Beautiful gift’: How Croatia is luring digital nomads

Beautiful gift’: How Croatia is luring digital nomads

Melissa Paul described it as a "beautiful gift“ when she became Croatia's first official digital nomad earlier this year, benefiting from a visa scheme that the country hopes will help promote its pandemic-hit travel industry. "Croatia is gorgeous, it's beautiful living here, affordable compared to other places, has a great climate, good internet access,“ says the American marketing consultant, who lives among cobblestone streets in Labin, a hilltop town overlooking the Adriatic.

Paul got her visa in January, joining a global army of workers plying their trades in foreign countries since the pandemic ushered in an era of working from home for millions. Croatia offers the special visas to digital workers from outside the European Union, allowing them to stay for up to a year and exempting them from income tax. Applicants need to prove they work remotely, have accommodation and health insurance and earn at least 2,200 euros ($2,700) a month.

Paul is one of about 100 people to have applied since the scheme started in January, more than half of them Americans and British. The government has so far approved 33 visas and ministers hope the idea will take off once virus-related travel restrictions are lifted. Tourism makes up around