NomadMatch — Requirements

Goals

• Let a remote worker discover which digital nomad visa programs they qualify for in under 60 seconds.
• Surface accurate income thresholds, visa duration, tax treatment, and cost-of-living data for each program.
• Estimate monthly financial savings at each destination relative to the user's stated income.
• Make it trivially easy to click through to the official government application.
• Provide a filterable, sortable view so users can prioritize by region, duration, or savings.

Primary user

Remote worker / digital nomad seeker. A full-time remote employee or freelancer earning $700–$10,000/month who wants to legally live and work abroad for 6–24 months. They are comfortable with web research but frustrated by having to cross-reference dozens of government websites in different languages. They typically have a strong or mid-tier passport and a stable income they can document. Job-to-be-done: "Tell me which countries I can actually move to right now, and how much money I'll have left over each month."

Functional requirements

• FR1: User can input their monthly income via a slider (range $500–$10,000 USD, $100 increments); the current value displays numerically in real time.
• FR2: User can select their passport tier (strong / mid-tier / developing) to filter out programs that restrict certain nationalities.
• FR3: User can filter by minimum visa duration (any / 6+ / 12+ / 24+ months).
• FR4: User can filter to show only tax-exempt programs.
• FR5: User can toggle region chips (Europe, Asia, South America, Central America, Caribbean, North America, Africa, Middle East) to narrow results by geography.
• FR6: The card grid updates instantly on every filter change without a page reload.
• FR7: Each card shows: country flag + name, visa name, match badge (Eligible / Almost / Below threshold), minimum income, visa duration, application fee, cost of living, highlights, and estimated monthly savings.
• FR8: Cards are color-coded by match quality: green left border = income ≥ threshold; amber = within 15% below; red = below 85%.
• FR9: User can sort results by: best match first, lowest income requirement, highest estimated savings, longest duration, most popular.
• FR10: Clicking a card opens a detail modal with full stats, a requirements checklist (remote proof, health insurance, criminal record, passport validity), an estimated annual savings figure, and a link to the official application portal.
• FR11: The modal shows estimated monthly and annual savings (income minus cost-of-living at destination).
• FR12: Income display and all monetary values are formatted as USD with commas (no decimal places).

User stories

• As a remote employee, I want to drag a slider to my monthly salary and immediately see which countries I qualify for, so I don't have to read 20 government websites.
• As a tax-conscious nomad, I want to filter to tax-exempt programs only, so I can maximize take-home income while living abroad.
• As someone with a mid-tier passport, I want the app to hide programs that restrict my nationality, so I don't waste time on options that aren't available to me.
• As a planner, I want to see estimated monthly savings at each destination, so I can compare financial outcomes across countries side by side.
• As a traveler prioritizing Europe, I want to click a region chip and see only European visas, so I can focus on my preferred geography.
• As a detail-oriented researcher, I want to open a full requirements checklist for any program, so I know exactly what documents I need to gather before applying.
• As a budget-conscious nomad, I want to sort by lowest income requirement, so I can find programs I qualify for even at a lower income.
• As a long-stay planner, I want to filter for 24+ month visas, so I avoid programs that would require me to reapply after just 6 months.

Non-functional requirements

• Performance: All filtering and sorting happens client-side with no network requests after initial data load; results update in < 50ms on a modern browser.
• Accessibility: Color-coding must not be the only eligibility signal — each card includes a text badge (Eligible / Almost / Below threshold).
• Privacy: No user data is stored, transmitted, or logged. Income and passport tier exist only in the browser session.
• Offline-capable: After initial load, the app functions without an internet connection (all logic and data are local).
• Mobile-friendly: Card grid collapses to single column below 640px; filter panel stacks vertically; modal is scrollable on small screens.
• Browser compatibility: Runs in all modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) without a build step.

Out of scope (for the prototype)

• User accounts or saved shortlists (Pro feature).
• Real-time data fetching from government APIs.
• Actual application submission or form filling.
• Tax liability calculation (requires country-specific tax rules).
• Multi-leg trip planning.
• Push or email notifications for requirement changes.
• Languages other than English.

Open questions

• Should the income slider display the user's post-tax income (more accurate for savings estimation) or gross income (simpler to know)?
• What is the right income range ceiling — $10K/month, or should it extend to $20K for high earners?
• Is "cost of living" better expressed as a monthly total or broken into housing vs. food vs. transport?
• How frequently should the dataset be updated, and who verifies the data against government sources?