🇪🇪 Estonia vs 🇬🇷 Greece: Digital Nomad Visa Compared

Estonia offers Digital Nomad Visa (Type C short-stay / Type D long-stay). Greece offers Digital Nomad Visa (Type D) + Residence Permit (Type I.8) - Law 5038/2023, amended by Law 5275/2026. Every figure below comes from each country's own sourced, dated fiche - compare income, duration, tax, family rules, fees and processing time before you decide.

🇪🇪 Estonia🇬🇷 Greece

Minimum income

4,500 EUR / month

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: NET-vs-GROSS conflict stays open, same split as every prior pass, no direct page read achieved to adjudicate; the recurring "raised from EUR 3,504" framing resurfaced again and is treated as a stale 2023-baseline artifact, not a new rate change. The official page states EUR 4,500 NET per month; several secondary guides state EUR 4,500 GROSS over the preceding 6 months. Confirm net-vs-gross with the PPA before relying on it. Income must come from an employer/clients registered OUTSIDE Estonia. RE-CHECKED 2026-08-23: Estonia's own Ministry of Foreign Affairs embassy sub-pages (mfa.ee - Washington, Tokyo, New Delhi, Canberra, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, Kyiv, Tbilisi) are consistently search-indexed as stating the figure GROSS, strengthening that reading considerably - but every mfa.ee page tried was itself unreachable to direct fetch this pass, so this is not yet a confirmed page read. Applicants should budget for GROSS EUR 4,500 as the safer assumption pending direct confirmation.

source · verified 2026-09-24

3,500 EUR / month

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: NET-vs-GROSS conflict stays open, no tiebreaker found; one new source (freenance.io) claims GROSS and frames EUR 3,500 as "raised from EUR 2,500 in 2025," which does not match this fiche's tracked history and looks like a search-summary artifact, not a genuine change - not promoted. Attributed to the official mfa.gr page (403 on direct fetch) and corroborated by multiple specialist sources, though at least one 2026 secondary guide states this figure as GROSS rather than NET - the net/gross distinction could not be independently re-confirmed on the official page this pass and should be treated as unresolved. Family uplift: +20% spouse, +15% per child. RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-05: multiple independent 2026 guides (remoteworkeurope.eu, globalcitizensolutions.com, lexidy.com, nomadsembassy.com) state the required bank-statement history proving this income rose from 3 to 6 consecutive months, effective 27 January 2026 - corroborated across 4 independent secondary sources but no primary decree/circular citation found, so this is added as a documentation-requirement detail, not a change to the EUR 3,500 figure itself.

source · verified 2026-09-24

Visa duration

12 months

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged. Up to 1 year (official). The DNV is not a standard long-term renewable residence route; plan an exit or a different permit for a longer stay. RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-07: e-resident.gov.ee's own FAQ blog post states the DNV itself cannot be renewed/extended, but a holder may apply for a second, separate DNV (typically up to 6 months) before the first expires, for a combined maximum stay of about 18 months (bounded by the EU long-stay-visa ceiling of 548 days within 730) - corroborated by remoteworkeurope.eu and a Medium mirror of the same official FAQ post; not independently confirmed on the live page (EGRESS_BLOCKED this pass).

source · verified 2026-09-24

12 months, renewable

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged, no new development. Type D visa: up to 12 months. Then Type I.8 residence permit: 2 years, renewable for successive 2-year periods. LAW 5275/2026 (~5 Feb 2026): the in-country conversion route was ABOLISHED - you must now obtain the Type D visa at a Greek consulate abroad BEFORE entering. RE-CHECKED 2026-07-31: the same reform also closed a second loophole - applicants who entered on a Type C (Schengen) visa or a visa-waiver could previously obtain the Type I.8 permit by showing a housing lease or property-purchase contract instead of the full consulate-first D-visa route; two independent legal-advisory sources (Bernitsas Law, siopi-law.gr) now describe this route as closed, consistent with the same law's abolition of in-country conversion. Reported/corroborated via search-indexed content, not a fetched primary source (mfa.gr/migration.gov.gr still 403).

source · verified 2026-09-24

Tax regime

Staying more than 183 days makes you an Estonian tax resident (flat personal income tax, ~20-22%), taxed on worldwide income. Under 183 days, Estonia generally does not tax your foreign income.

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged, flat 22% rate reconfirmed. General 183-day rule; confirm your position with the Estonian Tax and Customs Board. RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-23: Estonia's Riigikogu abolished the planned 2026 'security tax' package (which would have added 2% to both corporate and personal income tax) in December 2025 - the flat personal income tax rate for 2026 stays at 22%, not the 24% some mid-2026 secondary guides still describe; this confirms, rather than changes, the published ~20-22% figure (EY Estonia, SimplBooks, Estonian Tax and Customs Board via search-indexed content).

source · verified 2026-09-24

New tax residents may access a 50% income-tax exemption for up to 7 years (Art. 5C), but it is NOT automatic and generally does NOT apply to pure foreign-source remote income. Staying >183 days makes you a Greek tax resident, taxed on worldwide income at standard rates.

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged. Art. 5C (AADE) requires 5-of-6-years prior non-residence AND historically Greek-source income; specialist tax sources flag that a nomad working purely for foreign clients may not qualify. Do NOT present the 50% cut as an automatic benefit.

source · verified 2026-09-24

Family (spouse / children)

Spouse + children admitted

Family members may apply to accompany; confirm current conditions with the PPA. RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged.

source · verified 2026-09-24

Spouse + children admitted (+20% spouse (approx EUR 4,200/mo total), +15% per child (approx +EUR 525/mo))

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged, +20% spouse / +15% per child reconfirmed.

source · verified 2026-09-24

Application fees

120 EUR

State fee reported at EUR 120 for the long-stay (Type D) visa; EUR 80 for the short-stay (Type C). RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged.

source · verified 2026-09-24

75 EUR

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged. This EUR 75 is the Type D VISA fee (+ EUR 150 per accompanying family member). SEPARATE and much larger: the Type I.8 RESIDENCE PERMIT fee, ~EUR 1,000 (+ EUR 150/family member). Guides routinely conflate the two stages. RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-07: the post-Law-5275/2026 re-verification flag carried since 2026-07-05 is now resolved - the EUR 1,000 + EUR 150/family-member Type I.8 figure is independently reconfirmed unchanged post-reform by multiple current 2026 sources (Karabatsoulegal and GSL.org since 2026-07-29; consiliojus.com added this pass), with no competing post-reform figure surfacing across any pass since. Still not read on migration.gov.gr directly (403/EGRESS_BLOCKED every pass), so confidence stays "reported," not "official."

source · verified 2026-09-24

Health insurance

Required - Valid health insurance covering Estonia for the stay.

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged.

source · verified 2026-09-24

Required - Mandatory private health insurance covering care/hospitalization in Greece for applicant + family; minimum coverage amount not stated officially.

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged.

source · verified 2026-09-24

Processing time

Up to 30 days from application at an embassy/consulate

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged.

source · verified 2026-09-24

~10 days consular decision target (2-6 weeks in practice; longer since the 2026 consulate-only route)

RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-24: unchanged. This estimate covers the initial Type D consular-visa stage. SEPARATE and later: the Type I.8 residence-permit stage, applied for after arrival, is a 'single permit' application under Law 5275/2026 (transposing EU Directive 2024/1233, in force since 6 Feb 2026), which sets a statutory 90-day decision deadline (extendable by 30 days in exceptional cases), plus a 2-month deadline (also extendable by 30 days) for the applicant to supply any missing documents, with the clock paused meanwhile. RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-20: independently corroborated across several named law-firm sources (EY Greece, Zepos & Yannopoulos, PwC Greece, Bernitsas Law, Machas & Partners) all citing the statute directly - still not read on migration.gov.gr itself (EGRESS_BLOCKED), so confidence stays 'reported', but this is the strongest sourcing tier short of a direct page read.

source · verified 2026-09-24

Figures marked TBD are not yet verified and are never shown as facts. Last full review: Estonia 2026-09-24, Greece 2026-09-24.