Tulsa Remote Program Celebrates 3 Years Of Operation

The Tulsa Remote Program is celebrating three years of operation by bringing in more people in 2021 than in years past.

Program leaders say over the past three years, the Tulsa Remote Program has brought in more than $60 million in new local earnings and they expect to keep adding to that number in upcoming years.

The program began as a way to draw people, who work remotely, to Tulsa from other parts of the country by paying them $10,000 just to live in the city for a year.

In the past three years, Managing Director Justin Harlan said they have had more than 50,000 people apply and have accepted 1,500 of those applications. He says 900 of those people actually moved to the city just this year.

“Beyond the numbers beyond the statistics it’s really just cool to know there is people all over the city opening businesses, contributing on boards, really plugging into the city in meaningful ways and that is really what we are most proud of,” Harlan said.

He told News On 6 that other cities across the country have reached out to them to learn from their ideas and copy the program for their own cities now that the pandemic has changed the way many people work.

“We certainly think we are just getting started,” Harlan said. “There are employers across the country that are allowing work from anywhere policies and the work environment is really changing as we know it. There has been a lot of replication of our program across the country we think that the sky is the limit and we are so excited to tell people about Tulsa and everything the city has to offer.”

He says many of those first Tulsa Remote workers decided to stay in the city even after their one year in the program.