Japan once again has the world’s most powerful passport for 2023

The Roundup

• Tue Le gets appointed as CEO of Remote Year, one of the few women of color to lead a global travel brand. We stan a hustling queen! 👑 Since 2016, Le has traveled the world as a digital nomad while serving as an advocate for enhancing Remote Year’s customer experience, inclusivity, and global impact initiatives, most recently as the company’s VP of global brand.

• Japan once again has the world’s most powerful passport for 2023, an honor the country has held for five years in a row. Japanese passport holders can visit 193 different destinations around the world visa-free, according to the Henley Passport Index. That is out of a total of 227 destinations around the globe.

Travel News and Interesting Visas

• Work and study remotely in the Bahamas for up to a year. There’s an online Beats application form with an application fee of $25 (that takes only 5 days). Work Remotely permits are $1,000 for the head of household and $500 for each dependent. Study Remotely permits are $500 for each applicant. Permit application fee of $25 will also be collected once approved. All fees quoted are in Bahamian currency.

• Check out 7 cities that will pay you to move there—this includes Albinen, Sardinia, and Santiago. They offer different incentives for you to move there, normally because city officials want to see population numbers rise.

• Enter your salary in this tool to find out which digital nomad visas you can apply for based on your earnings.

Remote Work

• AWW came up with a guide on remote work—it includes an extensive list of job boards, tips on finding remote roles, and ergonomic equipment we’d recommend.

• Stay productive while working remotely with these 10 tips and tricks from Brainhub. It also touches upon a popular time management technique called the Pomodoro Technique. Developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, this technique breaks down work into 25-minute intervals, followed by a short break.

Entrepreneurship

• Nomad Capitalist wrote a wonderful article on how to start a business from scratch, with no money or experience.

  • Network and Find Mentorship

  • Create and Sell Value

  • Learn to Face Rejection

If you’re relying on other people to change their minds about what you are doing and how acceptable and normal that is within society – if you’re seeking validation or advice from most of the people around you – you’re not going to grow as an entrepreneur. You need a circle of valuable people who will push you to grow. 

AWW Featured Projects & Businesses

• Darice Chang is an artist, activist, and writer. They run a vegan consultancy and media production company in Taiwan—Darice is very passionate about slow mindful living & lifestyle, sustainability, and ethical business. Darice also serves looks as drag king Dan Dan Demolition, most recently featured in Midnight Asia, a docu-series on Netflix.

• Bonnie Zhou is a mixed media artist born and raised in Toronto, Canada now based in Brooklyn, New York. She creates bold and whimsical paintings exploring freedom, sensuality, and release.

• Shelly Liu is a freelance social media manager who helps women-owned, BIPOC-owned, and LGBTQ-owned businesses build an impactful social media presence and grow organically. You can check out her Instagram and TikTok where she gives tips on how to grow organically on social media.

Upcoming AWW Events in 2023 (rsvp required)

• Jan 24th at 1 pm PST - How to Travel and Work Abroad Panel Learn from our panel on how to find opportunities abroad (remote or regional), network, and build a career overseas. On January 24th at 1 PM PST, we'll have a panel of amazing speakers who have lived abroad in Africa, Europe, Canada, Singapore, and even nomad-ed across the world.

• Feb 22nd - How to Solo Travel as a Woman We’re looking for 2 more speakers! Email us if you’d like to speak on the panel.

• Feb 23rd - Meetup in Taipei, Taiwan (details in the Facebook group) 

• March 4th - Meetup in Southern California (details TBA) 

• March 25th - Volunteers needed in Singapore! We’re hosting a media launch party in the lion city and need a couple of extra hands to help run our big event. Email us for details.

What happens when we stop traveling?

Someone asked me what would happen to the community if we no longer wandered anymore? If we decided to settle down and grow roots somewhere? Would we become irrelevant?

My response was that our community is growing (in its own right) with us. Our ability to wander is a privilege, but we forget that it’s our right to pave a path of our own—however that may look like is up to us.

There will always be new members and OGs. Some of us will continue nomad-ing, some will buy a home and stay in one city, some will continue to work a 9-5 and travel. The common theme that binds us together is our desire to break free of cultural-associated expectations and wander on our own terms; the challenges we face as Asian women are similar and that connects us together.

I don’t expect people to be 100% active in a community forever, but I want them to know they always have an online home to return to. —Emily Fang

Want to say hello, write for us, or give feedback? Shoot us an email at [email protected].