In November 2022, Kian Sheik, a search engine developer from San Diego, decided he desired to move in along with his girlfriend Júlia, a dentist who lives in her hometown of Sao Paulo.
So Sheik applied for a digital nomad visa and moved to Brazil where he can work remotely for his San Diego employers.
“My job is that you could work just about anywhere on the earth so long as you might have a web connection,” said the 25-yr-old.
The sheikh spent about $200 on the visa, which required proof that he was earning no less than $1,500 a month.
He also had to offer Brazil with a notarized copy of his birth certificate, pay $75 for an FBI criminal background check, and provide three months’ bank statements and proof of medical health insurance.
Finally, he needed to get a letter from his employer wherein he agreed to work remotely abroad.
This was considered one of the better parts of the complicated process.
“I told my job, ‘Hey, should you value me as an worker and wish to keep me [on staff]you’ll support my decision to work in Brazil,” said Sheik, who pays taxes in each countries but will receive credit within the US for what he pays in Brazil.
(For digital nomad visa holders, tax requirements vary by country.)
Sheikh officially immigrated to Brazil last February. She loves immersing herself in Brazilian culture and learning Portuguese.
But “the most important plus for me is that I get to spend more time with my girlfriend,” he said.
In January 2022, Brazil joined dozens of nations around the globe – from Barbados to Estonia – offering digital nomad visas that cost between $200 and $2,000 and provide globetrotters with a temporary residence permit to work remotely from their home country.
Unlike the previously favored D7 visa, which forced distant staff and freelancers to achieve this make plans for long-term stayThe digital nomad visa is specially tailored for transit individuals who wish to live abroad for a short time period.
It’s becoming more fashionable due to its relative leniency and the proliferation of working from home.
DigitalNomadVisa’s TikTok hashtag garnered a staggering 10 million views, featuring Sheik and others promoting advantages visa and how they got it.
Also on the visa is 29-yr-old Toman Ford, an infrastructure engineer at an IT company in Atlanta.
He and his wife Risha Hill-Ford, 28, moved to the small town of Spata in Greece, just outside Athens, in February with their two young daughters.
The toughest adjustment Ford needed to make was getting used to the six-hour time difference between Greece and the eastern United States.
Ford now works from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. to be similtaneously his Georgia colleagues.
She spends the primary a part of the day taking care of her daughters.
Hill-Ford, an achieved artist, paints within the morning and sells her work online worldwide.
It’s a schedule that suits them.
“Work-life balance in Greece on a digital nomad visa makes life much easier,” said Hill-Ford, noting that her family, which used to have $4,000 a month for housing, food and amenities, has been reduced to a manageable $1,200.
Couple lives in a three-room house for lower than $1,000 a month, and shops with local grocers and retailers to assist boost the region’s economy.
“The fee of living in Atlanta was eating up all our funds,” she said, “but here in Greece I can work half so long as within the US and I’m greater than capable of support myself. materially.”
The couple will not be liable to pay taxes in Greece, but pays income tax within the US in addition to on the property they own in Atlanta.
Hill-Ford, which promotes ethical emigration amongst its greater than 50,000 TikTok followers, says it is vital for Americans to avoid contributing to the gentrification of disenfranchised areas.
In Greece, in addition to in Portugal, where digital nomad visas were introduced in October, natives face eviction and unpredictable rent increases resulting from the influx of American transplants.
“It’s our responsibility to do our research to ensure we do not pick up housing that was originally priced for the typical Greek but now costs two or thrice as much because people from the US who make a lot extra money are moving here,” she said. . “It’s absolutely flawed.”
Raimee Iacofano, 28, a Los Angeles-based social media manager at a tech start-up, agrees.
She might be moving to Barcelona, Spain this summer on a digital nomad visa and desires to be socially responsible.
“It worries me that I will live somewhere and I will earns a pretty good American salarywhile my European neighbors earn less,” she said.
“But I don’t rent an apartment through Airbnb or shop at big chains – every dollar I spend will go to strengthening the local economy.”
But Sheik says that despite their best efforts and intentions, Americans with digital nomad visas, including himself, cannot escape their role within the gentrification of their recent homelands.
“You’ll be able to speak the language and learn the culture, however it’s necessary to do not forget that you are still an American and realize how that privilege affects other people around you,” he said.
“Live just like the locals for so long as you’ll be able to without changing their lives.”