Central Europe and the Baltics had a busy year for long-stay routes, and a lot of the data floating around online is now out of date. We re-verified every long-stay program for Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania against the official government portals on 2026-06-22 — checking the most damaging field first (is each program actually open, and does it really renew?), then adding source-backed refusal reasons to all 18 programs. Three changes stand out.
Croatia: the digital-nomad permit now runs up to 18 months
Croatia’s 2025 Aliens-Act amendment stretched the digital-nomad temporary-stay permit from a flat one year to a maximum of 18 months. If you are granted less than 18 months you can extend once, by up to six months, to reach that ceiling. What did not change is the anti-loophole rule: the permit is not renewable beyond 18 months, and you must spend at least six months outside Croatia before a fresh application (you can no longer switch to another permit type and back to dodge the wait).
- Income requirement: at least 2.5× the average monthly net salary — currently about €3,622.50/month, plus 10% per accompanying family member.
- We corrected our data from "1 year" to up to 18 months and marked it extendable — see the Croatia Digital Nomad permit.
Slovenia: a brand-new digital-nomad permit (November 2025)
Slovenia opened its first dedicated digital-nomad route on 21 November 2025. It is a temporary residence permit for non-EU/EEA remote workers, issued for up to one year. Crucially — and unlike Croatia’s — it cannot be extended: you must wait six months after it expires before reapplying. We confirmed it is genuinely single-shot and deliberately kept it marked non-renewable.
- Income requirement: at least €3,200/month (twice Slovenia’s average net salary); the holder must not enter the Slovenian labour market.
- See the Slovenia Digital Nomad permit.
Hungary: the Guest Investor “golden” route dropped its property option
Hungary relaunched its Guest Investor Programme in July 2024, and it is open — but the version many sites still describe is wrong. The originally-announced €500,000 direct property-purchase pathway was abolished before it ever took effect. The two routes that remain are a €250,000 investment into a registered Hungarian real-estate fund (at least 40% of the fund’s assets in Hungarian residential property, held five years) or a €1,000,000 donation to a higher-education institution.
- The residence permit is valid for up to 10 years and can be extended once, for a further 10 years, while the investment is maintained — with no minimum-stay requirement. We confirmed it is open and marked it renewable: Hungary Guest Investor Residence Permit.
- Hungary also runs the White Card digital-nomad permit — one year, renewable once to a two-year maximum.
The Baltics: startup, work and study permits all renew
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania share a pattern: their work, study and entrepreneur permits are renewable residence permits, but our data had been storing most of them as single-shot. We corrected that against each migration authority, with two duration fixes along the way.
- Lithuania’s Startup Visa is issued for two years (we corrected it from one) and renews for a further three — up to five years total — on the Innovation Agency confirming you are genuinely building the company.
- Latvia’s Startup Visa runs up to three years and renews toward an ordinary residence permit.
- Estonia’s Digital Nomad Visa is the Baltic exception: a Type-D long-stay visa capped at 548 days in any 730-day window, so we kept it marked non-renewable — but Estonia’s work and study residence permits do renew.
How we keep this honest
This post accompanies a data correction. On 2026-06-22 we verified that the Hungary Guest Investor Programme is open at its current thresholds, recorded Croatia’s 18-month and Slovenia’s new November-2025 nomad permits, set the renewable flag on 14 Central-European and Baltic residence permits (while deliberately leaving the genuinely single-shot Estonian and Slovenian nomad visas non-renewable), fixed two stale duration figures, and added source-backed refusal reasons to all 18 programs reviewed. This continues our Europe long-stay verification series — see the Mediterranean golden-visa check. Our full method is in the Editorial & Data Standards.