For all the excitement of the remote work era and the perks of a digital nomad lifestyle, the reality is that successful work life still depends on some old-fashioned rules and regulations to be followed. It’s easy enough to grab a smartphone and send a business email no matter where you are, as workers are not tied to their desks any longer. However, once visas, taxes, and licences get involved things tend to get messy and your location matters quite a bit.
It’s certainly possible to get a hold of your paperwork and make sure you can do your job legally, but it can take quite a lot of administrative work and be very frustrating. The first step is to understand what exactly you are dealing with and how best to adjust to this situation.
Who Can Work Where Can Be Confusing
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If your job can be done with a phone and a laptop, it’s very easy to simply change location and set up somewhere with a nice view. That doesn’t mean it’s legal to simply move into a country and do your thing without telling anyone, at least not if you intend to do it long term. Every country has very specific laws governing the right to work, and there could be some provisions for guests of different nationalities. For example, UK residents are completely free to enter any EU country, but if they want to work remotely from there, a special digital nomad visa may be required. Since it takes time and effort to secure this kind of approval even when eligibility is not a problem, in practice workers can’t just switch countries whenever they feel like it.
To put it simply, you can run around the globe but you can’t hide from the tax man. People who are physically not located in Britain may still be liable to pay taxes in the UK if they remain long term residents. Those who decide to move abroad for good need to start paying at their new home location, so while there could be some net gains from strategic moving to a lower taxed jurisdiction in the final analysis you remain on the hook for a share of your revenue. Navigating the taxation system in a foreign country can be confusing, so there is also the risk of accidentally missing a deadline or failing to cover a part of the bill. This is why those who like to work on the move should carefully think about the best way to stay compliant with their tax obligations. Nobody wants to get into debt over a poorly managed transition or misunderstood rules for foreign-born residents, and it happens more often than you think.
Official Channels Require Official Documents
When you live in a foreign country, you will need to complete some administrative tasks sooner or later. That can be a problem if all of your documents are in English and that’s not the language spoken in your new country of residence. You will have to show officially approved translations with stamps obtained from apostilles in the UK to get anything done. To avoid rushing translations in when you really need them, it’s prudent to prepare all the relevant personal documents in advance and keep them on you at all times. The whole process has to be repeated whenever you move into another country, which presents a practical limit for nomads looking for a perfect spot. You might not need to speak the local language to get by, but your documents need to be acceptable to the local authorities.