Digital‑nomad visa competition
Spain says it will join Malta, Portugal, Italy and the Bahamas in 2026 efforts to attract digital nomads through tax and residency rule changes. Travel‑industry roundups also report Norway and other countries moving toward higher fees, biometric checks, and stricter entry rules as part of a wider visa‑policy shuffle. (travelandtourworld.com) (travelandtourworld.com)
Spain is not creating a digital-nomad visa from scratch in 2026; it is tightening and promoting a route that has been open since January 2023. The program lets non-European Union citizens live in Spain while working remotely for employers outside Spain. (exteriores.gob.es) Spain’s consulates describe the permit as a telework visa for foreigners using “computer, telematics and telecommunication” systems for companies outside Spain. Barcelona’s city welcome office says the same law also covers self-employed professionals with mainly foreign clients. (exteriores.gob.es) (barcelona.cat) Malta already runs a one-year Nomad Residence Permit for third-country nationals, and it can be renewed if applicants still meet the rules. Malta’s tax authority issued fresh guidance on January 16, 2026, clarifying how permit holders are taxed under rules that have applied since January 1, 2024. (nomad.residencymalta.gov.mt) (mtca.gov.mt) Italy’s digital-nomad visa also predates 2026. Italy’s foreign ministry says the operating decree was published on April 4, 2024, and applies to “digital nomads” and “remote workers” under the country’s immigration law. (esteri.it) Portugal’s appeal has shifted more on taxes than on visa branding. Reporting on the 2026 D8 visa says Portugal still offers a dedicated remote-work route, but the old Non-Habitual Resident tax regime ended for new applicants in 2024 and was replaced by a narrower successor regime. (countrytaxcalc.com) The Bahamas is the outlier in this group because its remote-work offer grew out of a pandemic-era program, not a European residency overhaul. The Bahamas Extended Access Travel Stay program advertises stays of up to one year for people who work or study remotely. (bahamasbeats.com) At the same time, Europe is making short-stay travel more controlled, not less open. The European Union’s Entry/Exit System started operating on October 12, 2025, with full rollout by April 10, 2026, and it records border crossings for non-European Union travelers using biometric checks. (travel-europe.europa.eu) Norway says those new checks apply there too because it is in Schengen even though it is not in the European Union. Visit Norway says most non-European Union citizens on short stays will face the Entry/Exit System first, and then the European Travel Information and Authorisation System when that system starts in the last quarter of 2026. (visitnorway.com) (travel-europe.europa.eu) That is the split in the 2026 visa story: countries still want longer-stay remote workers with income, but they are adding more checks to casual cross-border travel. For would-be nomads, the choice is no longer just beach versus city; it is which country offers the cleanest mix of tax treatment, residency terms, and border friction. (mtca.gov.mt) (travel-europe.europa.eu)
