The rules changed again this year: three more countries opened remote work permits; income requirements rose in several others, and the change with the biggest effect on tech talent has nothing to do with digital nomads at all. 

None of these regulations stay still, which is what makes this such a difficult thing to research. In several countries the income you need to qualify is worked out from the local minimum or average wage, so it moves every January, which gives anything written about it a short shelf life. 

Do EU citizens need a digital nomad visa to move countries?

If you hold a passport from an EU or EEA country or Switzerland, you can already live and work in any of them. The digital nomad visas are for people coming from outside them. 

If you’re not an EU citizen, you have two main options: 

• A digital nomad visa lets you live in a country while working remotely for employers or clients somewhere else; 
• The EU Blue Card is for when you want to take a job with a local employer.  

They are very different, so be sure to check the paperwork and the exact country you wish to apply to because regulations often change from country to country. 

Can you get an EU Blue Card without a degree?

The Blue Card normally asks for a higher education qualification, but under the revised directive, IT managers and specialists can qualify on professional experience instead: three years of relevant work gained in the seven years before you apply is considered enough for these professions. 

The European Commission’s own country pages can clarify this, and the exception is written specifically for information and communication technology roles. 

As for the rest of the conditions: 

• You need a job offer of at least six months;
• A salary that clears the national threshold, which the directive requires to sit between one and 1.6 times the country’s average gross annual salary.  

Countries can go lower, down to 80% of their own threshold, for positions that are currently on shortage or even recent graduates. Tech jobs are on most of those shortage lists. 

The EU Blue Card covers 25 countries, everywhere in the EU except Denmark and Ireland. After 12 months you can move to another member state and keep going from there. 

Digital nomad visa income requirements change every year

Digital nomad visa thresholds are not fixed for long. Portugal’s is set as a multiple of the national minimum wage, Spain’s tracks its minimum salary, and several others follow average earnings. Every one of those can move annually, usually in January when the underlying wage figures are updated. 

So, treat every number you read as a starting point. The right place to confirm this information is always the European Commission’s immigration portal, which keeps a page per country with the current Blue Card threshold and a link to the national authority that issues it. For digital nomad visas, go to the immigration or foreign ministry site of the country itself.  

The new European digital nomad visas in 2026 

More countries opened up. Bulgaria, Slovenia and Moldova all launched remote work permits in late 2025. More than fifteen European countries now run some version of the digital nomad visa. 

Some countries tightened their rules. The Netherlands proposed raising its highly skilled migrant salary thresholds in 2025 and restricting how long younger applicants can use the reduced rate.  

And a review is coming. Under the directive, the European Commission has to report to the European Parliament and Council by 18 November 2026 on how the Blue Card is working. That report is where any change to the rules will start. 

Don’t get us wrong, none of this is quick. These processes can take several months in most countries, and the paperwork can be quite tedious. But the routes are wider than they were two years ago. 

If you’re weighing a move, don’t forget to check the official source before you trust any other source online.