Ask HN: Easiest EU Visa to Get | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Easiest EU Visa to Get

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Hi all, basically I want to be able to live in the EU for an extended period of time.

From what I can tell, as long as you get a visa from any of the countries, you're permitted to freely travel throughout most of the EU, presumably you could also move around a bit, although I'm not sure on this part.

My dream here is a spend at least two to three months In Europe, and if if I can get a visa maybe a bit longer.

Another option would be to spend two months or so in Europe, and then go to Turkey for a couple of months, maybe an Asian country for a couple of months assuming they want to open up. Up.

Fortunately I have a bit of money saved, so I'm looking to spend this time working on side projects and traveling.

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It all depends on your actual passport.

Turkey: super easy! rent an apartment (one year contract) and get their "touristic visa" (ikamet https://e-ikamet.goc.gov.tr/ ) which last two years, and is a visa that let you be "resident" there while keeping your resident wherever it is (where you pay taxes). If you are a sailor, a one year contract in a marina (any size of boat) will let you have 2 year touristic residency.

as for Europe you could stay up to 6 months, then a French (idiot) administration started a fight with a romenian citizen and ... the result is that now if you stay 3 months, then you have to stay 3 months out (the EU, another smelly group of bureaucrats unable to write a clear law and scared of losing votes, confirmed)... anyhow, let's do not touch the issue, or I get so mad and embarrassed of it.

so... europe, you can go there as a tourist: of couse you will do your remote job, and nobody will care.

you mention money: ahahah, big solution, even if you come from the poorest/most terrorist country in the world:

1. you either have no money, so, in that case, you have to cross the med in a shitty boat, pay a lot of $$$ to human traffiker, so sure risk your life... just to realize it will take you 10 years to be able to have a decent living (if you make it), or

2. just pay and (legally) get our EU passport: YES it is so easy: you can get the passport just by paying for it: it sound and it is hypocritical but this is the simple truth: and it is not just Malta, search yourself.

Let me add, just to be clear, that this whole EU fortress if a monument to hypocrisy: of course it is not easy to just open borders (since of course we, european, want to keep being the privileged taking advantage of all the poors in the world, while wearing a tie or a smoking, or a Cristian priest dress) but you cannot really put together the "no border" model of the internet, and the stupid 3 months only visa a relative of yours (or even your wife) is obliged to respect.

respect my ass!

Regular Schengen visa is good for 90 days, allows visa-free travel throughout the EU. How to get that depends on your nationality (what country your passport is from). Some nationalities can just arrive and get a visa, others have to apply in advance. You generally apply to the country you plan to spend the most time in, or will initially arrive in.

If you want to stay longer you have to research countries that offer long-stay visas. Requirements vary and will depend on your nationality and income.

Generally you’re not allowed to work in a foreign country unless you have a work permit or visa that allows work. As a practical matter if you’re working remotely on a laptop you probably won’t run into problems, just don’t tell anyone you’re working. When you arrive in a foreign country and immigration asks the purpose of your visit you say “tourism” unless you have a visa for business, work, or some other purpose.

You should check out the digital nomad forums. nomadlist.com is the big one. Reddit has an active digital nomad forum.

I was looking for something like Taiwan's gold card, but in Europe.

I actually don't really need to work for a while. I'm targeting cheaper countries like Hungary or Spain.

There's no European equivalent. The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Card_(European_Union) is much stricter and you'd need to be paid employee.

The 90 day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area tourist visa allows to enter one country, travel around as you wish and exit from another country. At the airport they will check if you overstayed but afaik that's it.

Doesn't France have some arcane law where Americans can reside there for a year ?

I would want to risk getting banned, but I reckon you could argue as long as you fly in and out of France for the full year

Many countries have visas for stays longer than 90 days. They aren’t arcane, you just have to do the research. As far as I know there’s no EU- or Schengen-wide long-stay visa. You figure out where you’d like to stay and then look up what visas allow you to stay for a year or longer, and what the requirements are. Quite a few European countries have one-year renewable visas for retirees, for foreigners who own land or a business in their country, for people who have independent income derived from elsewhere.

You don’t try to make legal arguments with immigration officials. You don’t have any right to enter a foreign country, nor do you have legal standing to challenge their laws. You will just get turned away at the airport, or deported, and maybe blacklisted.

It’s not particularly hard to stay in a foreign country for longer than a tourist visa or visa waiver allows. I did it for years, as a US citizen. You just have to do the research and comply with the rules to get the visa you need.

I was more looking to see if anyone else has successfully gotten a digital nomad visa for the EU.

Looks like I'll just go for 60 days or so. Afterwards if I'm still in the mood for it, I'll move on to Turkey or Asia

No one has gotten a digital nomad visa for the EU because there's no such visa. The closest thing is the EU Blue Card, but that's a work permit for highly-skilled professionals; most digital nomads (freelancers) would not qualify.

The EU and the Schengen visa region are not the same. Turkey is an EU member but not part of the Schengen visa area. The UK, Ireland, Romania, and several other countries in Europe are not Schengen area countries either.

Spain recently announced a so-called digital nomad visa, good for a year if you are making money from outside Spain. I don't think it's approved yet. Some other countries in Europe have such visas available already. Germany has a couple of visas for freelancers that allow renewal for up to three years, to give one example. I know people who have been granted those visas, the process is somewhat tedious.

Almost always you have to apply for a long-stay visa before you arrive in your destination country. You can't enter Germany (for example) on a tourist visa (what Americans will get on arrival) and then apply for a Freiberufler visa while in Germany. You have to plan ahead. Most digital nomads bounce around on tourist visas (look up "border run") until they find a place they want to stay for a while, then go through the process of getting the long-stay visa.

If you intend to travel abroad for a while plan for things like taxes, banking, US address and phone number, health/medical insurance. Americans have to pay US income tax no matter where they live or where their income comes from, an almost-unique tax disadvantage for US citizens. On the other hand US citizens who live outside of the US for 11 months out of a year qualify for the FEIE, a big tax savings. All of this is documented and pored over constantly on nomadlist.com and the Reddit digital nomad sub. Lots of people do this, it's not particularly hard, but it is easy to make mistakes that create a lot of headaches.

Okay, thank you for explaining this all to me.

I just saw the Taiwanese program, and I assumed with all the various EU countries at least one of them had implemented something similar.

I actually might consult with a tax attorney before I do this.

Thanks

Several countries in the EU have, just not the entire EU or Schengen region.

ustax.bz is good.

What is your citizenship country? USA?

If you want to travel across EU I think you need shengen visa.

But I would advise you to just google trivial questions and not expect to get handled answers

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