Long-Term Visa for Remote Workers — Iceland's Narrowly-Targeted Nomad Scheme

Iceland's Long-Term Visa for Remote Workers, introduced in October 2020 by the Directorate of Immigration (Útlendingastofnun) under the Ministry of Justice, lets non-EEA/EFTA nationals live in Iceland for up to six months (extendable) while continuing to work remotely for an employer or clients based abroad. Unlike many later 'digital nomad visa' schemes, it was framed narrowly: applicants must be exempt from Schengen visa requirements and meet a high income floor (1,000,000 ISK per month, or 1,300,000 ISK with family), and the visa explicitly does not grant access to Iceland's domestic labour market.

Four months after launch, Iceland Review and NorthStack independently reported that the Directorate of Immigration had received 65 applications, approved 50, and that only 10 people had actually relocated to Iceland under the visa, with five more applications still under review. The applicant pool was heavily skewed toward the United States (95%), with the remainder from Canada and the UK.

With no later public statistics located, the visa's trajectory since its first year is not independently verifiable from open sources, but initial uptake — a few dozen people, in a country actively promoting remote-work tourism — was modest relative to comparable European schemes, likely reflecting both the high income threshold and Iceland's cost of living. It is best catalogued as an early, narrowly-targeted remote-worker visa whose initial reach was limited and whose subsequent performance remains publicly undocumented.

Read the full analysis: https://work.iceland.is/working/long-term-visa-for-remote-workers/