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Comment by renewiltord | Hacker News Reader

No one’s gonna know if you are a tourist in Japan for 90 d and you work there remotely. Literally no one. No one will know.

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The next time you try to enter or leave Japan after staying for 90 days, they would ask you how you are able to stay 3 months without working. If you cannot show significant savings, then you would get deported and banned for 10 years. Happens all the time.

Say that you're using PTO?

Lie to immigration? People in this thread are insane. Going to get yourselves banned from counties.

I've been to many nations including for months and including illegally overstaying. No one gave one fuck to ask whether I was working not. The only people that have ever grilled me like this is my own country, the USA, where returning as a citizen the last time I entered I was forcibly taken to a hospital to be anally probed (with even a warrant, although after 16 hours they could not find a doctor to execute it) based on a wild and false accusation they thought I was a drug smuggler. Only the USA and a few other insane nations are dumb enough to pull these kind of stunts.

Somewhere like Brazil/Paraguay/Mexico/Philippines/Iraq no one is gonna ask you if you worked remotely while on your way out. No one. Half the time they don't even bother to ask what you're doing while entering, they just stamp your passport and you're on your way. Japan may be different, but there is no way they're gonna deport you on your way out.

Every non-European country I visit very specifically asks me ‘are you going to be working’ every time I visit.

I think they do this for the quite clever reason that then if you work they can get you for lying to an official rather just for working.

I'm sure some ask. The risk of being deported or caught seems incredibly low, especially if you pick a country in South America or southeast Asia. I cannot think of a nation there that ever asked me if I was working. When I was caught overstaying in Iraq they immigration guy was visibly pissed but he couldn't speak English so I juts handed him <fine for overstay>, and went on my way.

You were just visiting more chaotic places.

All European cointries have records of your entry/leaving, and if you overstay you will likely end up with a lifetime travel ban. The only exception would be like a medical emergency.

Hasn't infamous 'hacker' Weev been hiding out in European nations/territories of Transnistria/Maldova/Ukraine for like 4 or 5 years now without any residence authorization?

Same experience, sans probing. I have also, interestingly, overstayed in the West including using a residence permit to enter that was no longer valid. Japan they checked my baggage, same smuggler thing, but I only had my host of bootleg (not really, I just like being equipped so I just get them from generics factories) antibiotics + pharma and they don't really care about those personal quantities.

Does it really happen all the time?

Any references to this happening all the time?

Because to me it seems like border patrol doesn't have the authority to check your bank account or demand that you "show significant savings".

Sure they can refuse to let you in but does it really happen all the time?

I've seen a student required to show a bank balance and withdraw sufficient money before being granted a tourist visa for a different country. (He was in front of me in the queue.)

The UK requires some visitors to show bank statements when applying for a visa.

Germany for example, requires a "Blocked Bank Account" for certain type of student, work and other kinds of visas.

This account is opened remotely from the students' home country in a German bank, before the visa applicstion. And savings cannot be withdrawn for a period of time.

I had an acquaintance that studied in Germany that had a visa problem for withdrawing more money than allowed from his "Blocked bank account".

https://www.fintiba.com/moving-to-germany/studying/requireme...

You are showing a bit of naivete and entitlement - if you are visiting a foreign country, you often have to apply for a travel permit. If you are applying from Russia/China/Mongolia to UK/US they ask you for bank statements, evidence of having a stable job or holding any property in your home country, you travel itienary, and ask whether you are a person of good character. Lying on the application form results in a 10 uear or lifetime travel ban.

After all that, when you arrive at the border, they ask questions and US border guards in particular may ask for access to your phone and laptop.

So it does happen all the time, it's just thay typically rich tourists from America are subject to less scruitiny than folks from poorer or politically messier places

Lol they're not gonna deport you on your way out. I'd like to see one example of deportation orders for someone already at the airport to leave the country, purely based on accusation of having worked remotely in Japan.

Ah, but consider if you're a multinational corporation, and your employee asks for permission to work remotely from Japan for 90 days.

Will your policies allow you to give permission for something illegal?

Why should they care? The liability is with the person, not the company.

> The liability is with the person, not the company.

Why would the liability be solely with the person? Especially if that company has a representation in the other country I highly doubt this.

In e.g. NL the company has to "take care" of the employee. A company cannot just ignore such a question, or take it as "not my problem".

Of course not. Employers have regulations as well. If you are paying someone working in Japan your employer should follow Japan laws on employer regulations.

I do not know about Japan specifically, but some developed countries do quietly monitor people that spend significant amounts of time in their country for violations that would require a proper work visa. It is not safe to assume no one will know -- I know of cases like this where people were flagged.

As long as we are acknowledging that this isn’t allowed.

I know a lot of countries turn a blind eye to enforcing immigration and labor laws. Thailand being one of them.

Even Pieter Levels works out of Thailand and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have a Thai work permit.

Border control and ice will know.

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