Pakistan Digital Nomad Visa

Pakistan has no digital nomad visa. Remote workers enter on the tourist e-visa, which allows a single entry of up to three months, is applied for online before travel, with no visa on arrival. There is no income test, savings requirement or investment minimum, and the fee depends on nationality.

Nothing about the tourist visa leads to residence or citizenship. Long-term residency in Pakistan is built for investors under the 2025 Long Term Residency Order, and extensions are filed online from inside the country with a sponsor letter.

Tax residency starts at 183 days in a tax year that runs from 1 July to 30 June, but salary for work done in Pakistan counts as Pakistan-source income wherever it is paid. The United States and Pakistan have a 1959 income tax convention, and US citizens still file in the US on worldwide income.

How Pakistan taxes visitors and residents

Pakistan taxes residents on worldwide income. A person is resident when present in Pakistan for 183 days or more in a tax year, which runs from 1 July to 30 June, whatever their nationality. The older 120-day test for some visitors has been removed, and repeat visits within one tax year add up.

A non-resident is taxed only on Pakistan-source income. Salary counts as Pakistan-source income to the extent it relates to employment exercised in Pakistan, wherever it is paid, so pay for work performed while in the country falls inside that definition even for a visitor.

For salaried individuals, the first PKR 600,000 of taxable income is untaxed and the next PKR 600,000 is taxed at 1%, with higher bands above. A 9% surcharge applies to salaried taxable income over PKR 10 million, and 10% to non-salaried income over that level.

The United States and Pakistan have an income tax convention that entered into force in 1959. It covers federal income taxes and, for Pakistan, income tax, super-tax and business profits tax, and it predates the modern treaty model.

What US citizens and green card holders still owe

US citizens and green card holders owe US tax on worldwide income wherever they live. The foreign earned income exclusion shelters up to $132,900 of foreign earned income for 2026 and is claimed on Form 2555. It covers wages and self-employment income for work performed abroad, and it does not cover dividends, interest, rental income or capital gains.

Claiming it requires a tax home in a foreign country and a pass on either the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test. The physical presence test needs 330 full days in foreign countries during any 12 consecutive months, and the days do not have to be consecutive. The bona fide residence test needs residence in a foreign country for a full tax year, which a three-month tourist stay does not support.

The foreign tax credit on Form 1116 only matters when Pakistan actually taxes the income, and income excluded under the FEIE cannot also generate a credit. A US person whose foreign financial accounts total more than $10,000 at any point in the year files FinCEN Form 114. The inflation-adjusted penalty for a non-willful violation is up to $16,536 per report for 2026. Form 8938 has separate thresholds and is filed with the return, and a Pakistani account opened for convenience counts toward both filings.