[thelastknowngod]

I left the US ~5 years ago after getting a fully remote position. I'd probably quit if they ever told me I had to come back. I miss family and old friends of course but I can't deny that I live a significantly better life now. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

[digianarchist]

I looked into this at my last job but it’s difficult to get the tax benefits if you can’t establish legal residency elsewhere.

Working on tourist visas isn’t legal in 99% of places and doesn’t satisfy tax authorities in Canada.

[pnut]

Are you bouncing between countries as your tourist visa expires in each place, or are you a citizen of somewhere other than the US?

[thelastknowngod]

Pre-covid I bounced but also set myself up to have relatively stable home bases. This includes resident visas in countries that do not require me to spend a lot of time in those specific countries and international real estate.

At the moment I am mostly stationary but I still have projects and/or goals in at least 4 different countries.

[dougmwne]

Where is your base? Any recommendations for setting up this arrangement?

[thelastknowngod]

It's been a few years since I've seriously looked into some of these places so things may have changed or I am not remembering 100% correctly. Also, some countries listed below require a certain level of passive income as well but I'm not 100% sure which ones.

You can apply for residency in places like Mexico which require very little physical presence to maintain/renew a visa for the first few years. After 3 years (I think) you have to live there for the last 18 months before applying for citizenship.

Chile is the opposite in where you must spend the first 18 months in the country but after that you only really need to be there once a year.

Other countries have generous tourist visas like Turkey. If you rent an apartment for one year in Turkey (anywhere, for any price) you can get a 1 year tourist visa.

Wikipedia has a list of all countries visa policies as well. You could find out about where you are allowed to stay for longer than 90 days somewhere by searching for "visa policy of $COUNTRY".

Then there are places offering visas for remote workers but requires you to live there for at least 6 months of the year (making you a tax resident of that country). This includes places like Portugal, Estonia, Georgia, and the UAE.

I believe in Georgia and the UAE they will not charge income tax for the first year as well but I may be wrong.

If you have deeper pockets there are Golden Visa programs for places like Portugal, Greece, Malta, Cyprus (might be wrong on this one), New Zealand, Georgia, Montenegro, and many Caribbean nations.

Lastly, most every country in the world has some sort of business owners or startup visa. If you're entrepeneurially minded and have sufficient startup capital, you can get a visa pretty much anywhere in the world.

EDIT: I use travelingmailbox.com for snail mail and OpenPhone to maintain US-based communication for whatever reason.

[dougmwne]

Great summary and a wonderful starting point!