Co-Working on Vacation: A Desk in Paradise

Australian citizens require a work visa to work in Spain [1]

[1] - http://www.expatica.co.uk/es/visas-and-permits/work-permits/...

..can I travel to Australia as a tourist and legally telework from there?

No. Again you need a work visa [2]

[2] - http://www.immi.gov.au/Work/Pages/Work.aspx

These articles like to paint a rosy picture of just jumping a plane with your laptop to an exotic location. The reality if you want to be legal is different and much more difficult that that.

The practical answer is no, you don't need any kind of special visa or permit.

Generally the notion of a remote worker (a foreigner who is employed in their home country while physically being in other countries) fits very poorly with immigration/visa rules. Those things move at a glacial pace and have in no way kept up with technology (generally speaking).

The assumption underpinning pretty much everyone's work permit/visa rules is that a foreigner wanting to physically work in the local environment will be employed by locals ie they will participate in the local labor market, will take money from a local employer and be competing with locals for jobs. Alternatively you might be a visiting business person wanting to do business with a local company.

However I am Australian, I am legally an Australian resident, my employer is Australian, 100% of the financials (bank accounts, all paperwork) is in Australia and I pay tax in Australia. I have never taken a cent from a local business or individual, I am not participating in the local labor market in any way and I have no interest in doing business with local companies. I don't even have a local bank account or a local permanent address. Even if I registered to pay income tax in another country the amount would be $0 because I am not earning any money here. My work doesn't touch the local environment anymore than someone on holiday checking their email or taking a phone call from home.

So in practice, as far as the host country is concerned, I am simply a tourist. If anyone asks about my plans (which they very very rarely ever do) I am simply taking an extended trip (which is the truth) and I can show sufficient means of support (ie money in the bank).

As for the legality of this I am uncertain. I certainly don't have any ethical concerns. Were I to not do any work while visiting a country the local labor market would not be affected in any way, some locals would be deprived of additional income on which they presumably pay tax and a company back home would be deprived of an experienced worker if I was forced to not do my work while visiting other countries. No one is harmed by what I do and a lot of people derive some benefit from it.

I would often add vacations on after business trips. I was on the east coast if I go give a seminar in Colorado then I take a week vacation after than and then return. You could call that a working vacation but it is more confusing than anything. It is traveling for work, doing work, then talking a vacation, then returning home.

In the article my guess is some people might have a vacation planned and then they work out a deal to work remotely for a week. In that case wrapping work into a vacation. Which is fine if that is what someone wants to do, in my option. Take a week for vacation (perhaps in Northern California) then work for a week there, then perhaps a week in Oregon. Then back to work in Boston.

Certainly if you are working all day to call that a vacation is not the right word. That is working remotely.

It seems to me the article is really talking about short term digital nomads. And there are some interesting ideas along these lines. There are people that organize a group of software developers and designers to work in a nice location where they can be social together and have people to share work with and find collaborations. In my experience the people that join are essentially working for themselves or perhaps they and their partner go together. There really isn't a reason someone from some big company couldn't work there too. It is just usually the big companies don't take to odd arrangements like this would be.

It's remote work, not vacation. The ability to remote from various locations part or all of the year may be an interesting job perk, but if it burns vacation days you're just getting shafted.

I haven't seen the Eastern islands myself -- definitely next on the list. Be sure to check out the herbal selection in koh lanta! ;)

    > they recently deported a few Russian travel guides in 
    > Pattaya

    > The law is really flexible in Thailand

If you're in Bangkok, drop me a line and let's grab a coffee.

For example, when entering the US for a business trip under ESTA, you will be asked at customs for the purpose of your trip. If you say "I'm here to see some clients for business, and I plan to spend all my free time answering email and catching up on work", you will still gain entry, even though you plan to PERFORM WORK IN THE USA. This is also true of almost every visa-on-arrival country.

You are also making the mistake of thinking that governments are monolithic in caring about these things.

Border control only care about if you're planning to overstay your welcome, and care about employment only as a precursor to that. The relevant labour department cares about if you're going to seek employment while you're there, but generally they're not present at the border. The tax authorities don't really care about either of those, but want to know if you'll have income arising in their jurisdiction while they're there, and their definition of "arising" will stretch to many arcane pages. These can be competing goals, and tax departments/ministries will often make sure their data can't be accessed by other departments because they want to encourage illegal immigrants to pay tax...

So no, neither 1 nor 2 make sense because they've got nothing to do with the article.