# Telecommuting?



## quierovivirencancun (Nov 8, 2012)

Hi everyone, 

My husband and I are considering a move to Cancun or the surrounding area. He is Mexican and will need to find a job or open a business, but he has some connections which may help us, even though we have never lived in Cancun isn the past. 

There have been many helpful posts on this forum, but I haven't seen a lot of info on telecommuting. I am fortunate to have a job in which I may telecommute from anywhere. The info about phone lines has been great!

Is anyone out there telecommuting? If so, do you have any sage advice - things I need to consider outside of phone/ Internet/ living arrangements? What about taxes? 

We will be visiting for the third time in a year in a couple of weeks and if we decide to make the move it will be carefully planned out and will probably occur a year from now.

Thanks in advance for your advice!


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## DNP (May 3, 2011)

Probably premature now, but consider subscribing to a VPN (Virtual Private Network) if your going up telecommute. There are a lot of good reasons; Telecommuting is but one.



quierovivirencancun said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> My husband and I are considering a move to Cancun or the surrounding area. He is Mexican and will need to find a job or open a business, but he has some connections which may help us, even though we have never lived in Cancun isn the past.
> 
> ...


Sent from my iPod touch using ExpatForum


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## AJ_Yucatan (Mar 13, 2012)

We made our move this past July and we are about 2 hours away from Cancun. I have been telecommuting since then. I agree with the VPN as suggested but if you are already telecommuting you should already have that. I also brought down my Vonage router wich has made teleconferencing much easier and pretty good quality.

Some advice is get your Internet setup as soon as possible. It took Telmex 4 months to get ours setup in our home. I live in a smaller town and things work slower down here but that is one of the reasons we made the move. In a larger city in might be quicker. Once you have the phone and the Internet it is like telecommuting back in the US no difference. 

I have not dealt with taxes yet other than sending my quarterly tax payments to the IRS. Since I was an employee the first 6 months of this year and a 1099 after that I will be getting my taxes done with someone with experience in expat taxes. It looks like it will cost about $300 with a tax company in US. Once I see how they do it I will do it myself.

Living the great life in Mexico - Just wish I did not have to Work!!!

AJ



quierovivirencancun said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> My husband and I are considering a move to Cancun or the surrounding area. He is Mexican and will need to find a job or open a business, but he has some connections which may help us, even though we have never lived in Cancun isn the past.
> 
> ...


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

quierovivirencancun said:


> We will be visiting for the third time in a year in a couple of weeks and if we decide to make the move it will be carefully planned out and will probably occur a year from now.


If you haven't already done so, have a look at the current, active discussion regarding changes to Mexico's immigration regulations. You have time to plan ahead to see if you will meet the requirements and how to do that. Regarding taxes and telecommuting: If you'll be performing tasks for a business located outside of Mexico and the work product is not used within Mexico by the company's client(s), and you are paid from abroad ... then I don't think you need to worry about paying taxes ... in Mexico. In your home country, yes ... and that's something you and your accountant should discuss. Best of luck with your planning and eventual move!

:welcome:


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## quierovivirencancun (Nov 8, 2012)

Thank you for your replies!

DNP and AJ, do you use a particular VPN provider that you may suggest? I currently have a VPN for work, but think your suggestion of a personal VPN in a good idea as well.

AJ Yucatan, your experience of not having internet for 4 months worries me a bit and is helpful information - I can't afford to be without internet for any length of time so it will be a consideration as we determine where we may wish to live. In your assessment, is vonage reliable enough you could use it every day? I am a recruiter and hence am on the phone much of my day - is it reliable enough for vonage to be my primary telephone for work?

Thank you as well Longford for the suggestion to watch the immigration regulations. From what I am reading I think we should be fine, but I'll be sure to keep an eye on the threads as it seems this will be an issue in flux for some time.

We can't wait to be there in a week to check out neighborhoods and make the determination if we are going to take the plunge!:clap2:


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

quierovivirencancun said:


> … AJ Yucatan, your experience of not having internet for 4 months worries me a bit and is helpful information - I can't afford to be without internet for any length of time so it will be a consideration as we determine where we may wish to live. …


Megacable took a day or two to connect me to the internet in Guadalajara. In a major city you should have no problem getting connected quickly. In smaller communities, it may be a bigger problem.


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## michmex (Jul 15, 2012)

I use a VOIP phone from Packet8 (8x8) which is similar to Vonage. I also have a Google Voice number that I use in conjunction with my Packet8 phone I have used them daily for 4/2 years without any problems other than an occasional loss of electricity. We live in a Mexico City suburb and in the past we were getting 1.5 mbps or so down and 0.5 mbps up with the basic Telmex Infinitum package which costs us $328 pesos per month.

Recently, we have had an increase in our download speed to between 4-5 mbps. We also have a fiber optic cable that runs in front of house that is just sitting there. My guess is that Carlos Slim is awaiting approval to offer TV/Video service (similar to ATT's Uverse service) before we can get connected to it. Telmex DSL service is currently the best (only) option as cable/Totalplay is not available in our area.

We moved into a new home that had never had a Telmex connection before we moved in. We had both landline and DSL internet service 3 days after our initial call to Telmex. Overall, the Telmex DSL service meets most of our needs except for video streaming.Internet TV.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

michmex said:


> … Recently, we have had an increase in our download speed to between 4-5 mbps. We also have a fiber optic cable that runs in front of house that is just sitting there. My guess is that Carlos Slim is awaiting approval to offer TV/Video service (similar to ATT's Uverse service) before we can get connected to it. Telmex DSL service is currently the best (only) option as cable/Totalplay is not available in our area. …


I was getting 5 mbps with Megacable until about a year ago. Then they started upping it with no change in plan or costs. 

I just checked it now: 21.31 mbps download, 0.97 mbps up.

About a year ago, it went from 5 to 10, then a few months later it went to around 20 and has been there ever since. I pay $529/mo for internet. It includes basic cable but I don't have a TV set so that doesn't do much for me.


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## AJ_Yucatan (Mar 13, 2012)

I just use the standard CISCO VPN nothing special.

It was partially my fault since I did have a backup plan I did not pursue it when I first got here. Since I had a fixed schedule I was working at my sister-in-law's house while they went to work. Not too bad it was a 10 minute commute. I also had access to a schools's internet but that was much noisier. Definitely have backup places where you can connect. There are also many cyber cafe's but never got that far.

What I should have done from the getgo was buy a line from someone who was selling their line which is what I ended up doing and just transferring the ownership. We then had someone come install the line (friend of a relative). I totally agree the more people you know the quicker things get done. 

Vonage is as reliable as it was in the US and everyone tells me the quality is great. It is based on the speed of your connection. I also brought down a UPS Battery backup. I connected my modem and vonage device to that which gives you at least 2 hours of backup depending on how widespread the outage is. My backup to the Vonage is a Cisco softphone but the quality is lousy and I have been told that. Some people down here use the Magic Jack and the say it is also very reliable but I have not used it.

Have fun on your trip and just plan ahead for whatever you do it should be fine. 



quierovivirencancun said:


> Thank you for your replies!
> 
> DNP and AJ, do you use a particular VPN provider that you may suggest? I currently have a VPN for work, but think your suggestion of a personal VPN in a good idea as well.
> 
> ...


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## DNP (May 3, 2011)

I don't have a basis of comparison since I'm new to this, but I have been using WtTopia (witopia.net) and have been pleased with it. They may even have a free trial.

Northern Virginia, USA, and SMA, MEXICO


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