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Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

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Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#31

Post by metastew »

andreshb wrote: post #22

It seems to me all the answers so far make it look far more complicated than what it actually is. What I've done is just travel as tourist staying in each country around 3 months. When I "lived" in Chile I just took weekend 'visa vacations' to Argentina and had my stay extended for another 90 days. Nothing changed in terms of taxes for me, since I never really become resident of another country. Earning money online…

How did you like living in Peru? I've thought about getting an apartment there for a short while and work on developing my business.

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#32

Post by dpapathanasiou »

I have no experience with this myself, but I did read this article on the BBC's site earlier today about being an expat in Uruguay: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11397130

Apparently, as long as you can prove a monthly income of at least $650, you can get a visa to stay.

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#33

Post by hsarvell »

I'm currently living in Thailand (remote programmer) and it's a great country to do these kinds of things from. When it comes to the visa situation here it's kind of difficult, I have a Thai wife which kind of takes care of that for me, otherwise your best option is probably getting a student visa. The internet connection is not the fastest (max 100k/s to the EU/US) but it's very stable even out here in the jungle.

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#35

Post by valentin »

This article is pretty interesting: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/aejc4/i_work_through_a...

"I started freelancing in LAMP development 7 years ago. 4 years ago I started taking camping trips around my own country (Australia) & working via Wifi/3G. I soon started making little overseas trips, which got bigger & bigger. In November 2008 I sold my stuff & 'left'; I haven't been home since. I usually work 1 hour/day thanks to the weaker currencies of most places I visit. In richer countries, I work 2-3 hours. 3G modems & hotel WiFi keep me connected, an Australian SkypeIn # forwards to the mobile of whatever country I'm in at the time, Skype lets me call clients when necessary. I'm currently in Nepal having just got out of Tibet. I'm trying to get from Singapore to London without any planes (southern route --> SE-Asia->China->(Tibet)->Nepal->India->Pakistan->Iran->Turkey->Europe). AMA."

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#36

Post by philwelch »

Check out expat forums--there are a whole host of countries (largely Latin American) where you can live there on a tourist visa; every 90 days you take a weekend trip to a neighboring country and get a new tourist visa. Since you have an online business you won't be working in the local economy so work authorizations and the like won't be a problem.

Also, these countries tend to be really cheap. I know a woman who lived off of blog revenue in Costa Rica; mostly affiliate links to online gambling, which isn't feasible ever since the US government outlawed online gambling.

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#37

Post by ig1 »

pmjordan wrote: post #8
aeden wrote: post #2

I just recently moved from the US, where my own company is based, to France, where my wife is from. I am still learning about the complications, but I can tell you of some of the challenges I've already dealt with: Currency exchange: rates fluctuate on a regular basis and that makes budgeting a challenge. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose depending on how the currencies move. Insurance: health insurance by a p…

I hope this helps. Basically my suggestion is retain your UK residence and take extended "vacations" in countries you want to visit - it'll be a lot less of a hassle then trying to immigrate. You will want to be very, very careful with that. I'm neither a lawyer nor an accountant, but the tax rules for US citizens are very different from pretty much everyone else. Tax authorities will generally not be happy if you tr…

My understanding is that under EU treaties, EU countries are obliged to treat companies formed in other countries the same as local companies, i.e. the government can't discriminate against you for having a company registered somewhere else.

Indeed many EU startups are officially headquartered in the UK even if they're based elsewhere in Europe for the favourable legal and tax implications.

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#38

Post by emil0r »

hsarvell wrote: post #33

I'm currently living in Thailand (remote programmer) and it's a great country to do these kinds of things from. When it comes to the visa situation here it's kind of difficult, I have a Thai wife which kind of takes care of that for me, otherwise your best option is probably getting a student visa. The internet connection is not the fastest (max 100k/s to the EU/US) but it's very stable even out here in the jungle.

Seconding the stability of the Internet. The speed is indeed not that fast, but when I lived there it was very stable and there were never any problems accessing the American and European parts of the Internet.

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#39

Post by dageshi »

As a British Citizen Hong Kong is perhaps an idea, six month entry stamp no hassle. Perhaps buying a shelf company there, I think personal income tax is 15%? I know most taxes there are fairly low. If you do check out Lamma Island as a potential place to stay.

Otherwise, Cambodia is a pretty good shout, 1 year business visa costs about $300 (multientry) (no paperwork). That's the best visa I know of in Asia.

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