Digital nomad visas in 2026: what they generally require for health insurance

Before they were created, a remote worker who wanted to settle for several months in a country often had to choose between a tourist visa, not meant for a long stay or for legally working there even remotely for a foreign employer, and a standard work visa, designed for local employment. The digital nomad status fills that gap: it legalises an extended stay for someone who works and is paid from outside the host country, in exchange for income conditions, sometimes tax conditions, and almost always health insurance.

• A minimum cover amount, sometimes stated precisely in the visa’s official text, sometimes left as a general wording (“comprehensive medical cover”) with no set threshold.
• A validity period aligned with the requested visa, to be renewed alongside it.
• Most often international insurance rather than simple travel insurance — some programmes explicitly exclude standard travel insurance policies from the application.
• Sometimes a specific Covid-cover clause, inherited from programmes created or adjusted during the pandemic period and that some countries have kept in their conditions since.

These criteria vary significantly from one country to another, including between neighbouring countries or ones at a comparable level of development: no amount or rule carries over from one programme to another without checking.

The Indonesia page details the E33G remote-worker visa, in effect since 1 April 2024: a minimum annual income of USD 60,000, a minimum bank balance of USD 2,000, and mandatory international health insurance for the entire length of the visa — simple travel insurance isn’t accepted, and no minimum cover amount is published by the Directorate General of Immigration. That’s exactly the kind of file that needs to be pieced together, programme by programme, before any application: some conditions are quantified, others aren’t, and that’s not something you can guess.

These programmes are recent, and many countries are still adjusting their criteria — cover amount, list of recognised insurers, duration, required documents — from one year to the next. An online comparison, including on this site, may reflect a condition that has changed since it was last checked. Before any application, the rule stays the same whatever country is involved: check the insurance requirement directly on the official website of the relevant immigration authority, as of the date of your application, not just on the word of an article.