Working "from home" abroad

Sandtree

I am fortunate in that my work can be done 100% remotely, I frequently deal with people in other countries so Skype/Teams/Zoom is the norm anyway. Indeed been the only person in the UK on a piece work in the past. My wife was born and raised in the tropics and even though in the UK for 15 years and Europe for a further 5 she appears to be getting less adapted to the climate as each year goes on.

Work has now said our offices will be closed until at least 2021 and so that has raised the question around if we should be staying here for the next 6 months or elsewhere. Clearly there will be a certain level of risk as insurance would be difficult to arrange but putting that aside we'd be looking to rent a house/villa, mainly keep ourselves to ourselves and would just need a good internet connection for calls etc and the weather/sun for outdoor space & Mrs' creative works.

The target is to get year round better weather, ideally somewhere not too expensive so cost savings from not being central London partially offset the cost of the rent... only thing certainly off the table would be Spain and it's islands. 

Any bright ideas of where could work with requirements, visas etc? (ignoring insurance issue)

eDicky

You must have considered your wife's country of origin, which would make immigration easy, but I guess you've rules it out for some reason..?

Outside Europe it may be tricky to obtain a long visa or residence, if you don't work for a company based in that particular country, so this would be a consideration...

CKhalvashi

It depends on where you want to go and what you want from life.

I'm from Georgia originally, and it works well as a 'bring your own job with you' destination. Armenia is the same, however I'd look at somewhere like Gyumri rather than Yerevan for the lower cost of living. Both have difficult languages to learn, however if you're willing to put the effort in, you'll thrive I'm sure, as well as being relatively well off. Both at this immediate point in time are closed to British nationals. Please if you go somewhere, make an effort to learn the language.

Certain parts of Bulgaria (not Sofia or directly on the beach) work well too, but you'll need to go before December to move under EU rules. It's definitely possible to buy a property that needs work for sub-£10k, and there are a number of villages not far from the beach/main infrastructure that may or may not fit your needs (I personally haven't looked seriously into it, but know people who have done as a second home).

Ukraine is another option with relatively easy residency for now (although expect January/February to be a little colder than UK, most of the year to be a little warmer). Lviv or Kharkiv if you want a decent city with history (Lviv has direct flights to UK with Wizz from Luton, Kharkiv doesn't), or Odesa (can be done with a quick stop in Poland in both directions, again with Wizz from several airports, or via Chisinau (Luton and I think Doncaster) and a 4 hour bus) if you want the beach. Last July was 35-ish degrees most days.

Further afield, I'm not sure, however as you probably gathered, I do know CEE rather well........

Sandtree

eDicky said:

You must have considered your wife's country of origin, which would make immigration easy, but I guess you've rules it out for some reason..?

Political, economic, healthcare and safety are all issues unfortunately and electricity is unstable let alone internet... if you used the official exchange rate we recently paid over £300,000 for a single tyre for her mum's car... even using black market rates it was £250 for a "part worn" unbranded tyre with a 3 week wait for them to locate one.

Dr_Crypto

The usual would be Spain or Portugal. Who knows how wasy this will be after Brexit but given the number of Brits living there I'd be surpised if the authorities made it too hard to move there, but with Johnson in charge who knows if he'll annoy them so much they flip!

Sandtree

It is only for 6 months rather than a permanent relocation so not really looking to buy etc... it could be 2 near consecutive 3 months stays as many do in the like of Mexico to get around their limits.

Portugal was on our list of possibilities, Spain not because of her bad experiences whilst living there.

Ngozi

Looked at Croatia?
Zagreb is quite popular with British working abroad, though going south will have better weather, which some of the other suggested countries don't always have.
I know you can stay upto 90days without a VISA though not sure if you can do the "in & out" trick. 
Though you can apply for a residency status while there but I believe you need to have proof of funds to show you can afford to live there for 6 months, return flight ticket etc...

Sandtree

Ngozi said:

I know you can stay upto 90days without a VISA though not sure if you can do the "in & out" trick. 

Croatia is EU so would be unlimited stay until NYE as British/Irish nationals no? Would need to lookup their autumn/winter weather.

eDicky

Sandtree said:

eDicky said:

You must have considered your wife's country of origin, which would make immigration easy, but I guess you've rules it out for some reason..?

Political, economic, healthcare and safety are all issues unfortunately and electricity is unstable let alone internet... if you used the official exchange rate we recently paid over £300,000 for a single tyre for her mum's car... even using black market rates it was £250 for a "part worn" unbranded tyre with a 3 week wait for them to locate one.

Venezuela of course, destroyed by its criminocratic government - I also ruled out going back there a few years ago.

jimbo6977

A friend of mine has done some work in Panama recently, and said it was pretty good in terms of infrastructure for remote working. Only problem is the proliferation of sports bars full of Americans gambling and hiring "services", but you're not obliged to frequent these establishments.  

Voyager2002

Sandtree said:

eDicky said:

You must have considered your wife's country of origin, which would make immigration easy, but I guess you've rules it out for some reason..?

Political, economic, healthcare and safety are all issues unfortunately and electricity is unstable let alone internet... if you used the official exchange rate we recently paid over £300,000 for a single tyre for her mum's car... even using black market rates it was £250 for a "part worn" unbranded tyre with a 3 week wait for them to locate one.

Zimbabwe?