateway account, is stronger evidence than a spreadsheet you assembled yourself.
Insurance and the rest of the pack
- Private health insurance covering the destination country for the full stay, often with a minimum coverage level.
- A criminal record certificate — a DBS or ACRO check from the UK — frequently apostilled and translated.
- Proof of accommodation, usually a lease or a long-term booking.
- A passport with plenty of validity left, a biometrics appointment, and an application lodged from the UK before you travel.
How much you'll need to earn
Most countries set the bar as a multiple of the national minimum wage or average salary — commonly two to four times — while a few publish a flat monthly figure. Dependants usually add a percentage on top, and freelancers are sometimes assessed against a higher number than employees.
These thresholds are often index-linked and revised annually, which is why forum posts from two years ago are worse than useless. Go to the consulate's own page and read the current figure.
How tax residency can change
A visa lets you live somewhere. It doesn't decide where you pay tax, and the two don't always line up. This is the part people underestimate.
Most countries use a day-count test, with 183 days as the common threshold, but it is rarely the only test. Tax authorities also weigh up where you have a permanent home, where your family lives, and where your "centre of vital interests" sits. That phrase does a lot of work in double taxation treaties, which act as the tie-breaker when two countries both want to tax you.
From the UK side, leaving doesn't automatically end your UK tax residency. The Statutory Residence Test looks at your days here alongside your ties: family, property, work, and how much time you spent in the UK in previous years. If you leave mid-year to take up a full-time job abroad, split-year treatment may apply, so you're only taxed in the UK on income up to your departure date. For someone going abroad to freelance, that relief is less automatic.
Some countries offer newcomers a favourable regime — Portugal has replaced its non-habitual resident scheme, Spain has its "Beckham law", Greece offers a partial exemption for new residents, and Italy has a flat-tax option aimed at high earners. These change often, and several have been tightened recently. On top of that, UK-source income such as rent,
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