Cape Verde: a nomad visa 3 hours' flight from Europe

A remote worker whose clients are European depends on being reachable during European business hours. A large time difference turns this constraint into a permanent organisational effort.

The most hyped destinations — Bali, Bangkok, Medellín — all involve a time difference of several hours, which forces you to shift your working day or give up certain interactions.

Cape Verde is a few hours' flight from Europe and practically in the same time zone. A self-employed person can work there on a normal European schedule, which is rare outside the continent.

There is also a practical factor: the ability to get back to France within a day, which changes everything for anyone who keeps family ties or regular professional appointments.

This proximity has an often overlooked economic corollary: the cost and frequency of trips home. A return trip to France from South-East Asia means an expense and two days of travel; from Cape Verde, it is a same-day flight at a fare comparable to a domestic European trip in high season.

For a self-employed person whose clients ask for an occasional presence, or for someone with elderly parents in France, this difference determines whether the project is feasible at all. It counts for more than a few points of tax.

The programme is aimed at people working remotely for an employer or clients based outside the archipelago, and requires average monthly reference income of about €1,500¹.

Its maximum total duration is up to 1 year². The scheme is therefore designed for a long stay, not for settling permanently.

Cape Verdean tax residency is acquired through presence of 183 days³ during the year, a threshold that a stay of a full year necessarily crosses.

The Cape Verdean scale starts at 16.5%⁴ and peaks at 27.5%⁵, with no tax-free band. A resident is therefore taxed from the very first escudo.

We do not publish the treatment of income earned by the programme holder from their remote work: we have found no official Cape Verdean source indicating whether it is excluded from the tax base, as under the Croatian scheme, or taxed at the scale rates. Yet this is the decisive point for a one-year stay.

Cape Verde is an arid island territory, entirely dependent on imports for food, energy and durable goods. The cost of living reflects this on those items, despite affordable services and labour.

Medical provision is limited, and major procedures require evacuation to Europe or mainland Africa. Insurance covering this risk is essential.

Digital connectivity varies greatly from one island to another. Praia and Sal are adequately served; the less populated islands much less so, which is decisive for a remote worker.

Finally, the archipelago is made up of very different islands — Sal and Boa Vista geared to beach tourism, Santiago administrative and populous, Santo Antão mountainous and isolated. Choosing Cape Verde says nothing yet about where you will live.

• Proximity to Europe in terms of time zone and flights is the scheme's real selling point.
• Its up to 1 year² duration makes it suited to a stay, not to settling permanently.
• A one-year stay crosses the 183 days³ tax residency threshold.
• The scale has no tax-free band and starts at 16.5%⁴.
• Connectivity and medical provision vary greatly depending on the island chosen.

Cape Verde therefore fills a precise and useful niche: a season of remote work in the sun, with no disruption to professional organisation and no time difference. It is not much, compared with the promises of competing schemes, and it is probably what a remote worker is really looking for most of the time.