Do you think the American passport will weaken now with all the digital nomads working remotely while they entry as tourists?

18 comments

1. Sure. Just as soon as other countries start not liking money.

2. Unlikely. That trend isn’t as big as many articles make out, far more people are doing it internal to the US than going international and those who are going are distributed across a number of places.

   At most we might see an enforcement uptick but most countries aren’t going to care that much as long as our folks are spending money there and not competing with local workers for positions. There’s not much of a downside unless the “tourists” are causing a drain on some other limited resource.

3. I don’t think the status of the US passport or which countries do visa waivers and visa-on-arrivals will change. I do think a lot of digital nomads who are illegally working in countries are going to have a rude awakening either from their employer or from their host country at some point. Even with a DM “visa” (which isn’t as common as r/digitalnomad makes it seem like it is), many employers do not want the extra tax and legal implications by employing people from around the world.

4. How many digital nomads are there, really? 10,000? 100,000? It’s not an actual problem.

5. No… too small a category of people and not a big enough issue/risk to jeopardize relations with US

6. Very few people are or can do digital nomading. American passports will not be affected by such things.

7. No and why would that even weaken the U.S. passport?

8. No. A few thousand people living a nomad lifestyle is not going to change visa policies in other countries.

9. In what way would that weaken the passport? It doesn’t remove any access to different countries that the passport affords. That’s two different things.

10. Not really, digital nomads are a tiny group and they inject money into the local economy.

11. No

12. Digital nomads are still tourists, that’s the entire point of being one

13. This really isn’t as big of an issue as social media or the Portuguese citizens make it out to be.

14. The US passport is strong because most countries want Americans to come to their country and spend money. Digital nomads aren’t going to change that.

    And the difference between tourist and work visas is generally because countries don’t want foreign workers coming to their country taking work from their citizens. Digital nomads are generally still doing work in their home country, so they don’t really affect that either.

15. I dont know any actual statistics on this, but from what Im seeing during my job search is that many companies are completely removing the option of working remotely or they are locking employees to specific states or even counties and making requirements for them come into the office atleast once or more a week. From my perspective, the option to work remotely is dying down, so I doubt it will affect the strength of our passports.

16. Wouldn’t that strengthen the American passport? It would result in longer stays, more money brought in across more industries. Countries want ex-pats they just don’t want poor ex-pats. I get that it can be annoying for locals, but it also booms economies.

17. I think the American passport will remain strong, as the U.S. government has put in laws and regulations to ensure that digital nomads can’t enter the country on a tourist visa and use it to establish a permanent residency. I’ve had no issues getting visa’s for travel abroad using my U.S. passport. In fact, I’ve even gotten upgraded to first class just because of the passport I’m carrying.

18. Do I think that Americans going to other countries and spending a bunch of money will make those countries not want Americans anymore? Lol um no