0:00

Hello , it's Alex from Remote Work Life . I hope

0:02

this finds you well , wherever you may be

0:05

, and it's the time of year for

0:07

me when I'm starting to think about holidays

0:10

and I'm starting to think about travel , and

0:13

that's probably because you tend

0:15

to see a lot of adverts pop up on

0:17

places like YouTube

0:19

and Google and on TV

0:21

and wherever it is you tend to

0:23

see the travel companies

0:25

, the airlines , talking

0:28

about travel and pulling those , all those sort of images

0:30

in your mind to get you thinking about

0:33

travel and starting to get you to book

0:35

your travel destinations . But

0:37

for me , it's more than that

0:40

. Living

0:42

in some , living somewhere like London , it's where you've

0:44

got the hustle and bustle and the busy traffic

0:46

and the noise and

0:48

the pollution or this sort of thing and I've

0:51

got kids you think about

0:53

quite often , or at least I do

0:55

. Anyway , I think about where

0:57

else could we go , what

1:00

else could we be doing , what other destinations

1:02

are there ? I've been in London for a long time . I

1:05

used to travel around a lot more . I

1:07

guess I used to be a bit more of a had

1:10

a bit more of a nomadic lifestyle , although

1:12

I was traveling within the UK

1:14

, not necessarily internationally , but

1:17

since I've had children . I've been a bit

1:19

more settled

1:22

, more sedentary , I

1:24

guess you could say More work

1:26

from home , work from co-working spaces . But as

1:29

you get older and you see your children playing and

1:31

especially somewhere like the UK

1:33

where the weather's cold , where there aren't

1:35

as many opportunities to go out and play

1:38

for the kids or the weather's

1:40

not conducive to going

1:43

out as much and there's all these different

1:45

kinds of things and the dark nights , etc

1:47

. You've got quite young children . You may not think

1:50

about these sorts of things

1:52

as much , but if you're in a sort of a different

1:54

climate , maybe , or yeah

1:57

, so that those these are all thoughts that have

1:59

just started to sort of enter my mind

2:01

, and that my children are over an age where we've

2:04

done a little bit of traveling , we've done a little bit of holiday

2:09

traveling , where we've me

2:12

and my wife , we've we've worked

2:14

wherever

2:16

we've been , so hotels , or where it is Airbnb

2:18

, etc . But yeah

2:22

, I would love to do travel a lot

2:24

more . I think , and it's

2:26

kind of inspired me to start to make

2:28

, to make a list of different

2:31

places that not

2:34

just a welcoming

2:36

but are sort of conducive to

2:38

remote workers and

2:40

are conducive to that , that whole lifestyle

2:42

Not necessarily digital know-back , some

2:44

. As I said , I'm not I'm not a digital know-back by

2:46

any stretch of the imagination , but the

2:49

digital nomad wave

2:52

is definitely still

2:54

there . It's , it's , it's I

2:56

don't know if it's at its peak , but it's definitely

2:59

something that countries

3:02

and cities are trying to

3:04

tap into . And it takes me back to a conversation

3:06

that I had with Sandra Rausch of

3:09

Safety Wing , where

3:12

we have having this conversation . He was saying to me that

3:14

countries and cities are going to start to compete

3:16

for digital nomads

3:18

, remote workers , and

3:21

this was at the height of the pandemic , or at least

3:23

, was it the height ? No

3:26

, it wasn't the height , it was at the

3:28

entry point , I

3:30

guess , of the pandemic . But

3:33

even at that point

3:35

it was

3:37

apparent that

3:40

countries were gearing up to

3:43

attract digital nomads . And , like

3:45

I said , I've made a list of different countries

3:48

and I'm sort

3:51

of embarking upon some research at

3:53

the moment where I'm looking into these different countries

3:55

. And these are countries not

3:57

just within Europe , but countries

4:00

Asia yes

4:02

, considering Asia , considering

4:05

North America , south

4:08

America , caribbean

4:10

islands well , you don't often hear some

4:13

of the Caribbean islands mentioned in

4:15

terms of digital nomads is my remote

4:17

work , but nonetheless I'm doing

4:19

my research and there's lots of different aspects

4:21

, as you can probably imagine that

4:24

you want to look into when

4:27

you're doing your research for

4:30

a place where you can live and

4:32

work , and I mean when I say

4:34

live and work , I mean just on a short term basis

4:36

. I think one of the things that topped my

4:38

list is obviously

4:41

safety and all that sort of thing is

4:44

important , but internet

4:46

speed , that's one big thing , because

4:48

obviously without internet , literally

4:52

it all kind of grinds

4:54

to a halt . So , yeah

4:57

, I'm just putting together a rough list and if you've

4:59

got any ideas as well , please reach

5:01

out to me . In

5:04

fact , even better if you've

5:06

actually visited some of the countries that

5:08

I'm going to be highlighting

5:11

, because I'm going to do one country

5:13

each week in

5:16

the part . I'm going to feature

5:18

one country each week and

5:21

it may be every other week . It depends if

5:24

I can get some sort of cadence , some sort of rhythm into

5:26

this whole thing , because it's quite something

5:29

quite different for the podcast and

5:31

I thought that my research might be able to help

5:33

you if

5:35

you're also in the sort of thought

5:37

process of holidays

5:39

and planning and

5:42

researching different destinations for yourself

5:44

, your family as well , I think , because again , when

5:47

I talk , when I mentioned safety just now , something

5:51

that's family friendly . Well , at least , at the very

5:53

least , is yeah

5:56

, every family

5:58

person wants that . Every mom , every dad

6:00

, every carer , every

6:02

sort of caregiver , wants to be able

6:05

to do that and they want to know

6:07

that they are safe wherever they travel . And especially

6:09

when you've got kids , because you kind of

6:11

I don't know about you , but as a

6:13

father , I'm probably pretty

6:15

overprotective of my kids . But , yes

6:18

, I digress slightly , but what

6:20

I want to do in today's

6:22

episode is because , part

6:25

of my research , I've identified

6:27

a few things I've identified

6:30

top of my list at the moment , not

6:32

necessarily for any particular reason , but for

6:34

Georgia as one of the

6:36

countries that has

6:38

come to light in my research

6:41

, and Georgia

6:43

seems to be again one of those countries

6:46

. Back to what I was saying about Sandra is

6:48

that one of those countries

6:50

that is openly

6:52

trying to attract digital

6:55

nomads , remote workers ? Why

6:59

do I say that ? Well , I say that because

7:01

they have introduced

7:03

, as of December

7:06

2023 . Let's

7:10

have a look . In

7:12

fact , let's see . There's

7:15

a website that I'm looking at . This

7:17

is why I'm kind of hesitating , but

7:20

it's called visaguideworld

7:24

and this has like a bit of a summary

7:26

in terms of what

7:28

Georgia has to offer and

7:30

, in fact , I got my years wrong , because it's not 2023

7:33

, but in 2020 , again

7:36

back when we were having the conversation with Roush sorry

7:38

, sandra of Safety Wing

7:40

, georgia

7:43

introduced their digital nomad visa called

7:45

Remotely From Georgia

7:48

. So I don't

7:51

know , actually , if this is still . Again

7:54

, you may be able to tell me if you've been there or sort of are

7:59

planning

8:01

to go there yourself or been there yourself . They

8:03

introduced that back in 2020

8:09

, called

8:11

the Remotely From Georgia visa , and at

8:14

the time that they introduced it again , I'm

8:16

going to have to dig deeper into this and

8:19

, again , the idea

8:21

of this show is just to give you some

8:23

ideas as well as myself as well

8:25

, give you a starting point for

8:28

your own research , because I'm not going to dig

8:30

too deeply . But

8:32

in looking at this particular

8:34

article , basically

8:39

what they've said , what they're saying , the idea of this Remotely

8:41

From Georgia visa is

8:43

it provides an opportunity for long-term

8:46

stays , so six months and

8:48

up to a year , which , if

8:51

it's still apparent , if it's still

8:53

the case , then that's really

8:56

good and that would suit my purposes

8:58

, because I wouldn't plan to stay that

9:00

long . I

9:02

wouldn't plan to stay that long . In fact , I probably wouldn't even

9:05

need to say I

9:07

don't know Would I need a work

9:09

visa while I'm staying . I wonder Again

9:12

if you're a visa

9:14

expert and you want to come on the show

9:16

, you want to talk about visas

9:19

and visa applications and all that

9:21

sort of thing , the ins and outs of travel

9:23

, then I would welcome

9:25

you on the show to

9:27

demystify some of the things that I am talking

9:30

about , because lots of this doesn't necessarily

9:32

it's

9:34

not my wheelhouse . This is not my wheelhouse

9:37

at all . As I said , this is just me openly

9:39

riffing and sharing my thoughts

9:41

on what I can see on

9:44

this page here of this particular website . So , according

9:47

to the website as well , there's

9:50

a few things I've picked out . In

9:52

fact , let's see there's about

9:55

10 things I picked out which make it make

10:00

this article appealing and

10:02

make the whole idea of going to Georgia appealing . So

10:04

I've talked about the digital nomad visa , the fact

10:07

that they're trying to openly

10:09

attract people like

10:11

me who want to work remotely , so

10:14

that's a good starting point . Number

10:17

two on this list the visa application

10:19

process . If it applies to me I

10:21

don't know if it does , because I don't think I'll be staying

10:24

for six months it would be lovely if we could , but I

10:26

don't think we will be . But

10:28

again , I haven't made my decision yet . So

10:30

the visa application process

10:33

is simple Love to hear that and

10:35

can be completed online . Even better , I'd

10:38

be surprised if they had had

10:41

a paper based system in place

10:43

so it can be completed online

10:45

with a processing time of 10

10:48

business days Superb , so that's . That's

10:50

another advantage . Definitely , you

10:52

don't want processes that take too long , even though

10:54

I guess some I've come across others that take too long . I've

10:56

come across others that take less . I've come

10:58

across some that take more . But , yeah

11:00

, we can live with 10 days , especially as we're not thinking

11:03

immediately about going anywhere . What

11:06

else ? There are no application fees

11:08

, so it's always good not

11:10

to have to shell out any money for this sort of

11:12

thing , given that we're thinking about going

11:14

there to spend money anyway . So

11:17

no application fees are required

11:19

for obtaining a Georgia digital nomad

11:22

visa . So that's number two the application

11:24

process sounds pretty good to me . And

11:27

number three , visa entry

11:29

visa free entry , so

11:32

Okay

11:36

. So another thing that kind

11:38

of answers the question that I perhaps asked

11:40

earlier on is that Georgia allows

11:42

citizens from 95

11:44

countries to enter visa

11:47

free and stay for up to 365

11:50

days , including flexibility

11:52

for digital nomads and again

11:54

this particular article that I've got , which

11:56

probably I should link to in the , in

11:59

the sort of show notes , gives

12:01

a whole list of the different

12:03

countries that that

12:05

this applies to . So Australia

12:08

, botswana , lithuania , ukraine

12:10

, antigua Barbuda , bahrain , estonia

12:14

, finland , andorra , slovenia yeah

12:17

, the list goes . I'm not going to read every single one

12:19

of the 95

12:21

different countries , and obviously I'm

12:23

looking for the UK and it is there , so

12:25

that would be a

12:27

good point for me . There's Germany , there's St

12:30

Vincent and the Grenadines , bulgaria

12:33

, ecuador , japan

12:35

, portugal , norway , monaco

12:37

, luxembourg , costa Rica , kuwait . So countries

12:41

from literally every continent . They're

12:44

very liberal and very when

12:47

I say they , georgia is very open

12:49

to welcoming people by the

12:51

sounds of it , which sounds

12:53

very good . So , yeah , so Georgia

12:56

allows citizens from 95

12:58

countries to enter visa-free

13:00

and stay for up to 365

13:02

days , providing flexibility . That's great . So

13:05

that's number three on the list . Number four

13:07

on the list the tax benefits . So

13:09

what it's ? Again , I don't know

13:11

if this applies to me , how it applies to me as

13:14

somebody who wants to potentially

13:17

, potentially , stay in the country

13:19

for a period of time , not

13:21

necessarily six months to a year , but

13:24

let's see tax benefits until

13:26

the 183rd

13:28

day of stay . Digital

13:31

nomads in Georgia are not required to

13:33

pay taxes After

13:35

183 days , the income

13:37

tax is approximately 20%

13:39

. So

13:41

that's in itself is attractive

13:44

, but , again , I'm not an expert

13:46

on this area of the tax , et cetera , and I'm

13:48

not sure how up to date this information is . So , again

13:51

, this is something that you

13:53

should research yourself . The

13:56

stuff that I'm giving here . Let me just say this

13:58

is not necessarily advice

14:00

. It's just me opening up and

14:02

, I guess , sharing some of my

14:05

thoughts with you . So , on

14:07

anything I say today , please seek your

14:09

own independent advice and do your own research

14:12

, and don't say

14:14

that Alex from remote

14:16

work life told me so because , yeah , as

14:18

I said , I'm not an expert in any of these

14:20

aspects , whether it comes to the visa , whether

14:22

it comes to the travel , et cetera . This is me just sharing information

14:25

that I've found on the internet . So

14:28

, in terms of the tax benefits , the individual

14:30

entrepreneur scheme allows digital nomads to

14:32

pay only 1% on

14:35

their first $155,000

14:38

of income , providing

14:40

a favorable tax scheme

14:42

. Again , yep , seeking

14:45

your advice on that . I don't know

14:47

how favorable that is because I haven't compared it to any other country

14:49

. Again , I've just really

14:52

started the research here and I'm

14:54

not necessarily saying that I am gonna

14:56

go to Georgia , but it's just something that , as

14:59

I said , it's on my list . So

15:01

, number five , bank account accessibility . Until

15:04

sorry , unlike some

15:06

countries , georgia allows digital

15:08

nomads to open a bank account upon

15:11

arrival , simplifying financial

15:13

transactions and enhancing the overall

15:15

experience . That's really good because

15:18

, yeah , as

15:20

much as there's contactless payments , we

15:22

all need , I think

15:24

, some form of some

15:26

method of you

15:28

know , saving

15:30

, storing the money that we get , whether

15:33

it's physical

15:35

dollars or some

15:38

sort of virtual currency . We need bank

15:40

accounts . I don't know how open

15:43

, obviously

15:45

, these banks are to you know the

15:47

decentralized currencies , we don't know . But

15:50

then again , it's something

15:52

to research , something for you to research

15:54

, something for me to research . So , yeah , bank

15:56

account accessibility . If that is the case

15:58

, as they put it here , you know that you

16:01

can open up a bank account upon arrival

16:03

. That's pretty good , it's pretty

16:05

handy . What else do we have ? So

16:07

, affordable living

16:09

costs . Now , this is subjective

16:12

because you know what's

16:14

affordable to one person is not to another

16:16

, but it says here the cost of living

16:18

in Georgia and I don't really understand what

16:20

this means but is $698

16:23

. I think I need to look at that a

16:25

bit more . Is that the monthly cost

16:29

of living ? Again , something I need to do

16:31

a bit more research

16:33

on , because

16:35

, yeah , it's always good to know

16:38

in advance

16:40

what the cost of living may be and

16:42

then , in that way , you can then compare

16:44

it to where

16:47

you are currently and see

16:49

if it adds up , see if it stacks up . But

16:52

, yeah , that doesn't really make sense to me , maybe

16:56

. Yeah , I think that needs clearing up

16:58

, I think that needs to be looked into

17:00

by me , by you . So , the

17:02

cost of living , and if you do know , if you've been to Georgia

17:05

, if you understand the cost of living as

17:08

compares to something like London , for example

17:10

, or the other big cities in the world

17:12

, then get in touch

17:14

, hit me up on LinkedIn . What

17:17

else ? Internet speed ? That's

17:19

a good one . That's near the top of my list as well . So

17:22

what it says here , this is number

17:24

seven on the list . By the way , georgia offers

17:26

a good internet speed of

17:28

30.28

17:33

megabits per

17:35

second , ensuring reliable connectivity

17:38

for remote work . Now , that's

17:42

okay , that's

17:45

all right . I mean , again , somewhere

17:47

like London , you're

17:51

probably expecting around the 60

17:53

plus in

17:57

terms of some of the more connected areas . I

18:01

know some of these internet companies . They will say one thing

18:03

you don't necessarily get what you pay for , but

18:05

it's a little bit better than 30.28

18:09

. But it's something that

18:11

you can live

18:13

with . I mean , for

18:15

me , again , if I was going somewhere like Georgia

18:17

for a short stay , yeah

18:20

, I could live with that for a while , and if

18:22

it meant I had to take some sort of mobile internet

18:24

to

18:26

tether my computer , then

18:29

I would do that . But

18:31

, yeah , something to consider . And I think , as

18:34

I build , maybe what I'll do is I'll continue

18:36

with these comparisons and

18:39

then , well , continue with these sort

18:41

of overviews of these different countries and

18:43

what that then does . It helps me to build

18:45

like sort of comparisons of the

18:47

different facets , the

18:52

different sort of features of each country . So

18:54

, internet speed , that was internet speed . That's number seven . So

18:58

, yeah , number eight on the list and

19:00

something I was touching on before . Yet , living

19:03

in a metropolitan

19:05

area like London , especially

19:08

if you're living right in the center , it's

19:10

cars , it's traffic , it's road , it's concrete

19:13

, it's noise pollution

19:15

, it's light pollution , it's

19:17

all those different sorts of things . You

19:20

don't often get to see

19:22

the natural side of London unless

19:25

you really go out and look for it . There are definitely

19:27

different places you can go , but you have to travel

19:29

to get to it . You

19:31

have to travel through lots of traffic to get there . So

19:34

number eight on the list is natural

19:36

beauty and culture . So what it says here Georgia

19:38

boasts beautiful landscapes , including

19:40

mountains and beaches

19:43

, lovely offering opportunities

19:45

for activities like hiking and

19:47

skiing . The country is described

19:50

as beautiful and welcoming , with excellent

19:52

food and the oldest wine

19:55

, so there's a lot there

19:57

to be optimistic

20:00

about when it comes to Georgia . Again , this is just information

20:03

I've got off the internet . If

20:05

you know about Georgia , as I

20:07

said before , and you've been to Georgia , let

20:10

me know If you're from Georgia , if you're listening from

20:12

Georgia , and you can sort of corroborate

20:14

all these different and invert

20:16

common facts that I'm putting away

20:18

, then get in touch . So

20:21

natural beauty that's number eight . Number nine so

20:24

let's see eligibility

20:27

criteria . I think I've covered that . So I mentioned

20:29

, yeah , 95 countries . So

20:31

yeah , I've already covered that and that's kind

20:33

of that's

20:36

definitely positive , the fact that Georgia

20:38

is open to so many different

20:41

, so many different

20:43

countries and citizens of different

20:45

countries that it's really good . Sorry for

20:47

the background noise there . It's

20:50

open to citizens of different countries and they're eligible

20:52

to apply for the Georgia

20:54

Digital Nomad Visa . So

20:58

that's number nine on the list . And then let's

21:00

have a look . Application requirements . So the

21:02

application requirements essentially

21:05

, what they're saying is clear information on

21:07

required documents for the application process

21:09

valid passport , proof of business or employment

21:12

, medical insurance you probably need

21:14

to have that and I think in some

21:16

of these longer term processes

21:19

, one thing I've learned

21:21

is that medical insurance is something

21:23

that you're gonna need to think

21:25

about getting or get in advance . So

21:28

, again , do your research to see

21:30

which suits your circumstances

21:32

best . Again , I

21:34

mentioned safety wing at the top

21:37

of the show . Have

21:39

a look at safety wing . There are many other

21:42

different medical

21:44

insurance companies , but , yeah

21:47

, safety wing is one that is known pretty

21:49

well in the community of

21:51

remote workers and digital

21:53

nomads , so that you know it's good

21:55

to have something , that's good to work with a

21:57

company that knows digital

22:00

nomads and has been there

22:02

and has done that in terms of

22:04

supporting digital nomads

22:06

. So , yeah , but

22:09

yeah , that's it for my list for today

22:11

. In terms of you

22:13

know a country that is on my list

22:15

to do some more research , maybe I'll , once

22:18

I've got a bit more information , I'll share

22:20

a bit more as I get it . But yeah

22:22

, if you're considering traveling

22:25

, please , as I said , get in touch

22:27

on LinkedIn , let me know where you're thinking

22:29

about and let me know what research you've done

22:31

and if you're a visa expert , if you know about these different

22:33

countries , if you've been to these different countries , if

22:35

you live in these different countries , always open

22:38

to hear from you . But that's

22:41

it for today from me , from the Remote Workhouse Podcast

22:43

. Listen out for the next episode

22:45

and I will catch you

22:47

on the next episode . All the best

22:49

.