After word of its potential release first got out in 2021, finally, Montenegro’s digital nomad visa was officially announced in late 2022. The visa provides digital nomads with the opportunity to apply for a two-year temporary residence permit for the country. And, once those two years are up, nomads also have the option to extend it for another two years – there’s no need to even leave the country. As such, this visa looks to be one of the best available to digital nomads in Europe.
Montenegro: affordable, beautiful, and quiet
Montenegro (which means “Black Mountain”) is a small Balkan country bordering Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, and Albania. It’s a considerably young country, after only being granted independence from Serbia in 2006 – which means Montenegro currently enjoys lower levels of tourism than other nearby Adriatic countries like Croatia. In addition to being quiet and affordable, Montenegro is also packed with stunning national parks, rugged mountains, quaint mediaeval villages, vibrant cities, and gorgeous coastline. And, as if it couldn’t get any better for digital nomads, they’re also exempt from paying any income tax while living in the country. While the nomad and expat community may be fairly small in Montenegro, there’s a decent number of coworking spaces and hotspots available to work from.
Moreover, Montenegro also already offers a popular golden visa program: an immigrant investor program that lets applicants get a residence permit, and potentially even citizenship within the country, Montenegro Guides explains. To attain this visa, applicants must first qualify for one of the many immigrant investor programs on offer, including business investment, real estate investment, and yacht-ownership investment.
A successful campaign
Efforts to launch the visa were kicked off by Jan de Jong: an avid digital nomad lifestyle promoter and president of Croatia’s Digital Nomad Association. In 2021, De Jong penned a LinkedIn letter to the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, which soon enough sparked the roll-out of the digital nomad visa in the country. After the government of Montenegro announced the visa, de Jong took to LinkedIn to celebrate the move: “And it’s official! Montenegro has followed in the footsteps of its neighbour, Croatia – by introducing its digital nomad visa!”. De Jong also rated the country as an ideal destination for digital nomads: “The entire Adriatic region has so much to offer to digital nomads – so it’s great to see Montenegro making strategic decisions welcoming remote work professionals by granting them staying permits. I would like to thank former Minister Tamara Srzentić MS MBA & Milovan Novakovic MRICS for kicking off and leading this initiative in Montenegro. Svaka čast!”, he added.
The Montenegro government says the visa program will roll-out in its early stages this year, before it takes full form over the next few years. Ultimately, with the program, the government aims “to improve the digital environment, not only for nomads but also for all citizens, so the introduction of new electronic services was also recognised through the program.”