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Ask HN: Working remote US job from random countries?

6 points by ackatz ↗ HN
Does anyone have experience working a remote US job while going around and living in various countries? My girlfriend and I are interested in trying this lifestyle for 3-6 months after our current lease runs out. We are mainly sick of the car culture in the US and enjoy living in places built for humans.

We are early-mid 30s with no kids, no house, no pets, and no real obligations besides my remote job based in the US.

Are there legal implications with work, visas, etc. or any interesting loopholes to consider? Would really appreciate any insight or even reasons why this might be a dumb idea.

14 comments

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version_five
The loophole is not telling anyone. People love to make a big deal out of location, but if you can have a remote job and keep the hours they're looking for, just do it, don't tell immigration in the counties you enter, and don't tell your company, and there will be no issue. Otherwise you risk wasting a bunch of time on paperwork for no reason just to satisfy some bureaucrats need to be involved.
icedchai
I knew a guy who did this 10 years ago. He was living somewhere in South America, working an east coast US job remotely. He owned a property in his home state, rented it out, and used that as his "home address" for mailing/tax purposes. He also VPN'd into his home state just in case IT asked why he was connecting from a foreign country.
dghlsakjg
This is the easy answer.

Some countries have teleworking visas (Mexico, I believe), but a lot of companies don’t want to deal with the potential tax implications.

Doing it all completely legally is hard and expensive. The world isn’t setup for it in most cases.

MilnerRoute
It sounds like fun. You'll find a bunch of info if you Google the term "digital nomad".

I've never been clear how many people are actually doing it, or how the economics work out. (I think it depends on the exchange rate of the country you're going to.) And of course, living in a foreign countries has its own challenges. Choose wisely.

ofalkaed
I don't see why you would need a visa, you are a US citizen working a job in the US. There could be some fun with your taxes depending how long you are out of the country but nothing major, mainly if you try to use your being out of the country to avoid paying taxes.
dghlsakjg
Many countries wouldn’t be happy with this arrangement, USA included.

If you show up at the border of the US asking for a tourist entry and declare your intent to work while in the country, even remotely for a foreign country, there is a very good chance that you aren’t getting admitted.

Canada once gave me trouble on a day trip because I had a tool bag in my car. The US is much pickier about these things.

thfuran
Yes, of course there are. You may or may not be able to work remotely on a tourist visa, depending on the country and duration of stay. You may or may not be required to pay taxes where you're working, depending on country. You may or may not be able to do your job there, depending on country (does your job require using data that is regulated in some way? Does your employer have policies regarding data residence?).
carride
This is a good start to the list of things to consider. Most countries have some time limit for tourist visa, typically 90 days, and then some maximum number of days per year e.g 180 days. Even if able to avoid these rules by overstaying limits, you will be breaking the rules. You might be refused to enter the country at a time when you left for a short or longer trip. If doing nomad without any planning, then best to stay within the tourist visa limits, and bounce between 3-4 countries
thfuran
>best to stay within the tourist visa limits

Which may mean no working even for a foreign company.

carride
Yes, the OP said they want to continue working their remote job with US company which they already have
carride
You are correct, there are certainly rules restricting work remotely for a company in a foreign country when visiting a host country on tourist visa. Though this difficult to track if you stay within the tourist visa timeline limits. Stay within the tourist visa length of days per visit and per year, and it is unlikely the host country is going to enforce taxes or any other rule of the visa.

Plus the OP said they only want to try it out 3-6 months. Not several years that many nomads do breaking the rules of the host country

carride
Argentina explains their digital nomad policy. About no Argentina taxes if working remote, and how to extend after tourist visa ends. Now giving $500 USD tourism coupon if stay longer than 3 weeks [1]. This seems to be something new

[1] https://www.argentina.travel/landing/digital-nomads/

carride
This is just a tourism marketing page from argentina. I would surprised if actually receiving the gift card or extending to a digital nomad visa is easy. Still it gives some sense of how uncomplicated it would be to just work there remotely without much concern.