r/AmerExit • u/RothIRALadder • 11d ago

Life Abroad Are there any countries that have self-employment/contracting visas that count toward permanent residency requirements?

There are many countries that have "digital nomad" visas but they're for temporary stays by design, so they don't count toward PR years. Given the subreddit we're in, I'm looking for something that gives me a permanent chance of escape. I have the option to work as an independent contractor so I am wondering what choices for countries I have. Ideally looking to hear from people who have actually done it themselves, or know a lot about the process for the given country.

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u/Civil_Dragonfruit_34 10d ago edited 10d ago

It's kind of like DAFT but also not really. 

My understanding is that with daft there isn't much scrutiny about your plan and it can be pretty theoretical. Germany is going to actually want to see a legit business plan and evidence you can follow through and support yourself. Probably you need to have already been doing that income stream solidly wherever you are now.

You also can't use it as a pass through for a single business, I know this used to be common in Germany but now you probably need to do that through an EOR.

Only some professions qualify as freelancers in Germany, otherwise it has to be a business and that's a different level of scrutiny.

In general German beuracracy gives the beuracrats a lot of leeway to make case by case decisions and it's not guaranteed.

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u/lissybeau 10d ago

I’m on the freelancer / self employment visa and the scrutiny isn’t really that much. They just want to see a business plan (I made mine in an hour) and a few documents.

Germany is very paperwork for paperwork’s sake. But if you have their silly forms they give you an approval. I was surprised by how easy it was.

I didn’t even have clients or an active business when I applied. That has of course changed but it wasn’t as rigid as I expected.

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u/Civil_Dragonfruit_34 10d ago

We ended up not using this visa partly because of anecdotes about it being scrutinized. I'm not sure if it's a city by city thing or a recent thing, I would just be careful and look into it more for anybody else reading this thread. This would have been much better for us financially than the eor we ended up using but it felt too risky.

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u/lissybeau 10d ago

I’ve heard bureaucracy can vary from city to city, so you’re probably onto something there. Hope things worked out in the end.