> 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.
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.
I assume the reason is more banal - that Iceland is a high cost of living country. I can't imagine groceries to be very cheap. So after those high basic expenses, I'm sure there needs to be enough fun money left over to throw at the Icelandic economy.
I went probably 5 years ago and found it to be one of the most expensive places I've ever been. I lived in the Nordics for years, I've been to around 50 countries. The only other country that I felt gave it a run for the money in terms of my spending was Norway. I was a tourist, so lots of eating at restaurants, no cooking, but average meal for a basic drink + entre out I was averaging ~$50. I think you're right about the costs, it's a very high COL place and they probably don't want to encourage cheap backpacker type nomads who don't add a whole lot to the economy.
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].
I know of a few people using Malta as a base to nomad around Europe.
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
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.
It is a visa. Iceland offers visa free travel for many countries for the purposes of tourism. I haven’t looked at Iceland’s program but normally these programs are for 30-90 days. Therefore 180 days would be considered a long term tourist visa.
Most tourist visa's do not allow you to work (even remotely). I'm sure tons of people do it, but this is basically allowing people to legally "travel" the country for 6 months while explicitly working.
To my knowledge only the UK, Australia and Canada will allow remote work on a visitor visa with the caveat that the business must be based outside the country.
The webpage specifies that it is _not_ available to citizens of EU/EFTA countries. In fact they can already work remotely from Iceland without any visa requirement, thanks to Freedom of Movement agreements.
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.
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.
> 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.
It will start a competition amongst countries to get the best talent in their borders.
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.
Since tax situation is usually very different for different people and in different tax jurisdictions, it would be safe to say that this is considered income before taxes.
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.
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.
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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.
They know what they’re doing :) who is left? U and S
There's a lot of countries out there with high earners who aren't in the EU or USA ;).
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I know of a few people using Malta as a base to nomad around Europe.
0: https://www.mondaq.com/uk/employee-rights-labour-relations/1...
1: https://getgoldenvisa.com/crypto-portugal
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
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.
[1] https://utl.is/index.php/en/eea-efta-citizens-and-their-rela...
Maybe this is my American ignorance shining through here, but I didn't realize Iceland was not a member of the EU
Yep, only the European Economic area, like Norway. As with them, a big reason is stuff around fishing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland%E2%80%93European_Union...
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.
Dead Comment
> 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.
It will start a competition amongst countries to get the best talent in their borders.
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.
Very impressive step from Iceland!
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The median Icelandic salary is approx 600,000 ISK for context. So it's higher than the median, but not insane by any means.
It seems logical to me that you'd only want to grant visas to people who are "above average".
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.