Which countries are offering visas that help entrepreneurs to work abroad?

As the world went into lockdown in 2020, businesses and workers had to adapt how they worked.

Employees gained the time spent on daily commutes, whereas Zoom conference calls replaced brick and mortar boardrooms.

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Eighteen months later, it seems that the traditional 9-5 office daily routine may not return for everyone. Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook are some of the large tech companies leading the way in making remote working an organisational fixture.

Moving to work in a destination with favourable conditions or where restrictions are more relaxed is becoming popular among expats.

Many destinations offer visas and programmes to facilitate this, that's not to mention the destinations paying digital nomads to work there.

In Europe, Croatia has introduced special visas for digital nomads outside the EU, allowing them to stay for a year without paying income tax.

The country has even transformed the port town of Zadar into a "village", aimed specifically at digital nomads who want to leave the office behind.

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Spain is also planning to introduce a digital nomad visa that will allow people to stay and work for a maximum of 12 months. Startups may also be given tax incentives to encourage young entrepreneurs to make a move somewhere new.

Around 30 towns and villages across Spain have decided to join the Red Nacional de Pueblos Acogedores para el Teletrabajo (or National Network of Welcoming Villages for Remote workers) to encourage digital nomads to visit. They all have under 5,000 residents and want to attract new residents to repopulate their streets.

Dubai is another such country and announced that a new remote work visa was made available to workers from around the globe.

This one-year visa allows employees to work in Dubai even if their company is based in different countries.

Many expat business owners in the emirate choose to operate in free zones - economic areas where companies can trade goods and services, usually at preferential tax and customs rates.

French native, Sabine Arnoult, told Euronews that she started her business "The Cobbler" in a free zone in order to have 100% ownership of the company.

Spread out across the city there are over 30 free zones, with each one set up to be advantageous for a defined industry, but requirements to set up a company vary from each free zone.