Cabo Verde · Digital nomad
Remote Working Programme (Digital Nomad Visa)
Open, though the DEF online application currently shows the message Em manutenção, meaning under maintenance. The widely quoted income test is wrong. It is an average bank balance test, not a monthly income test.
It is almost free, and the qualifying test is far softer than reported. It calls for a EUR 1,500 average balance rather than EUR 1,500 a month of income. But the 6+6 design walks you straight across the 183-day tax residency line into a worldwide tax system. That makes it a poorly designed product rather than a clever one.
Qualifying routes
An average bank balance of EUR 1,500 over the preceding 6 months, not a monthly income test as Deel and Nomads Embassy report.
An average bank balance of EUR 2,700 over the preceding 6 months.
The facts
- Minimum
- €1.5k
- Total landed cost
- EUR 20 plus EUR 34 in fees. That makes it among the cheapest anywhere.
- Route type
- Income requirement
- Timeline
- 1–3 months (The DEF online application currently shows the message Em manutenção, meaning under maintenance.)
- Physical presence
- 6 months, renewable once. A 6+6-month stay crosses the 183-day line into tax residency.
- Family
- Family at a EUR 2,700 average balance
- Permanent residency
- None
- Citizenship
- None
- Language test
- Not applicable
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- average bank balance of EUR 1,500 (individual) or EUR 2,700 (family) over the preceding 6 monthsremote income from outside Cabo Verdehealth insuranceclean record
- The commonly quoted EUR 1,500 per month income requirement is wrong. The real rule is an average bank balance of EUR 1,500 for an individual, or EUR 2,700 for a family, over the preceding six months.
- The 6+6 month structure crosses the 183-day threshold into Cabo Verdean tax residency, and residents are taxed on worldwide income. The advertised claim that the programme is exempt from income tax seems to conflict with the worldwide rule set out in the CIRPS. We were not able to resolve that conflict.
- It builds nothing. There is no permanent residence clock here, and no citizenship clock either.
- When we checked, the DEF online application was showing the message Em manutenção, Portuguese for under maintenance.