Visas, residency. I’m lost!

Unfortunately, the world has imaginary lines called “borders” that separate things called “countries”. If you want to cross these imaginary lines you may need a visa. If you want to stay inside a “country” you may need a residence permit.

A visa gives you the right to stay in a country for a certain duration. It has an expiry date and you are supposed to renew it or leave the country usually prior to its expiry date.

Visa conditions are often a nightmare to understand and this is no surprise that companies in each country are offering to help you to apply for a visa. Trying to understand visa conditions by yourself can be very time-consuming.

The passport

To travel to another country you may require a passport unless there is an agreement in place between your country and another country that allows you not to use any document or to use another document such as an identity card.

Some folks do not bother using any documents if they plan to enter a country illegally. A key example would be migrants walking through the Mexican border to enter the USA.

The visa

The visa gives you the right to cross the imaginary line (border) of a “country”. It’s only about the right to cross that line.

The visa is a piece of information. Its format can be physical or digital. When it is physical, it can be a stamp in your passport (as in the photo above) or it can be a sheet of paper. When it is digital it can be a file like a pdf file.

To get the visa the government of the country where you want to go to will ask you to meet requirements and follow a process.

  • You either need a visa to cross the imaginary line or you don’t

The residence permit

The visa is paper (physical or digital). If it is paper based it is often added to your passport. The visa gives you the right to enter a country. It’s only about the right to enter. Sometimes we mix this with residency but it’s not the same thing.

Short stay visa

Depending on which country is associated with your passport you may be allowed to enter a number of countries without any visa. It means that you don‘t need to apply for a visa to enter these countries. You can just cross the border. A man acting as a custom officer may check your passport but he cannot refuse you entry.

You can enter but usually you will be allowed to stay for a number of months and that’s it. The most common duration for short stay visas is 90 days from the day of arrival. Imagine you arrive in Milan, Italy, by plane on 10 January 2028 and you pass the custom. You show your passport and the custom officer will stamp it. The stamp may say “Permitted to stay for 90 days” and the arrival date will be written. Sometimes you can also read the end date of your short stay visa.

Sometimes your passport will not be in the list of countries that can enter the country without visa. It means that either you cannot enter or that you need to apply for a visa even if you stay there for a short duration. Requirements for applying for a visa to enter may vary from country to country. You can either search online the requirements on the official website of the country you are going to or you go through a travel agent that will help you to apply. You may be asked to provide information such as hotel booking, purpose of your trip, occupation even for staying in a country for a few days.

Short stay visa are useful for you to check a country. You can usually enter pretty easily and stay up to 90 days. This gives you sufficient time to check the place and get a feeling of it. If you need to stay more than 90 days many countries allow you to go out and come back in. It’s a practice done by dozens of millions of People around the world, be it Costa Rica - Nicaragua; Hong Kong - Macau; Cambodia - Thailand. Simply exit the country and come back. This practice may have its limits so it is for you to decide what you should do.

Short stay visas usually do not allow you to work in the country. Although it is a common practice in many Western countries to do small jobs or basic jobs without any work permit you could be expulsed and given a fine if you are caught.

Common types of visas

When looking for a place to move the role of the visa is critical. A visa can enables your dream or kill it.

There are countless visa names. Instead of having a standardization of names each country uses its own terms. That makes it even harder to understand. However, we can identify some patterns. Here are the most common visa names:

  • Short stay visa

    As detailed above, it allows you to usually stay around 90 days in a country. You cannot work during this period. This visa is most commonly used for holidays or business trips.

  • Family visa

    This visa is granted to family members. If your wife or your husband is a citizen then you can usually sponsor him or her. This is what family visas are for. The same for your children. It may also include your parents. This is a great option if both of you have different nationalities. If, on top of that, one of you has a nationality of one of the European Union countries, you can access a wide range of countries.

    The family visa often gives you the right to work. Also, please anticipate what happen if you were to divorce.

  • Student visa

    This visa is granted to you when you study in the country you are moving to. It is common for university studies.

  • Work visa

    The most common way to get this visa is to be offered a job by a company operating in the country where you want to go. Here are your options:

    • Does the company you work for have a branch, a subsidiary, or a supplier in the country you want to move to? It may be a way to get a job and a visa

    • Find a local company that is ready to hire you

    The company will often have to demonstrate that it cannot locally find the skills you have. This is to avoid that you take a job that could be done by a local in this country.

  • Digital nomad visa

    This type of visa is pretty recent. It is linked to the fact that some folks can work from anywhere as they just need a computer and an internet connection. Because of the nature of their work countries have adapted their visa policies. It’s interesting for a country to let a digital nomad in as the guy gets an income and will spend a part of it inside the country (food, accommodation, transportation, …).

    The most common requirement for digital nomads is the minimum salary. The country may ask you to prove a regular revenue of two, three, or four thousand USD a month or more. Do note that the requirement is not aligned with the reality where the very nature of the work of a digital nomad implies that the revenue may vary from one month to another month. It means that if you work remotely you need to pay attention to this if you are thinking of moving abroad at some point. It may happen that your revenues vary from one month to another one and that even if on average, over 12 months, you meet the minimum requirement, if some of the months do not then your application will be rejected. I guess governments will need some time to adapt their requirements to the reality of the digital nomad work.

  • Investor visa; Golden visa

    Sometimes the government uses the term “golden visa” or sometimes it can be called “investor visa”. Golden visa refers to money as you can guess. You will get a visa, usually a very interesting one, but you need to spend a significant amount of money. Very often it is several hundred thousand USD. The most common way to get this golden visa is to buy a property sold at a value equal to or superior to the amount required to get the golden visa. For instance, if the golden visa requires you to spend a minimum of USD 400,000 then you can buy a property of USD 410,000 and get your visa. Sometimes you will be allowed to combine multiple purchases. For instance, you want to buy 3 properties for USD 140,000 for a total of USD 420,000. You need to look carefully at the detailed conditions of this visa to make sure there is no surprise.

    This type of visa usually gives your direct family members a visa as well (husband, wife, parents, children). Sometimes the investment is limited to very specific assets that are overvalued. You need to be careful about this

  • Retirement visa

    This type of visa allows retired People to enter the country. The condition is very often that you must receive a monthly pension. There may be a minimum requirement on the amount of this pension. You will also not be allowed to work as you are flagged as “retired”.

    It’s a nice option if you have a pension. It gives you access to countries where your pension may be doubled or tripled because of the difference in the cost of life. For example, many French folks retire in Thailand because they can live comfortably there even with a pension of 900 euros. In France, it may be impossible.

The easy doors

  • Family-based visas: in many countries, including the United States, you can apply for a visa or residency permit if you have family members (like a spouse, parents, or children) who are citizens or permanent residents of that country.

  • Retirement visas: some countries offer retirement visas to individuals who can prove they have sufficient funds to support themselves. For instance, Ecuador offers a pensioner residence permit if you have a monthly income of at least $800.

  • Student visas: student visas are generally more straightforward to obtain. They require acceptance into an educational institution and proof of financial support during your stay.

  • Artist and freelancer visas: countries like Germany offer visas for artists and freelancers who can prove they have the means to support themselves and contribute to the local culture or economy.

There are other visas, but they may require to have a significant amount of wealth or specialized skills.

Notes

  • There is a clear trend of requirement toughening in the developing countries. This could appear to you as paradoxical as these countries have a lower living standard than in the West. Mexico, Malaysia, Costa Rica are a few examples of countries where the requirement to enter with an investment visa have increased. In a nutshell, the government asks you to bring more money in.

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