Remote Working While Travelling – Visa Requirements?

The other answers may be legally correct, but

A lot of people will answer some work emails while on holiday and may
even VPN into the office machine.

If you are in each county for a short time and there is no way from your company website etc to see that you are working from the given county, I don’t expect any real life issues. However I am assuming that you are spending most of your time “travelling” and only a few hours each day on “work tasks”, and there you will not be hiring an office etc while travelling.

I am also assuming the costs of your travels is not being funded by your new company and the no money will be leaving your new company to go into your personal bank account until after you have finished your travels.

Sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness then it is to ask for
permission.

However I question if it is the best way to make your new company successful….

You will need working visas for most South American countries. For the major South american countries:

1. Brazil: Bring to the Brazilian embassy your passport valid for at least six more months, negative criminal records (at most 3 months old), two copies of a 5cmx7cm photo (passport), some filled forms available at the embassy. All documents must be in Portuguese (new Ortographic Treaty), if any must be translated, it must be done by a professional translator. A temporary work visa is valid for 2 years. Official Info

2. Argentina: As noted in the comments by CMaster, contact the embassy. The website may be outdated.

3. Chile: You need to request a special working permit: http://www.extranjeria.gob.cl/ingles/permiso_visa_tra.html

4. Colombia: You need to get a TP15 temporary visa:

TP 13: For the foreigner who wishes to enter Colombian territory to provide technical assistance in his/her area of expertise, with or without, work contract to public and private entities.

It is also worth of note that you won’t be “working” in the traditional sense (being employed by a national company or a local subsidiary AND being paid while in the country), so some regulations may not apply.

Also since OP is self-employed, he won’t be working for any nationals and probably won’t be receiving any money during his travel (even though his company may), maybe it does not fall into a work visa. Contacting the embassy of the destination may clarify if he indeed needs a work visa or not.

The precise answer is local law specific, but in general, you cannot work while on a tourist/business visa or visa waiver. There are outlying exceptions, but they wouldn’t cover running a business. Enforcement varies by country (and some may be happy to have you there spending money, even if its not entirley within the rules), but you are running the risk of getting in a lot of trouble if you attempt to hide the activities you intend to undertake during your stay. There are tax implications to working like this as well, which are a whole other kettle of fish.

However, you mention that you will initally be providing services to UK companies. If you are a UK citizen (or other EU citizen), then under EU freedom of movement laws, you have the right to:

• look for a job in another EU country
• work there without needing a work permit
• reside there for that purpose
• stay there even after employment has finished
• enjoy equal treatment with nationals in access to employment, working conditions and all other social and tax advantages

So you can travel while setting up your business without any special permisions, provided you do it within the EU.

That’s not South America you say? Well actually, thanks to imperialism (especially French and Iberian) the EU stretches a lot further than you might think:

(Image is By Alexrk2 – Natural Earth 1:50m http://www.naturalearthdata.com), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15025858)

Only the blue stars are full EU (other areas may operate under different rules) but you have places as distant as French Guiana, La Réunion, Canary Islands and the Azores.

Several countires also offer “Working holiday visas”, which depending on the specifics may or may not cover your requirements.

I would imagine the answer here would be country-specific, but it seems that in most countries the immigration rules are not friendly to remote workers, and you do indeed need a work visa if you want to follow the letter of the law. For example, I know this could be a problem in the USA, Japan and Thailand. In Thailand, I even heard of a co-working space being raided by immigration officials to find people illegally working online while on tourist status.

However, as I understand it, such enforcement is very rare. The spirit of the law, after all, is to prevent you from taking jobs from a local, and if you work online you’re no more likely to do that inside a country than outside of it. And you’re actively contributing to the country’s economy by earning outside it but spending inside. As long as you don’t stand out from the general tourist population (unusual items in luggage, participation in work-like events, excessive visa renewals / visa runs), you should realistically be fine in a lot of countries. I suggest you read the various sites and blogs about the topic of “digital nomads” – there are entire communities of people devoted to finding great places to work remotely, and these communities are probably better suited to ask detailed questions about the legal aspects in each specific country.

By the way, I have heard some indication that having an incorporated entity in a place where you are allowed to work can help. You are then not a sole proprietor working for yourself in a far-away country, but you are merely an employee of XYZ Inc. in your own country, on a long vacation in a faraway country, occasionally performing the odd task for your remote corporate employer but technically not working locally. Obviously this happens all the time with employees of actual large corporations who travel, I don’t think it’s reasonable to assume that they never answer any work-related emails while overseas. Please take this advice with a huge grain of salt, I am not a lawyer, much less a lawyer in any South American countries : )