It's the dream of many, many thousands, even millions of people: to leave their home countries and to live and work legally in another country, or to have a job that allows them to travel all around the world. The dream that some magical rich foreigner will sponsor them to move elsewhere.
The problem: the dream is impossible for MOST people.
To legally live and work in a country where you do not have a passport, you have to have a job offer by a company in that country - and such jobs are extremely hard to get. Extraordinarily hard. In the vast majority of countries, there are already plenty of people to do the work that's needed. In countries where you see very large numbers of immigrants living and working, the immigrants are often in the country illegally and doing very low-paid work, like picking produce in fields.
This page is intended to explain the realities of legally working abroad. I have NOTHING to sell you. I do not employ anyone. I am sharing this in order to stop people from posting to Quora over and over and over, begging for magical information to help them move to another country to work - and to stop those people from inviting scammers to contact them.
Whatever you do: NEVER pay for a job. NEVER. Never pay a registration fee, a subscription, a deposit, a travel fee, NOTHING. Any job that asks you for money is a scam.
Do not write me and say, "I got this offer for a job. Is it a scam?" I've just told you that it is.
Do not write me and say, "Where can I work?" Everything I know is on the page you are reading now.
Some people with a Master's degree in education and extensive experience teaching have been able to secure teaching jobs at private schools in other countries if that country has a severe lack of such expert teachers. To find such jobs, you have to go to the web sites of private schools and see what employment openings they have, or you look in trade publications for professional teachers.
If you marry someone from another country, you may be able to move with them to another country and, once there, obtain a work visa that would allow you to pursue work of any kind in that country. Laws vary from country to country. When researching this, look on the official web site of the country that your spouse is from - do not trust any other web site's information about a country's immigration laws.
If you work for a large, multi-national company, they probably have an internal recruitment process for certain jobs. They are not going to recruit janitors, secretaries, etc. - they recruit people working in industrial design, IT, engineering, etc. that ALREADY work for the company.
You greatly increase the chance of working abroad if you are multi-lingual. You need to be able to WORK, without translation assistance, in English and at least one other language.
Languages that are in most demand in hospitality jobs, other than English:
Any second language is going to be helpful in your pursuit of working abroad.
There are very, very few people who travel the world and make enough money to completely support themselves by designing web sites, translating, editing, designing graphics, managing a social media account, writing, etc. You will see a lot of articles claiming you can do this, but the reality is that it is extremely difficult to be able to do this kind of work. First, you have to be a well-known, highly-experienced professional with a long list of previous employers and clients who adore your work so much that they keep coming back to you over and over to hire you. Without a portfolio of many happy clients ready to hire you over and over, you aren't going to be a digital nomad.
Yes, there are social media influencers who make a great deal of money. They are, relatively speaking, very few of them. Most people who try it fail - they make NO money. You have to be doing something or writing something so amazing that many thousands of people want to read or watch it at least every week in order to make money as a social media influencer. It is absolutely a full time job, incredibly intense, and you don't get time off.
If you want to translate this document into another language and post it on your own web site, feel free - however, please do not use the author's name anywhere on the site.
Also see:
For People That Want Refugee or Asylum Status: Realities You Need to Know.
What Work-At-Home / Remote Jobs Look Like and how to avoid scams.
How to Get a Paid Job with the United
Nations or other international humanitarian or development
organization.
Ideas for Leadership Volunteering
Activities
A long list of ideas for a person, especially a young person, to create
or lead an impactful project for a community and to have a leadership
role as a volunteer. These can also be activities for a Capstone
project, the Girl Scouts Gold Award, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award
(U.K.), a mitzvah project, or even scholarship consideration.
How you can advocate for an issue important to you. If there is something you want to tell people about, to prompt them to care, even to prompt them to action, this resource is for you.
Beware of pay day loans, quick loans, cash advances, etc. How to stop being a slave to debt.
my home page my consulting services
& my workshops &
presentations my credentials & expertise Affirmation that this web site is
created & managed by a human. My book: The Last Virtual Volunteering
Guidebook Free Resources: Community Outreach, With & Without
Tech Free Resources: Technology Tips for Non-Techies Free Resources: Nonprofit, NGO & other
mission-based management resources Free Resources: Web Development, Maintenance,
Marketing for non-Web designers Free Resources: Corporate philanthropy / social
responsibility programs Free Resources: For people & groups that want
to volunteer linking to or from my web site The Coyote Helps Foundation me on social media (follow
me, like me, put me in a circle, subscribe to my newsletter)
how to support my work Disclaimer: No guarantee of accuracy or suitability is made by
the poster/distributor of the materials on this web site.
This material is provided as is, with no expressed or implied
warranty or liability.
See my web site's privacy policy.
Permission is granted to copy, present and/or distribute a limited amount of material from my web site without charge if the information is kept intact and without alteration, and is credited to:
Otherwise, please contact me for permission to reprint, present or distribute these materials (for instance, in a class or book or online event for which you intend to charge).
The art work and material on this site was created and is copyrighted 1996-2026