Digitally Working Abroad

Introduction

While this Ciao guide is not an exhaustive list for everything you’ll need when working in another country, we’ve included the tips our editors have found most essential when traveling abroad and telecommuting. We cover employment, hardware, software, and how to always stay connected to the internet.

Digital Nomads Legality of Working

Tourists visas generally do not allow you to work in that country when visiting. Many country’s laws on this matter were established when employment required your physical presence to perform the job. Therefore laws haven’t caught up to a new form of location independent work that describes digital nomadism. This guide can not and does not in anyway endorse working digitally in a foreign country against the rules or regulations of that country. However, this guide wants to describe that digital nomads exist in a legal gray area that has not been properly defined by legal and tax statutes of most countries. This is quickly changing though as many countries are now adopting digital nomad visas which provide clarity on residency and tax requirements.

Foreign Digital Employment

If maintaining an interruption-free work environment when traveling is a top priority, it helps to create a plan to optimize your effectiveness. The plan should always begin with seeking the most ideal employment situations. Finding employment opportunities that are either remote-first or remote-friendly will eliminate the stressful conflicts that can occur when sneaking around employment regulations to work in another country. Any company hiring or contracting remote workers should be comfortable with the concept of asynchronous workers. With these companies, the trust and flexibility to do work on your own time schedule is a significant element to enjoying your journey in another country.

Remote Team Building and Communication

When building a remote-first team at Ciao we’ve found that putting in the necessary communication framework helps to align everyone with how to be effective communicators. We train and experiment with the communication process and regularly train to practice empathy and candor during collaborations. The literature for creating these work environments has grown significantly since the Covid-19 pandemic as more workplaces are relying on location-independent workers.

City Location

There are no shortage of amazing places to visit or live during your travel journey. However before choosing a destination, it’s pivotal to understand how friendly the place is to digital workers. A country might have beautiful sites but a crumbling telecom infrastructure that makes it a challenge to connect through a video call. Some cities have great wifi speeds but are don’t have digital nomad communities or lack access to coworking spots. Since the start of the pandemic, cities have been adjusting their public investments in a bid to attract foreign digital workers.

Essential Hardware Tools

Mobile Hotspots

Mobile hotspots allows you to connect your devices to a mobile network for internet access. The two major competing devices in the market are the Sapphire (previously Teppy) by Travel Wifi and the Solis Lite by Solis Wifi. Once you have the device, you can purchase a mobile plan and connect your laptop or phone for limited internet data usage. From our testing at Ciao, we’ve had challenges connecting with both devices. In remote areas that aren’t covered by data networks, neither device worked in a pinch. However, if you are going many days without a wifi connection these devices might be your only option. Recently, there has been innovations in low Earth orbit satellites like Starlink or Project Kuiper that will provide low cost satellite internet. However these systems may take years before the digital nomad can use them.

Universal Adapter and Electric converters

A very useful tool for the frequent traveler is universal outlet plug and an optional electric voltage converter. Since different countries will have different electrical outlets, the universal adapter can handle every type of outlet you will encounter worldwide. The downside is that the universal adapter is usually a hefty brick size. If you know in advance which countries you will traverse, Ciao recommends going with country-A to country-B adapters. These will generally be cheaper and will remove volume from your luggage.

Another issue you will experience abroad is dealing with different electric grid and systems. Many major computer manufacturers make sure their devices are rated for high voltage electricity, but it’s essential to check before you plug them in. This is where an electric voltage converter can come in handy. These small devices will make sure you don’t fry your electronics by exposing them to a voltage they can’t handle.

External Hard drive

Mission critical work requires an external hard drive for duplication of data storage. Computers can fail abroad and might take weeks to fix in another country. If your data is frequently duplicated on an external hard drive, you avoid the excruciating cost of being unable to work even after obtaining a new device. Ciao has spoken to digital nomads that have lost a once in a lifetime video because of computer failures. It commonly occurs and is heartbreaking when it does. External hard drives can avoid this issue with some forethought and planning.

Security Software Tools

VPNs

VPNs act as a private tunnel for your internet activity. When you are on a public network like a cafe or library, anyone who is on the network can listen to your network activity. It’s a vulnerability that can leave you or your company’s personal information exposed. Ciao’s recommendation is to use ExpressVPN when you need more bandwidth or NordVPN when you want something cheaper but still secure.

Google Authenticator

One thing that might catch you off-guard when traveling is dealing with SMS based 2-factor authentication. Unless you have extended your cell phone plan to travel internationally, you will be unable to receive SMS text messages. This means that for authentication methods that rely on 2-factor authentication such as banks, emails, or financial institutions, you’ll be unable to access your account. This is a costly mistake and sometimes the workaround means levels of extra verification that can not be easily accomplished in another country. Ciao’s recommendation is to make the switch before traveling to move all of your 2-factor authentication to a free authentication application like Google Authenticator. Authenticator does not rely on SMS or internet connectivity to cryptographically verify your identity. This comes with the added protection of being secured by your personal device which only you can access.

Password Manager

Although this advice isn’t exclusive to traveling, a good password manager will save you a world of pain if your commonly used password are leaked as a result of a company data breach. Data breaches of major companies occur every month and leaked emails and passwords are sold on the dark web. If you use a password manager you limit your exposure to these data breaches by having single use passwords for every site.

WiFi

The most essential need for the digital traveler is reliable wifi internet connections. Dropping a Zoom call is a digital faux pas, but being unable to make meetings because of WiFi troubles can mean the loss of employment or job opportunities. Companies like AirBnB have recognized this as a critical need for when digital nomads are choosing to stay for long durations. To make this speed information available when booking, AirBnB created a wifi speed test tool that hosts can use to test their wifi speed.

Ciao Hotspots

If you don’t have access to good wifi speeds at the home you’re staying when traveling abroad, all is not lost! Ciao has recognized how important this need is and has created a new application: Ciao Hotspots. Ciao Hotspots is a location tool to find the best cafes, coworking locations, bakeries, bistros, or any other wifi-enabled spots that are a great spot to work. To accomplish this we rely on a growing network of digital workers to check in to location and run a speed test through the Hotspots application.