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Can you work on a tourist visa? Obviously nobody's going to know if you get on zoom, but official sanction to work in country seems like a distinction. Additio

Can you work on a tourist visa? Obviously nobody's going to know if you get on zoom, but official sanction to work in country seems like a distinction. Additionally with their population trendline I can imagine that Korea will be happy to have even more tourists, especially ones who stay longer. Residents are maybe preferable but I don't know that they're mutually exclusive

KMag 3y ago
It's highly country- and work- dependent. I work in a highly regulated industry (finance), where employers are very sensitive about remoting in from other jurisdictions. Under my previous employer, I wasn't allowed to remote in from Thailand under a tourist visa, but (pre-full-invasion) I was allowed to remote in from Ukraine on a tourist visa as long as I went nowhere near Crimea or the Donbas. (I requested official clarification about remote work on a tourist visa in Ukraine, and got back a somewhat bemused response basically "Why on earth would we care, as long as your work is fully remote and you get out within 90 days? Did I miss some detail that would make us at all interested?") Plenty of people in Thailand do illegally work fully remotely on tourist visas, and the government seems to turn a blind eye at present, as long as nobody is causing trouble. I looked into Thailand's digital nomad visa, but it would have required my employer to have a presence in Thailand. My employer at the time had no employees in Thailand, and apparently my employer's P.O. Box in Bangkok wasn't sufficient for a nomad visa. I had enough seniority at my previous company that they might have considered sub-contracting my work out to me via a Thai company owned by my wife, but it would have required pulling in a lot of favors and probably getting some partner-level approvals.
nicbou 3y ago
Not really but everyone does. I mean what's the difference between a tourist with a laptop and a digital nomad? If you have no local clients, no local space and you officially reside elsewhere, it doesn't really matter. Staying longer only makes sense if you grow economic roots too. You can't have a village with only digital nomads. Their taxes don't build bridges or create a community.
- wdb 3y ago
  Tourist visa is not meant for working?
  - kevinmchugh 3y ago
    If you're at customs and asked what your plans in the country are, you should not say "work", unless you are authorized to work in the country.
  - devilbunny 3y ago
    Right, but... we violate that all the time. If I'm abiding by the other terms of the tourist visa (90/180 days, e.g.), and all the work that I do is for a company in my home country, paid by that company in my home country bank account, and occupies about an hour a day max, I don't think it violates the spirit of the law (the letter of the law is, of course, subject to judicial interpretation). Is it a violation of my tourist visa to take a phone call from work when I'm on vacation? The big benefit is the prolonged duration of the visa that allows you to really settle in and live there for a while.

KMag 3y ago

It's highly country- and work- dependent. I work in a highly regulated industry (finance), where employers are very sensitive about remoting in from other jurisdictions. Under my previous employer, I wasn't allowed to remote in from Thailand under a tourist visa, but (pre-full-invasion) I was allowed to remote in from Ukraine on a tourist visa as long as I went nowhere near Crimea or the Donbas. (I requested official clarification about remote work on a tourist visa in Ukraine, and got back a somewhat bemused response basically "Why on earth would we care, as long as your work is fully remote and you get out within 90 days? Did I miss some detail that would make us at all interested?") Plenty of people in Thailand do illegally work fully remotely on tourist visas, and the government seems to turn a blind eye at present, as long as nobody is causing trouble. I looked into Thailand's digital nomad visa, but it would have required my employer to have a presence in Thailand. My employer at the time had no employees in Thailand, and apparently my employer's P.O. Box in Bangkok wasn't sufficient for a nomad visa. I had enough seniority at my previous company that they might have considered sub-contracting my work out to me via a Thai company owned by my wife, but it would have required pulling in a lot of favors and probably getting some partner-level approvals.

nicbou 3y ago

Not really but everyone does. I mean what's the difference between a tourist with a laptop and a digital nomad? If you have no local clients, no local space and you officially reside elsewhere, it doesn't really matter. Staying longer only makes sense if you grow economic roots too. You can't have a village with only digital nomads. Their taxes don't build bridges or create a community.

wdb 3y ago
Tourist visa is not meant for working?
- kevinmchugh 3y ago
  If you're at customs and asked what your plans in the country are, you should not say "work", unless you are authorized to work in the country.
- devilbunny 3y ago
  Right, but... we violate that all the time. If I'm abiding by the other terms of the tourist visa (90/180 days, e.g.), and all the work that I do is for a company in my home country, paid by that company in my home country bank account, and occupies about an hour a day max, I don't think it violates the spirit of the law (the letter of the law is, of course, subject to judicial interpretation). Is it a violation of my tourist visa to take a phone call from work when I'm on vacation? The big benefit is the prolonged duration of the visa that allows you to really settle in and live there for a while.