Digital nomads with permission to work from Bermuda under a new one-year residential certificate could start to arrive as early as next week, the Premier said last night.

David Burt was speaking after Jason Hayward, the Minister of Labour, said the first approvals for the Work from Bermuda certificate would be processed today.

Mr Hayward added that 73 applications had been received in the six days since the application form for the programme went live. But he said some applications were incomplete.

Mr Hayward said widespread international media coverage of the one-year residential certificate programme had provided additional benefits as some overseas companies had indicated an interest in relocation to Bermuda and the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers had asked about moving some of its overseas staff to the island.

Mr Burt, speaking at the regular Covid-19 update, said that international press coverage of the programme had resulted in 520 million website impressions, which he said had a media value of $1 million.

He added that the Bermuda Business Development Agency had received queries from companies in Australia, Canada and the United States who were considering moving operations to Bermuda.

Mr Burt said the popularity of the island as a place for people to work on a remote basis was “due to our collective successful management of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

He added: “This success has only been possible with the support of everyone in Bermuda.”

The certificate will allow remote workers from overseas who are working from home to work from Bermuda and will also allow non-Bermudian university students to live on the island while completing courses online.

Applicants for the one-year certificate must be able to prove they can support themselves and they will be barred from looking for work in Bermuda. The programme was announced by Mr Hayward in the House of Assembly on July 17.

The move came two weeks after Barbados announced a similar programme.

Benefits for the island were said to include an increased population, more economic activity, more job security for Bermudians, and a boost to the marketability of the island as a place to live, visit and do business.