Which digital nomad visas require insurance, and how much

Why visas started asking for insurance

Governments do not want to carry the medical bills of foreigners who arrive uninsured. So a growing list of digital nomad and long-stay visas now ask for proof of health cover before they will grant the permit. The catch is that the rules are wildly inconsistent: the amount differs, some countries care who the insurer is, a few accept a sworn declaration, and some of the most popular routes ask for nothing at all. Here is the current picture across the visas we track.

Visas with a specific insurance minimum

These name a figure, and it goes on the checklist:

• Costa Rica (digital nomad visa): at least $50,000 of medical cover for the entire stay, and every family member needs their own policy. An international plan or a Costa Rica-licensed (SUGESE) one both work.
• Thailand (LTR visa): $50,000 of cover with at least ten months validity, or a substitute, a $100,000 deposit held for a year, or qualifying social security.
• Colombia (digital nomad visa): an all-risk international policy valid in Colombia, covering the whole stay including repatriation. Resolución 5477 names no amount, so the $30,000 widely quoted online has no official basis.
• Portugal (D8 visa): travel insurance valid for the stay, covering urgent medical care and repatriation. The consular instruction names no amount and no Schengen scope, so treat the €30,000 you see quoted as unofficial. Compliant international policies are accepted.
• Italy (digital nomad visa): health insurance covering medical treatment and hospitalisation, valid in Italy. The February 2024 decree names no amount, so the €30,000 in circulation is not the rule it is presented as.
• South Korea (Workation visa): private medical insurance of more than ₩100,000,000 (about $75,000), including emergency repatriation, for the whole stay, the highest named dollar-equivalent floor here.
• Latvia (digital nomad visa): insurance is mandatory, valid in Latvia and Schengen for the whole stay, with the insurer's minimum liability limit no lower than €42,600 covering treatment, hospitalisation and repatriation; open only to remote workers tied to OECD-registered employers or businesses, with income of 2.5x the average gross wage (currently €4,213/month).
• Romania (digital nomad visa): private health insurance for the full stay. The €30,000 attached to this visa everywhere is real on the immigration authority's site, but it sits under family reunification rather than the nomad category, so treat it as the shape of what Romania expects rather than a confirmed floor for this route. An EU and full-Schengen base, with a high income bar of roughly 3x the national average wage.
• Belize (Work Where You Vacation): the remote-work program names a figure, requiring travel insurance of at least US$50,000; the real concern is medical evacuation, since serious cases leave Belize for the US or Mexico and air ambulance flights run around US$25,000.

Visas that require insurance but set no amount

Insurance is mandatory, but no euro or dollar figure is published, so "required" tells you nothing about how much to buy:

• Greece (digital nomad visa): comprehensive cover valid in Greece, and Greece is unusual in defining what the policy has to do rather than printing one headline number. The rules work through categories of covered risk with their own annual limits, hospital treatment being the one that matters, they cap how much of the bill you can be left holding, and they reject policies carrying exclusions or side agreements. A policy bought abroad is accepted if it states in writing that it covers you while you live in Greece. The €30,000 people quote is the Schengen short-stay standard and has nothing to do with this route.
• Brazil (VITEM XIV): health insurance valid in Brazilian territory, and that phrase is the entire requirement. The resolution behind the visa names no sum, so the figures circulating online have no source in it.
• Argentina (digital nomad residency): the nomad rules themselves say nothing about insurance. The condition comes from the general migration decree in force since May 2025, under which anyone applying for admission signs a sworn declaration that they hold health insurance. No amount, no named insurer. What gives it teeth is the other half of that decree: state hospitals may ask non-permanent residents for insurance or payment before treating anything that is not an emergency.
• Panama (remote-worker visa): a copy of your medical policy, which has to keep covering you inside Panama and stay valid for the whole stay. No sum is named and no Panamanian insurer is required. The best hospitals can approach US prices, so do not read "no minimum" as "go cheap".
• Croatia (digital nomad permit): travel or private cover valid in Croatia. A €30,000 level is commonly cited but is not a confirmed official figure.
• United Arab Emirates (remote-work visa): health insurance with valid UAE coverage. Since January 2025, insurance is a nationwide condition for issuing or renewing any UAE residence visa.
• Estonia (digital nomad visa): a valid insurance contract covering treatment costs for illness or injury, running as long as the visa. Estonia sets no sum for the long-stay visa this route uses. The €30,000 you see quoted belongs to the Schengen short-stay visa, which is a different document. (And e-Residency is not a visa, so it doesn't count.)
• Cyprus (digital nomad visa): private medical cover for the stay, with no figure published by the migration authority. The €30,000 attached to this visa across the internet traces back to advisory sites quoting each other. Nomads here buy private care rather than joining the local system, which is the real argument for insuring well above any paperwork minimum.
• Mauritius (Premium Travel Visa): "travel and health insurance for the initial period of stay", no set sum, but evacuation cover matters because complex cases are flown to Réunion or South Africa.
• Malta (Nomad Residence Permit): comprehensive cover for Malta, pre-paid for a year; travel insurance is explicitly not accepted. No fixed minimum sum.
• Hungary (White Card): comprehensive cover for Hungary, or proof that you can pay for care yourself. The rule names no sum. Emergency treatment has to be given whatever your status, but an uninsured foreigner gets billed for it, and the private care nomads actually use is charged from the start.
• Barbados (Welcome Stamp): genuinely open, application form live, valid medical insurance a prerequisite with no set sum. The Cabinet authorisation currently runs to 31 December 2026, so check before building a year around it. Complex cases fly off-island, which is what evacuation cover is for.
• Sri Lanka (digital nomad visa): international health insurance valid in Sri Lanka, no confirmed minimum; serious cases fly to India or Singapore, so evacuation cover is the priority.
• Montenegro (digital nomad permit): health insurance valid in Montenegro, no confirmed minimum; complex cases are referred to Belgrade, Croatia or Italy, so evacuation cover matters. Income from an employer not registered in Montenegro is exempt from Montenegrin income tax while you hold nomad status, which says nothing about what your home country wants.
• Iceland (remote work visa): the regulation makes health and accident insurance a condition for the whole stay and stops there. No sum, no wording about what the policy must contain, and nothing that rules a travel policy in or out, so the figures quoted online are somebody's inference. The route is only open to nationals who need no visa for Iceland in the first place.
• Serbia (remote work visa): no digital nomad category exists, so remote workers use ordinary temporary residence, most often on a self-employment ground. The interior ministry asks for proof of health insurance covering the planned stay and accepts several things as proof: your own policy, a home-country card where a social security treaty applies, or a written guarantee from a Serbian company. No minimum sum is set.
• Slovenia (digital nomad visa): permit live since November 2025 requires health or travel insurance valid in Slovenia for the full stay, but no official coverage minimum is published (a €30,000 figure is commonly cited online, not confirmed); international policies are accepted.
• Andorra (digital nomad visa): the residence makes you prove, and keep in force for Andorra, cover for illness and incapacity for yourself and every dependant; under-18s and over-60s need illness cover only. No minimum sum is set. The permit runs two years and obliges you to spend at least 90 days a year in the country. There is one hospital in the entire principality, and neither the EHIC nor the UK GHIC is valid there, so the policy is the only thing between you and the bill.
• Curaçao (@HOME remote-work permit): the programme site makes international medical insurance a prerequisite, but the immigration service that grants the permit lists no insurance document, so treat it as a stated condition rather than a verified rule. Six months, extendable once to a maximum of one year, XCG 535. Serious cases are flown to Colombia at the patient's expense, so evacuation cover is the priority.
• Dominica (Work In Nature visa): the WIN visa wants health insurance valid in Dominica covering you and every family member on the application, and it goes further than most: you also produce proof from the insurer that it will approve claims made from inside Dominica. No minimum sum, no local-insurer rule, just a payability test. The stamp runs up to 18 months. Private clinics may want paying before they treat you, and serious cases leave the island, which is what evacuation cover is for.
• Montserrat (Remote Workers Stamp): still open, still processed in seven working days, and still asking for health insurance with valid Montserrat and COVID-19 coverage, a clause nobody has bothered to update. No minimum sum. You need US$70,000 of annual income from outside the island and the stamp runs a year. There is one small hospital and four district health centres, specialist treatment means a neighbouring island, and medical evacuations are only possible during daylight hours, which is a sentence worth reading twice before you pick a policy.
• Ecuador (digital nomad visa): the rentista visa for remote work takes a national or a foreign policy, as long as it runs for the same period as the visa, and a foreign one has to state on its face that it covers Ecuador. No minimum sum. The visa runs up to two years and costs US$50 to apply plus US$270 on grant. The Galápagos ask for a US$20 transit control card, not insurance: the private-cover requirement announced there was dropped in 2018 and never brought back. Facilities on the islands are basic, though, and getting off them is the expensive part.
• Namibia (digital nomad visa): six months, not renewable, and you cannot reapply until a year after it expires. The requirement is proof of medical insurance and/or comprehensive travel insurance, with no sum named and no rule about who issues it. Worth knowing before you buy: private hospitals there may want paying before they start treatment even with comprehensive travel cover, and some Namibian hospitals do not recognise some policies at all, so check acceptance rather than the headline limit.
• Kazakhstan (Neo Nomad Visa): health insurance valid in Kazakhstan for the full visa period is mandatory, but no official minimum coverage amount is published; pair it with $3,000/month foreign income and prioritise evacuation cover, since serious cases leave the country for Dubai, Istanbul, or Europe.

The twist: who the insurer must be

Four countries reject policies on who issued them, not just the cover level, which catches people out:

• Spain (digital nomad visa): comprehensive private cover with no co-payment, from an insurer authorised to operate in Spain. International policies are routinely rejected, even when the cover is objectively stronger.
• Turkey (digital nomad visa): the residence permit requires a Turkish-licensed private health policy. An international-only plan generally will not satisfy it, so you buy a local policy as part of the process.
• Czechia (digital nomad visa): the long-stay visa needs a comprehensive policy of at least €400,000 from an insurer authorised in the Czech Republic, the highest minimum here and a local-insurer rule in one. Home and travel policies are rejected.
• Germany (freelance visa): no nomad visa, but the freelance "Freiberufler" residence permit requires German health insurance (statutory GKV or comparable private PKV); the immigration office states plainly that foreign travel or "nomad" cover is not sufficient.

The visas that do not require it, but you still need it

• Cabo Verde (Remote Working Program): the remote-work residence visa went into law in May 2025, and its document list is short: passport page, criminal record, proof of the employment or client relationship abroad, three months of income, and proof of tax residency somewhere else. Insurance is not on it. The insurance clause people quote sits elsewhere in the same decree and applies to transit, tourism and temporary visas, where a travel policy covering urgent medical care and eventual repatriation is required with no sum attached. Getting in is the awkward part. The immigration portal's online application still says "coming soon", the government visa page sends you to an embassy or consulate, and the tourism board's "get my visa" button opens a mailing list sign-up. On an archipelago where serious cases fly to Europe and two islands have no working airport, evacuation cover is the reason to hold a policy whichever route you take.
• Malaysia (DE Rantau pass): the programme's own application FAQ, the document the pass actually runs on, does not ask for insurance anywhere. Treat a policy as your decision rather than a condition of the pass, and note that the pass itself can be as short as three months.
• Uruguay (digital nomad permit): the permit asks for a sworn declaration of means, not insurance. A 2023 decree briefly made medical cover a condition of entry for every foreigner, but it was repealed four months later, so nothing obliges you now. Buy cover for the risk, not for the paperwork.
• Albania (Unique Permit): the digital mobile worker category is written into the law on foreigners and applications run through e-Albania, but the interior ministry's document list asks for no health insurance at all, and the €30,000 figure in circulation appears in no Albanian text. Treat cover as your own call rather than a condition. (US citizens also get a year visa-free.)
• Kenya (Class N permit): the immigration service's own requirement list for the digital nomad permit runs to passport, contracts, bank statements, accommodation and an embassy letter, and never mentions medical cover. So nothing forces you to insure, on a permit that can run two years at a time.
• South Africa (remote work visa): the Home Affairs document list for this visa asks for a contract, bank statements and a return ticket, and nothing at all about medical cover. Private care is world-class and priced accordingly, and the visa does nothing to protect you from that bill, which is the whole reason to arrive insured.
• Thailand (DTV): no national insurance requirement, though some consulates ask to see roughly $50,000 of cover. Entry includes no medical cover.
• Mexico (temporary resident): no nomad visa and no insurance requirement. The federal visa guidelines set out seven grounds for temporary residence, economic solvency among them, and insurance appears under none of them. What they do set is money: either a twelve-month average bank balance of 11,460 UMA days, or six months of income above 680 UMA days.
• Philippines (digital nomad visa): Executive Order 86 authorised a digital nomad visa in April 2025 and asked for health insurance valid for the period of the visa, without naming a sum. More than a year on, the visa is absent from the DFA e-visa portal, from the Bureau of Immigration's visa list and from the visa pages of Philippine embassies. The order also limits it to nationals of countries that offer Filipinos the same kind of visa, and that list has never been published. The practical route is still an extended tourist stay, which enforces nothing. Private hospitals there, though, often want proof of cover or a deposit before they treat you.
• Taiwan (Gold Card): no classic nomad visa and no private-insurance mandate, the Gold Card routes you into National Health Insurance, but self-employed holders wait about six months to enrol, so bridge that gap with private cover.
• Dominican Republic (nomad routes): no nomad visa, and no policy asked for at any stage. The foreign ministry's list runs from tourism to residence with nothing in between for remote workers, and tourists get 30 days. Longer means one paid extension through the migration department, to a maximum of 120 days, which wants a return ticket, proof of your own funds and a medical certificate. Insurance is not on that list either, which is exactly the risk: nothing in the process makes you buy the cover you will want anyway.
• Norway (nomad routes): no formal digital nomad visa, so most come on the 90-day Schengen clock; the self-employed residence permit (around NOK 341,000/year in business profit) sets no separate insurance condition because holders join the National Insurance Scheme, but short-stay visitors self-pay and Svalbard needs private cover with strong medical evacuation.
• Netherlands (DAFT visa): no visa insurance mandate, the DAFT application does not check cover, but once your residence permit takes effect you must buy Dutch basic health insurance within four months; tourists need no insurance to enter.
• Aruba (nomad routes): no formal nomad visa, and the "One Happy Workation" is a hotel-deal marketing programme rather than a permit. The Kingdom's travel portal and the tourism authority both publish a US$15,000 medical-cover entry condition for visa-free travellers, though other pages on the same domain call it a recommendation. It is unambiguous past 30 days, and with one hospital on-island, evacuation is the cover that matters.
• Bermuda (remote work visa): no live nomad visa since the Work from Bermuda certificate closed on 28 February 2025. The longer-stay route, Permission to Reside on an Annual Basis, requires health cover, and this is the one to read twice: it asks for a local Bermudian policy, and Bermudian law does not accept overseas insurance, so an international plan supplements the requirement rather than meeting it. On a one-hospital mid-Atlantic island, evacuation to the US east coast is what your own policy is for.
• Armenia (residence permit route): no nomad visa and no insurance condition. The temporary residence file asks for photos, a translated passport, proof you are in the country legally and a reference on your state of health, which is a certificate rather than a policy. The card runs up to a year and can be renewed. Visa-free entry gives 45 nationalities, including the US, the UK and the whole EU, 180 days a year and asks for nothing at all. From 1 November 2026 the entire residence process moves online under an amended foreigners law, with quotas, work visas and biometric cards.
• Morocco (nomad routes): no nomad visa and no insurance condition on entry. The foreign ministry's exemption list names no policy requirement, and for most nationalities it names no stay length either, so the ninety days people quote is the stamp you are usually given rather than a published entitlement. Past three months you need a residence card, applied for through the police, whose document list is handed to you at the counter instead of published. Hold cover anyway: the US embassy's own directory of local providers includes an air ambulance operator, which tells you where serious cases go.
• Egypt (digital nomad visa): no nomad visa and no insurance condition. A visa on arrival buys 30 days for $30, or $36 at Cairo since 1 August 2026 where it is being replaced by a QR code, and it can be extended at the passport and immigration offices. The quieter route is newer: a five-year multiple-entry visa whose permitted stay the cabinet doubled to 180 days per entry in September 2025, with a tourist residence card to go with it. Neither asks for a policy. British government advice is the line worth taking: carry cover for local treatment and for unexpected medical evacuation.
• Cambodia (business visa): no nomad visa and no insurance condition. The visa classes run A, B, C, E, T and K, and the E class is the long-stay one: 30 days on entry, extendable inside the country, issued against an employment contract or a letter from a Cambodian sponsor. The embassy checklist names no policy, and nothing in the process prices a serious hospital admission for you, which is why evacuation cover carries this route rather than the paperwork.

These are among the cheapest and most popular routes, which is exactly why people travel bare on them. The absence of a requirement is not the absence of risk.

Programmes with no way in

These were, or still are, real programmes on paper. What they no longer have is an application anyone can complete. Two were formally discontinued, four have working pages and dead doors, and one was a tourism campaign wrapped around an ordinary visitor visa. None of them asks you for insurance today, because none of them asks you for anything. Read their conditions as history rather than as a checklist, and note that most sit on small islands where a serious case leaves by air.

• Antigua and Barbuda (digital nomad visa): the Nomad Digital Residence was discontinued on 15 November 2025 with no successor, so its insurance condition is gone too and visitors are asked for nothing. Two islands share one public hospital, and serious cases are flown to Puerto Rico, Martinique or the US mainland.
• Bahamas (digital nomad visa): the tourism board's BEATS site still lays out the whole programme, a $25 application fee, a $1,000 permit for remote workers, twelve months of validity, renewals considered to a three-year maximum, and proof of medical insurance for the applicant and every dependent. What it no longer has is a way in. The apply button points to a portal address that does not resolve, the Department of Immigration does not list BEATS among its permits, and no government notice has ever closed it. Read the insurance clause as advertised, not enforced. Most people enter as visitors, where nothing is required. On a 700-island archipelago where serious cases fly to Nassau or Miami, evacuation cover is the reason to hold a policy anyway.
• Cayman Islands (digital nomad visa): the Global Citizen Concierge Programme closed in 2024 and nothing replaced it, so there is no nomad visa to carry insurance for. Residents are instead required by law to hold a local Cayman policy, and its statutory minimum covers only about CI$15,000 of air ambulance on an island that flies serious cases to Florida.
• Anguilla (Work from Anguilla program): the programme is gone in practice and nobody has said so out loud. The old application form now redirects to the tourist board's 404 page, the government's visa and travel service lists only ordinary single and multiple entry visas, the immigration department's own page covers only status and belonger applications, and no closure notice exists anywhere. Visitors get 90 days without a visa and are asked for nothing. Facilities are thin, and major surgery or a diving decompression case means a transfer to a neighbouring island.
• Seychelles (Workcation Retreat): the Workcation permit has no way in any more. Its own domain no longer resolves, the tourism board's page returns a server error, the border system's workcation address lands on the ordinary travel authorisation form, and immigration lists seven permit types without it. Nobody announced a closure. What is left is the visitor's permit: three months free on arrival, extendable in three-month blocks to twelve months at SCR 5,000 a time, asking for a return ticket, accommodation and funds but no insurance. Every traveller still needs a travel authorisation before departure. On a remote archipelago that tops out at intermediate care, medical evacuation is the cover that matters.
• Grenada (remote-work visa): the Remote Employment Act 2021 is unusually plain about it. Section 3 says the permit holder and every dependant shall be covered by a health insurance policy valid for the duration of the permit, and section 4 sets an income floor of EC$100,000 earned outside Grenada, the steepest here. No coverage minimum is named. The catch is finding the door: the immigration document index, the labour ministry's permit pages and the tourism authority's site carry no application form, and nothing has been withdrawn either, so the statute sits on the books while most people arrive as visitors. The main government hospital handles a lot, but serious cases need emergency evacuation.
• Saint Lucia (digital nomad visa): the "Live It" programme was a tourism campaign around the ordinary EC$190 one-year visitor visa and its pages are gone. No published Saint Lucian route requires insurance; the tourist board calls it strongly recommended. Private facilities may want paying before they treat you, and serious cases fly off-island.

What the certificate actually has to prove

Meeting the dollar figure is only half of it. Consulates check the paperwork, and a policy that covers you but cannot prove the right things on paper gets bounced. In practice the certificate needs to show:

• the coverage amount, where one is set (Costa Rica, Thailand LTR, Colombia, Portugal, Italy, South Korea);
• validity dates that cover the full authorized stay;
• repatriation, where it is required (Colombia, Portugal, South Korea) or expected (Greece, Italy, Sri Lanka);
• the insurer's eligibility, where it matters (Spain's authorised insurer, Turkey's local policy, Czechia's Czech-licensed €400,000 cover);
• one policy per person, for families (Costa Rica).

The minimum is not the target

A $30,000 or $50,000 floor is low against what a serious hospital admission actually costs, and none of these mandates covers a medical evacuation, which can run from $25,000 to over $250,000. Treat the visa figure, or the absence of one, as the paperwork minimum and insure for the worst case, not the form. You can put real numbers on it with our cost-of-going-uninsured calculator