The truth about Italy's & Indonesia's Digital Nomad Visas that do not exist!

There has recently been so much noise about Digital Nomad Visas that it’s difficult to say which one is coming and which one already exists. Here is the truth of what is going on with Italy’s & Indonesia’s Digital Nomad Visas that everyone talks about and we wish existed but DON’T.

Italy’s Digital Nomad Visa

It was officially voted into law on March 28, 2022, and every month over the summer, you could see articles saying that an Italian Visa is right around the corner, but it really is not. The rules might have been put into law 6 months ago now, but since then, there has been no decree that would actually make it a reality. Plus, since the recent new government election and the change in parliamentary electees, the Digital Nomad Visa is very much up in the air.

We’ve reached out for comments to Luca Carabetta, who was a Member of the Italian Parliament known for being Italy’s Digital Nomad Visa main champion.

He previously said that the visa would attract 5% of the global nomad market, which he estimated to be around 40 million people, in its first full year. Luca was convinced that “a digital nomad can bring to Italy skills in everything from architecture to engineering, so it’s a good way to open up (Italy) to skills from abroad.” He has seen the temporary visa as a way of attracting younger residents, who can use it to test-drive a more permanent life in the country. He said, “Our ultimate goal could be to have them, yes, as guests in Italy, but also to possibly establish themselves here.”

So what happened? Unfortunately, MR Carabetta was not re-elected in the recent parliamentary elections, and it looks like Italy’s Digital Nomad Visa has lost its momentum together with its main supporter.

There is still hope, but for now, none expects to hear anything new about it until the new year when the dust settles a bit more after the election.

Indonesia’s Digital Nomad Visas

The person responsible for the most hype about Indonesia’s Digital Nomad Visa is Indonesian Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno, who every few months says the visa is almost ready.

In June 2021, the minister told Reuters that digital nomads would be granted five-year visas and face no taxation on foreign-sourced income. Then a year later, Uno announced that the drafting of policies for a digital nomad visa had reached its final stages. In both cases, nothing transpired.

Lately, Mr. Uno’s Instagram post and his YouTube have sparked another media wave, with both Reuters and ABC News Australia claiming that Indonesia’s Digital Nomad Visa already exists. Well, it doesn’t.

What Mr. Uno really said is that “Now, digital nomad tourists who come here are facilitated by using a socio-cultural destination visa that is eligible for all countries.”

He was talking about the B211 visa, which is valid for a period of 60 days and can be extended twice by 60 days each time, for a total of up to 180 days.

The B211 visa is known as the social-cultural visa, and even though the visa covers business purposes like business meetings, networking, exploring investment opportunities, and sourcing products, it is NOT A WORK PERMIT. It is, indeed, the visa that most Digital Nomads stay on. However, this type of visa does not fully legalize their stay in Indonesia because the purpose of the visa does not include “working for companies or clients abroad.”

Also, as per current laws, anybody staying in Indonesia longer than 183 days over the course of 12 months technically becomes a resident of Indonesia, and residents are taxed on their global total income.

Long story short. Indonesian’s Digital Nomad Visa is not even on the horizon, and what the Minister of Tourism is suggesting is using the existing visas that are definitely not easy to get, nor are they fit for Digital Nomads.