Where Do You Work
The Answer Might Not Be Where You Think
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Forget the reasons, the idea has arrived. People no longer need to work in an office to do their work.
If you live a long commute way from that place of work - this is welcome news. Two to three hours a day suddenly made available to you to do things other than driving your car or sitting in Public Transport. Marvellous!
This has, in turn, opened up the idea that you can actually move your residence from a place 90 minutes away to a place 6 hours away and (Facebook rulings and resultant court cases aside) really lower your cost of living. Brilliant!
Which Got Me To Thinking
Let’s extrapolate the idea of working 90 minutes away to 6 hours away … in a different country? What if choose to live in Costa Rica instead of the USA? Or Portugal instead of the UK?
So long as my employer is satisfied that I am delivering value and available for whatever and whenever the remote meetings are scheduled - they should be happy, if I am not in the office, what difference does it make to them where I am?
And so to the question. If I do choose to do that and keep my tax base in the original country … do I need a ‘work visa’ in my new country?
I am physically living in a new country, but the value of my effort is not in that country. I am not paid in that country. The servers I connect to are likely not in that country. As far as the new country is concerned my overall impact is that I spend money in that country and since the money comes from abroad, I have a net positive effect on the country’s economy - just like a tourist - but for an extended time period.
Is there a possibility that people will be working in places like Portugal, Costa Rica, Barbados, Greece without having to get a work visa? Sure, they might need a visa to live there - but that is generally less stringent than a work visa.
What do we all think?
Separately
.. this week’s podcast. Take a listen and all will be revealed. Personally, I think my guest is channelling John Wanamaker!
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Value in the choice of location and environment is directly related to the need in connection to the people, time, place and practices that helps give clues as to the promise of a higher meaningful outcome.