Ask HN: How are Digital Nomads coping with travel restrictions?

I know Indonesia introduced visa wavers back in March for anyone still in the country on short term visas.

I returned to Australia just before that and flights got shut down during my quarantine period. So I've been living in my mother's caravan while having already paid rent on a large tropical island villa that lasted until last month ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m in Turkey and I decided to get the 1 year residency so that I have a home base I know I can be in if everywhere else closes their borders

Staying put where I am for a while, tho I may go back home for Xmas. The answers to your questions are very very location dependent. Some places have visa waivers or extensions readily available and some don't. Whether someone goes home or stays put will depend largely on their location and situation.

I'm currently in Vietnam. Having a land border with China, I expected the situation will get bad, but they handled it pretty well here. Anyone who arrived in March or later is getting automatic visa extension until end of this month. I'm here since December, so I had to keep extending visa (every 3 months) on my own, and they inflated the price quite heavily. Starting from the next month, the automatic extensions are gone, and so is the 3 month visa, so from the only option left is 1 month visa (~$80). My country (CZ) is in pretty bad shape right now, so I'm considering staying despite the price or maybe going to Thailand which provides longterm(-ish) visa.

Still moving from country to country every month. If you are in a "high-risk" country, you can access the Schengen Zone via Croatia, UK or Ireland. Turkey, Serbia, Mexico and Colombia are also open, for example.

Entered Russia 3/15 right before they closed the borders, with my tourist stay expiring on 9/15 (and visa expiring on 10/31). On 4/18 a presidential decree auto extended everything, and another extension every 3 months. So with auto visa situation, and the weekly flights back home to JFK just incase, it's been a perfect situation..

The weworks in Moscow are amazing, and everyone is following health guidelines very well. Definitely not in a rush to head home, or at least keep riding it out here

- http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/45441 - https://gupkrd.ru/novosti/prodleno-dejstvie-norm-ukaza-prezi...

I'm staying put for now but I'm looking to travel thru Europe next year.

I'll enter thru Croatia or Slovenia which allows travelers from the US. I'm hoping I'll find my way to Western Europe crossing by land.

I set in a location where I can legally be for a longer stay. Building local projects from here and converting my individual travel needs into local collective non-profit project.

Hey there this is me. I'm in the US and we're just exploring the states, and especially more rural states to keep an easier social distance. It's been really fun actually splitting time between working and national parks etc. We've been in Vermont for the past 2 months where we did have to quarantine which was unpleasant but I was happy to do my part. It was also really heartening to read about how safe plane travel is recently too which helps. Our goal is to aim to be one of the first back into Japan when they reopen in April so we'll see.

I just came from HK when the lockdown started so now we're (EU citizens) just nomad'ing in EU which is, at least by car, not yet an issue.

I arrived in Bali, Indonesia at the start of the pandemic with a 6 month visa. A few months in they started granting emergency extensions to anyone who wanted to stay (getting a flight home was tricky at that time, and still is).

Lots of people left but a core of nomads and expats have remained.

They have since slowly begun to dial back the giving out of emergency visa extensions but you can still get a new visa through the normal process. There are even people arriving in Bali recently, on newly-issued visas from overseas.

The scene is obviously quieter here now. There are no tourists, only nomads and retirees who live here.

Honestly it’s pretty nice and I’m glad I stayed.

If I compare how this year has turned out for me relative to my peers in a similar situation, I'd say generally not panicking has served me very well. I entered Vietnam a couple of days before they closed their borders. I ended up staying for four months, and then flew back to Europe in July.

Vietnam's government handled the situation rather well, so by pure luck I ended up being in one of the safest countries in the world through the Spring. When it came time to leave, a border guard tried to scam me into paying some fine or bribe by suggesting that my visa had expired. It didn't wash because I had done my homework and I had prepared to have on-hand the government's official website which explains in Vietnamese that all tourist visa are automatically extended for free.

Travel is still possible, but you need to be well-prepared, and you need a certain level of financial and temporal freedom.

If you are unsure (and asking questions here would suggest that) then do yourself (and everyone else) a favour and just stay home.

I've been living in Malaysia since the 12th of March. My wife is studying here, so she has a 1 year student visa. I'm on a 90 day tourist visa, and the Malaysian government has kindly extended this until the 31st of December due to lockdowns and border closures. (It might be more accurate to say that there will be no penalties for overstaying.) I'm also working on an entrepreneurship visa that will hopefully allow me to stay in Malaysia a bit longer.

We're thinking about a trip to my home country of New Zealand, but it's a big decision. Our quality of life is very good in Malaysia, even though we spend most of our time in an apartment, and even though there's recently been a spike in coronavirus cases. It's nice to go back to New Zealand for a visit and a short holiday, but I don't really want to get stuck there until the end of 2021 (or even the middle of 2021.)

My wife and I arrived in Vietnam in early March and were supposed to only stay 2 month. We are still here. Had a few thoughts of bouncing to EU in the summer, but decided against it.

Planning to be in VN until the next spring.

Our story is one of multiple instances of amazing timing and very good choices.

We very luckily got our Malaysia long term visa approved in December after 2 years of gathering the necessary documents and 6 months of processing time. We were in Vietnam until November 25th and due to my wife having disturbingly good intuition, we had pre-planned to be in KL for the last week of November "just in case" we happened to get approved sometime before then. Didn't hear anything from our visa agent until the 2nd day we were in KL. We woke up to a text that we were approved and we spent the next 2 days running around the city signing papers, opening bank accounts/health insurance plans, and getting our visa in our passports.

We then went from KL to Kota Kinabalu as we are always there around the end of the year and were there to slowly watch the chaos unfold that we had been pretty aware of since the very beginning since it was the major discussion in nomad circles. As things slowly escalated, CNY came and went right as travel restrictions started to be implemented - slowly a major city for tourism became a ghost town.

We were planning on going to Bali next around March but we were slowly coming to the realization that that was not a good choice. If we were going to be stuck somewhere, Bali was not where we wanted to be. As we were cancelling those plans, Malaysia was about to crack down on foreigners entering the country, providing only a few days notice about incoming restrictions (Sabah and the mainland are considered separate countries essentially in terms of Visas so we very likely would be stuck in KK). Knowing we only had a couple days to act, we cancelled everything (flights, airbnbs etc.) and booked a flight to Penang that we consider "home" in Malaysia and would be the place we could handle being stuck in.

First flight - got an email in the middle of the night that it had been cancelled. Booked another - also got cancelled. Booked a third on the last day before the restrictions went into place - didn’t get cancelled. Furiously packed and noped out of there.

Been in Penang since then (March 18th). We are usually here for about May-August. The local government has handled the pandemic response better than most of the world (including other parts of Malaysia - Penang started taking action before the federal gov). We could not have picked a more safe and comfortable place for us to ride this out and we are very grateful everything worked out amidst the chaos.

I'm living in Brazil currently, and even if the situation is bad, I can afford a good quality of life for a fair price.

Most importantly, I can get access to nature and place to do sports everyday, it helps a lot.

I'm in Taiwan since March on the 90 days visa exemption. It's already extended to 300 days by now. Completely normal, corona-free life here so I'll definitely stay for now.

I arrived in Singapore on the last non-stop flight from Berlin back in mid-March. They have been quite generous with visit pass extensions, however I didn't want to outstay my welcome, so at the end of August I moved to Dubai and I'm actually getting a residence visa here.

Preferably I would like to fly to Mainland China soon for business and also personal reasons and would be willing to stay in 14 days' quarantine for that, but it's still proving difficult due to visa paperwork (a so-called "PU letter" is needed) issues.

Plenty of countries have been more lenient granting extensions but that will fade out.

Language schools are not operating, or not in person, so depending on the government rules they might reject an application based on that.

I returned to my 'home country' in August, got scared after meeting several people who got COVID while abroad and had to deal with it alone.

Can anyone speak to how the EU is enforcing the travel restriction?

I can go online and buy a flight right now. Let’s say my airline let’s me board without a business visa (which they likely won’t). When I arrive in the EU are they saying, “No you must book the first return flight home” or is it similar to the deportation process? I’m curious because I haven’t actually seen any information about what is happening to people upon arrival without the right visa.

Moved to mexico, then getting an e-visa to head back to bali.

I was thinking of moving to Chile, but it's now closed. So still stuck in the US and pursuing my other options.

Many Digital Nomads have settled down, from what I've seen.

Many countries in Asia developed short-term extensions to keep people already in country there. A huge population skirting rules and spreading coronavirus, that they couldn't track, would be a bigger issue than one they could track.

Some returned home when the US sent out a barrage of emails and press warning that "overseas countries could become unlivable and you could get trapped". Most travel insurance schemes threatened to cancel policies if you didn't return home between February and March.

Many people I know figured out legitimate visa solutions that were compatible with their existing goals, like continuing to freelance, run a business, or get a job.

Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia & Indonesia seem to have been accommodating, at least for those already living semi-permanently before March. Other countries wanted to give those staying long-term a gentle nudge to go home.