# Working Remote



## jobiewon (Oct 30, 2016)

Greetings,

My US employer is letting me work remotely doing tech support. I am ready to move to move abroad finally. I read one post about an idea I have, like moving every 90 days(schengen area, UK, Croatia-repeat). I know this can get tedious with travel and possible denial if a country doesn't care for what I am doing. And could be quite lonely to not have a place to setting roots. 

So my other option would be to come to Germany on a travel visa, as a US citizen. Then apply for residence permit. Will my job be enough to prove living expenses? Am I likely to get a permit under these circumstances? If so what kind would I apply for? 
Eventually I am interested in applying for a job in Germany. I am starting now to move in June, so plenty of time to learn some German and prepare documents.

Thanks.


----------



## Nononymous (Jul 12, 2011)

This a hard one to answer because it's possible, but very unlikely, and depends a great deal on how the official handling your case feels about the whole thing - they have quite a bit of discretion. Here are a bunch of thoughts in semi-random order:

There really is no such thing as a residence permit granted for working remotely, or even for retirement. If you have savings or an income stream from investments, you might convince the Ausländerbehörde to let you stay on semi-permanently. It's less likely that you'd be granted permission to stay if your only source of income was a remote job in the US. (If you did get permission you'd need to pay German taxes and have German health insurance, of course. This might also require getting off payroll and changing to contractor status with your US employer.)

There is the so-called "freelancer visa", which some have claimed has magical properties that allow any American/Canadian/Aussie/Kiwi to stay easily, but if you read the fine print it's really intended for individuals setting up to work with local German clients, participating in the local economy. It's apparently becoming harder to get. Some of these freelancers may have remote clients, in the US or elsewhere, but they probably needed at least one German client to get the visa.

No matter what you do, presenting yourself well to the authorities will improve your chances - if you speak decent German and come across as a halfway competent professional who knows how the system works, you'll do much better.

Be aware that working remotely can be quite isolating, as can moving to a new country where you don't speak the language. Depending on the time zones, you may also find yourself working evenings, which is precisely when you would be out engaging in the sort of activities that help you integrate (though at least your mornings would be free for language classes). I've done it in the past, and quickly found it tiresome after a few months.

Note also that many of the folks you hear about working remotely in Germany or elsewhere may already legal status for a completely different reason. Most commonly spouses of EU/EEA nationals, who have the right to live and work, or spouses accompanying foreigners with work visas. Once you're legally in the country you can work remotely, as long as you figure out how to do it in a tax-compliant fashion (or not, if you're a trailing spouse without a work permit who just keeps their offshore job).

Overall, I'd say the odds of your being allowed to stay in Germany are very low, if you are only planning to live there so that you can work remotely for a US job. It's not impossible, one hears rumours of people doing it or having done it in the past, but I don't think the chances are good.

If you head over to the Spanish forum there are accounts of US telecommuters having successfully obtained the "non-lucrative visa" to stay in Spain for a few years. It's an alternative to Germany.

Another approach, perhaps a little questionable in terms of legality, is to come over as a language student - for which you'd need to provide proof of sufficient funds for the year - then work remotely part of the time to support yourself. This would at least get you into the country and buy you a year to figure out whether you really want to stay longer, and give you a better sense of how to go about making that happen.


----------



## jobiewon (Oct 30, 2016)

Wow and thank you. You provided a lot to consider and the best answer I have received so far. There definitely does seem to be an element of the random luck when meeting with officials. I will look into the Spain option, too. 
Thankfully my employer is 24/7 support and I would be an asset to the overnight team if I moved. This would give me a 6am to 5pm shift in Germany allowing time to socialize in the evening. I also get 3 days off every week so I have time to find interesting activities or classes for language.

I am also looking at getting more specialized certificates, like a CCNA, to improve chances of a job offer.


----------

