The Barbados Digital Nomad Visa and Welcome Stamp

If you've ever dreamed of being able to work remotely on a Caribbean beach under swaying palm trees, Barbados is hard to resist. This beautiful country looks like something off a postcard, with gorgeous white sand beaches and beautiful clear water that will make you feel like you really are living in paradise.

Barbados is also a great location for remote work. This English-speaking country has strong Wi-Fi connectivity and a high standard of living. And the Barbados welcome stamp visa is the key to being able to live and work in paradise.

Let's take a look at how you can qualify to work remotely in Barbados. We'll take a look at the visa application process and the pros and cons of building a life in this beautiful country. If you want to work and live in Barbados, short or long term, this is how you do it.

The Barbados Welcome Stamp Visa: Your Ticket To Paradise

If you want to live and work in Barbados, you're in luck. The Welcome Stamp visa, created in 2020, allows you to stay in Barbados for a 12 month period, giving you a full year to live as a Digital Nomad in Barbados.

Who is eligible?

To qualify for the Welcome Stamp programme,  you need:

• To be a foreign national from outside Barbados.

• To be employed remotely by a foreign company, or a freelancer working for clients located outside Barbados.

• To have private health insurance that will cover you and any dependants for as long as you are in Barbados.

  
  

As is typical with digital nomad visas, you can't work for a Barbados-based company or receive income as a freelancer from companies in Barbados while using this visa.

You can bring family members with you on a welcome visa, but you need to demonstrate that you have enough income to support them.

The Barbados government does not restrict who can apply for the Barbados Welcome Stamp visa. Anyone can apply for this visa, so long as they meet the requirements. Most applicants, however, come from USA, Canada, and the UK, and there's a good reason for that, apart from the fact that Barbados is an English-speaking country.

You need to make at least US$50,000 per year to be eligible. And you need to be able to demonstrate that you can expect to make US$50,000 for the 12 months that you live in Barbados. When you apply for the Barbados Welcome Stamp visa, you will be asked to certify that you make at least this much. And when you submit your application, you will need to provide proof.

Now, for some people, US$50,000 per year isn't that much. But for many digital nomads, this may be an unrealistic amount of money. It also makes things a little difficult for freelancers, whose income may be unpredictable.

Benefits of living in Barbados as a digital nomad

If you are eligible to apply for a Barbados visa, it's well worth considering the option. Barbados offers an incredible lifestyle, with beautiful sunny weather year-round and gorgeous beaches and forests to explore. It's also a popular country with ex-pats from around the world, so it's easy to find an international community here. And the fact that English is an official language makes things much easier if you come from an English-speaking country.

The Barbados government actively encourages foreign workers to stay in the country with this piece of digital nomads. That makes it easy to find coworking spaces in Barbados, along with a thriving digital nomad community.

There's one more thing Barbados offers to those who want to live and work remotely: no income tax. Barbados does not charge income tax for people who live outside of Barbados and choose to spend a year in the country on the 12-month Barbados Welcome Stamp.

You'll still have to pay taxes in your home country, of course. But it does make it easier to make this your next Digital Nomad destination, since you won't have to navigate the bureaucracy of another country to pay income tax in Barbados.

How to Apply For The Barbados Digital Nomad Visa

You can apply for this visa for digital nomads online -  no application form needed.

You will be asked for your name, date of birth, and whether this is your first attempt to apply for Barbados visa status, or whether you have had a visa to Barbados before. You will be asked for your country of birth, your country of citizenship, and your former nationality, if it has changed.

Next, you will be asked for an email address, and to certify that you expect to earn that all-important income of more than US$50,000.

You'll also be asked the name of your employer and the type of work that you do, plus your marital status.

The next step is to fill out your permanent address. You'll be asked for your email address again, plus a telephone number and an emergency contact.

Then, enter your passport details, including passport number, date of issue, date of expiry, and country of issue. They will also ask you when you plan to enter Barbados, and whether you have ever been convicted of a serious criminal offence.

The next section is about your dependants. You will need to enter the name, date of birth, nationality, and passport number of anyone you plan to bring with you, i.e. your spouse or your children. You will be asked if your dependants will be attending school in Barbados.

Once you do that part, you will need to upload a passport-sized photograph. Photos must be in colour and taken within the last six months, with a resolution of 300 dpi. The maximum file size is 1 MB. You can submit up to five photos at a time, so you may want to submit multiple photos to make sure at least one of them is acceptable.

You will also be asked for a copy of the photo page of your passport. The best way to get a clear image is to scan your passport, but make sure the file size is now bigger than 1 MB.

Once you've done all that, you can upload your Barbados eVisa application and pay the visa fee. The application process for the Barbados visa is really simple, and if you have your information ready, the online visa application shouldn't take more than a few minutes to fill out the application form online. 

Decisions are usually made within 7 working days. Payment of the application fee is due once you receive your visa. You have 28 days from the date of application approval to pay your fee.

How much does the Barbados Welcome Stamp visa cost?

Becoming a digital nomad in Barbados is quite easy, but it isn't cheap. 

It costs US$2000 to apply for the Welcome Stamp as an individual, and US$3000 for a family.

Yes, that's quite expensive by the standards of digital nomad visas. The cost of living in Barbados is also quite high. But the digital nomad lifestyle Barbados offers is truly exceptional. And remember that one of the best things about this visa is that you won't have to pay Barbados income tax.

Renewing your Barbados visa

The Welcome Stamp visa is valid for 12 months at a time, but this visa allows you to renew. In fact, you can renew your visa as many times as you want. The application fee is discounted by 25% after your first application, so it costs around US$1500 for an individual and US$2200 for a family.

The Welcome Stamp also offers a pathway to long-term immigration status in Barbados. If you have lived in the country for five years, you can apply to become a permanent immigrant.

Cost of Living

Barbados is not known as a cheap place to live. That's part of why the required minimum income for digital nomads is so high. At the same time, affordability is relative. If you're coming from a big city in North America or Western Europe, you'll find prices pretty comparable to home. If you're coming from somewhere with a lower cost of living, then Barbados could seem quite expensive.

Expect a one-bedroom apartment in the centre of the city to cost around US$700-US$900 per month. Basic utilities like electricity, heating, and cooling average around $145 a month for an apartment, and your Internet will probably be around $60-$100 per month. Meals at cheap restaurants cost around $20, while a midrange restaurant meal for two people will be about $100- $150.

If you're earning the minimum US$50,000 per year listed in the visa requirements, you shouldn't struggle too much with the cost of living here, at least as a single person. If you're supporting a family, things will be tougher, but if your income is higher than the minimum, you can live very well here.

Barbados: The Next Hotspot for Digital Nomads?

If you've ever been lucky enough to visit Barbados, you'll know straightaway why someone would want to live here long term. The nomad lifestyle in the Caribbean is the stuff dreams are made of, and the Barbados visa isn't hard to get - as long as you meet that minimum income requirement. Plus, if you intend to stay in Barbados, the Barbados visa is valid for a full year, and is easy to renew as many times as you want.

This English-speaking country could be the perfect place for your next digital nomad adventure, as long as you can afford it. If you can, Barbados is definitely worth adding to your digital nomad list, and who knows? It may even become your full-time home.

If the minimum income requirement and cost of living make Barbados difficult for you, take a look at our guide to the Costa Rica digital nomad visa instead.