Brunei digital nomad visa: requirements (2026)

The Department of Councils of State issued an official public statement highlighting the LTP programme, confirming the three-category structure and health-insurance minimums (BND 100,000 coverage for professional pass-holders; BND 10,000 for social-visit holders). The announcement signals Brunei's deliberate policy shift toward attracting foreign talent and investors under Wawasan 2035 economic-diversification goals.

Brunei gazetted its first comprehensive private-sector data-protection law, establishing consent requirements, data-breach notification duties, and cross-border personal-data transfer restrictions, with a one-year grace period for private organisations to comply. Directly affects remote workers and foreign employers who collect or process personal data in or from Brunei.

Brunei's Immigration Department brought into force the Long-Term Pass (LTP), offering up to five years' stay with multiple-entry rights across three tracks: Social Visit Pass (for family ties to citizens or permanent residents), Business Visit Pass (investors who create local jobs and pay taxes), and Professional Visit Pass (foreign experts in sectors assessed as having skill shortages). This is the closest instrument Brunei has ever created to a talent or investor residency permit, and it represents the primary pathway for a skilled remote professional to reside long-term without employer sponsorship under a traditional work permit.

Brunei enacted its first-ever minimum wage law, setting BND 500/month for banking, finance, and ICT sector workers in Phase 1; foreign nationals on Employment Passes are covered, while those holding Professional Visit Visas or Special Authorisation Work Passes are explicitly exempt. This defined the compensation baseline relevant to skilled foreign hires and underscores that the standard work-permit pathway remains employer-sponsored and sector-specific.

The Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry published a comprehensive consultation paper proposing data-protection obligations for private organisations, initiating a multi-year legislative process that culminated in the PDPO 2025. This signalled Brunei's formal entry into the global data-governance landscape, a key consideration for remote-work employers routing personal data through Brunei.

The Attorney General's Chambers gazetted an amendment to the foundational Immigration Act (Chapter 17 of 1956), reinforcing enforcement provisions and updating definitions within the primary statute governing all entry, stay, and removal decisions in Brunei. The Act's ministerial-discretion architecture remained intact, preserving the government's broad authority to grant or refuse any visa or residency application.

The Employment Order 2009 replaced earlier labour legislation and codified the Foreign Worker Licence (Lesen Pekerja Asing, LPA) system, requiring every employer to obtain a licence before a foreign national can legally work in Brunei. No self-sponsored or freelance work authorisation category exists under this framework, meaning independent remote workers have no direct pathway to work legally without a local sponsor.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah proclaimed the national long-term development vision Wawasan 2035, centering human capital excellence and economic diversification beyond oil and gas as foundational pillars. The vision has since framed every major reform touching on foreign talent, including the 2023 minimum-wage framework, the 2023 MPEC salary guidelines covering 22 job families, and the 2024 Long-Term Pass.

The 1984 revised edition of the Immigration Act (Chapter 17) consolidated all amendments since 1956 and established the Entry Permit (permanent residency) pathway requiring a minimum of 12 years of continuous lawful residence, a threshold that remains in force today. It also entrenched the Minister's broad discretion on visa refusals without appeal, a feature that distinguishes Brunei's immigration framework from most ASEAN peers.

Brunei's first comprehensive Immigration Act established the legal basis for all entry, stay, and removal decisions, creating the visa and permit categories, including the Professional Visit Visa, Business Visit Visa, and Employment Visa, that have evolved into the current framework. Its grant of wide ministerial discretion without statutory appeal rights has been a defining and unchanged characteristic of Brunei's immigration system for nearly seven decades.