No worries, I am not limiting myself :) When I was in Thailand years ago a coffee shop was raided, and I heard some bad experiences of people being to stupid about their visa forms. I never had issues myself, but it's not exactly unheard of.
What was that like? "Put your hands up and prove to me this isn't just your side project"?
The people in the raid got jailed over night as far as I remember. Thailand was basically just noticing this trend and reacting, afaik this hasn't happened again.
About the visas people just were really stupid to be honest about their income (or lack of)
In most countries you can't do any kind of work while in a tourist Visa, but this was never enforced, because it was so exceedingly rare for not to be on governments radar. But once it became more prevalent, it creates the problem (on governments view, especially post 9/11) of having a bunch of foreign folks living for months and receiving money from abroad for god knows which reason. This creates the problem for law…
When I was in Thailand about 7 or 8 years ago they just recently raided a co-working coffee and jailed the 'nomads' over night (as far as I remember) there was also regular talks about what to tell and not tell border patrol and official visa places. Most people I met just paid taxes 'at home' or were generally lost in limbo financially but there always was an awareness about this being illegal.
A night or two in jail doesn't sound the worst for that kind of savings. Especially if you have someone to pay 'rent' for a nicer cell space.
why are cities trying to attract nomads? They are almost by definition doing location arbitrage, thus paying less in both their country of origin and country of destination.
They spend money and leave. They have a very small negative footprint (excluding the housing market), and require almost no obligations from the host country, but spend money locally.
When I was in Thailand about 7 or 8 years ago they just recently raided a co-working coffee and jailed the 'nomads' over night (as far as I remember) there was also regular talks about what to tell and not tell border patrol and official visa places. Most people I met just paid taxes 'at home' or were generally lost in limbo financially but there always was an awareness about this being illegal.
A night or two in jail doesn't sound the worst for that kind of savings. Especially if you have someone to pay 'rent' for a nicer cell space.
What kind of savings?
I live in Switzerland now and barely spend more in a lazy month than I did in 'super cheap thailand'
In most countries you can't do any kind of work while in a tourist Visa, but this was never enforced, because it was so exceedingly rare for not to be on governments radar. But once it became more prevalent, it creates the problem (on governments view, especially post 9/11) of having a bunch of foreign folks living for months and receiving money from abroad for god knows which reason. This creates the problem for law…
> never enforced
I've watched enough of those Border Security tv shows to know this is simply not true
People seem to underestimate how limiting tourist visas actually are. Imagine you sell digital products automated or something like that. You would have to literally shut your website down if you go somewhere on a tourist visa so you don't accidently make money. You might think there are exceptions, but no there usually aren't. And now imagine you actually live from a digital business you run yourself. You literally…
You can (and probably should) incorporate your business. Then you write yourself an employment contract and give yourself vacation whenever you want to travel.
The bigger issue is that actually having a vacation where you don't work is unrealistic if you run a business by yourself, but is what the letter of the law demands for most tourist visas.
In most countries you can't do any kind of work while in a tourist Visa, but this was never enforced, because it was so exceedingly rare for not to be on governments radar. But once it became more prevalent, it creates the problem (on governments view, especially post 9/11) of having a bunch of foreign folks living for months and receiving money from abroad for god knows which reason. This creates the problem for law…
>So, for law enforcement purposes, it makes sense to have an specific kind of Visa for those "working tourists", so they can pre-filter this population and get back to a smaller working set of persons of interest So I guess terrorists/bad actors won't get the idea to apply for this Visa to fly under the radar then?
Having a legally-legitimate drop-shipping / e-commerce business sounds like perfect cover for international drug smuggling and sex trafficking, as well as providing a convenient tool for laundering small amounts of money.
People seem to underestimate how limiting tourist visas actually are. Imagine you sell digital products automated or something like that. You would have to literally shut your website down if you go somewhere on a tourist visa so you don't accidently make money. You might think there are exceptions, but no there usually aren't. And now imagine you actually live from a digital business you run yourself. You literally…
Honestly I just think you and some others get too stuck on specific rules. There are thousands of people who run digital companies and travel all the time, including people who literally travel full-time as digital nomads with zero issues whatsoever. I can almost guarantee you that if you left the EU and "accidentally" made money via your website you would have no trouble coming and going given that I literally know…
I know I can, I know nobody will ever notice. It's just weird that it's illegal.
In most countries you can't do any kind of work while in a tourist Visa, but this was never enforced, because it was so exceedingly rare for not to be on governments radar. But once it became more prevalent, it creates the problem (on governments view, especially post 9/11) of having a bunch of foreign folks living for months and receiving money from abroad for god knows which reason. This creates the problem for law…
When I was in Thailand about 7 or 8 years ago they just recently raided a co-working coffee and jailed the 'nomads' over night (as far as I remember) there was also regular talks about what to tell and not tell border patrol and official visa places. Most people I met just paid taxes 'at home' or were generally lost in limbo financially but there always was an awareness about this being illegal.
Personally, I'd never do anything as flag-worthy as using a coworking space unless remote working was explicitly OK for the visa I had. In practice, while some countries do require a business visa to attend a conference or meet with customers, most countries in my experience don't care--in a sort of ill-defined way--unless you're receiving local payment for something. (Based on accounts I've read I'd be very careful about saying anything about travel expenses being reimbursed or getting an honorarium.)
In most countries you can't do any kind of work while in a tourist Visa, but this was never enforced, because it was so exceedingly rare for not to be on governments radar. But once it became more prevalent, it creates the problem (on governments view, especially post 9/11) of having a bunch of foreign folks living for months and receiving money from abroad for god knows which reason. This creates the problem for law…
It's more about taxes. If you apply for a working visa you can be flagged as having revenue generated while in the country, so you'll pay an income tax on it. The other side of it is visa overstay: it's more financially viable for working people to overstay their visa, where pure tourist have to go back at some point. Terrorists will be flagged whatever they do, as international money transfers are already heavily sc…
Any idea of how much the tax might be in Japan? And how does it affect taxes in the US?