Estonia: The New Digital Nomad Visa

The Estonian state has consolidated plans to establish a Digital Nomad Visa. The visa aims to officially endorse the unique working arrangements of digital nomads. Although the term has seemingly been in circulation since Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners’ 1997 book "Digital Nomad", it has seen a resurgence to describe a particular type of individual. A digital nomad is a person that has no fixed workplace and typically undertakes international travel while earning an income from freelancing and entrepreneurship.   

The Riigikogu, Estonia’s Parliament, recently amended the Aliens Act to allow the establishment of a new "Digital Nomad Visa" (DNV). Amongst other requirements, the prospective DNV applicant must have the capacity to work independent of a fixed location and leverage telecommunications technology to create value. The applicant must also demonstrate the capacity to generate a consistent income in order to ascertain the year-long residency offered by the DNV. A hallmark feature of the DNV is the capacity to work without a fixed location, thus reinforcing the popular image of a digital nomad’s lifestyle including working from coffee shops, public gardens and other unique locations unsuited to traditional employment.   

In a statement released by Mart Helme, Estonia’s Interior Minister, it was stated that the DNV “strengthens Estonia’s image as an e-state and thus enables Estonia to have a more effective say on an international scale”. The Estonian government has conceptualised the visa to encourage an international inflow of technologically skilled, flexible, and well-remunerated individuals that can participate in the national economy through purchasing commodities and services. The unsuitability of the digital nomad lifestyle to traditional employment in fixed locations arguably poses minimal disruption to the Estonian employment market. This flexibility arguably peculiar to digital nomads accordingly makes the DNV a potentially lucrative and uncontroversial addition to the Estonian economy.  

Estonia is not the only country to embrace the digital nomad lifestyle, however. Germany’s “Freiberufler” (freelancer) visa offers those of a similar inclination, namely entrepreneurial and agile workers, the opportunity for a three-month stay in Germany with the option of later applying for a permanent residence permit. Similar state endorsements of freelance-centred visas and, by extension the digital nomad lifestyle, are already implemented place in the Czech Republic. With the reopening of many European borders, the position of digital nomads in international markets has once more become a point of interest.  

By Brighton Dube