Cape Verde Digital Nomad Visa: Requirements, Income & How to Apply (2026)

Eligibility is defined by region rather than income. The programme is open to nationals of Europe, North America, the CPLP bloc of Portuguese-speaking countries, and the ECOWAS states of West Africa. That covers the core European and North American nomad audience, but it leaves gaps — an Australian or New Zealander, for instance, is not on the list and cannot apply directly. Your income must come from outside Cabo Verde, and you may not work for a Cabo Verdean company.

Beyond nationality, the requirements are light: an average bank balance around €1,500, valid health insurance, and proof your work is foreign-sourced. There is no degree requirement, no age ceiling, and no criminal-record certificate on the standard checklist.

The test is a bank balance, not a paycheque. You show that your account held an average of at least €1,500 over the six months before you apply, rising to about €2,700 for a family. Because it measures a balance rather than a monthly flow, someone with lumpy freelance income can still qualify as long as the average holds. The figures are quoted in euros, since the Cabo Verdean escudo is pegged to the euro at a fixed rate.

Two honesty notes. First, this is a savings-style threshold, so we classify it as such rather than as a monthly income floor. Second, the €1,500 figure comes from Decree-Law n.º 13/2025 as reported by specialist sources; the government's own programme page lists "proof of income" without stating the number, so we flag this country as unverified until an official figure is published.

The whole thing is done online through an application form, and it is refreshingly cheap. You upload your passport, six months of bank statements, proof your income is foreign, and your insurance. The visa fee is €20 per person. Separately, a €34 airport security fee (the TSA) is charged once when you arrive, so the real all-in cost is about €54 a head. Processing is quick by nomad-visa standards, often a matter of days to a couple of weeks, and you can apply in advance through an embassy or, for many nationalities, on arrival.

Cabo Verde built the programme so you do not become a local tax resident. Holders are granted temporary residency explicitly stripped of tax residency, and foreign-sourced income is exempt from Cabo Verde income tax. Because the visa is capped at twelve months, you are unlikely to trip any residency threshold in the first place. The one hard limit is that you cannot earn locally — no work for Cabo Verdean companies, no local clients. Your home country's tax rules still apply to you, so this removes a Cabo Verde tax bill, not your obligations back home.

Families are welcome, but the maths is a single household figure rather than a per-person add-on. Where an individual shows an average balance of about €1,500, a family shows about €2,700 across the same six-month window, regardless of how many children are included. Everyone is covered under the one programme, and the same rules apply: foreign income only, no local work.

Against the other African options, Cabo Verde competes on price and simplicity, not depth. Mauritius offers a stronger tax structure and better infrastructure but wants a genuine income floor; Seychelles is comparably easy but pricier day to day; South Africa asks for far higher income. Cabo Verde undercuts them with a savings test almost anyone clears, a €20 fee, and no local tax — at the cost of being more remote, more basic, and capped at a year. If you want the lowest bar to a tax-free half-year in the sun, it is hard to beat.

The thing to plan around is the six-month bank-balance window: the test looks backward, so if your balance has been thin, you may need to build and hold it for half a year before you have a qualifying average. Nationality is the other early check — confirm your passport falls under Europe, North America, the CPLP or ECOWAS before you start, because the list genuinely excludes some Western nationals. Keep proof that your income is foreign-sourced tidy, since local earning is the one rule the programme enforces hard. And because the official figure is not published, over-prepare your bank evidence rather than banking on the €1,500 number holding exactly.