Digital nomads: what to consider as a temporary Swiss Abroad

Before the pandemic they were considered exotic; today digital nomads are in vogue. Numerous countries are courting them with special visas. But the dream lifestyle is not without pitfalls. It’s 8pm in Bali in January, and the mercury is still above 20°C. Chantal Wyss, 27, and Marvin Meyer, 30, are sitting in front of their laptops in a Zoom meeting – as they do for several hours every day. In Switzerland, seven hours behind, the working day is still in full swing. The couple from Bern have spent the past six winters on the Indonesian island. For the past two years they have been renting a house in Canggu – the hotspot for digital nomads – which they are remodelling. “We really wanted our own home in the country where we live half the time,” Wyss explains. This, she says, is why they signed a long-term rental contract for their villa. Wyss is an entrepreneur and has her own fashion label: she manufactures in Bali and sells in Switzerland. As a trained layout designer, Meyer does...