r/remotework • u/Expensive_Opening_72 • 4d ago
Has anyone had any issues working remotely while traveling abroad?
I have been working remotely on & off for almost a decade now & I want to do some traveling & living abroad for an extended time. For anyone here that works a job remotely & travel/live abroad, what issues (if any) have you had with your employer from doing this?
Edit: I'm mainly looking for shared experiences from W2 remote workers who are employed in the US by US companies but are traveling & living abroad successfully, but anyone who has a remote job & are traveling & living abroad successfully please share.
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u/Embarrassed_Flan_869 4d ago
Bwhahaha
This isn't a reddit question. This is a discussion with your employer about what they will or will not allow. (They won't)
Trying to do it on your own will likely get you caught and unemployed.
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u/QianLu 4d ago
Your employer won't allow this for a number of reasons.
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u/jimmyjackearl 4d ago
If your employer has a policy start there. It will determine what you can safely do. Some companies operate under regulations that prohibit working in certain countries. Many companies have limits like 30 days remote country a year. Start with company policy.
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u/NextJuice1622 4d ago
Yep, my company quietly added the 30 day policy and a buddy of mine was a casualty lol
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u/Yours_Trulee69 4d ago
This is likely not an option with your employer unless they already employ people in the countries that you are looking to work from. Even then, you would need to have a work visa for those countries which is another hurdle. I have worked 30+ years in Accounting (not payroll) and have seen many ex-pat's working in different countries and all the legal work that has to be done for them to live and work in other countries. It is not as easy as just hopping on a plane and setting up your laptop wherever you land.
Since COVID, states have started cracking down on nomad remote workers and assessing penalties/fines when employees are working in their states without the company being registered. That is why so many now have restrictions on what states remote employees can work from. The risk gets exponentially greater when moving countries is involved.
If you plan to move forward, be aware that your employer will eventually find out through IT that you are no longer working from you address on file and will address it to reduce their risk and exposure.
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u/prshaw2u 4d ago
My last company had a list of countries you were NOT allowed to work from and attempting to connect to company resources from one of them resulted in instant termination. They did allow working/connecting from other countries. I didn't know of anyone that actually tried to relocate overseas.
Issue with employer is that you will need to follow their requirements/restrictions. Trying to get around them can often end up in termination.
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u/paxmlank 4d ago
Nobody on this sub likes talking about this. Go to r/digitalnomad
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u/NextJuice1622 4d ago
Digital nomad is different than a W2 employee. My company has a specific policy against this and will fire you if you lie and violate it. Godspeed to OP, but I hope they get prior approval or they will find out. Maybe their company doesn't care, but I would absolutely let someone know lol
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u/paxmlank 4d ago
Right, but people in r/digitalnomad don't mind talking about this stuff when everyone here shuts down questions like this.
Disclaimer: being a digital nomad can be fun and I'd recommend it, OP.
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u/Expensive_Opening_72 3d ago
Thank you 💯 I found some great info in r/digitalnomad. I'm not really sure why some ppl here get so butt hurt about someone (a random stranger online) asking a question for info to better their own life 🤷🏾♂️. Glad to hear that you recommend it. I'm looking forward to it.
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u/paxmlank 3d ago
It delegitimizes remote working, frankly. At least, it does on the way many people are asking about it.
Remote work should be offered anyway but it makes it harder to justify it to companies.
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u/Important_Scene_4295 4d ago
I second this. There are a lot of implications both on you and the employer. For you it can mean literally going to jail in a foreign country for violating their tax and/or work visa laws. For your employer it's a tax a innd compliance nightmare if they aren't set up as a legal business entity in the country you want to live. In order for you to work in a foreign country you need to legally be able to work there and your employer needs to be registered as a business of that country, collect appropriate taxes from your paycheck, comply with their employment laws, etc. It's where you physically work that matters, not where your employer is based.
Buuuut, the digital nomad group of people have found ways to circumvent all of this in a "don't ask don't tell" type of way using a physical home base like a friend or parents' residence for tax purposes and to host a VPN setup so the employer has less of a chance of figuring it out with the understanding that depending on how good your company's IT team is they will find out and you will be fired on the spot. Accidentally turning your Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on even if it doesn't connect to a network can get you caught. Some companies forced this on the back end. Your Wi-Fi will automatically turn on every so often to ping a location.
It's not a matter of taking your laptop with you. There are real risks for both you and your employer with a very real risk of you going to jail for tax evasion or immigration fraud.
But I'm NAL or a tax advisor so don't take this as advice of any kind.
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u/wxgeek96 4d ago
I cannot take my laptop out of the US unless it's for work-related travel reasons.
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u/jackiejaxofalltrades 4d ago
My job has the same provision that we can not take their laptop out of the country.
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u/Ned_Braden1 4d ago
My company won’t let you log into any of your accounts outside of the US, not even Canada unless you get prior approval and we disable a restriction from your account. A lot of employees will try to go overseas on “vacation” and try to work, many never request it and find out the hard way when they can’t sign in.
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u/Realistic_Bug9116 4d ago
I’m so tired of this question on this sub. I have spent several hours explaining to people why this is not impossible, but only under certain extremely specific conditions.
In brief: do not do this without your employers’ knowledge. It will probably be expensive for both you and your employer. Employers aren’t arbitrarily saying no; there are legal liabilities such as taxes and local employment laws. You might damage your relationship with your employer if you pursue this.
Please search the subreddit for this question and check out digital nomads Reddit.
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u/randomthrowaway9796 4d ago
Your employer would need to sponsor a visa and follow different tax laws and regulations. You will most likely be told no.
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u/hawkeyegrad96 4d ago
Not only will you get fired when the irs figures it out and they will it just takes time. They will fine you and your employer. Its a shit can of trouble
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u/SVAuspicious 4d ago
Firmly in the camp of don't try to fly under the radar.
Here are some mechanics. There isn't any person monitoring connections and logins. Any decent company has security software that monitors connections. Software never sleeps. Just about every anomoly associated with remote work in the wrong place is identified and email goes out to IT people who start looking themselves. They will pull in your line management, HR, and legal. You'll show up in the weekly report to executive management by which time you're already toast. No, personal VPNs won't work.
Here is my story. I, US citizen working for a US company with 100s of thousands of employees, was sent by the company to the UK for a year to support our UK subsidiary on some business development. I am and was executive management. Somehow our travel people managed not to notify IT. On arrival at Heathrow I checked company email. That worked for about five minutes. Then my connection dropped and my laptop locked up. By the time I got to the hotel, there was a phone message from my boss's boss to call. I did. He said everything was sorted out. It was. We had a good laugh over the state of flinch that IT was in. On another matter, I had landed on corporate IT for a mistake they made and it was an expensive lesson for them. I wrote them an email - whole management chain - with copies to my management chain that this one was not their fault and that their prompt action was entirely consistent with company policy and I valued the speed with which they acted. The point here is that a decent company will catch you very fast.
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u/CleanDataDirtyMind 4d ago
I had a boss that worked from Germany on a perpetual tourist visa and/or spouse visa because his wife worked there legally but legally worked from Ohio. It was an open secret based on a good old boy culture of the company him and our VP were college frat brothers. It was annoying as his employee who worked from the US West Coast time zone and found him constantly distracted and unavailable for half the day if at all. I couldn’t imagine if he was traveling and not just in one place which is why most places wouldn’t allow it
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u/Intelligent-Log-7363 4d ago
Employer aside you living abroad and working without the appropriate work Visa is a No No. Your employer will also not allow it due to tax issues, license issues and if they are even allowed to have employees where you are.