Cabo Verde Digital Nomad Visa

The authority requires “comprovativo de rendimento”, that is proof of income, but publishes no figure at all — no monthly floor, no annual floor, no multiple of the minimum wage.

What must be stated at the right scope is that the figure is absent from the law, not merely absent from the page: Decree-Law 13/2025 of 15 May 2025, the instrument that governs this very route, sets no threshold either.

The programme page does not lead to that instrument, because the “Legislação” heading on it is an empty heading, checked by listing every link on the page and checked again on 21 September 2026, still empty.

Article 35 of the decree lists only documents, but lists them in more detail than the programme page does: there must be evidence of average monthly income over the last three months, rather than a general proof of income; and there must be a document the page never mentions, namely a document attesting the applicant's tax residence.

In place of a figure the law sets a qualitative test and leaves the decision with the authority: Article 39(1)(d) requires the Directorate to examine whether the means of subsistence are sufficient.

Two conditions with a firmer shape sit in the same document list on the programme page: proof of accommodation in Cabo Verde, and a medical certificate. The fee, according to the programme page, is 5,000 Cape Verdean escudos.

Two document lists, one on the programme page and one in the governing instrument, and they do not match.

The page of the Directorate of Foreigners and Borders lists six items: the passport, a criminal record certificate from the country of origin, proof of the relationship with the organisation served remotely, proof of income, proof of accommodation in Cabo Verde, and a medical certificate.

Article 35 of Decree-Law 13/2025 lists a different set: the biographic page of the passport. A criminal record certificate from the country of origin; for employees, an employment contract or an employer's declaration evidencing the employment relationship.

For the self-employed, a company Constitution contract, or a services contract, or documentary evidence of services rendered to one or more entities. Evidence of average monthly income over the last three months; and a document attesting tax residence.

The divergence runs both ways. The decree demands the tax-residence document, which the page never mentions.

The page demands proof of accommodation and a medical certificate, which Article 35 does not list — although accommodation has its root elsewhere, in Article 39(1)(d), where the authority must verify that the applicant has somewhere to live.

Anyone assembling a file should work to the union of the two lists rather than choose one. Neither source publishes a minimum income level.

The two timing rules for this route sit in two different places, and reading only one of them produces the opposite conclusion.

On the programme page of the Directorate of Foreigners and Borders, both the “Solicitar” button and the “Acompanhe o seu processo” panel read “Brevemente…”, meaning the electronic filing channel and the case-tracking channel are both still closed; measured again on 21 September 2026, unchanged.

The governing instrument, however, does set deadlines, and has done since 15 May 2025. Decree-Law 13/2025 sets two ninety-day limits at two different counters, and they are only usable once told apart.

At the Directorate's counter, Article 41(5) requires the visa to be granted within ninety days at most of the file being complete.

At embassies and consular posts, Article 27(7) places its limit after the grant: a visa already granted must be issued within ninety days, and lapses after that period where the failure to issue is due to the applicant's non-appearance.

A third, internal deadline sits in Article 44(3) and affects files filed over the counter: the Regional Commands of the National Police must forward the file to the Directorate within five days of receiving it.

The gap between the two places belongs with any reading rather than being dropped: the deadlines are in the law, while the electronic door that would start them running is not yet open.

The residence conditions for this route only become readable once one knows what kind of route it is, and that is precisely what the programme page does not say.

Decree-Law 13/2025 of 15 May 2025 places it among residence visas — Article 35, “visto de residência para o exercício de atividade profissional prestada de forma remota para fora do território nacional” — and not among temporary stay visas.

It is a step into residence, so the obligations attached to it are those of a residence applicant.

Three checks the Directorate of Foreigners and Borders must carry out sit in Article 39(1). First, the travel document must remain valid for at least three months beyond the final date of the stay applied for.

Second, the authority must verify sufficient means of subsistence and the existence of accommodation — this is the legal root of the “comprovativo de alojamento” the programme page demands, and it explains why a digital nomad file must prove accommodation before knowing whether the visa will be granted.

Third, the authority must check whether the applicant has been to Cabo Verde before and whether on those occasions they exceeded the authorised period of stay.

Article 41(2) caps the period granted: the visa is issued for the period of stay, may not exceed the validity of the travel document, and may not exceed the period the applicant themselves requested.

The heaviest provision for anyone planning a long stay is Article 43(4): a residence-visa holder seeking an extension of stay must file two things, first evidence that they have applied for the residence authorisation, and second evidence of actual presence in national territory, save for duly justified absences.

The route therefore does not tolerate holding the document without living there. Once the residence authorisation is granted or renewed, Article 58(1) issues a Foreigner's Residence Title whose validity equals that of the authorisation it evidences.

Both doors are silent on accompanying family, but the two silences are not of the same rank and must be told apart.

The programme page of the issuing authority lists exactly six documents, together with a fee of 5,000 escudos.

The six are the passport, a criminal record certificate, proof of the relationship with the remote employer, proof of income, proof of accommodation and a medical certificate. The page contains no heading on dependants at all.

A “Legislação” tab exists in the page source but its description block is empty and leads to no instrument.

The instrument does exist, and has now been read: Decree-Law 13/2025 of 15 May 2025, reached through the official gazette at boe.incv.cv. Article 35, the article written for this route, lists six classes of document and contains not one line about a spouse or children.

That is a measured silence inside the governing instrument, which is a different thing from silence because the instrument was never found. The reunion door does exist and sits in Article 37, for the family members of a foreigner already resident in Cabo Verde.

The real question is therefore whether the holder of the digital nomad visa becomes such a resident foreigner, and the decree shows a path without stating the conclusion.

Article 35 places this route among residence visas, and Article 43(4) requires its holder to apply for the residence authorisation in order to extend the stay. Article 58(1) issues a Foreigner's Residence Title once the authorisation is granted or renewed.

The decree does not write that such a person may sponsor relatives, so this cell stops where the law stops. One point belongs with any reading because it bears on the status of the record itself: on the programme page, both the apply button and the track-your-application button read “Brevemente”.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Cabo Verde passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Cabo Verde passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Cabo Verde passport reaches 64 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

This is one of the few programmes that genuinely carries a tax benefit, and the first thing to say is that the benefit sits in the budget act rather than in the standing tax code.

Law 69/X/2025, the State Budget for 2026, article 47 grants employees and self-employed persons who are non-resident, who work remotely for an individual or legal person established outside Cabo Verde, and who can evidence the employment relationship or services contract, an exemption from income tax for one year.

Paragraph 2 of the same article provides that a person staying beyond one year enjoys the benefits of the non-habitual residents regime, and article 30 of the same law amends article 22 of the Personal Income Tax Code to fix that regime at seven consecutive years from the year of registration as resident in Cabo Verde.

Paragraph 3 exempts import duty and other customs charges on materials, equipment and tools needed for the professional activity; paragraph 4 forbids using those goods for any other purpose.

Two things belong with any reading: the benefit is re-enacted annually through the budget law, the previous version being article 48 of Law 16/X/2022 in identical terms.

So it carries a fiscal-year shelf life; and the budget law speaks of non-resident status rather than of any visa category, so linking it to the digital nomad visa is a join made here.

The authority's programme page publishes a fee of 5,000 Cape Verdean escudos.

That figure needs its provenance stated, because the legal instrument creating the route does not contain it: read in full, Decreto-Lei n.º 13/2025 of 15 May 2025 nowhere contains the figure five thousand, in digits or in words.

The decree handles money differently: Article 29 provides that the fees and surcharges for the grant and extension of visas by embassies and consular posts are those set out in the consular emoluments table, a separate instrument.

The practical consequence is worth stating: the fee is an administrative figure, alterable without amending the decree, so it must be checked afresh at the time of filing rather than copied from an older record.

One structural point about the application also bears on cost and is easily missed: the decree lays down two parallel provisions for the same visa — Article 29-A for visas applied for abroad through embassies and consular posts, and Article 35 for visas applied for within Cape Verdean territory, with the same list of documents.

There are two filing gates, in other words, and only the first passes through the Consular Emoluments Table.