New Zealand welcomes digital nomads by loosening visitor visa rules(abc.net.au)
abc.net.au
New Zealand welcomes digital nomads by loosening visitor visa rules
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-27/nz-loosens-visitor-visa-rules-to-welcome-digital-nomads/104863564
26 comments
This is a piece of political posturing by the current government. People have been coming here and working on holiday for years, even though people are supposed to get a work permit if you come as a tourist and work remotely there's no practical to enforce it and no government has tried in the past. Making this change will have no practical effect on the economy.
> People have been coming here and working on holiday for years, even though people are supposed to get a work permit if you come as a tourist and work remotely there's no practical to enforce it and no government has tried in the past.
This in itself is a very good reason to actually enshrine reality into the law of the land. I don't disagree that the fanfare and PR around it is overblown, but hand waving and saying this is nothing is unfair. Clarifying the law is precisely what a government should be doing.
> Making this change will have no practical effect on the economy.
I don't know if this alone will change much, but I can guarantee the number of companies that don't let staff work remote for a few weeks in NZ because it's a legal grey area is not 0.
This in itself is a very good reason to actually enshrine reality into the law of the land. I don't disagree that the fanfare and PR around it is overblown, but hand waving and saying this is nothing is unfair. Clarifying the law is precisely what a government should be doing.
> Making this change will have no practical effect on the economy.
I don't know if this alone will change much, but I can guarantee the number of companies that don't let staff work remote for a few weeks in NZ because it's a legal grey area is not 0.
They didn’t say it was nothing they said it was nearly nothing “no practical effect” on the economy, which is true.
One of the exciting and appealing parts about remote work is the enormous lifestyle increase you can get by living in a country where cost of living is low and the currency exchange is favourable.
NZ cost of living is pretty high, and also housing is a problem, the government press release and posturing is acting like this is going to bring a swath of digital workers to accelerate the NZ economy (they actually said that was the primary reason for this). Which is just not true at all.
In NZ on a 6 figure USD salary, you can get a nice apartment (single bedroom) in the city and live comfortably.
In southeast Asian countries you could have a villa with a pool and a personal chef, cleaner, for less money. Same in most of Europe if you go to the right places (not the big cities). How do I know? I was a travelling nomad for 6 years and lived in 6 different countries. NZ is where I have settled now, but there’s NO WAY a tidal wave of digital nomads are coming here to revitalise our economy, like the ministers claimed.
One of the exciting and appealing parts about remote work is the enormous lifestyle increase you can get by living in a country where cost of living is low and the currency exchange is favourable.
NZ cost of living is pretty high, and also housing is a problem, the government press release and posturing is acting like this is going to bring a swath of digital workers to accelerate the NZ economy (they actually said that was the primary reason for this). Which is just not true at all.
In NZ on a 6 figure USD salary, you can get a nice apartment (single bedroom) in the city and live comfortably.
In southeast Asian countries you could have a villa with a pool and a personal chef, cleaner, for less money. Same in most of Europe if you go to the right places (not the big cities). How do I know? I was a travelling nomad for 6 years and lived in 6 different countries. NZ is where I have settled now, but there’s NO WAY a tidal wave of digital nomads are coming here to revitalise our economy, like the ministers claimed.
I'm not going to argue semantics about the difference between 'nothing' and 'no practical effect'.
Very rarely does one law change in isolation have a significant impact the entire economy. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it, and it doesn't mean it has no effect.
Very rarely does one law change in isolation have a significant impact the entire economy. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it, and it doesn't mean it has no effect.
If it was de-facto allowed, but technically there were unenforced rules against it, this seems like a reduction in “political posturing.”
Aligning the rules with what people want to do and are already doing anyway seems more like pragmatism.
Aligning the rules with what people want to do and are already doing anyway seems more like pragmatism.
Clarifying the law when the world changes and creates a legal grey area sounds like the exact thing a government should be doing.
>even though people are supposed to get a work permit if you come as a tourist and work remotely
This is a super weird "posture" of legislation some countries around the world have, I do not understand the rationale.
If you make money elsewhere, by working elsewhere, never touching nor affecting the local job market, why would you have to get a work permit?
If anything, it's good for countries to have people coming in whose only effect in the economy is spending their money, better yet, money brought from elsewhere, an immediate net gain to that country's wealth.
This is a super weird "posture" of legislation some countries around the world have, I do not understand the rationale.
If you make money elsewhere, by working elsewhere, never touching nor affecting the local job market, why would you have to get a work permit?
If anything, it's good for countries to have people coming in whose only effect in the economy is spending their money, better yet, money brought from elsewhere, an immediate net gain to that country's wealth.
>If anything, it's good for countries to have people coming in whose only effect in the economy is spending their money, better yet, money brought from elsewhere, an immediate net gain to that country's wealth.
This seems debatable, there is an influx of money to asset owning individuals at the expense of most other locals now having more competition for housing and services.
This seems debatable, there is an influx of money to asset owning individuals at the expense of most other locals now having more competition for housing and services.
I do get the gentrification argument, but gentrification happens anyway since there's rich people everywhere.
Gentrification is not a net negative, since most of the time that money goes to someone on the local community.
That's also part of a broader issue, the issue of tourism, if an area is highly desired, prices will go up, this is natural. It's not related to people having a work permit or not, it's related to people willing to pay an extra for a particular product/service, it's a completely different thing.
So, coming back to the work permit thing ... why?
What is the difference between a guy on holiday that rents an AirBnB in Berlin for two months and spends 20k EUR there vs. a guy that writes code for a living for a US company and rents an AirBnB in Berlin for two months and spends 20k EUR there?
Gentrification is not a net negative, since most of the time that money goes to someone on the local community.
That's also part of a broader issue, the issue of tourism, if an area is highly desired, prices will go up, this is natural. It's not related to people having a work permit or not, it's related to people willing to pay an extra for a particular product/service, it's a completely different thing.
So, coming back to the work permit thing ... why?
What is the difference between a guy on holiday that rents an AirBnB in Berlin for two months and spends 20k EUR there vs. a guy that writes code for a living for a US company and rents an AirBnB in Berlin for two months and spends 20k EUR there?
I think this is one of those areas where "I'm not smart enough" because I have the exact same thoughts as you. Clearly, these rules were implemented by people "smarter than I" to the point that it seems nonsensical to us mere mortals.
It's probably not something that the law in most countries has considered before.
The idea of being able to work remotely (especially across international borders) wasn't around when the basics of immigration law and visas were introduced in most places.
The idea of being able to work remotely (especially across international borders) wasn't around when the basics of immigration law and visas were introduced in most places.
Agree, if anyone knows the why please help us understand.
It would affect people who were not allowed to work because their company was not sure if they are allowed to work in New Zealand. At individuals level sure, this is going to have little to no effect.
But - lot of people need their employers permission to work in a different country and Employers have specific policies about where an Employee is allowed to work depending on Employee's status in that country.
But - lot of people need their employers permission to work in a different country and Employers have specific policies about where an Employee is allowed to work depending on Employee's status in that country.
I think the key point here is if you can stay longer than 90 days. At least when I was in Vietnam, doing a border run every 3 months would get old pretty quickly.
> if you can stay longer than 90 days
There are places where there is a 90/180 day rule (a maximum of 90 days within any 180-day period) for instance in the EU's Schengen Area
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/visa_waiver_f...
There are places where there is a 90/180 day rule (a maximum of 90 days within any 180-day period) for instance in the EU's Schengen Area
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/visa_waiver_f...
I've always wanted a service that would help you plan out how to move around Europe most efficiently in order to maximize these rules.
Pretty funny they waited for WFH to be eliminated at most of the large tech companies. Guessing that is not a coincidence.
LMAO. Aren't digital nomads attracted by cheap cost of living relative to their home country? I live in NZ and (almost) everything is expensive as fuck.
I live in Christchurch while working remotely for US companies and you’d be surprised how affordable it is here in those circumstances.
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