> The applicant can show their monthly income is equivalent to 1,000,000 ISK, or 1,300,000 ISK if applying for an accompanying spouse, cohabiting partner, and children under the age of 18.<p>That comes out to about $96k USD a year. Totally reachable for a SWE-type job, however I know fully remote workers who are far from this amount. I guess they just want people to come and throw money around the bars.
Cypress, Portugal and Malta offer similar (arguably better) schemes for Digital Nomads [0]. Portugal has been particularly aggressive to the point they offer zero tax on crypto for their "Golden Visa" [1].<p>I know of a few people using Malta as a base to nomad around Europe.<p>0: <a href="https://www.mondaq.com/uk/employee-rights-labour-relations/1137708/working-anywhere-why-cyprus-malta-and-portugal-are-popular-jurisdictions-for-digital-nomads" rel="nofollow">https://www.mondaq.com/uk/employee-rights-labour-relations/1...</a><p>1: <a href="https://getgoldenvisa.com/crypto-portugal" rel="nofollow">https://getgoldenvisa.com/crypto-portugal</a>
So this is long-term visa which:<p>1) Is not visa, you have to not need visa for Iceland to qualify
2) Is not long term, it's valid up to 180 days<p>On the other hand, they recognize remote workers which kind of fit somewhere in between tourists and people who come to work, which many other countries don't.
Not really as big a deal as people are making it out to be. Iceland allows 90 day tourist stays, this simply doubles it to 180 days. Everything else is the same.<p>In fact, if my options are to just jump on a plane without any thought and go for a 0-3 month trip vs file a ton of paperwork, get approved and go for a 3-6 month trip, I'll probably pick the former.
Buried in the FAQ, but pretty significant:<p>> An applicant for a long-term visa needs to show proof of health insurance coverage of 2,000,000 ISK as a minimum per person, which is 1) valid in Iceland | Schengen-area 2) valid for the duration of their stay in Iceland. If your insurance is not valid in Iceland, please see our Health Insurance page for a list of providers.
A great migration will happen soon as more cash/resource-starved countries will open their doors like this to international talent.<p>It will start a competition amongst countries to get the best talent in their borders.<p>For Iceland this will be a net win. Even if the people coming in don't pay taxes, their mere presence in the local economy for a few extra months per year could mean the difference between Iceland building another road or not.<p>Very impressive step from Iceland!
For everyone discussing the 1M thing:<p>The median Icelandic salary is approx 600,000 ISK for context. So it's higher than the median, but not insane by any means.<p>It seems logical to me that you'd only want to grant visas to people who are "above average".
I guess they just want well off people who leave their $$$ in the local economy for half a year. Fair enough, but not a very impressive deal.<p>For comparison: Georgia (the country) offers a 360 day visa free entry for almost every country out there, no paperwork required. While the standard of living in Georgia is certainly lower, the nature there is much more diverse and just many more things to do.
For people asking about the 1m isk limit, I'm ok with that limit. I visited Iceland a few years ago and the cost of living is pretty high. Food and petrol are expensive.<p>I'm not sure if the person is allowed to use country services like healthcare, but I assume that also factors into the high-income requirement.<p>This is an anecdote, but I remember meals easily being 20-30 USD for basics. A cup of soup (tiny) was 13-14 USD and it wasn't in a tourist area. I'm sure someone will reply with cheap food found somewhere in iceland but as someone from the US, the cost of food in proportion to the amount and quality, it was surprising.<p>I hope someone chimes in with the rent cost. I'm not sure where that sits.
Honestly, what is the appeal of this? The minimum salary requirements are absurdly high. There are nice landscapes and environments available for much cheaper requirements, likely in one's own current country. The incentive for Iceland is pretty clear, they get rich foreigners' money. But the incentive for rich foreigners to temporarily relocate here is not at all clear.<p>US citizens, for example, can also stay in Iceland as tourists for 90 days, so this sounds like an onerous amount of requirements to jump through to stay for 90 more.
<p><pre><code> > The applicant can show their monthly income is equivalent to 1,000,000 ISK, or 1,300,000 ISK if applying for an accompanying spouse, cohabiting partner, and children under the age of 18.
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1M ISK is 8k USD, 1.3M ISK is 10.4k USD. That excludes, what, 99% of the world's working population, or basically anyone outside of tech/biomed/banking/etc in very rich countries?
Why such sort of visas do not get popular beyond very hipster cases.<p>1. You are offering entry but not equal treatment (in terms of economic freedom).
2. In Europe citizens have taxpayer paid healthcare but as a visitor you are screwed, I mean private insurance exists but it is hard to have a good restaurant in town if another government funded restaurant is distributing food for free.<p>If you can say we will give you 100% exemption from tax then it is a different story.
Sounds like Iceland should be trying harder, there is a lot of competition for these things now. All of southern europe and even netherlands (nicer/easier place to live) offers incentives for remote workers. Also they should be more inclusive, these programs should be accessible to people from south america or india, not just be a longer tourist visa for people who can afford the shorter one.
This is a pretty smart move. I believe Iceland is doing this to increase their diversity in their genetic pool <a href="https://www.brightfocus.org/alzheimers-macular-degeneration-glaucoma/news/after-1000-years-isolation-icelands-gene-pool" rel="nofollow">https://www.brightfocus.org/alzheimers-macular-degeneration-...</a>
Seems structured to attract remote workers mostly from other developed countries since you need to be from a place that doesn't need a visa to travel to Iceland. Not sure what this is intended to accomplish considering there's no pathway to permanent residency either.
One of the prerequisites is that the candidate does not otherwise need a visa to travel Iceland. Which means that foreign nationals who reside in the US and work in the kind of jobs that will meet the criteria Iceland is looking for will not be eligible for this.
If a) I can work from anywhere, and b) many countries will let me stay 6mos with a tourist visa (no need for application and meet requirements). Why would I choose a friggin cold and expensive place?
Good idea but why 1m isk monthly salary? Strange new world if only the ultra rich are welcome. Im sure Iceland would benefit also from average income remote workers.
for digital nomads, what's the advantage of this over the standard 90-day tourist visa? At least for me, 90 days in any one place is more than enough.
Work visa for iceland huh, how exciting.<p>Climate so severe that even polar bears can barely survive. To do what? Shovel snow and take selfies with penguins?<p>Even Bangladesh seems like a more interesting destination for work.