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How to temporarily live in another country? How long is temporary?
If you come from the United States, The UK, Australia, New Zealand or any other first world country from Western Europe or Japan, then you already have quite an advantage with your passport currently. Depending on your passport, you are potentially allowed to stay in most countries of the world anywhere from between 30 days to 1 year with minimal to no visa.
The average temporary stay in another country for many of these passports is 90 days out of 180.
So first if you already have a passport from one of those countries above, that’s your first hurdle that you’ve accomplished by doing very little except being born or naturalized in one of those countries and becoming a citizen.
The second thing you need to consider in how to live temporarily in another country is, how long do you want to live in one country or a series of countries?
If you are determined to go with relatively very little to no additional travel documents like visas, then you may need to plan your trip so that you can stay in each country within the limits of its so-called “visa free” tourist stays.
The next hurdle will be accommodations.
Unfortunately, the lowest rents in other countries are similar to probably what you experience at home. Meaning you will need to get a lease for usually at least one year.
So if you want to temporarily live in another country, more than likely, you will need to either stay in hostels, hotels or through an accommodations app like Airbnb.
In my opinion, accommodations apps like Airbnb, and there are others, is probably the best way to go both economically and to truly experience what life is like living in another country, even if that stay is temporary.
The usual accomodations on available with Airbnb are houses or apartments.
I prefer to have the entire place to myself, but you can rent a room in someone’s house or apartment as well in Airbnb.
Airbnb’s will give you the experience of actually living in a normal place with a kitchen, living room, bedrooms with nice beds, linens, pots and pans, etc. All the essentials.
Airbnbs will usually be situated in residential areas, although in many places of the world the difference between residential and commercial is quite blurred.
Once you’ve decided on the type of accommodation you want while traveling and living temporarily in other countries, the next thing you’ll need to figure out is money.
Yes, money is the “elephant in the room”, but money is probably the most important factor outside of your citizenship status that you will need to consider.
In addition, here are some other questions you’ll need to ask yourself, like:
- How much money do you plan on budgeting for each country and for how long you plan on staying in each country?
- How about travel expenses within the country as well as in between countries?
- How will you earn this money?
- Will you work and save up so you don’t have to work while you’re on the road?
- Will you be able to make an arrangement with your current employer to work from the road remotely?
- Do you have skills that are easily transferable into a freelance type of arrangement that you can do online?
- Do you have a lot of connections in which you can utilize your skills and do them remotely?
- Are there any other ways you can make money without having to work inside the country you will be temporarily living in?
These are very important questions, especially the last one.
You see, if you only want to live temporarily in another country on a visa free tourist stay stamp, this is under the condition that you will not work nor seek employment in that country.
There’s nothing wrong with working remotely for clients from your home country however. Although this seems to be a grayer and grayer area nowadays as more and more digital nomads hit the road.
These are the top considerations that you will need when figuring out how you will be able to live temporarily in another country or series of countries.
What is the best country to live temporarily in?
In my opinion and speaking from an American citizen’s point of view, although this can apply to many other nationalities.
The best country to live temporarily in would be the country or countries that allow you the longest stay possible, without the need for any additional, extended visas which you would need to apply through the host country’s embassy or any type of temporary residency permit.
There are a few countries in the world that will allow US citizens, UK citizens, Australians, New Zealanders, etc. to stay for longer than the typical 3 month out of 6 month tourist visa.
Here are just a few countries that allow US citizens to stay longer than 3 months.
- Canada up to 6 months.
- Mexico for up to 6 months.
- Albania allows Americans to say 6 months as does Armenia.
However, the best country to live in temporarily for most nationalities would be the Republic of Georgia.
This tiny republic located on the Black Sea allows US citizens as well as UK citizens, Australians, etc. as well as a whole host of others to live for up to one year, visa-free.
In fact, if you want to stay longer and live longer in Georgia, you simply need to leave the country and come right back in.
There’s no 3 month waiting period either. You can literally just cross the border and cross right back into the country and get another year. You can do this literally in perpetuity.
However, you should also be aware of any tax implications that may also imply. Georgia does have a 180-day rule that states that if you stay in the country longer than 180 days you are considered a tax resident.
This is mostly uninforced. However, if you’re looking to buy property, start a business and other situations that require you to interact with the country’s bureaucracy and gather documents, permits etc. then this could be an issue/
Can I work remotely in another country temporarily?
Technically when you go to another country as a tourist, you’re not allowed to work at all.
However, in today’s world of digital nomads and with more and more people working remotely either within their own countries or from abroad over the internet, this rule is becoming more difficult to enforce.
Some countries are trying to jump on the bandwagon and offer digital nomad visas etc.
But as you know, there is no such thing as a free lunch. They do require you to pay some kind of tax for living in their country longer than the typical tourist stay.
But technically, if you do your work over the internet and the source of your client as well as your income is not based in the country you are currently in, then technically you are not liable to that country’s taxation nor can be considered “working”.
However, this is a bit of a grey area because you are technically working, although you’re not earning income from the country you are working physically from.
This could be a little sticky when dealing with passport control and immigration upon entering a country.
It’s best to avoid even mentioning the word “work”. You are simply there as a tourist visiting. Some countries can be a little persistent though in their line of questioning. The UK in particular as well as the US.
Although as an American, my experience has mostly been dealing with UK immigration authorities. it’s always best to answer questions they ask you honestly.
However, there’s no need to give them any unnecessary extended answers to their questions either. Don’t start talking about yourself and explaining your business model to passport control and immigration officials.
If they ask you what you do for a living, you can simply say I have an online business that I operate in the United States or something of that sort.
Don’t say you work remotely, don’t say anything about work and working while you’re in their country. Say you’re there on vacation, visiting friends, whatever.
If they ask you what you do, say you can say what you want. I’m a writer. I’m a freelancer. I work online with clients in the United States.
Which is all true, just don’t say you will be doing the work from or in their country, even if it is all done over the internet and remotely.
If you can remember those things, then you should be golden.
How to temporarily live in another country, summary.
As you can see, it’s not too difficult to temporarily live in another country.
There are a few factors you need to consider though, before deciding which country or series of countries you would like to live temporarily in.
Judging on your budget, how you plan to earn money while you are living temporarily in another country as well as how long your passport will allow you to live temporarily in another country are all factors you need to take into account before making the move.
But in theory, you can perpetually live in other countries temporarily for years. As long as you plan properly that is.