Should You Apply for Romania’s Digital Nomad Visa?

Sneak Peek:

Kristin:    00:00:00    Sometimes you might not know if you want to stay in a country longer until after you get there. One of my relocation clients got the Barbados welcome stamp before consulting with me, spent thousands of dollars applying for it, got to Barbados and then didn't like it. 

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.  

Kristin Wilson, Host:    00:00:40    Hey there, Kristin, from Traveling with Kristin here, and welcome to episode 148 of Badass Digital Nomads. And today we're talking about some digital nomad visas, Romania, specifically. Now last year in 2021, I did a few episodes on the different digital nomad visas that were coming out. I did some videos as well starting with the Barbados Digital Nomad Visa back in 2020. Remember that. But as you've probably noticed in the past two years, there have been a lot of digital nomad and remote work visas being about 50 to be exact. And I foresee that eventually, every country in the world will have some form of a digital nomad visa or remote work permit. So this is a really important, really relevant topic to you and your life because the types of visas that are available out there are going to dictate where you can go and for how long.  

Kristin:    00:01:55    I've been wanting to do a series of Digital Nomad Visa episodes for a while because I always receive a lot of emails and questions about different visas in different countries as well as how you can apply for them and what my opinion is on the different visas. So today I wanted to break one down for you and give you my analysis of whether or not it's worth it. A big question you probably have is whether you should go to different countries with just your passport in a tourist visa or if you should spend the time, the energy, the money, and the effort to apply for one of these special visas. Now it's really confusing to keep up with all of the visas. So I have created a solution for you, and this has been something that my team and I have been working on since 2021.  

Kristin:    00:02:55    We've been working on it for about six months and it's finally done. And that is a drum roll, please. Traveling with Kristin Digital Nomad Visa Database, a compilation of every single digital nomad visa in the world so that you have easy access to all the visas in one place with just a click of a button. You can scan the list, you can search for the country that you're looking for, and you can get a summary of the most important information about each visa. This is gonna come in really handy because if you've looked for information on any of these countries before, you've probably compared, oh, I don't know, about five or 10, maybe even 20 different websites to try to work out what the requirements are, what the cost is, how to apply, how long it takes to get approved. What if you're an individual, what if you're a couple?  

Kristin:    00:03:58    What if you're a family? And all of this information is just spread out all over the place. It's not straightforward whatsoever. And I know because I've researched every single country's visa. So in the database, you're gonna get my condensed summary of each one, including links to everything, to the immigration websites, to the application pages, to the tourism board, even supporting information like videos and podcasts that I might have done about that country and any other helpful info that I found when it's applicable. If this database isn't just about the visa itself, though, I've even included cost of living information, average internet speeds of each country and some top digital nomad destinations in each one, as well as a link to the country's location. You know, in case you forget where Mauritius is, you can get instant access to the database for a one-time fee of $47, which is currently only $1 per country.  

Kristin:    00:05:10    However, it gets even better because as a podcast listener, you get a special discount for the launch. I'm offering a one-time discounted price of only $27, which is nearly 50% off, and that price is going to be good through March until midnight eastern time on April 1st. So to access the special price today, you can go to the link in the show notes or go to digitalnomadbootcamp.com and click on the database. It's at the top of the page and put in the special code podcast at checkout. So that's digitalnomadbootcamp.com. Sign up and put in the code podcast, P O D C A S T in the checkout. And even on this list, it's not just countries that have digital nomad visas, but it's also countries that have similar types of visas that you might be interested in, whether it's the Daft visa in the Netherlands, whether it's a freelancer visa, whether it's a startup visa.  

Kristin:    00:06:29    And so I've included information on those countries as well as well as countries with visas in development specifically for remote workers. And we'll be updating those as they become officially available because I know that you're probably planning at least a few months, possibly even a year or more in advance. And you probably wanna know which countries you're going to be able to go to. So it's really valuable to know which countries have a new program in development that might be available when it's time for you to actually head abroad. And who knows, we could be up to a hundred countries by the end of the year. So again, go to digitalnomadbootcamp.com, put in the code podcast to get the discount or click on the link in the show notes. It'll take you there automatically applying the discount automatically. And even if you're listening to this podcast after that introductory rate expires, it's still a steal.  

Kristin:    00:07:35    It's still a no-brainer. I've done all the work for you. You'll have a lot of peace of mind by just having all that information at your fingertips. And then even countries that maybe don't wanna go to this year, but maybe you wanna go next year or the year after, you can just click back over, check out the requirements, check out the covid travel requirements as well, and make the decision in just a few minutes of whether or not that visa is right for you and whether or not you qualify for it and whether or not it's worth applying for. The world is changing so fast and it's even been hard for me to keep up with all of the new visas and all of the new changes. So I'm really happy to be able to pass that info onto you. So today let's take a deep dive into Romania's Digital Nomad Visa.  

Kristin:    00:08:35    Now, you may have heard on other episodes of the podcast that I talked about my grandfather being from Romania, so I was really excited and intrigued about the Romania digital nomad visa. But unfortunately I was a little bit disappointed with what I found about the application process. And I'm gonna explain what I mean in just a minute. Um, but first of all, why would you want to go to Romania? Well, Romania is a country located in Eastern Europe and it is surrounded by Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria. It's always somewhere that I've wanted to go and I've been really close. I've been to Hungary, I've been to Serbia, I've been to Bulgaria, but somehow I never quite made it over there. I actually had a trip booked with my mom, uh, but she fell while running and broke her wrist and then we ended up canceling the trip.  

Kristin:    00:09:42    But um, then the pandemic happened and I didn't go, but I'm hoping to get over there later this year as I talked about on the episode back in December of where I'm traveling in 2022. So I'll link to that in case you missed it. But Romania seems like one of those really underrated destinations. And I even have a video about Eastern Europe and underrated places in that region because the quality of life is typically very high and the cost of living is very low, and it's a little bit off of the beaten track. I mean, you hear a lot about Portugal, you hear a lot about Spain, but only recently have people started paying more attention to Eastern Europe. And it's really because of that low cost of living good infrastructure, super fast internet. And Romania has some of the fastest internet in the world.  

Kristin:    00:10:39    It's also a really diverse country. You've got this rolling countryside, you've got the cities, you have all different sized towns, you have the Beaches Mountains, there's historical sites, there's lots of culture, there's great music, there's the coastline. And my friend Eric Prince who we had two podcast up episodes with talking about Thailand, he said that Romania is one of his favorite countries in the world. And so if it's good enough for Eric, it's good enough for me. Romania also ranks in the top 25 on the Global Peace Index and it's ranked in the top three or in the top 10 or 15 on these different top places for digital nomads lists. It's also very popular on Nomad List with nine different locations showing up. And that's a big deal because sometimes on nomad lists there's only one city, uh, per country, but there's a lot of different digital nomad hubs in Romania, including of course, Bucharest, Brasov, Cluj, and Timisoara.  

Kristin:    00:11:52    So Romania has a lot to offer and it's a place that you should probably consider going if you're interested in that general area of Eastern Europe. Uh, whether or not you do get the digital nomad visa, it's not in the Schengen zone, but you can still go for up to 90 days. So that's actually a plus if you run out of days on your Schengen visa that you can go to Romania for 90 days and kind of step out for a little while before coming back in. So I did have high hopes for this visa, but there's a surprising number of hoops to jump through to get it compared to other digital nomad visas. This visa is valid for up to 12 months with an option to renew. So that is an improvement over the 90 days that you get with your passport. But then it gets complicated.  

Kristin:    00:12:52    So like many of the digital nomad visas around the world, you do need to be independently self-employed or be working for a foreign company. You also need to show proof of financial solvency, which is nothing new. Lots of other countries, especially in Europe, require that you show that you can afford to live there. And this is the case in Romania, but I was surprised to find that their income threshold is so high, it's actually three x the national average gross salary. So you need to be making triple of what the locals are making. And this needs to be in each of the six months prior to arrival and during the first six months that you're there for. And probably if you're extending it for additional periods. Now the current average wage in Romania is equal to around 1,330 US dollars per month. So triple that, it's close to $4,000 per month in proof of income that you need to show.  

Kristin:    00:14:10    That's pretty close to what Iceland requires. And Iceland has a much higher cost of living. So you will need of course a valid passport. You'll need this proof of income, which I think is really quite high for the cost of living over there. The cost of living is for locals, it's quite low, but for foreigners it's $1,500 or so. But then all of the documents for the Romania Digital Nomad Visa need to be translated into Romanian, which is not as easy as finding a Spanish translator. And they need to be APO styled. So they need to be notarized, they need to be certified. This is the same process that you need to go through if you are trying to get a residency permit or citizenship somewhere. And I haven't seen any other countries that require the documents to be translated in outpost styled off the top of my head.  

Kristin:    00:15:09    Other documents that they require are a job description, a work contract, and the industry that you're working in, a letter of intent on why you want to visit Romania, which I'm guessing everyone's letters are gonna sound pretty similar. I mean, they must know why people wanna go there if they're creating a visa for us. You'll also need health insurance valid in Romania, which you can get through providers like Safety Wing. It needs to cover at least 30,000 euro the policy, which Safety Wing definitely does. But you can check the link in the show notes to to look up what it would cost for your destinations and your age group. And then the list goes on, guys, you need to show a clean criminal record, proof of accommodation, proof of travel tickets, which of course if you are a digital nomad, you might not even have your plane tickets yet.  

Kristin:    00:16:09    Then the immigration authorities can also request other documents including proof of that your taxes are up to date in your home country. So that is a pretty hefty list of requirements. And the other thing is that you can apply online, but you still need to show up in person at a Romanian consulate in your home country. I actually tried to go through the application on both Google Chrome and Safari, and I was unable to get through it. I kept hitting a bunch of errors, but I will drop the link to the application website in the show notes. So you can give it a try. If you open an application online, it will be saved for up to 30 days. So if you're planning to travel soon, you need to apply for this visa at least two weeks before your travel dates, but no more than three months before your arrival date.  

Kristin:    00:17:15    So if you're planning six months out or one year out, it's too early, but you can still check the application out. And if you can successfully get through it without the website crashing or any errors, then at least you'll have all the documents submitted electronically. But then you still need to go to a consulate either way. So it might be easier and more straightforward to just go to the consulate in person. But in some cases, that consulate might be really far away from where you live. So in that case, you need to make sure that you gather all of the documents, have them translated, have them all APO styled before traveling. And that's a bit of a hassle for a digital nomad visa. And this goes for anyone who is for 14 years of age and older. So even if you're traveling together as friends or family, individuals need to fill out separate applications.  

Kristin:    00:18:15    And the application fee isn't that high. It's 120 euro, which I think is reasonable non-refundable in case you get rejected for some reason. But it's just the, the manner in which you apply, I think all digital nomad visas should be available to apply online and they should also be available to tourists who are in the country and want to extend. So that's the case with Cyprus. You can actually, I think, only apply from Cyprus. You can't apply before you get there. So Cyprus wants you to apply during the first 90 days under your tourist visa, which seems reasonable because sometimes you might not know if you want to stay in a country longer until after you get there. I remember one of my relocation clients got the Barbados welcome stamp before consulting with me, spent thousands of dollars of applying for it, got to Barbados and then didn't like it, but felt like they had to stay there because they had already applied for this expensive visa to live there for a year.  

Kristin:    00:19:30    So I would love to see countries allow people to apply for the visa after they arrive, after they've lived there for a couple months and after they decide, yeah, this is a place that I can see myself staying for one or two or three years in some cases. So the verdict on this one is if you're not sure that you want to stay in Romania long term, I would say to go first on a tourist visa. And if you really love it and wanna go back, then go apply for the digital nomad visa and maybe they will let you apply from Romania. It's unclear because it's still such a new visa program and they're changing rules all the time in these countries, but it would be pretty time consuming to get all of these documents together and present yourself in person at the consulate. But overall, after analyzing these 45 plus countries offering some form of a digital nomad visa, and I talked about this a bit over a year ago in my Digital Nomad Visa video where I compare and contrast I think 10 or 20 of the different visas, is that I think that countries in general countries, governments are really missing the opportunity when it comes to the development of their visas.  

Kristin:    00:21:00    There's so much more value that can be wrapped into the visas other than extra days staying in the country. You've got Spain trying to tax digital nomads for visiting their country. You have countries like Romania, Iceland, many Caribbean countries potentially Serbia with these really high income thresholds that people need to meet when they could totally travel to the country as tourists without having to present this proof of income and still be able to support themselves and contribute to the economy. And then you have Caribbean nations charging thousands of dollars in application fees without really providing much value in exchange. So I wish they had fewer requirements. I wish you could do everything online and not have to go in person to the consulate. I'm okay with the application fee of 120 Euro. The processing time seems reasonable. The only thing you really have to lose is just the time that it takes to apply for this one.  

Kristin:    00:22:14    But even if you get it and then you still decide to leave after five or six months instead of three months, you still get two or three extra months to stay in that country without having to leave. So that's gonna save you a couple thousand dollars in travel expenses anyway, and time of not having to relocate after 90 days. You can also use Romania as a home base as it's close to so many other countries in that region. You could hop a flight to Greece as well. You can go on a road trip. I've had friends that had a great time riding their motorcycles through Romania. But another thing to take into consideration is some of the neighboring countries that have easier visa requirements. So you have Albania nearby where you can stay with a passport for up to a year depending on your nationality.  

Kristin:    00:23:11    Same with Georgia, although I don't think I'll be recommending Georgia again anytime soon, just solely based on the government's support of the Russian War on Ukraine. And then Croatia is also another option in the vicinity with a digital nomad visa of its own. Although I think it's pretty stark difference to compare Croatia with Romania. They're just in the same general region, and Croatia has a lower monthly income threshold to be able to stay for up to a year and an option to renew. So that could be something to look into as well. And then Croatia is a Non Schengen country as well. So that's also a plus if you run out of days on your Schengen visa. So what do you think? Were you curious about the Romania visa? Were you considering applying for it? And did this podcast change your mind? Let me know over in the Badass Digital Nomads Facebook group make a post, start the conversation.  

Kristin:    00:24:20    I think Darren uh, one of our admins, he posted about the Romania Visa lately and people were commenting on it. So head on over to the group and let's discuss the Romania Digital Nomad visa. And remember, you can get all the info you need with links and a full breakdown of the Romania Visa as well as Croatia and 45 plus countries over in my brand new Digital Nomad Visa Database for a one-time fee of only $47. And for a limited time in the month of March, use the code: podcast to get access at basically half price. Sign up before midnight on April 1st, 2022. Put in the code: podcast to get the discount. And that is at www.digitalnomadbootcamp.com. And that is my gift to you for listening and supporting the podcast. As usual, I'll also drop the link in the show notes for you and see you again next week with a breakdown of Hungary's new Digital Nomad Visa. See you then.