South America’s first-ever digital nomad village is set to open in Brazil, where remote workers will be able to lay roots as they explore one of the continent’s most exciting and culturally diverse countries. However, if you’re thinking tourist cliches like Rio or Sao Paulo have been selected as host cities, you are in for a big surprise.
Having spent two and a half years mostly sealed off from the rest of the world, Brazil is now keen on boosting tourism and being ahead of the curve when it comes to the latest travel trends. One of them is digital nomadism, a lifestyle that’s exploding in popularity in the post-Covid world, and on which the nation is banking on to boost its economy.
Having announced its own Digital Nomad Visa recently, it seems South America’s largest nation is preparing to become a major nomad hotspot.
The Nomad Village Brazil is a project run by the Portugal-based startup Nomad X, which identified the country, with which the European nation has close historical ties, as the ideal location for building a digital worker hub. Of course, the kinship between Portugal and Brazil is not the only reason for this favouritism.
Europe may have come out ahead of other markets by opening up to nomadism a lot sooner, with Croatia being one of the first in the world to launch a specific visa for this category, but unlike Brazil, where the sun shines all year round, the Old Continent normally gets chilly and grey in the long winter months.
Even in the low season, coastal states in Brazil, especially in the North, still record temperatures well above 30 degrees, making it an ideal place for long-term travellers looking for somewhere warmer to linger a while longer.
NomadX is setting up the village in Pipa, a small coastal town in Northeastern Brazil where some of the country’s most breathtakingly beautiful beaches are located. Branding it an ‘escape’ from the harsh Northern Hemisphere winter, the company has picked Pipa’s Morada dos Vento’s guest house to welcome participants.
Anyone who satisfies all of the requirements below can apply to live in Brazil for up to two years as a digital nomad:
- Have earnings of more than $1,500 per month, either as entrepreneurs or employees of a foreign company
- A valid passport for the entirety of their time in Brazil
- Valid health insurance covering the intended stay
It is worth noting citizens of Mercosur and Mercosur-associated countries, such as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia and others, already enjoy freedom of movement within Brazil and do not need to apply for visas working in the country.