Moving to a remote island is a pretty tantalizing prospect right now. Luckily, the small island of Sark, one of the Channel Islands between England and France, is looking for new residents.
Photo: Google Maps
The island has fewer than 500 permanent residents, no cars, and the only transportation is bicycle or horse-drawn carriage. Now, German entrepreneur Swen Lorenz, who has lived on the island since 2004, is trying to boost the island’s population by persuading people to move there.
Photo: Keri Billen Photography/Shutterstock
On the Sark Society website, Swen Lorenz invites people to “Live in a place with stunning scenery and a low-density population, pay minimal taxes, and free yourself from excessive government regulation, and be part of a group of like-minded entrepreneurs, investors, and freethinkers.”
Photo: Allard One/Shutterstock
Lorenz outlines how easy it is to move to the island, citing the lack of employment law, no income or personal asset disclosure, no income tax, and no accounting requirements. Citizens of the UK and Ireland can move there without a visa, while US and EU citizens must apply for an employment, investor, or entrepreneur visa — all of which are relatively easy to obtain.
Sark is a “dependency” island with some level of autonomy, though still under the jurisdiction of the UK. There is no airport, and the island is only accessible by boat from the nearby islands of Guernsey and Jersey, and from France. 