www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I would like to solicit some member’s opinion that has perhaps been in a similar situation. I have a chance to work remotely for a large company that provides outsourced IT support. I am not yet sure whether such remote locations would be limited to the United States or would allow me to be domiciled in a foreign country. If the latter, then I say “game on” and I would probably choose to relocate to a country within 2-5 hours flight time where the infrastructure is sufficient to support working remotely. Costa Rica or Panama certainly would fall into this category, but I am not sure whether it would definitely be the destination as there might be some other places that merit consideration.

To me, the qualifications would have to be as follows; a good reliable source of power, Internet Service Provider with voice over IP QoS (does anyone currently use VOIP from CR?), so I wouldn’t ring up a fortune in long distance calls, good cell service, easy residency requirements, cost effective apartment rentals, etc. I was wondering whether there are members in a similar situation that are working remotely from Costa Rica for U.S. based corporations and if so, what are some of the significant issues or problems to be considered. I have dutifully done a search and come up with some decent info on the board, that seems to support the idea that as long as I had a residency in the states, I could in theory work out of Costa Rica. I am sure that there would be tax implications, but not sure what they could be, given the virtual nature of employment. Any thoughts on the matter addressing the realities of pulling this off in CR or elsewhere?

Residency requirements in CR are not easy, at least from my view.

Consider Alaska in the summer and Florida in the winter.

That, I would like.

_________________
PacoLoco: "You pay for it one way or another."
Ace: "Rent everything, do not buy in Costa Rica"

I did approx 10 trips here last year,
the last 7 being approx 1 week each

during those trips, i tried to work remotely,
there were several occasions when internet was not available for 1-2 hours at either the SL, Presidente, Sleep Inn, or Aurola
I did not have an outage at the Courtyard or Intercontinental, but did not do as many nights there

My suspicion was that the internet outage was due to the service provider.
I am inclined to think if you depended on the internet
i would get a place near Santa Ana,
where that tax-free zone for all the foreign companies are,
as they will probably have better services,
just a guess,
I used skype for telephone, you can probably use a US tel that skype routes to computer

i found cell phone service to be spotty and expensive (Sprint roaming charges) in Alaska, but salmon fishing was great
-side bitch, i paid $38 at McCormick & Schmidt the other day for wild caught copper river king salmon
so despite spotty cell, may Alaska for the May-June run is not a bad idea

If I were in that situation I believe I could easily do it from here in downtown San Jose. I have a reliable DSL internet connection and make cheap calls to US phones using yahoo voice. I'm a half hour from the airport, when traffic isn't too bad. If I needed to work and had somebody who was willing to let me telecommute, I believe I could do it. There are areas where the infrastructure isn't all that great in CR, but I'm an 8 iron shot from the big banks. They need (and get) the best the country has to offer.

_________________
"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

I usually work a few hours each day while I'm down there, and only once have had bad internet. I use several different VOIPs, Skype, CallWave, and Vonage, depending on what phone number I want to show up on the recipient's caller-id... Never had a problem with any...

All internet service in Costa Rica goes through RACSA. There are times when the connection speed is extremely slow. Sometimes it is do to factors beyond their control such as a about a week ago when both undersea cables were damaged. Other times they never say why or even admit there was a problem.

Most large commercial users such as call centers and sports books use private satellite services for both internet and VOIP. The initial setup is very pricey as are the the monthly fees but given their volume of traffic and the financial loss if the connection is slow it is cost effective for them.

Most likely not a viable alternative for an individual.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

I've been doing this for a year and have had only one problem. The week the entire country went out of power, I was screwed. My client expected me to be working. Since my VOIP was down too, I couldn't even call easily to tell them what happened. They were pissed, but eventually understood.

I fly back and forth almost weekly. Its funny... when I DON'T NEED internet and VOIP, it is always up. When I really need it, it always seems to be slow and the VOIP is (ofcourse) choppy.

My opinion... just get the 512 Mbps DSL. They will try to sell you higherbandwidth packages, but I doubt you actually ever get the bandwidth. Also keep in mind, network performance is a factor of bandwidth and latency. You cannot control latency, as you are far south. In otherwords, 512 in CR will never equal 512 in the US, providing you are connecting from here to there. Make sense?

_________________
http://TipsCostaRica.com for pratical advice on living in Costa Rica.
In order to write about life, first you must live it! - E. Hemingway.

I have a second occupation that will definately allow me to work anywhere in the world provided I have internet service. I have weighed the moved MANY times. I mean, if you could work for yourself and work ANYWHERE in the world, it is very appealing. Screw the 9-5 stuff. I just don't know if I'm ready to bust the move. Maybe I will do 6 weeks at a time soon. But, back to the subject. My biggest concern is doing highly sensitive things on the internet. Ie..banking, paying bills, logging in to websites that require passwords etc. The reason I say this is because I use the free wireless at the airport. It is an unsecured network but I do not use any sensitive sites while there. However, last trip I get home and see that someone has tried to add their email address to my Paypal account. I also got an email from Bank America telling me that my account was locked for too many unsuccessful attempts to access. I never tried to access my BOA account in SJO. As for phone, I think the Yahoo voice or Skype will surely satisfy most peoples requirement for phone. My biggest concern is the security of the internet wireless or otherwise since, as ID suggests, it is all routed through RACSA. Anyone got any suggestion for this concern? Didn't mean to hijack the thread.

dapanz1

chi - i think you meant 512K/s, 512M/s is damn fast

i saw an add for www.ticosat.com at $99/mo

i generally try to avoid financial transaction in CR, but have done a few without problems

normally when i handle business down here, i want to provide my full undivided attention (which lasts about 5 min)

on a couple of occasions, i got called on very short notice, after i had already arranged some time with a nice girl with some bills that need to be paid.
in such cases, be sure to have one hand on the mute switch, less some unintentional sound make it over the line

and it was nice to be net positive for that hour

I am not an internet security expert at all, but I have done banking transactions, credit card transactions and the like from San Jose. The banks and every other business of any size use RACSA here and if some hacker can hack RACSA I think he might find Banco National a much better target than me. As far as government eavesdropping, a certain President who shall remain nameless believes he has the right to intercept all phone calls and emails within the United States. Thank god his vocabulary is such that he wouldn't understand my emails anyway.

_________________
"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

From that site:



This is what I was alluding to when I posted earlier in this thread:

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

It certainly would follow that the national banks would use the Internet service that was offered by another government agency. However I am not sure I would agree with the statement that "every other business of any size use RACSA". I would be interested how you came to that conclusion.

According to an article that appeared in the Friday June 29, 2007 issue of the Tico Times satellite Internet and VOIP are used by call centers, multinational companies, hotels, tourist agencies, sports books, security agencies, etc. It would appear to me, and I have not done any deep research, that many many businesses of any size eschew RACSA in favor of private satellite service. Those 1.8 and 2.0 meter dishes you see on many office buildings are not there so the employees can watch the Dish network on their break.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

With some of those you can have a florida area code or where you live and your friends can call you there free if they live in that zone. my friend use like 4 different ones in CR he is way better connected to the world then me maybe because im just lazy or dont have that kind of money for all the cool gadgets yet.

SD

Vonage VOIP allows you to choose any area code for your phone. Where I live we have the following:

Washington (state)

New Jersey

Florida

Illinois

Mississippi

Oregon

Get a call from someone here and one of those area codes will appear but they all originate in Costa Rica

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

i have been working remotely for almost a year, The high speed internet through Racsa/Amnet is plenty fast to support vonage lines. We had the multi day power outage that really sucked for a week. Other than that uptime is good, a few short term power outages but nothing really problematic.

BKTUNA
I am never going home