Remote Work Policies and Digital Nomad Visas: The EU Landscape

Many employees have permanently migrated from in-office work to a home-based work environment. The pandemic spawned numerous changes in the workplace as individuals and employers re-examined work habits and new possibilities and shifted towards a new reality: remote work. These swift changes in work habits have been consolidated, and remote work policies across most businesses are maintained.

Just a few steps behind this emerging trend were national policymakers of EU Member States, who were looking to adapt their immigration policies to the reality of the modern workplace and, in recognizing this new status quo of a borderless workforce, hurriedly shuffled in digital nomad visas and remote work policies.

Current State of Play in the EU: Remote Work Policies and Digital Nomad Visas

The opportunity to spend more time in Europe as a digital nomad certainly has its appeal, especially when the usual duration of stay in the region is often limited to 90 days in a 180 day—period based on a visa-free allowance or the Schengen visa.

Numerous EU countries have now implemented their respective Digital Nomad Visas. The regulatory approach adopted by these countries, however, is not uniform. EU countries and their different regulatory stances on remote working can be classified in four ways:

• EU countries that have implemented a consolidated Digital Nomad Visa process and immigration route (among which are Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Malta and Romania);
• EU countries that, in addition to their Digital Nomad Visa, allow a foreign national to work from their territory without local work authorization providing there are no ties to a local employer or client (e.g., from a private accommodation holding a visitor status). This is so in Greece and Cyprus;
• EU countries that do not have an established Digital Nomad Visa but do provide the option to foreign nationals to work from their territory without a local work authorization (e.g., France and Spain); and
• EU countries that have not established a Digital Nomad Visa and whose regulations do not permit a foreign national, holding a visitor status, to work from their territory even from private accommodation (e.g., Belgium, Germany).

Digital Nomad Visa and Remote Work: A Simple Solution to Current Challenges?

There are several factors to be considered before concluding a foreign national is permitted to work without a local work authorization (e.g., from private accommodation holding a visitor status) in a specific country. These include the type of work that the individual will carry out, who the work beneficiary is, if there is another primary purpose of stay, and the intended duration of the stay.

Additionally, those countries which accommodate remote workers via a Digital Nomad Visa do so in differing ways, and there is no one-size-fits-all, general approach. This, unsurprisingly, leads to discretionary processes.

The legal landscape of national Digital Nomad visas and other remote work policies is fluid; it is essentially a patchwork of different national regulatory attitudes that fluctuate between consolidated immigration routes to legal grey areas.

Furthermore, a consolidated approach established via an EU directive that guides national governments in the implementation of such a visa is far from being a reality, as European legislative machinery is slow moving. Consequently, travellers planning to adopt a digital nomad lifestyle should plan their moves within the European area carefully. Digital Nomad Visas are ultimately a national tool usually favouring a sedentary stay in the country of issuance as opposed to being a “digital passport,” allowing the beneficiary to move and work freely within the EU.

Planning Your Digital Nomad Trip to the EU

To complicate matters, close attention must be paid to how remote work policies interact with other aspects of national regulation. More specifically, social security and posted worker notification considerations must be accounted for on an individual and case-by-case basis, which requires tailored guidance.

Remote work policies constitute a new legal ground. Individuals and businesses wishing to utilize these options must remain wary of the compliance risks and factors that may arise when benefitting from such national schemes. As opposed to the more consolidated and quintessential national work authorization schemes and programmes, several open-ended questions remain. 

Need to know more?

Fragomen is available to help guide businesses and individuals through the uncharted waters that are national remote work policies. Furthermore, we are actively working with the EU institutions and with governments around the world to prepare for this growing trend.

For further information, please contact Manager Sara Fekete at [email protected] and Immigration Consultant Carlos Saenz de Tejada at [email protected]. This blog was published on 5 October 2022, and due to the circumstances, there are frequent changes. To keep up to date with all the latest updates on global immigration, please visit our dedicated COVID-19 site, subscribe to our alerts and follow us on LinkedIn, twitter, Facebook and Instagram.