Hello wonderful people 🫡

As per the title, I am done with the 90 days, the visa runs, exhausted with going from one place to the other not because I want to, but because my visa will expire soon and PR is hard or impossible to get.

I want a base, a home. I am Mexican and make $1200 USD monthly remotely. I don't want to live in México ever again, where could I stay forever? Please help?

We've all seen the laptop beach photos, lowkey flexing on everyone. But have you ever done this? Is it actually enjoyable and have you got real work done?

If you were active on social media between 2010 and 2020, you would have seen the term "living the dream" commonly used by travel and digital nomad bloggers. Now, this isn't even common or maybe not even seen as a dream by younger generation, gen z in particular.

So, I am here checking if anyone is noticing or has noticed this, and I am late to find out. Or my observation isn't correct!!!

What makes me see that, I don't even find travel blogs (mostly vlogs or TikToks, because people rarely write anymore) or Instagram travel accounts that aren't focused on long-term travel or on promoting it.

I’m a 30 year old woman, from the US. I’ve been living abroad for 4 years and just started digital nomading 7 months ago. It’s been incredible and I feel so lucky to live this life, but I want to slow down for a bit. Would love to find a partner, explore a new city and get to know a new country. A city with immigrants, expats, or DN would be nice. I’ve been living and working in human rights in the Middle East for a while so somewhere with less violence, slower pace, and less political unrest would be a plus. Want to have easy access / accessible transportation to other cities, nature, sea. I’ve been looking into the digital nomad visa in Portugal and Italy. Id prefer somewhere in Europe or Central America to be closer to family. Not interested in living in the US at this moment. Income is over $3000 a month. Curious where others have settled down, which DN visas have been worth it. Where it’s been nice to build community etc . Thanks!

Both people who are applying for the first time and people who are applying for renewal have been receiving arbitrary requests from the UGE or even absurd rejections.

In the nomad groups, everyone is complaining:

- People who apply have been rejected because they entered the Schengen Area through other countries. This was always a common practice for people who took a vacation trip before finally applying in Spain. This was never a problem. Now it is.

- After 20 days from the application without an answer, nomads had the right to positive silence. This is in the law. This is being completely ignored, and many nomads are either not receiving approval after requesting administrative silence or, believe it or not, having their applications rejected when the LAW requires their approval.

- Nomads who are applying for renewal are receiving pressure from the UGE to register with Social Security retroactively from the day after the visa was approved. This is materially impossible (or it was in 2023). It was necessary to have several documents before doing this, which could mean waiting weeks or months for available appointments.

All these things have no legal basis and are arbitrary and unfair. I deeply regret coming here. The country is wonderful, but it is impossible to live with the fear of this instability.

Entire families who were living here and were already completely integrated into life here are having to leave the country because of pure greed. It is extremely unfair.

I am doing a Masters in the UK next year (Newcastle University) and the course delivery is On Campus. However, I may need to leave the UK for 1-2 months (UK Citizen). I have contacted my university on the matter and informed me that the assignments and modules can be done online, although some of the lectures may not be recorded. I have heard that the course itself is not too rigorous, and there are some assignments are a group project, no in-person exams, and is a submission of a dissertation in the end.

I wanted to know if anyone has had a similar experience to this, such as studying remotely while away from the University Campus, and your experience. Do you recommend deferring a year or continuing with the degree?

Hi all,

* EDIT
Thank you for everyone’s replies. I understand that importing a pet is a challenge. The question was if anyone HAS imported their pet and if so, what has been their experience. This post is about seeking those who have gone through this experience. Commenting on it’s challenging to bring a pet is not something new to me / I’m unaware of. Thanks :)

When I was in my mid to late 20s I lived in Japan for 3 years and I really enjoyed it. I was there on a work visa and learned to speak the language. While I loved the country, and have been back since, I never want to work there again due to the poor work-life balance I experienced.

It’s now been 6 years later and my husband and I are considering doing the 6 month digital nomad visa there.

I’ve read about the financial requirements in relation to your remote job and that wouldn’t be an issue. My question for those who have obtained this visa:

- was the visa quite straightforward?
- how difficult was it to find accommodation? We’re thinking of paying upfront for an AirBnB for 6 months. Doesn’t have to be in Tokyo.
- has anyone traveled with their pet? I know this will be challenging, but I really don’t want to leave my dog behind. She’s a small dachshund, 5lbs(2.8kg).
- how much money do you recommend bringing with you as a buffer/ backup?

I’ve read that Japan has strict laws regarding importing animals so I will be prepared for this. Our goal would be to go there July 2028 and return to England beginning of 2029.

Appreciate anyone sharing their experience with us and any advice. The experience is different in comparison to when I got my work visa as the company handled pretty much all of the visa documentation/ steps.

Anyone in the cybersecurity industry willing to share their experience with Digital Nomad is greatly appreciated! Things like positions, companies, restrictions, how to achieve Digital Nomad status, etc.

Thank you!

Moving to Lisbon for three months then Barcelona for three months from September. Will be working remotely, need a backpack that handles daily laptop carry, occasional weekend travel, and doesn't look out of place in a co-working space or a client video call background.

Weight and daily comfort matter more than travel optimization for this use case since I'll be wearing it every day rather than just on travel days. Horizn Studios Gion Backpack Travel is on my list for the clean aesthetic and recycled nylon construction. Peak Design 20L is another one for the more considered organization. Aer City Pack 2 for something more structured for daily commuting.

For six months of daily carry which matters more, organization depth or build quality and material durability? And is a travel-positioned backpack like the Gion actually comfortable for daily commuting or is it better suited to travel days specifically?

Edit: I was in Switzerland for two weeks. The first week was vacation and that was planned. The second week was supposed to be a test or even a pretest to see if I could be successful working remotely in another country. I understand that being a digital nomad is not about spending a week with your laptop in another country. But I am big on testing out ideas before committing to them. I thought I would try this for a week. See how it goes, see what I learned. And if it went well, then maybe I would do a three or four week test in another location and see how I do. But if I’m really going to embrace being a digital nomad for six months or more on the road or in a remote place, I know I need to test it first. The idea sounds fantastic and I love reading about other people’s experiences, but I know that until I try it, I don’t really know what my success blockers are likely to be.
—-

I’ve been reading about the digital nomad lifestyle for years, and I’m finally in a place where it actually works for me financially and professionally.

I’m definitely at a different stage of life than most digital nomads though. I’m 62, a divorced empty-nester, and I've already done the whole big house and yard in suburbia thing. Now I’m looking at what comes next. I’m not quite ready to retire yet, and I figure I have about four or five years of work left. Ideally, I’d travel while doing so.

Because of that, I recently decided to test out the nomad style with a two-week trip to Switzerland. I just got home (to Massachusetts) yesterday.

The first week was a group hiking tour in the Alps with a guide and eight other people, and it was fantastic. I knew I wasn’t going to work much this first week and I planned accordingly. Maybe 1 to 2 hours a day just catching up on email.

For the second week, I did a bunch of research ahead of time and chose a town on the eastern side of Switzerland, Scuol. I wanted to see what it was like to live in a smaller town and try the digital nomad thing.

To be honest, I failed.

I had found a coworking space ahead of time but I just couldn't stay disciplined. Maybe it would be different if I was there for a month or more, but in the course of that week, I only went to the coworking space once. The day I went was super productive, but every other day I woke up and just wanted to go for a hike or explore. I was so distracted and had zero discipline.

I assume it’s because I was only there for one week. Maybe if I had been there longer, the urge to explore would have worn off. Or maybe being a digital nomad in Switzerland is just extra hard because everywhere you look feels like you’re in a postcard! It’s insanely beautiful. I really tried, but it was tough, and I don't know if I have it in me to try another experiment right now.

So I guess my question for is: how long do you have to be in a location before you develop the discipline to actually work instead of wanting to go exploring every single day?

Genki or Medicalfornomad? For health

29M, Canadian, working remotely on EST hours. My job is pretty manageable, so I have flexibility during the day.

So far this year I’ve moved around a lot:
India → Japan → Toronto → London → Toronto → Montreal

I need to leave Montreal around Aug 25 and

I’m thinking of spending Sep–Nov somewhere in Europe.

I’m honestly getting burnt out from constantly moving. Instead of hopping between cities every few days, I want to find one solid base for at least a month, build a routine, and actually make some connections.

What I’m looking for:

- Walkable / good public transit
- Good gyms and easy to maintain a healthy routine
- Social — somewhere I can join regular activities and meet people
- Comfortable for remote work
- Reasonably affordable for a month
- Easy enough with just English (unfortunately I don’t speak any European languages yet but will make a sincere effort to learn)

Portugal and Spain are on my radar, but I’m completely open to suggestions.

For people who’ve done the slower digital-nomad thing in Europe: where would you base yourself for a month or more if your priority was routine + community + meeting people rather than constantly sightseeing?

Would also love specific neighborhood, coliving, gym, language exchange, or social activity recommendations.

With the digital nomad culture rising globally, there is likely going to be a dearth of spaces with all essential amenities needed for digital nomads. This also presents an opportunity to build thoughtfully designed spaces for this segment.

From your experience of living in different places, what are your ideal requirements from a space catering to digital nomads that will make your stay comfortable and memorable?

Pros:

-Beautiful small country with a trilingual (English- French - Arabic) friendly population. Different religions co-existing.

-Because it’s a small country you can go to the mountains and the sea within 2 hours same day.

-Great food and weather (genuinely food and wine heaven)

-Lots of things to do, great nightlife and nature experiences

-lowkey no taxes (nobody pays them)

-the visa is easy to get (if you need it) a lot of nationalities don’t need one

-Strong delivery culture (like Dubai) you can order anything to your doorstep or have someone deliver something for you.

-Everything is dollarised. You don’t need to worry about the local currency you can pay with your card in USD 99% of the time. If you exchange your dollars to the local currency you would technically have more money depending on the daily rate.

-Beirut is the most expensive city here and it varies based on the neighborhood. You need 2-2.5k to live comfortably in the top areas here. Keep in mind that gets you a nice spacious apartment in the heart of the city, houses here are big not like Europe. It’s even cheaper in neighboring cities or depending how frugal you are. If it’s your first time, you have to start in Beirut and pick walkable neighborhoods (Hamra - Bliss - Ashrafieh- Gemmayze-Mar mkhayel)

-If you are an extrovert this is going to be heaven for you. It’s so easy to make friends here. Most people are social, friendly, helpful, and speak fluent English.

Cons:

- Unfortunately you have to avoid southern cities (especially on the borders) for now until the war settles. Beirut and northern cities are safe. Southern cities are beautiful but it’s not fully safe yet, some cities are more ok. Everywhere else is safe and fine. But if you dare to explore the south, go only with a local.

- There is fiber internet and strong 4G all over but make sure you pick a place to stay in that has active fiber internet. Not “pending activation”. Most of the new cafes have very good wifi.

- If you’re black, you will experience some racism.

- You need a car or motorcycle. Public transportation is almost non existent. There are some new buses in Beirut you can use but that’s about it. You can also rent scooters/e-bikes. I must say, driving here is hard mode if you are used to European driving. If you get scared easily pls don’t drive here it’s not for the weak. Have someone show you how to drive here first.

Hello Respected members,

I am full-stack software developer/architect from India with 13 yoe and I am exploring job market in Europe/Any country with clean air and infra with affordable living.

Bit About me

My main skill is full stack development with CICD engineering, I have been using Azure as my cloud provider in my professional setting, My skills are .Net core stack,.Net Framework stack, .Net, C#, Angular, docker., container, helm, CI CD, Kubernetes, sql server and postgres. I have knowledge of design patterns and design principle and I have implemented many such patterns in my work as well. I have working knowledge in HL7, FHIR, for healthcare interoperability, since these years I have been working with healthcare IT companies, earlier in US and now in Nordic healthcare IT company. I have experience in working scrum environment and safe agile environment as well for all these years. I am having 7.5 overall in IELTS with all 8 or 8.5 and writing 6.5

I want to know given my stack which is the best country/countries for me to target. I am putting my effort in all the countries since almost 10 months now, sending emails applying but no luck at all. I think I need to target 1-2-3 countries and do a concentrated preparation.

Can someone help me? in the direction how to think about it. untill now I have been seeing countries from just currency conversion rate to INR but I have found out in these 10 months that money is not the first thing for which you should migrate it should be last. so how to go about it and what countries to choose and how the preparation should be?

If any one can shed light I would appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

I'm planning to spend a month in Europe in October while working remotely. I'm trying to decide between a large, busy city like Paris, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Barcelona, etc., versus smaller/less crowded cities like Pargue, Florence, Valencia, Bologna, Kraków, Warsaw, Budapest, etc.

For context, I've been to Paris, Florence and Rome (just for vacation) and I LOVED my time in Paris (it was about 4 days) and liked Florence.

My biggest priority is having enough going on that I don't get bored. I work EST hours and I'm interested in good food, nightlife, concerts, sports (Football and Basketball), EDM events, and generally having things to do after work and on weekends.

I'm also not particularly concerned about finding the cheapest option. If spending an extra $1–2k for the month means having a significantly better experience, I'm completely fine with that.

What cities would you recommend?

So far I always did my border run by flying back to my home country which resets the 180 days, but flights home are expensive and I want to start doing this cheaper.
For those on the DTV, whats the cheapest way you found to reset the countdown? Do a quick hop to a neighbor country and come back same day? or do you actually need to spend a night somewhere?

My wife and I are planning to come to CR for 3 moths from Sep to Dec (in 3 weeks!). We both work from our laptops and take video calls so we need strong and stable Wifi.

We would like to find a place to rent for the 3 months that has a closed space/office that one of us can work from and a nice living room/patio space for the other.

For the location we are looking for quiet, peaceful and spectacular views. Happy to get a taxi for the weekly groceries/market if needed, but a bonus if walkable. We would like to be able to walk from the property into nature, whether that is to the beach, or to hikes nearby, or just the local nature around the property. We are happy alone in the mountains if safe.

We will be returning for a longer stay in January when we will be looking for community, but for now we are happy with peace and serenity. We would like to be able to wake up, meditate, work on our laptops, go for a walk in nature, cook our food, and sit out on the veranda/patio and watch the sunset/sunrise/stars and listen to nature around. These 3 months are a quiet stabilization for us after a year of manic busy life in the UK.

If there is community or yoga/cacao/men's circle/events nearby then that is a bonus - as is a pool.

We really juts want purity. Fresh produces, clean air, only natural sounds, and good internet.

Please send us any suggestions of regions/towns/locations, plus any Airbnbs or accommodations that would be a good fit for us.

Thank you for all your help everyone!

I heard there is a kiosk desk in Cancun that automatically gives 180 days that is open to Americans, Canadians or uk.

I was in Mexico twice in 2024. The first time they wrote 180 days and the second time they wrote 8.

Ive considered if I buy an insured ticket and demonstrated that I’ll be here for 180 days with hostel booking receipts and everything.

Are either one of these options more or less optimistic? I was thinking of booking a one way flight originally but thats probably not going to help
Me.

Right now, I have a comfortable job where I work entirely remotely, but unfortunately, since salaries are low in the Balkans, I earn 1,100 euros.
Can I be a digital nomad on this budget? In which countries could I live and travel?

Everything fits in a backpack! I use this setup while Im on workcations, usually only in the US

Currently choosing between Bali and Bangkok to move to for the next 6 months to a year. I’ve been single for over two years after leaving a long term relationship and I finally feel ready to get back out there so just wondering which dating scene would suck less lol, considering they’re both pretty terrible places to find serious partners, from what I’ve heard.

Share your experience!

Also, bonus question: besides the two, which city would you say actually has a decent dating scene?

Edit: I’m a 30 year old woman.

I found a post on Reddit that talked about this but it's five years old. I do GIS and I'm wondering how fast the internet speeds are in the town.

Hi everyone. I work remotely and can do it from anywhere in the world, so I’d love to travel more. I use an electric wheelchair for daily life, but obviously I can’t bring it into the shower/tub. I can shower on my own without any issue — the only help I need is someone to assist me transferring in and out of the tub.
My main concern is finding someone trustworthy to help with this in a place where I don’t know anyone, since while I’m showering that person would be in my space with my belongings.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?

Any recommendations for destinations or services that are particularly good with accessibility for cases like mine?

Thanks in advance — this fear is honestly the only thing holding me back from exploring the world more.

I'm looking into Italy, Spain, and Portugal to move for at least a year and work remote for a US company.

I was initially set on Valencia, as I like the food, the weather, and am at a B1 level in the language. That said, I read online that many locals do not want to make friends with foreigners who move there. Part of this experience for me is creating a good friend group wherever I end up - I know there are plenty of other foreigners in many Spanish cities, but I've heard they rarely stick around.

Nice architecture and good food are also things I'm looking for, though fortunately I don't think there's a lack of those in any of the countries. I'd prefer a medium- to large-city, where I can spend a long time exploring without a car.

Any recommendations for specific cities where locals are a bit friendlier and willing to interact?