Digital nomad visa in Europe: the income you need
A digital nomad visa in Europe is a residence permit for people who are paid from somewhere else. You keep your job or your clients, you move, and the country lets you stay on the condition that none of your money comes from inside its borders. Four countries run established programmes with a published income threshold, and the numbers are lower than the internet thinks.
They are also the easy half. The visa asks you to prove an income you already have — it does not help you find one, and that is the part most pages about it quietly skip.
What the four established visas actually require
Each figure below comes from the government's own page, linked at the foot of this guide. Thresholds move: Spain's and Portugal's are tied to their minimum wage and Croatia's to the average salary, so all three change every January.
| Country | Income per month | How it is set | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | €2,442 | 200% of the 2026 SMI of €1,221 | Visa 1 year; residence permit up to 3 |
| Greece | €3,500 | Fixed figure | Up to 12 months |
| Croatia | €3,622.50 | 2.5× the previous year's average net salary | Up to 18 months, extendable by 6 |
| Portugal | €3,680 | 4× the minimum guaranteed remuneration (€920 in 2026) | Temporary stay, renewable |
On the official numbers Spain is the cheapest European digital nomad visa by a distance — €1,238 a month below Croatia, €1,058 below Greece, and it has the deepest job market of the four if the plan ever changes — jobs in Spain. If the threshold is what is stopping you, Spain is the answer and the rest of this guide is about the reasons it might not be.
The number almost every comparison gets wrong
Spain's threshold is published across the web as €2,849 a month. The Spanish consulate's own page says something else: "The SMI in 2026 is 1.221€… If applicant is applying alone: 200% of monthly IMS = 2.442€ per month." That is a difference of €407 a month, or €4,884 over a year of proving income, and it is the difference between qualifying and not for a great many people.
The €2,849 figure comes from annualising the SMI across fourteen payments instead of twelve and then doubling it. It is a defensible way to describe Spanish pay and the wrong way to read the visa rule, and it has been copied from page to page until it looks like the official number. Check the consulate page for the country you are applying to, in the month you apply, and believe that instead of any table — including this one.
Who your employer is matters as much as what they pay
Spain excludes more employer types than anyone mentions. The telework visa does not allow you to work for individuals, international organisations, government agencies, universities, foundations, NGOs or other non-profit entities. A researcher on a university contract and a programme officer at an NGO both clear the income bar comfortably and are both ineligible, and most find out late.
Croatia draws the line differently but just as hard: the holder must work "for a company or his own company that is not registered in the Republic of Croatia" and must not "perform work or provide services to employers in the Republic of Croatia". Taking one Croatian client while you live there breaks the permit, not just the spirit of it.
The harder half: you need the income before the visa
Every one of these permits is written for someone who already has remote work with a foreign employer. That is a much smaller group than the search volume suggests, and our own index shows how much smaller. Of 189,734 open listings across Europe in October 2026, 1,340 say in the ad that the work can be done remotely. That is 0.7 per cent. A thousand of those are written in English, and 95 state a salary.
Remote work is not scarce because employers dislike it — it is scarce because the ads that offer it are rare relative to everything else posted, and most of them still expect you to be legally able to work in the hiring country. Which is exactly the knot these visas untie, in one direction only: they let you live in Spain on German pay, not find German pay from Spain. Our remote listings are the thinnest part of the whole catalogue and the most honest place to start.
Tax decides more than the threshold does
A year on one of these permits usually makes you a tax resident. The rule is the same nearly everywhere: spend more than 183 days in a country and it taxes your worldwide income, digital nomad visa or not. So the real comparison is not €2,442 against €3,680 — it is what each country then takes.
Spain's answer is the most generous of the four if you qualify for it, because the telework route can be combined with the special regime for inbound workers, which taxes employment income at a flat rate rather than the progressive scale. Croatia's digital nomad stay has been exempt from Croatian income tax on the foreign income it is granted for. Portugal and Greece tax you as a resident, with Greece offering a reduction for new tax residents. None of this is advice, every one of these regimes has conditions you can fail, and the amount at stake is larger than the visa fee by a factor of a hundred. Pay an accountant in the country before you book a flight.
What nobody mentions
Spain's visa lasts one year. The residence permit lasts three. The consulate page says it plainly: if you are already legally in Spain you may apply for the telework residence permit directly, without a prior visa, and "the residence permit can be valid for a maximum of three years. In contrast, the visa has a maximum validity of 1 year." Arriving on another lawful basis and applying from inside the country is worth two extra years, and almost nothing written about this visa says so.
Spain's health insurance condition is stricter than the usual "full coverage" line. It must cover everything the Spanish public system covers, for the whole authorisation, with no deficiency, no copayment and no coverage limit. Most ordinary expatriate policies have a copayment somewhere, and a policy that fails on that one word is a refused application.
And a digital nomad visa is a national permit, not a Schengen one. It lets you stay in the issuing country beyond 90 days; it does not give you the right to live in the other 28. You may travel in the Schengen area on it, within the usual 90-days-in-180 limit for the rest. People plan a year of hopping between four countries on one permit, and that is not what any of them is.
Which digital nomad visa in Europe to choose
If you are choosing on money, Spain, and it is not close. If your employer is a university, an NGO or a public body, not Spain — look at Portugal or Greece, where the employer type is not written out of the rule. If you want the longest single stay without renewing, Croatia's eighteen months is the longest of the four. If you want to stay permanently, Portugal's temporary-stay route has historically been the one that leads somewhere, and Croatia's explicitly does not.
If you do not yet have the foreign income these permits are built around, none of them is your next step. A remote job with an employer outside the country you want to live in is, and that market is thinner than almost anyone searching for a digital nomad visa expects — 0.7 per cent of everything open in Europe. Our guide to remote jobs with no experience is the honest version of how that search goes, and how Americans can work in Europe covers the routes that exist when remote work is not one of them.
We read every ad we collect and record whether it says the work can be done remotely, so the remote list is built from what employers actually wrote rather than from a filter they ticked. Browsing and applying is free. Every figure above is from a government page linked below or from our own index in October 2026, and all four thresholds change in January — check the source before you move money. Buen camino.
Frequently asked questions
Which European country has the cheapest digital nomad visa?
Spain, on the official figures: €2,442 a month, set at 200 per cent of the 2026 minimum wage of €1,221. That is €1,058 below Greece and €1,238 below Croatia. Many comparison pages publish Spain's threshold as €2,849, which comes from annualising the minimum wage over fourteen payments rather than twelve.
What is the easiest digital nomad visa to get in Europe?
Easiest depends on what is blocking you. Spain has the lowest income bar but the narrowest list of permitted employers — no universities, NGOs, foundations, public bodies or international organisations. Greece and Portugal set a higher income requirement and do not restrict employer type, so for a researcher or an NGO employee they are the easier route despite the bigger number.
Does a digital nomad visa let me live anywhere in the EU?
No. It is a national residence permit for the country that issued it, not a Schengen-wide right. You can stay in that country beyond 90 days and travel in the rest of the Schengen area under the ordinary 90-days-in-180 rule. A year of moving between four countries is not something any of these permits allows.
Do I pay tax in the country that issues the digital nomad visa?
Usually yes. Spending more than 183 days in a country generally makes you a tax resident there on your worldwide income. Croatia's digital nomad stay has been exempt from Croatian income tax on the qualifying foreign income, and Spain's telework route can be combined with the flat-rate regime for inbound workers, but Portugal and Greece tax you as an ordinary resident. Get this checked by an accountant in the country, because it is worth more than the visa.
Can I work for a local company on a digital nomad visa?
No, and Croatia is explicit about it: the holder must not perform work or provide services to employers registered in Croatia. Spain's rule works the same way — the income has to come from outside. Taking one local client is enough to break the permit.
How many remote jobs in Europe actually qualify?
Fewer than people expect. Of 189,734 open listings we track across Europe in October 2026, 1,340 say in the advertisement that the work can be done remotely — 0.7 per cent — and 1,036 of those are written in English. The job also has to be with an employer outside the country you want to live in, which rules out part of even that number.