This is a follow up to Part 1 posted in October.
Shortly after posting Part 1 of this article, a new HR Remote Work policy was published declaring that employees cannot work outside of their country of residence and/or citizenship. I was shown the policy to compare the before & after, and this seemed to immediately and clearly answer the question about our ability to continue international location independence.
A couple days later, I brought this up to my manager who, with Human Resources’ blessing, allowed us to finish the existing 2 weeks of reservations and 1 week of vacation before returning to the US. We asked and were granted permission to go to Puerto Rico.
All of the uncertainty and we kind of knew the answer already. It was an unnecessary obligation and potential legal grey area for my employer to track and validate our travels with a third-party consultant. It’s easier and more straightforward to change the policy. I only hope my blatant non-stop travel itinerary didn’t force their hand and preclude anybody else from having a more reasonable occasional foray.
As for Eva and I this is no problem. There’s plenty to see in the US and the US Territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa and the Virgin Islands. For Puerto Rico, we’ve found that it’s quite expensive. If you live anywhere outside of San Juan, you almost certainly need a car, and with the expense of the apartment, it’s about $3000/month, twice what we’re paying in Croatia.
It’s looking like we’ll return to mainland US right around January 15th (Biden’s inauguration!), a year and 13 days after we left.
We’ll continue pushing our options. Can we work in countries with Digital Nomad visas? Seemingly not yet, but soon?
One reason I really wanted to escalate this issue was we had a yearly Benefits Election window that allows us to change our medical & benefits elections for the following year. The one benefit that applies here is the ability to purchase an additional 2 weeks of vacation each year. It’s basically 2 weeks salary for 2 additional weeks of vacation. Currently, I have 20 days/year. This would take me to 30. If we really want to see the world, that extra 10 days is gonna cost about $70/week out of my paycheck. We’re doin’ it!
That’s the conclusion. There are still plenty of roads in the US, and we’re gonna explore some of them. Thanks to those who supported us and responded with support following the previous article. For now, we’re looking forward to what’s next.
Peaces.