The United States for Digital Nomads

• Variety. Beaches in Florida and California, mountains in Colorado, islands in Hawaii, and some of the world’s great cities, all in one country.
• Time zones. Six main time zones, so you can sit inside your team’s working day if it’s US-based.
• Infrastructure. Fibre or fast cable in most cities, good 5G, cheap domestic flights and a car-rental network everywhere.
• No state income tax in Florida, Texas, Washington, Nevada, Tennessee and a few other states, which matters mainly to Americans choosing where to live.
• Communities. Big remote-work, tech and startup scenes in Austin, Miami, Denver, Seattle, New York and the Bay Area.

The US suits foreign nomads who want a one to three-month stint on a visitor stay, people working for US teams, and Americans moving between states or trying a new city before committing. It’s also a natural stop between Latin America, Canada and the Pacific.

It suits you less on a tight budget, if you want to stay for more than a few months as a foreigner, or if you don’t drive: outside a handful of cities, life revolves around cars. Healthcare costs make proper insurance essential. Europe-based workers face early mornings or late evenings.

• Miami: winter sun, beaches, a Latin culture, a growing tech scene and no state income tax.
• Austin: a friendly tech city with live music, swimming holes and no state income tax. Very hot summers.
• New York City: the biggest, most walkable city in the US, with the best public transport and the highest rents.
• Seattle: a tech capital between mountains and water, with no state income tax and grey winters.
• Denver: a sunny mountain city with fast access to hiking and skiing in the Rockies.
• Los Angeles and San Diego: beach life and year-round sunshine in Southern California, at a high price.
• Honolulu: island life on Oahu, expensive and far from everywhere, but with mild weather all year.
• New Orleans: music, food and character at lower rents than the coastal cities.
• Portland: a green, cafe-filled Pacific Northwest city that’s cheaper than Seattle.

Our where to base yourself in the United States page compares them in more detail.

• ESTA (Visa Waiver Program): citizens of 42 countries, including the UK, most of the EU, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, can visit for up to 90 days with an approved ESTA, which costs about $40 and lasts two years. The 90 days can’t be extended.
• B-1/B-2 visitor visa: everyone else, and VWP citizens who want longer, applies at a US embassy or consulate. Border officers usually admit visitors for up to six months, at their discretion.
• Canadians don’t need an ESTA or visa for a visit and are usually admitted for up to six months.
• No nomad visa. The US has no visa for remote workers, and long-stay routes (work visas, investor visas, study) are expensive and specialised.

US law says nothing specific about remote work for a foreign employer during a visit. Checking emails and joining calls for your job back home is common on business and holiday trips; spending months in the US working full time is where the grey area begins. Our visas, taxes and money page explains what this means in practice.

A comfortable month for one person costs about $5,000 to $7,500 in New York, San Francisco, Honolulu or Los Angeles, $4,000 to $5,500 in Miami, Seattle, Denver or Austin, and $3,000 to $4,000 in New Orleans, Portland or smaller cities. A furnished one-bedroom on a monthly rental runs from about $1,800 in cheaper cities to $4,000 or more in Manhattan. A restaurant main costs $18 to $35 before tax and tip, and a coffee $4 to $6. These are ballpark figures.

Costs that catch people out: health insurance that actually covers the US, sales tax added at the till, tips of 18% to 22% at sit-down restaurants, car rental and parking, and the premium for furnished monthly rentals over normal 12-month leases.

The mainland has four time zones: Eastern (UTC−5), Central (UTC−6), Mountain (UTC−7) and Pacific (UTC−8), with Alaska (UTC−9) and Hawaii (UTC−10) further west. Daylight saving time runs from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, moving clocks forward an hour. Hawaii and most of Arizona don’t change their clocks.

East Coast cities overlap with the European afternoon: 9am in New York is 2pm in London. From the West Coast, Europe overlap is only an hour or two first thing in the morning, but Asia-Pacific becomes easier.

The US is too big for one climate, so pick your base by season.

Most US cities have fibre or fast cable at 300 Mbps to 1 Gbps or more, from providers such as AT&T, Verizon Fios, Xfinity, Spectrum and Google Fiber, and furnished rentals usually include it. The three mobile networks are AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, with good 5G in cities and gaps in mountains and remote areas. Visitors can buy a prepaid SIM or eSIM from these networks or their budget brands, with unlimited data plans from about $30 to $60 a month. Coffee shops and public libraries have free Wi-Fi.

Outside New York, and to a lesser extent Chicago, Boston, Washington DC and San Francisco, you’ll want a car or rely on ride-hailing. Uber and Lyft operate in almost every city, and driverless Waymo cars run in a few, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix. Domestic flights are frequent and often cheap if booked ahead, and Amtrak trains are useful in the Northeast and on a few scenic routes. You can usually drive on a foreign licence for a visit; an International Driving Permit helps, and rules vary by state.

US hospitals are excellent but extremely expensive, and visitors have no access to public health cover. An emergency room visit can cost thousands of dollars and an overnight stay tens of thousands. Many travel and nomad policies exclude the US or charge much more to include it, so check before you arrive. Get nomad health insurance that clearly covers the United States.

Safety varies by city and even by block. The main risks are car break-ins, property crime, traffic and, in some places, gun violence. Natural hazards depend on the region: hurricanes in Florida and the Gulf, wildfires and earthquakes in the West, extreme heat in the South and Southwest. The emergency number is 911.

• Work: visitors can’t take a job with a US employer or be paid by US clients for work done in the US.
• Overstays: even one day over your permitted stay ends your eligibility for ESTA, and longer overstays bring bars of three or ten years.
• Cannabis: legal for adults in many states but illegal under federal law, including at airports, border crossings and national parks. Admitting past use can get a foreigner refused entry.
• Alcohol: the drinking age is 21, and open containers in public or in cars are illegal in most places.
• Devices: border officers can search phones and laptops, including social media, and refusing can lead to refusal of entry for foreigners.