How to Convince Your Employer to Allow Remote Work Abroad: 9 Essential Tips
Remote work abroad is a game changer when it comes to travel. No more saving vacation days to squeeze EVERYTHING in. And if you get rid of an apartment back at home, oftentimes working remotely abroad can be significantly cheaper than it is in the U.S.
I used travel to heal after the end of my engagement, and working remotely abroad was a huge part of making that happen. I spent 6 weeks in Argentina, 5 weeks in Colombia, and 5 weeks in Portugal while only taking a portion of my vacation days.
I’m sure that all sounds great, right, but how do you convince your employer to let you?
Please note that these tips are only for those wanting to temporarily travel and work remotely abroad. Permanently moving abroad while maintaining a job back in your home country is a whole other scenario.
Prepare your case to your employer.
1. Do your research to confirm that country allows foreigners to work remotely while visiting on a tourist visa.
Of course, the main thing you need to ensure is that you can work from whatever country you are looking into from a legal and tax standpoint. Many countries allow you to conduct remote work activities while visiting without any tax implications if you’re there for a short amount of time. That being said, every country is different. For instance, I previously looked into working from Slovenia, but it’s illegal to conduct work there while on a tourist visa, including remote work.
2. Provide evidence that remote work abroad companies operate in that country.
It can be tricky trying to figure out the taxes and employment laws necessary to check when working remotely abroad. For that reason, I recommend choosing a country where companies have digital nomad remote work abroad-type programs. If those programs are operating there, then you know that you can likely work there from a tax and legal standpoint. This might be helpful evidence when making a case to your employer.
There are a number of companies to look into. I’ve personally traveled with Remote Year and Hacker Paradise, but there’s also WiFi Tribe, Noma Collective, and Outsite.
80% of Gen Z and 74% of Millennials are interested in working remotely abroad according to this Remote Workforce Report.
3. Be willing to be flexible with your schedule and work similar hours.
It may be best to work the same hours if your team wants as minimal a disruption as possible. When I was working as a digital nomad in Lisbon, this meant working from around 2 to 10 p.m. every day so I could work U.S. east coast hours.
That being said, depending on your role, perhaps it could benefit your company if you’re working hours in a different time zone. Consider what would be best for your role and propose that when talking to your company about working abroad.
4. Confirm you’ll have the same level of connectivity and security.
If your company doesn’t have a VPN, tell them you’ll pay for one yourself for added security while abroad. I usually like getting a VPN anyways so I can still watch American Netflix. 😀
Share information with them that ensures you’ll have proper WiFi connectivity. It can often help to work from a coworking space to ensure you don’t have any issues.
I also recommend setting up a Google Voice number. Anyone calling or texting you will contact you as usual on their end, but on your side, you’ll receive all calls and texts over WiFi and cellular data. This number is not tied to your sim card, so you can use it anywhere you go. This will be key if anyone regularly calls or texts you at work.
5. Share the benefits of remote work abroad for the company.
There are a number of benefits for employers that allow staff to work remotely abroad. Here are a few that you can consider for selling points:
- Of course this is a huge perk that can help attract potential talent and retain existing talent. 80% of Gen Z and 74% of Millennials are interested in working remotely abroad according to this Remote Workforce Report.
- Employees will be happier and should ultimately be more productive at work.
- Exposure to other cultures can boost employee creativity, cultural competence, and soft skills, such as adaptability, confidence, and empathy.
- This gives staff the opportunity to meet many high performing individuals they may not meet otherwise, and these people could be helpful business connections.
6. Share examples of competitors or other companies seeing success with allowing remote work abroad.
These may be harder to find, especially for direct competitors, but there are plenty of companies that allow remote work abroad so you should be able to find some examples. Join digital nomad groups on Facebook, look around on Reddit, and you may be able to find some examples in your industry that you can speak to with your employer.
7. Establish clear boundaries on the amount of time for remote work abroad.
Some employers might find it more comforting if you establish these boundaries. You can emphasize to them that you only plan to spend one month in a country and no more than three months abroad in total per year.
Feel free to adjust that amount of time, but that might roughly be what a company is most comfortable with. I have met a number of digital nomads who are allowed to work remotely abroad but their company only allows them to do so for up to three months each year.
Related: The Truth Behind Digital Nomad Travel: Pros and Cons
8. Suggest the first time be a trial run if they’re still unsure.
Have your first trip abroad serve as a trial run where you can prove to your company that you will not lose productivity. This way they have the opportunity to see how it goes to make sure it works before fully allowing you to work remotely abroad in the long term.
Enforce your ability to work remotely abroad once you’re there.
9. Prove that nothing changes with you working remotely abroad.
This is absolutely essential. Maintain the same level of availability, professionalism, and attention to detail in your work. Don’t ruin it for yourself or for others at your company.
I know it can be hard because you might feel like you’re missing out on things you want to see and do in that country, but remember that work is what’s allowing you to be there and you’re seeing more than you could if you weren’t able to work from there.
Understand that your employer may still say no.
Know that you might have these conversations and your employer could still say no. Some employers may just want to mitigate the risk completely in spite of all the above points, especially during any uncertain economic times.
If you want to better understand the risk for companies, you can read more about permanent establishment. Permanent establishment is when a company has enough of a presence in a country to be liable for taxes there. This is likely the biggest risk companies worry about with remote work abroad.
Permanent establishment can cost companies hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes and penalties. I’m by no means a tax expert, but it seems like certain job roles have a higher risk of triggering permanent establishment than others. For instance, any sales roles or positions where you’re growing work and writing contracts seem to have a higher risk of triggering permanent establishment.
Find a new job if you need to.
I know I know, finding a new job isn’t always super easy. But if you’re serious about working remotely abroad and your employer won’t let you, know that plenty of companies do allow working remotely abroad. You could also consider going freelance, as companies can’t dictate where freelancers live and work.
I recommend checking out FlexJobs as a starting point. FlexJobs is a job posting site that allows you to easily sort and find companies that allow working from anywhere in the world. It’s not free, but you can get a 14-day trial for $2.95 and a full year subscription is about $60.
