Cabo Verde
Cabo Verde Remote Working Program: health insurance requirements
Yes: health insurance is required
Cabo Verde's Remote Working Program lets non-residents who earn their income outside the country live on the islands for six months, renewable once for a further six. It is one of the clearer schemes on insurance: applicants must hold travel and health cover that includes medical evacuation and repatriation of remains. There is no published minimum coverage sum, so the priority is a policy that clearly includes evacuation and overseas treatment.
The requirements at a glance
| Repatriation required | Yes |
|---|---|
| Minimum policy duration | Full duration of stay |
| Local-licensed insurer required | No: compliant international IPMI is accepted |
| Accepted proof | Proof of valid travel and health insurance covering medical evacuation and repatriation of remains, uploaded with the online application (alongside bank statement or payslips, accommodation proof and criminal record check). |
Open to non-residents who are self-employed or work remotely for clients/employers outside Cabo Verde. Proof of income is commonly cited as an average bank balance of about 1,500 euros over six months for an individual, or about 2,700 euros for a family, though no single official salary figure is published. Passport valid 6+ months, accommodation booking and a clean criminal record are also required. Visa fee is 20 euros plus a 34 euro airport fee. Remote-work income earned abroad is not taxed locally.
Who qualifies for the Cabo Verde nomad visa
The income bar is what decides most applications, and it is the number people look for first. Here is the current one, with the conditions that come attached to it.
- Income required
- No confirmed figure
- Length of permit
- 6 monthsrenewable
- Savings alternative
- Around $1,630 in savings can be shown instead of the monthly income.
- Who can apply
- Employed remotely, Freelancer, Business owner
- Nationality restrictions
- Open to applicants from Europe, North America, Portuguese-speaking countries and ECOWAS states.
Application route is not properly open: the programme domain redirects to the tourist board, whose apply link is a Google form, and the immigration service's own application page still says coming soon. The insurance requirement and the income figures quoted across nomad guides could not be traced to any official Cape Verdean source.
Tax
Remote income is exempt if not from Cape Verdean sources.
That is a summary of the rule, not tax advice. Residence for immigration and residence for tax are decided separately, and the second one tends to arrive quietly, usually after you have been in the country long enough to stop thinking about it. Take proper advice before the year you need it.
What the income bar really means
Two things get people rejected on income even when they earn enough. The first is proving it: consulates want a documented, repeating history, usually bank statements and contracts covering several months, not a screenshot of a good quarter. Irregular freelance income clears the bar on average and fails on paper. The second is dependants, who almost always raise the threshold, and by a percentage of the base figure rather than a flat amount.
Treat the number above as the floor for the paperwork, not as a comfortable income for living there. It is set by the country’s own cost of living or minimum wage, which means it moves, and in several countries it is re-set every year.
The Remote Working Program's insurance rule explicitly requires coverage for both medical evacuation and repatriation of remains, while setting no minimum coverage amount, an unusually specific evacuation mandate for a nomad visa.
Our take
Cabo Verde is one of the few nomad programs that writes the insurance requirement out in plain terms: it is not just travel and health cover, it must include medical evacuation and repatriation of remains. Treat that as the spec, not a formality, and check those two words appear in your policy wording.
There is no government-set coverage amount, which means a cheap policy with a low headline limit can technically tick the box while leaving you exposed. Because a serious case here is flown to mainland Europe, choose a plan with a high evacuation limit and overseas treatment, not the minimum that satisfies a checkbox.
What happens if you get it wrong
A policy that excludes or sub-limits medical evacuation. This archipelago routinely flies complex cases to Europe, and two islands (Brava and Santo Antao) have no working airport, so a weak evacuation clause is the failure point that the visa rule is specifically trying to prevent.
Assuming insurance gets you treated without paying. Hospitals and private clinics generally demand upfront payment even from insured patients, so you pay first and claim back. Without a card or cash buffer and saved receipts, a valid policy still leaves you stuck at the desk.
Interactive
Verified pricesWhat would it cost in Cape Verde without insurance?
You pay, out of pocket
$1,500–$8,000
A serious private admission or common surgery.
Bars to scale. A flight home is in another league.
That is the bill you carry alone. Insurance exists for exactly this.
See what cover costsTypical private-care estimates for illustration, not a quote. Actual bills vary by hospital, city and severity.
FAQ
Yes. Applicants must hold valid travel and health insurance, and the requirement specifically names coverage for medical evacuation and repatriation of remains.
No official minimum sum is published. Because serious cases are evacuated to Europe, the sensible standard is a policy with a high evacuation limit and overseas treatment rather than a low headline figure.
It is granted for six months and can be renewed once for a further six months, giving up to a year in total.
No single official salary figure is published. It is commonly cited as an average bank balance of about 1,500 euros over six months for an individual, or about 2,700 euros for a family. Confirm current figures with the consulate.
No. There is no requirement to buy from a local insurer; an international travel and health policy is accepted, as long as it covers medical evacuation and repatriation.
How to apply
- Processing time
- About two weeks (stated on the programme site; the official page gives no timeframe).
- Government fee
- EUR 20 per person visa fee plus EUR 34 per person airport fee, both paid on arrival.
- Where to apply
- Online application form via the official visit-caboverde.com page. Fees are paid on arrival and the visa must be formalised within 30 days of entry; stay is up to six months, renewable.
- 1
Fill in the online Remote Working Program application form linked from the official visit-caboverde.com page.
- 2
Email the required documents: passport bio page and photo (six months validity), six months of bank statements or salary slips showing sufficient income, travel or health insurance, proof of accommodation, and employment or business details.
- 3
Wait about two weeks for approval; do not travel before you are approved.
- 4
Fly to Cabo Verde and, at the border, pay the EUR 20 visa fee and EUR 34 airport fee and hand over your document set to receive the entry stamp.
- 5
Within 30 days of arrival, contact the Remote Working Program to formalise the visa, which grants a stay of up to six months, renewable.
Fees and processing times move, sometimes without announcement, and a consulate can add a document the published checklist does not mention. Treat the above as the shape of the process rather than a guarantee, and check the current requirement with the mission handling your application before you book anything.
What policy actually satisfies this visa
Cabo Verde does not publish a minimum figure, which sounds permissive and is not. It means you are judged against somebody's unwritten idea of adequate, and the safe reading of adequate is enough to cover a serious hospital admission in Cabo Verde, not the cheapest policy that technically exists.
A compliant international policy is accepted, so you are not forced into a local insurer. That matters more than it sounds: it means one policy can follow you when you leave, instead of expiring at the border.
Repatriation of remains has to be covered explicitly. It is a line item, and either your certificate names it or it does not, and plenty of otherwise strong policies leave it out. Ask your insurer to state it.
The dates are the other thing that gets applications rejected: full duration of stay
Ask your insurer for a certificate of cover that states your full name as it appears on your passport, the exact policy period, the territory covered, and the benefit amounts. That is a normal request and any decent insurer issues it without fuss. The insurance being real and the paperwork still failing is a more common way to lose an application than being uninsured.
The visa tells you the minimum. It does not tell you what to actually carry. Those are different questions, and the paperwork minimum is nearly always the smaller of the two answers.
Get a policy that satisfies this visa
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