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Flag of Iceland

Iceland

Long-term Visa for Remote Workers

PR: NoUTC+0

The requirements

Programme status
Open, accepting applications
Minimum monthly income
$7,200 a month
Required savings
None
Annual total
$86,400
Initial duration
Up to 180 days
Family allowed
Yes
Apply online
No, in person or by post

ISK 1,000,000/month (1.3M with partner).

How this figure is set: A fixed amount set in law or on the official page. The wording on the source is: 1000000. Formula: ISK 1,000,000/month foreign income; ISK 1,300,000 if applying with spouse/partner.

Income confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-07
Legal basis: Act on Foreigners No. 80/2016 (long-term visa) and Regulation on visas as amended 2020 - regulation text not located; figure taken from the Directorate's own page.

Does this lead to permanent residence?

No pathway. Capped at 180 days; it's a visa not a residence permit, and off island.is's PR list.

island.is (Iceland's official government portal, aligned with Útlendingastofnun/Directorate of Immigration) lists the permit types that form the basis for a permanent residence permit (dvalarleyfi til frambuðar) — work/expert permits, labour-shortage roles, family reunification, protection, and a few others — and the long-term visa for remote workers is not among them. Iceland's PR route normally needs 4 years of continuous residence on a qualifying permit; this route is structurally a visa (not a residence permit), capped at 180 days with no renewal, so it can't start that clock. Both facts read directly off island.is, not inferred.

Pathway confidence: high · checked 2026-09-07

Where it is

Reykjavík sits at 64.15° N, 21.94° W.

Iceland picked out on a world map

Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Reykjavík. This is the only link here that leaves the site.

Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Time zone

  • UTC+0 Reykjavik (Atlantic/Reykjavik)

The country

Region
Europe · Nordic
Capital
Reykjavík
Currency
ISK
Schengen area
Yes

Nearest

Iceland has no land border. These are the nearest countries covered here, by the distance between capitals.

All of them are in the Schengen area, as Iceland is. For a visitor that is one clock, not several: the 90 days in any 180 are spent across all of it.

What it costs to live there

$4,066 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Iceland spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.

Reykjavík
$2,966 / month incl. rent
of which rent $1,779

City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.

Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20
World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.

Languages

  • Icelandic official

Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".

How to apply

  1. Check you clear the requirements above — $7,200 a month is the figure this row records.
  2. Gather what the official page asks for. Expect proof of income, a passport, health insurance and a criminal-record check as the common core.
  3. Apply in person or by post — this programme has no online route.
  4. Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
  5. Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.

Directorate of Immigration ↗

Non-EEA, Schengen visa-exempt nationals only.

A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by .