Digital Nomading/Remote working

I am a highly qualified professional visa and are employed by a South African company.
I submitted my documents about a year ago already and they wanted proof of earnings backdated for the last 2 years.
My income had to exceed 80k USD per YEAR but I know they dropped that requirement now down to 40k USD.
I also had to take the ur healthy insurance with coverage of $100 000 usd which is not a biggie
 
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Dylan_G said:
10 years is a lot, lol. I am guessing that's the Long-term resident visa? Thailand LTR

I see the 30/45 day visa which can be extended to 90 days is strictly for tourism purposes and "It is important to note that a tourist cannot work or conduct business while in the country."... is this a situation where its better to declare that you're there for leisure even when you intend on working for your employer back home during that time?
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As long as you don’t do business in the kingdom itself you are fine.
 
charlieharper said:
I'm paying 3,190.00 BAHT (About R1800) for a month for 24/7 access. Includes 1 coffee a day and a beer on Friday evenings. I get to expense that at the company I work for.
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Not bad at all. The condo where I stay has a co-working space which doesn’t really get used. But most condo’s here cater for that.
 
skimread said:
South Africans can't be a digital nomad, our passport sucks. Our salaries suck to qualify for a digital nomad visa. Most of us don't earn a country mile near the salary. Average salary have to be around 3 figures in USD to qualify. I don't come a country mile close to it. Just look in USD where a UPS driver earns 170K per year.That is over 3 million rand.
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True, our passport isn't great, but countries offer DN visas for a reason.

Croatia DN visa - Minimum monthly income 2,300€ (R47 733,58)
Hungary DN visa - Minimum monthly income 2,000€ (R41 509,45)

That's like, intermediate to senior dev salary in SA.

There's a few others in Europe at the 3,500€ (R72 664,97) mark.
 
charlieharper said:
I'm paying 3,190.00 BAHT (About R1800) for a month for 24/7 access. Includes 1 coffee a day and a beer on Friday evenings. I get to expense that at the company I work for.
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Oh wow, that isn't too bad at all. Sounds great.
 
Dylan_G said:
True, our passport isn't great, but countries offer DN visas for a reason.

Croatia DN visa - Minimum monthly income 2,300€ (R47 733,58)
Hungary DN visa - Minimum monthly income 2,000€ (R41 509,45)

That's like, intermediate to senior dev salary in SA.

There's a few others in Europe at the 3,500€ (R72 664,97) mark.
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Cost of living in Europe is too high for that salary
 
charlieharper said:
I agree, it's horrendous. But all the top nomad destinations (minus EU) are still visa free for South Africans. Very few goes to work remotely from the US, UK, Australia, NZ anyway.
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Not true. Columbia is probably the most popular nomad destination in South America. You require a Visa to enter as a South African. Many others like Vietnam and UAE also require Visa to enter for South Africans.

As South Afircan max duration is what 30 days for the countries you can get into without visa (apart from Georgia). That is not a nomad. That is a tourist. Big difference. You can go to Georgia a year but your not a Nomad as you are stuck to a ery poor small country.

Digital Nomad is a term for certain passport holders like EU, US, Canada, Aus, Nz, Japan and South Korea etc.
South Africans cannot be digital nomads. At best settle for one country if you earn enough and can afford the cost of living.

Thailand nomad visa/remote work visa is minimum $80,000/year. That is more than 1.5 million rand per year.
 
skimread said:
Cost of living in Europe is too high for that salary
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You mentioned that the DN visas ask for too much. I provided the minimums. Pretty attainable.

CoL would be a seperate topic and actually, even though the below sites mention the CoL is xx% higher than SA... To me those itemised prices look the same as here... in some cases, even cheaper.

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Hungary&displayCurrency=ZAR
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Croatia&displayCurrency=ZAR
 
skimread said:
As South Afircan max duration is what 30 days for the countries you can get into without visa (apart from Georgia). That is not a nomad. That is a tourist. Big difference. You can go to Georgia a year but your not a Nomad as you are stuck to a ery poor small country.
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Absolute horse trash.

Thailand is 30 days for everyone visa-exempt, with the exception of Brazil and Korea that gets 90 days.
Ireland gets you 90 days visa free.
Malaysia gives 90 days.
Almost all of South America (minus Colombia) is 90 days visa free.
Indonesia visa on arrival, just like everyone else.
Colombia is e-visa, which you can apply for online, which in my opinion is as good as visa free - same with Australia.
Russia, 90 days (if you dare).

Yes there are cases like Korea, Singapore & Hong Kong, where we only get 30 days (most others get 90 days-180 days), but still better than nothing. Besides those are some of the most expensive countries in the world, so good luck being there 30 days to start with.

The closest I'm getting to the UAE is my Emirates layover. Have 0 desire to be based there.

Yes our passports are crap, but it doesn't stop me from spending my money in countries that welcomes me with my green mamba.

The whole point about the nomad thing is to live places that provides better bang for your buck.
 
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charlieharper said:
Absolute horse trash.

Thailand is 30 days for everyone visa-exempt, with the exception of Brazil and Korea that gets 90 days.
Ireland gets you 90 days visa free.
Malaysia gives 90 days.
Almost all of South America (minus Colombia) is 90 days visa free.
Indonesia visa on arrival, just like everyone else.
Colombia is e-visa, which you can apply for online, which in my opinion is as good as visa free - same with Australia.
Russia, 90 days (if you dare).

Yes there are cases like Korea, Singapore & Hong Kong, where we only get 30 days (most others get 90 days-180 days), but still better than nothing. Besides those are some of the most expensive countries in the world, so good luck being there 30 days to start with.

Yes our passports are crap, but it doesn't stop me from spending my money in countries that welcomes me with my green mamba.

The whole point about the nomad thing is to live places that provides better bang for your buck.
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ok smart ass then how many of these and the duration of the stay have you personally done?

Point I made is the affordable popular nomad countries in SE Asia ike Thailand ,Indonesia and Philippines are max 30 days.
 
Of all the countries we require a visa for, I'm probably most bummed about Taiwan and Japan (they have evisa, but its fake, still requires a trip to the embassy in PTA).
 
skimread said:
ok smart ass then how many of these and the duration of the stay have you personally done?
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I spent most of 2018 & 2019 in Asia.

Then Covid hit.

Then mid last year started travelling again:

Here's my travel history from my Nomad List Profile.

2023
za.png
ZA
164d
my.png
MY
96d
th.png
TH
75d
uk.png
UK
14d
kr.png
KR
14d
sg.png
SG
7d
2022
za.png
ZA
276d
th.png
TH
74d
ge.png
GE
16d
my.png
MY
4d

I still spend a time in SA as I have dogs and parents here. :)
 
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skimread said:
Point I made is the affordable popular nomad countries in SE Asia ike Thailand ,Indonesia and Philippines are max 30 days.
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Yes, but they are 30 days for everyone that has Visa-free access.

Truth be told, most so called "nomads", even from first world countries don't make more than $2000.

Very few make the elite visas and remote work visa criteria.

I looked into the Malaysia Remote Work visa. I totally qualify, BUT the pain of applying for it makes just living there 90 days at a time much convenient.
 
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