Six countries now run a dedicated remote-work visa that gets compared constantly: Portugal’s D8, Spain’s digital nomad visa, Italy’s digital nomad/remote worker visa, Greece’s digital nomad visa, Malta’s Nomad Residence Permit, and Thailand’s Destination Thailand Visa (DTV). Each has its own guide on VisaMet with the full application mechanics — this page exists for the question those guides don’t answer on their own: which one should you actually apply for, given your income, your tax situation, and whether you want a visa or a path to residency.
The side-by-side comparison
| Portugal D8 | Spain | Italy | Greece | Malta | Thailand DTV | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income test | €3,680/month | ~€2,849/month (SMI-linked; some report €2,762) | €24,800–€28,000/year (varies by consulate) | €3,500/month | €42,000/year gross | No income test — THB 500,000 (~$14,000) seasoned savings |
| Initial duration | 2 years | 1 year (consulate) or up to 3 years (UGE-CE, in-country) | 1 year | 1–2 years (reported range) | 1 year | 5 years, multi-entry; 180 days per stay |
| Renewal ceiling | 5 years total, then renewal continues toward residency | 5 years total | Annual, no published cap | Renewable, duration unconfirmed | ~3–4 years total (reported) | One 180-day extension per entry; re-enter to continue |
| Path to permanent residency/citizenship | Yes — counts toward 10-year (7-year EU/CPLP) naturalisation | Yes — counts toward Spain’s general residence-based naturalisation (~10 years) | Not clearly published | Not clearly published | No stated path to permanent residence | No — it’s a long-stay visa, not a residency track |
| Tax treatment | Standard progressive tax; no nomad-specific break published | Standard 183-day residency rules, but Beckham Law flat-24% regime may apply if eligible | Standard Italian tax residency rules | 50% income-tax reduction for up to 7 years for qualifying new residents | Untaxed for first 12 months, then flat 10% on qualifying nomad income | Not a tax resident by the visa itself, but 180+ days/year in Thailand generally triggers Thai tax residency |
| Application fee | ~€90–€120 (visa) + ~€170–€250 (residence permit stage) | Consulate/UGE-CE fee, varies | €116 | ~€75 (reported, varies) | €300 administrative fee + separate card fee | THB 10,000 (~$290) |
| Where you apply | Portuguese consulate, then AIMA in-country | Home consulate, or UGE-CE if already in Spain | Italian consulate (no in-country fast track) | Greek consulate (consulate-first now the standard route) | Online via Residency Malta Agency | Thai e-Visa portal, from outside Thailand |
| Processing time (reported) | 4–8 weeks visa; 6–9 months AIMA backlog for residence permit | Faster via UGE-CE than consular route | 1–3 months | 1–3 months | ~60 working days | Days to weeks for the e-visa itself |
Every figure above is a planning number, not a guarantee — see each country’s own guide (linked in the table’s row and below) for the full requirements, documents, and sourcing, and confirm the current figure with the relevant consulate or agency before you budget around it.
Income threshold: the real spread
Ranked low to high as commonly reported for 2026, Italy sits lowest at roughly €24,800–€28,000/year
(the exact number depends on which consulate processes your file), Spain follows at around
€2,849/month (€34,000/year, though one 2026 report puts it at €2,762), Greece and Malta cluster
close together at roughly €3,500/month (Malta’s is framed as €42,000/year gross), and Portugal’s D8
is the highest monthly figure in the group at €3,680. Thailand breaks the pattern entirely — the
DTV skips a monthly income test and instead asks for THB 500,000 ($14,000) in savings held for
three months, which can suit someone with irregular freelance income better than a strict monthly
threshold would.
What the table doesn’t show: a lower income bar often comes with a shorter, less certain stay. Italy’s threshold is the lowest here, but it’s also the newest program (introduced by decree in 2024) with no published long-term renewal cap. Thailand’s DTV has the longest nominal validity (five years) but caps each individual stay at 180 days and isn’t a residency track at all — it’s built for people who want to be in Thailand a lot, not people trying to become Thai residents.
Duration and the residency question
If settling permanently is the goal, Portugal and Spain are the only two in this group with a clearly documented path to long-term/permanent residence and eventual citizenship, because time on these visas counts toward each country’s general naturalisation clock. Malta and Italy are renewable but neither publishes a defined route from the nomad permit itself to permanent status. Greece’s renewal mechanics are reported inconsistently across sources (durations cited range from one to two years), so if residency matters to you, get written confirmation from a Greek consulate before assuming a specific timeline. Thailand’s DTV is explicitly not a residency instrument at all — it’s a long-stay, renewable-by-re-entry visa with no immigration pathway attached.
Tax treatment: the variable that changes the real cost
This is where two visas with similar income bars can produce very different outcomes:
- Malta is the most favourable on paper for a working nomad: qualifying remote-work income is untaxed for the first 12 months, then taxed at a flat 10% — a rate most Northern European and North American nomads will find well below their home country’s marginal rate.
- Greece offers qualifying new tax residents a 50% income-tax reduction for up to seven years under its relocation-incentive regime — a genuine draw, but with its own eligibility conditions.
- Spain runs standard 183-day tax residency, though some digital nomad visa holders can opt into the Beckham Law regime (a flat 24% rate on employment income up to €600,000/year) if they weren’t Spanish tax residents in prior years — eligibility is genuinely complex and worth a cross-border tax adviser’s time before you move.
- Portugal and Italy apply ordinary progressive tax residency rules to D8/digital-nomad-visa holders, with no nomad-specific carve-out currently published for either.
- Thailand doesn’t tax you by virtue of the visa, but crossing 180 days in a calendar year generally makes you a Thai tax resident, and foreign income remitted into the country while tax-resident can become assessable under a 2023 Revenue Department instruction — a real risk for anyone leaning on the DTV’s long individual-stay allowance.
None of this is legal or tax advice — cross-border tax treatment depends on your home country’s rules and any tax treaty in play, and it’s the single most consequential variable in this comparison. Confirm your specific situation with a qualified tax adviser before relocating on any of these visas.
Which one fits you
- Lowest income bar, EU access, and you can tolerate a newer, less-tested program: Italy — lowest headline threshold in the group, but confirm the figure with your specific consulate since it isn’t uniform, and expect a fully consulate-led process with no in-country fast track. See the Italy digital nomad visa guide.
- You want the clearest route to EU permanent residency and citizenship: Portugal’s D8 or Spain’s digital nomad visa — both count time toward long-term naturalisation, though Portugal’s AIMA backlog (6–9 months for the residence-permit stage) is a real planning cost. See the Portugal D8 guide and Spain digital nomad visa guide.
- You want the best tax treatment while the visa is active: Malta’s flat 10% rate after a 12-month exemption is the strongest in this group for a working nomad, though it has no stated path to permanent residence. See the Malta Nomad Residence Permit guide.
- Your income is modest or irregular but you have savings, and you don’t need EU access: Thailand’s DTV skips the income test entirely in favour of a savings threshold, and its five-year, multi-entry structure suits people who want flexibility over commitment. See the Thailand DTV guide.
- Mid-range income, want a lower cost of living than Western Europe, and a meaningful tax incentive: Greece’s 50% tax reduction and lower cost of living relative to Northern Europe make it a strong middle option, provided you confirm the current consulate-first application process. See the Greece digital nomad visa guide.
For the full ten-country landscape beyond these six — including lower-bar options like Costa Rica, Mexico and the UAE, and higher-bar programs like Estonia, Croatia and Japan — see VisaMet’s broader digital nomad visas 2026 overview.
A word on how these numbers move
Every threshold in this comparison is indexed to a minimum wage, a healthcare contribution level, or a government-set figure that gets revised at least annually — Spain’s and Portugal’s both move with minimum-wage increases, and Italy’s consulates don’t even agree with each other on the exact figure in force. Treat every number above as a planning estimate, not a figure to submit a visa application against, and confirm the current threshold directly with the relevant consulate or agency: Portugal’s official visa portal, Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular guidance, Malta’s Residency Malta Agency nomad eligibility page, and Thailand’s official e-Visa portal.
This guide is preparation research, not legal, immigration, or tax advice. None of these programs should be chosen on income threshold alone — match the visa to how long you actually want to stay, whether you care about a path to residency, and what it will do to your tax bill, and confirm every figure with the issuing government before you pay any fee. VisaMet is building AI-driven eligibility checks and document screening to help you compare exactly this kind of multi-country decision before you commit to one country’s process — join the waitlist for early access.