| HN Mirror

You don't need to incorporate in the US to do business with US companies on a freelance basis. I have worked as a Canadian freelancer working for US companies for nearly a decade. I did eventually incorporate but that actually makes it more complicated because many large corps are used to dealing with international freelancers and just need to send you withholding exemption docs to fill out. They usually only have the individual freelancer docs at the ready -- not the incorporated entity docs. That said, hiring an employee and hiring a freelancer are different for a lot of reasons and there are good reasons why a company might not hire international folks. Including because certain industry's regulations keep them from hiring in certain places or because the work requires you be on a certain time zone. I would also say that... you shouldn't always believe what a company says when they say they're only hiring in the US. I have gotten interviews and offers for jobs that were listed like that. Here's what I do: I find a job that I find interesting and then go to the company's LinkedIn page. I look at their People tab and check to see if they currently have any employees in my country. If they do, they might have an international hiring strategy but could prefer US staffers because there's less paperwork and they don't need to go through an agency in that country to hire you. Then, I apply with my address clearly listed. It's more work for me because there are many jobs that won't even consider Canadians. However, there are some that will for the right candidate. And in the last year, I received a number of offers and interviews from companies willing to hire me remotely from Canada but who had originally advertised US only. Many companies, especially small startups, are moving towards international hiring strategies.