If I have a local SIM, or if I use my US SIM, I just make the call and eat the extra charge for international calls. If you are using Airalo and can’t make phone calls you will be stuck using Skype or Google Voice or some other VOIP.

For what it’s worth, I have never had a landlord try to verify anything with my employer. In case they try to actually verify your income statement, it’s more likely, at least where I have lived, that they will just ask to see bank statements or some other hard proof you have had that income coming in. Maybe in some areas it’s more common for a landlord to actually contact your job, in which case yes, it would reveal to your employer that you likely spend a fair amount of time in another state. Technically just having a lease means nothing, you could just stay somewhere for a few months a year as a vacation home but still rent it year round. It’s going to raise questions though, especially if you aren’t high income. But that’s only if your landlord actually tries to call your company. And I know if my job was contacted by some dude claiming he needed my pay data, they would tell him to get fucked. I would probably have to authorize that explicitly, so you’d at least know if they tried.

Ah very good point, I always forget about the separate agreements they have.

My employer does know, and I mostly use it so I don’t spook any of our clients if I need to remote into their machines. But I would wager most DNs who are going the VPN setup are doing so specifically because they don’t want their employers to know. I just rent a VPS on digital ocean for 6 bucks a month or so and host the VPN off their. It’s obvious you are using a VPN since it’s a datacenter IP, but hiding the fact I have a VPN at all isn’t important for me. That said I can’t use icloud with it and some other services block their IP range. I would expect most VPS IPs to be blocked by a variety of services, so using for things outside of work may not be ideal. But it’s a lot easier for me to manage than trying to host a physical one at my parents house or something.

Yeah that would probably be more backlash than it’s worth, but they could probably put a cap on the number of applicants from each country. I know the US has set caps for each country on how many people born there can get a green card each year.

I get, as a traveler, why we’d prefer not to have to fill out these forms. It was easier after all to just show up with a passport. But it’s the way the world is going. US and Canada require it for all visa free travelers except for each other, and it hasn’t seem to dampen tourism. Same in South Korea. Realistically I expect this to become the norm in more countries going forward. It’s probably easier for the governments to deal with, and it’s an excuse to tack on more fees to collect.

The catch is extra cost. With an EOR, the employee works for them, not for you. The EOR pays their salary, handles tax witholding, potentially provides benefits (which they’ll charge you for), etc. For you it’s just a B2B relationship where you are contracting them for services, and they invoice you an amount. They use the money from that invoice to make their profit and pay the employee. Usually the invoice amount will just be the salary that the employee should be paid, plus their fee, plus cost of any benefits that they can provide that you want the employee to get.

You won’t owe any taxes from your business income since you aren’t employing people or doing business in that country, but the employee will likely still owe taxes. This will be handled by the EOR, but you’d still need to factor that into your salary offer to calculate what the actual take home will be so the offer is competitive.

I’ve been in similar positions but not through an EOR. I used to work for a software consultancy and I ended up contracted out to a single client for the entire time. I effectively just worked for them, but I was still employed by and paid by my company.

I can’t say it was a factor in causing me to nomad as I’ve never lived anywhere that I needed a car. But it’s definitely something that I take into account when picking a place for long stays. I like walking, and for longer trips or bad weather, taking transit. I do enjoy driving when it’s road trips though scenic empty roads. Used to love driving up the mountains in New Hampshire and Vermont for hiking or Ski Trips, end especially out west. But I’ve always hated driving in the city the times I would do it.

If living anywhere would urban would require a car I would generally skip it. Though If the rental prices aren’t bad, I don’t mind if it’s a rural place up in the mountains or somewhere where a car makes it easier to get between towns.