cover image: Why US Immigration Officials Should Allow "Digital Nomad" Admissions

Why US Immigration Officials Should Allow "Digital Nomad" Admissions

29 Oct 2024

Existing US immigration statutes, regulations, and policies do not expressly authorize the short-term admission of digital nomads: typically, college-educated professionals who use laptops, cell phones, and other digital technology to perform their occupations remotely while traveling. Nor do these rules explain how to manage the admission of noncitizens who are not digital nomads per se but who, while lawfully visiting the United States to see family or go to an industry conference, log on to their laptop or phone to review and respond to routine business matters such as replying to emails. To address the void, we propose that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State promptly formulate and issue policy guidance that authorizes the admission of certain digital nomads for up to six months as visitors under sections 101(a)(15)(B) and 217 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Such policy guidance can help fill an emergent area of the ever-widening rift between facts of life and US immigration law in the absence of congressional reform. Carefully crafted, it can do so in a manner that conforms to existing legal requirements governing travel to the United States as a visitor and that allows the country to benefit economically from their lawful visits.

Authors

Angelo A. Paparelli, David J. Bier, Peter Choi, Stephen Yale-Loehr

Related Organizations

Pages
12
Published in
United States of America

Table of Contents