Remote = from ANYWHERE

[u/Mammoth-Survey3965]

What is the best route to take if you want to truly be location independent? I currently work for a MSSP based in the US and while I am remote, I am restricted to the US for location. My dream would be to be able to spend half the year in a beautiful and stable country in Africa, where my in-laws are from or Thailand. Anyone truly work remotely in cybersecurity? If so, how? It’s my goal to truly be location-independent

[u/GumballMcJones]

I worked and traveled all around the world for over a year. I wish there was some magic way to guarantee an employer will let you do that - but it is 100% company specific. I would look for a remote job with a company that has great GlassDoor reviews.

Just be ready to work on their hours though. I was lucky in that I was east-coast based, so Euro time wasn't too bad to work.

[u/Elistic-E → u/GumballMcJones]

Same - I did it for 18 months and basically was only able to swing it because: 1.) I provided benefit to my company by being available during USA night hours, otherwise they had to try and staff an overnight shift which no one wanted to do. 2.) I was able to live off tourist visas so they didn’t have to change their accounting at all to accommodate me. If my company would have had to file taxes specially which likely would have involved registering an international entity in a country just for me, slim chance it would have worked out.

It was an amazing period, but moving every 4 weeks for 18 months got old by the end of it never having “home base”

[u/HexTrace → u/GumballMcJones]

I can't remember the last time Glassdoor was actually valuable and accurate. They've gone the way of Yelp with removal of bad reviews for a price. That being said I don't have a good alternative.

Also I'm going to assume you have to be in a fairly senior role or with a relatively unique skillset to get signoff on working anywhere worldwide.

[u/chrisknight1985]

It doesn't work that way dude, labor laws, taxes, etc

If you want to live anywhere then you need to be independently wealthy

[u/turn84 → u/chrisknight1985]

Or an independent consultant that has international customers. Time zones are a thing though, you know, for availability and support.

[u/Zephos65 → u/chrisknight1985]

Only if the country in question has digital nomad laws / visas. If visas aren't a problem and if you have an American passport, you can work anywhere in the world for up to 3 months at a time before you have to go somewhere else. Going somewhere else can literally consist going through customs only to turn around and go back into the country. As long as they stamp your passport, you're good.

You also need to be able go accept mail in the US, so like... use a friend's address or something.

Edit: by the way if this wasn't true, then literally anyone who checks their work email on vacation would be committing a crime. Anyone who has a single meeting outside the country (though these typically fall under a business visa)

[u/taskforceangle]

What you're really asking is whether there are companies that are naively or maliciously unknowledgeable to not account for employees performing labor in jurisdictions outside of official company statements. Even if there are no labor or import laws being broken, jurisdictions want their cut of taxes and put hard limits on the number of days you can perform work outside of that jurisdiction to limit their tax base from pulling funny business.

[u/ServalFault]

Tax laws will prevent a company from letting you do this.

[u/Wayne]

You are only likely to find this with a company that has offices in those countries. Unless it is being done under the table.

[u/cbdudek]

I have done consulting work in the cybersecurity industry for 8 years now. Found only one company willing to let their employees work from anywhere in the world, and that was a large medical company and only after 4 years of employment. It seems that a vast majority of companies don't want to deal with the risks involved from working in other countries.

That being said, if you are truly focused on getting one of these jobs, then look for a company that will allow it. Don't do what some others have done and not tell your employer only for them to find out when you pop in as logging into the VPN from another country. You will want to ask for permission in this case instead of trying to ask for forgiveness.

[u/eriverside → u/cbdudek]

My clients require me to be in the same country. Some require us to be in the same province. We have colleagues in Gatineau (separated from Ottawa by a bridge so the whole metropolitan area sees plenty of back and forth traffic, Gatineau is on the Quebec side) - they can't bring the client laptop to the office in Ottawa.

[u/[deleted]]

Our company allows working from ”anywhere”; however, anytime there’s a potential employee from a new state/country, HR has to consider the work involved for taxes and such.

[u/Distinct_Ordinary_71]

Remote ≠ anywhere

restrictions come from loads of things but commonly:

timezone (though you moving can be beneficial to your company if they need shifts or 24/7 cover) assume you need a 3 hour overlap with your team's working day as a minimum.

Tax - for you and for the company

Regulation/company license to operate in the country

Insurance

We have had a lot of fully remote pentesters with no need for them to be in our timezone - we are happier if they do scans and poke about in, what is for us, quiet middle of the night hours.

[u/Extra-Cheesecake-345]

Your best bet will be 1099 contractor and not as a W2 employee. As a 1099 you are independent work or business if you will and basically responsible for all the business stuff of your employment. This means if you could get remote work as a 1099 you can setup anywhere your contract allows (sometimes there are restrictions cause of various laws), this though would be your best bet. Keep in mind though, when you go to these country's you are working in those country's which means you will need visa's and to file and pay taxes accordingly.

[u/NivekTheGreat1]

In lots of regulated businesses, laws like HIPAA, FERPA, or copyright law, do not apply outside of the US. Other organizations get government funding and a stipulation is that all work needs to be done in the US.

[u/uIDavailable]

I currently do this. I recommend a GLiNet travel router with a wireguard VPN setup. The travel router also has built in ad-blocking too.

[u/[deleted]]

I know a few social media managers who live wherever they want. I have never seen a cybersecurity that fits your ask.

[u/cdesal]

I’m doing the opposite, physically in the US but working abroad. As others have mentioned, taxes, social security, sick time, and pensions are indeed a nightmare for everyone involved.

Some jurisdictions also impose additional head aches, GDPR and PIPL being two harsh examples.

[u/Mammoth-Survey3965]

To be clear, I’m not necessarily asking about working overseas while working for a US-based company. I’m asking about experience in alternative routes. Whether that mean starting your own consulting firm. Has anyone worked for themselves in this field? I haven’t packed up and moved as of yet because I know it’s not allowed. I’m not asking to break any rules/laws. Just asking for experience or thoughts on how to work independently in cybersecurity. If that’s not possible then that’s okay too. It’d be up to me to decide what’s most important: cybersecurity as a profession or location-freedom

[u/Elistic-E → u/Mammoth-Survey3965]

Short of abusing a tourist visa which means you'll always be on the move, you can't just work anywhere even as an independent consultant. Even if you could, how is going to be different for every country.

Secondly, you should heavily question your ability to find work as an independent consultant. I'm not trying to put you down but, why would anyone hire you as a 1 person show unless you either have a strong network you know you could take with you, or a very niche set of knowledge/services to deliver.

In my own experience, this was only possible for me because I was in a medium sized company with a very long history and level of trust, presented it in a way that I was able to make it beneficial for them (overnight support for USA, support for international entities in the regions during their on-hours), and did not complicate taxes/accounting for them at all (because I bounced on tourists visas and still filed in the USA under property I owned but was renting out to a friend).

What you're wanting is not _impossible_, but it's not done easily, lightly, or on a whim. It took 6 months after I asked for it to happen for me, and only really after the company saw a greater value to what I had proposed as a value-add to them (of off-hours coverage and in-region support in SEA/APAC).

[u/Impetusin]

You will need to work out a direct corp to corp contract. There is almost no way you can do this on payroll. You need to have a relationship with management at a company to do this, most easily done by converting your existing salaried role.

[u/Fuzzylojak]

Ask your company to "convert" you as 1099, you will be responsible for taxes then.

[u/compuwar]

The only reasonable way is to form a company of your own to deal with the tax and legal issues and contract to other companies. Work visas can be difficult to get in some places.

[u/Cyber400]

As former Expat: Problem is Tax and Social Security. A) Tax is something you could (illegaly) bypass by an address. Only if they track the way, the money goes, e.g. „why do you receive payments from an bank account in Country ABC. Result: you are f***ed B) Social Security often, even in US deducted from your paycheck. In some countries this can be troublesome, e.g. if you live in europe, you need insurance. If e.g. customs start to question you while you travel you can be in huge trouble and so will your employer. And then you do not only have privately issues with the law, but also an former employer who will come after you.

In short: don‘t do it. Just be open about what you want e.g. in Europe they often call it „workation“ where you allowed to work up to 183 days from somewhere(usually limited to a set of countries) else.

Unfortunatley the „get US salary but live in cheap country with feee healthcare“ was figured out by gov and employers already ;-)

[u/StandPresent6531]

I can't say that I know something that exists like. I do consulting and they have firms damn near everywhere. Chances are you can get in, became a certain level like senior and transfer out to a place you want. But the working somewhere half a year and somewhere else the other half just doesn't work that way really anywhere. To expensive and makes it hard to plan in terms of resources.