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Cape Verde: visas, tax & cost of living

Thinking of moving to Cape Verde as a remote worker? Honest guide to the Remote Working Programme, cost of living, tax, healthcare and banking.

Cape Verde: visas, tax & cost of living
Your passport

United KingdomCape Verde

Your move to Cape Verde on a United Kingdom passport

  • VisitHardExceeds visa-free stay
  • NomadFairly easyNomad visa, stricter rules
  • RelocateMediumResidence with conditions

Visiting

Visa-free for up to 30 days. Travel on a passport valid for your whole stay, with a return or onward ticket and proof you can support yourself.

Passport validity:Passport valid for at least 6 months beyond your intended stay.

Heads-up:From 1 January 2026, visa on arrival was ended for citizens of 96 countries, who must now obtain a visa before travel.

At the border:Pre-register on the EASE portal (ease.gov.cv) at least 5 days before travel and pay the airport security tax (about 3,400 CVE); proof of insurance and accommodation may be requested.

Working remotely

Cabo Verde Remote Working Program.

Income needed:about 1,500 EUR average monthly bank balance over the prior 6 months (about 2,700 EUR if bringing family)(estimate)

Savings option:Qualification is based on holding the required average bank balance rather than a salary.

Duration:12months

Fee:about 20 EUR visa fee plus a 34 EUR airport tax on arrival(estimate)

Who qualifies:Remote workers, freelancers or self-employed earning from clients or companies outside Cape Verde, with health insurance and accommodation.

Tax and residency

Spending more than 183 days in a calendar year (or keeping a habitual home there) generally makes you tax resident and taxed on worldwide income; non-residents are taxed only on Cape Verde source income.(estimate)

The UK decides residence with its Statutory Residence Test (days in the UK plus your ties). As a non-resident you are usually taxed only on UK income; where one exists, a double-tax treaty with the destination decides who taxes what.

Practical

Currency:CVE. Cost of living:mid.

Healthcare:Public care is basic and concentrated in Praia and Mindelo, so foreigners are strongly advised to carry private travel or expat insurance covering medical evacuation.

Driving:Carry an International Driving Permit alongside your home licence when driving or renting a car.

Sources: Cabo Verde Remote Working Program (official tourism portal) · EASE pre-registration portal · Portal Consular - Visas (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) · PwC Tax Summaries - Cabo Verde individual residence · UK FCDO - Cape Verde entry requirements · GOV.UK: tax on foreign income · HMRC: double-taxation treaties

Estimates, not advice. Confirm with the official sources before you act.

Should you move to Cape Verde?

Cape Verde is a scatter of ten volcanic islands out in the Atlantic, a few hundred kilometres off Senegal, and it makes sense for a very particular kind of remote worker: someone who wants year-round warmth, an easy European time zone, and beaches at the end of the working day, and who is genuinely relaxed about rough edges. This is not Lisbon with better weather. It is a small, developing, mid-Atlantic nation where water is scarce, power flickers, and “we’ll sort it tomorrow” is a way of life.

The islands split into camps. Sal (the town of Santa Maria) and Boa Vista are flat, sun-baked, and built around resorts, kite-surfing, and package tourism, so they are the easiest landing pad and also the priciest. Santiago, home to the capital Praia, is the most urban and the most authentically Cape Verdean: real neighbourhoods, real markets, less polish. São Vicente (Mindelo) is the cultural heart, with live music most nights and a walkable, faded-elegant port town. Most first-time nomads start in Santa Maria for the infrastructure, then decide whether they want something more local.

Budget honestly. A single remote worker can live reasonably on roughly €900 to €1,500 a month, leaning cheaper on Santiago or São Vicente and more expensive on the resort islands, where almost everything is imported. The trade-offs are real: patchy internet, occasional power and water cuts, a hazy Saharan dust season (the bruma seca), limited healthcare, and a language barrier once you leave the tourist strip. If those things would ruin your month, look elsewhere. If they read as adventure, few places give you this much sun and sea for the money.

Cost of living in Cape Verde

The currency is the Cape Verdean escudo (CVE), pegged to the euro at roughly 110 escudos to €1, which makes budgeting refreshingly predictable, and euros are widely accepted on the tourist islands anyway.

Rent is the swing factor. Per Numbeo, a one-bedroom flat runs around €375 a month in a city centre and closer to €225 outside the centre, though on Sal and Boa Vista a furnished place aimed at foreigners will often cost more than that. Expect utilities of roughly €130 a month for a small apartment and home broadband around €47, when it is available and behaving.

Food is a tale of two baskets. Local produce, fish, and street food are cheap: a meal at a simple restaurant is about €5, and a sit-down dinner for two runs near €48. Anything imported (cheese, cereal, wine, most packaged goods) is dear, because it arrived by boat. A single person’s monthly costs excluding rent land near €690 by Numbeo’s estimate, which feels high if you shop like a local and low if you live on imports. Treat all of these as ballpark figures and verify current prices before you commit.

Cape Verde Remote Working Programme (the digital nomad route)

Cape Verde does have a genuine route for remote workers. It launched the Remote Working Programme in December 2020, one of the earlier “nomad visas” in the world, aimed squarely at people employed or self-employed abroad who want to base themselves in the islands.

The core requirements, per Nomad Girl’s breakdown, are financial rather than salary-based: you show an average bank balance of around €1,500 over the previous six months as an individual, or roughly €2,700 for a family. The permit is valid for six months and is renewable. Fees are modest, in the region of a €20 visa fee plus a €34 airport security charge, and you typically finalise the stamp within about 30 days of arrival. Eligibility centres on the better-connected islands, Sal, Boa Vista, and Santiago (Praia), where the banking and paperwork actually function.

Two honest caveats. First, some applicants have reported the online process stalling or going quiet, so build in a fallback: many people simply enter on the standard tourist entry (Cape Verde uses a pre-arrival EASE registration rather than a visa for most Western passports) and stay within the permitted window. Second, holding the Remote Working permit grants temporary residence, not tax residence, which matters for the next section. Confirm the current rules on an official channel before you fly, and you can sanity-check your situation with our digital nomad visa checker.

Tax residency and the 183 day rule

Here is the educational version, not advice. Like most countries, Cape Verde generally treats you as a tax resident once you spend more than 183 days there in a 12-month period, or once your main home and life are clearly based there. Residents are, in principle, taxable on worldwide income under the personal income tax (IRPS/IUR), with progressive rates that climb into the mid-twenties percent at the top; non-residents are taxed only on Cape Verde-source income. Treat every rate as an estimate and check the current schedule before relying on it.

The wrinkle for nomads is that the Remote Working Programme is explicitly designed not to make you a Cape Verde tax resident, and it assumes you keep paying tax at home. That is convenient, but staying past six months, renewing repeatedly, or making the islands your genuine base can quietly flip your status, and leaving your home country does not automatically end your obligations there either. This is exactly the kind of thing worth modelling before you go: our tax residency checker walks through the day-counting, and a cross-border accountant is money well spent if your income is meaningful.

Healthcare and insurance

Be clear-eyed here. The UK Foreign Office describes healthcare in Cape Verde as very basic and limited. Real hospitals exist only in Praia (Hospital Agostinho Neto) and Mindelo (Hospital Baptista de Sousa), with smaller clinics on the other islands and thin coverage on Boa Vista and the outer islands. Serious cases are routinely evacuated abroad, usually to Portugal or the Canary Islands, and some islands lack the airport capacity for easy medical air transport.

The practical takeaways: bring any prescription medication you rely on, because supply is patchy and some drugs are simply unavailable. Comprehensive private travel or international health insurance is essential, not optional, and it must include medical evacuation, since a European GHIC is not accepted here. For day-to-day care, private clinics on Sal and in Praia are workable for minor issues and reasonably priced by European standards, but you are insuring against the big event, not the sniffle. Providers like Cigna Global, SafetyWing, or a solid travel policy are the usual choices; compare evacuation limits carefully.

Money, banking and settling in

Cape Verde still runs largely on cash. Cards are accepted at hotels, larger restaurants, and supermarkets on the tourist islands, but the moment you go local you will want escudos in your pocket. ATMs run on the domestic Vinti4 network and can be temperamental with foreign cards, so carry a backup card and some euros as a cushion. Opening a local bank account as a newcomer is slow and paperwork-heavy, so most nomads lean on a multi-currency account (Wise or Revolut) and withdraw as needed.

A few things smooth the first weeks. The time zone is UTC-1, which means near-perfect overlap with the UK and mainland Europe, a genuine advantage for client calls. Portuguese is official and Cape Verdean Creole (Kriolu) is what people actually speak, per WorldData; English is fine in resorts and thin elsewhere, so a little Portuguese buys a lot of goodwill. On safety, crime is generally low but petty theft happens in Praia, Santa Maria, and on Boa Vista, so the usual precautions apply: watch your bag, skip unlit areas at night. Sort a local SIM (CVMovel or Unitel T+) on day one, expect the internet to wobble, keep a mobile-data hotspot as backup, and pick your island for connectivity before you fall in love with the view.

Figures are estimates. Always check the official source.

Frequently asked questions

Cape Verde: is there a digital nomad visa?
Cabo Verde Remote Working Program. Remote workers, freelancers or self-employed earning from clients or companies outside Cape Verde, with health insurance and accommodation.
Cape Verde: when do you become a tax resident?
Spending more than 183 days in a calendar year (or keeping a habitual home there) generally makes you tax resident and taxed on worldwide income; non-residents are taxed only on Cape Verde source income.
Cape Verde: what is the cost of living?
The cost of living is moderate and the local currency is the CVE. Treat any figures as estimates.
Cape Verde: do you need health insurance?
Public care is basic and concentrated in Praia and Mindelo, so foreigners are strongly advised to carry private travel or expat insurance covering medical evacuation.
Cape Verde: can you drive on a foreign licence?
Carry an International Driving Permit alongside your home licence when driving or renting a car.

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Last verified: 2026-07-28

Voymo gives general information to help you organise your move. It is not legal, tax, or immigration advice, always confirm with an official source or a qualified professional before you act.

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