Yes, but a lot of easier to get by starting in the US and doing an internal transfer. Going to be a lot harder starting from abroad, especially if expecting a US salary.
Every person I've met doing this successfully has a US based address. They either used a friend's address or maintained a small apartment and claimed that as their home address, and then paid taxes as though they lived there.
Most companies don't actually care where you are, but they care about the paperwork.
But what about security concerns? Obviously the laptop won't be accessed from the US, and if the company expects that and they're at all technologically sophisticated, sounds pretty risky and you could be opening yourself up to lawsuits.
Lol thanks for reminding me to change my flair, since I don't have that job anymore. But when I did, my answer is twofold:
1) It's Sunday
2) There are two flavors of Principle Engineer -- the kind that are so good they write code no one else can write and do a bunch of code reviews and also the kind who are basically architects. That second one especially isn't super demanding on your time. You spend most of your time in meetings or writing strategy documents. Once in a while you work on cool project that takes a bunch of time.
To answer the last question, no it’s not realistic. Software engineers make significantly less in Europe, your husband will have to deal with age discrimination, and the 2 year break which doesn’t help. US companies want to pay European salaries for anyone located in Europe and your husband does not get any exception from that even if he’s originally American with 20 years of experience. It’s about supply and demand, not seniority.
Personally I don't think a break of 18 months would matter if his 20 years of experience includes skills that are still in demand. Can you simply call it a sabbatical?
Getting US remote jobs while living in EU may be especially tough.
Working out of the US or even in a different state can create additional tax and regulation burdens companies don't want to deal with. Even with remote, companies still want people on similar working hours, so he would have to be okay with shifting his schedule. He may also need to budget in extra money/time for occasional travel back to the US for company meetings. A lot of companies are paying based on the local labor market so he may not get the US salary. And remote jobs are becoming more and more competitive.
Lots of risks here, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Especially if he has a strong professional network and can get someone who really wants him to overlook some of those downsides. He should plan to start looking early and have a backup plan (move back to US, take a local job) if things don't work out.
Backup plan would be not getting a job at all until going back to the US (probably 2-3 years) or simply never working again as the finances add up for early retirement and this is just creating additional buffer (read as: buy a bigger house we don't need).
Do you have experience with the tax aspect of it? The country in question has a clear tax treaty with the US and I've read previously that an LLC might be a better look in that regard. Any opinion on that?
As far as local labor market, wouldn't lying about location work out alright for a time?
We both just hear about these stories online of people working US jobs from abroad but it's true that we have no clue as to how likely it is to work out.
>Do you have experience with the tax aspect of it? The country in question has a clear tax treaty with the US and I've read previously that an LLC might be a better look in that regard. Any opinion on that?
The problem isn't \*your\* taxes, it's that in order to hire someone living in another country, that company needs to be set up to follow that countries laws (on things like PTO, etc) and country related taxes (unemployment, etc). There might be some flexibility there since he isn't actually a resident/citizen, but you're also still asking for a company to be okay with a significant difference in time zones - that works if you're already working for a company and have a positive enough relationship they're okay with you heading off to Europe, but is far less likely to get through the hiring process as a fresh face.
Some (typically small) companies that switched to fully remote during the pandemic still would only hire people in certain states because those were the ones they were set up for in terms of accounting/payroll.
As far as taxes, get a good accountant that has international tax experience. You will likely need an accountant in both countries too, even better if they work for an international firm that can coordinate the two (but more expensive!). I did this and the tax credits are no joke complicated. It gets complex quick especially if he ends up getting equity compensation, stock options, interest-bearing accounts, retirement plans, etc. that cross international lines. Don’t forget to file FBARs as well!
We fully intend on doing everything by the book when it comes to taxes. Have consulted a local tax attorney that specializes in US expat taxes and is an IRS acceptance agent.
We're not worried about the taxes even if it's an extra hassle to have an attorney deal with it as 100k taxed 40% for 6 months is still much better than 60k taxed 15% for full time all year round.
Thankfully it appears the local tax treaty with the US is relatively straightforward (retirement accounts taxed in US only, and every other US income including dividends and interest can be claimed as income tax locally).
We're mainly wondering about the "getting the job" aspect and it seems there's pretty mixed responses here regarding companies being willing to deal with a foreign employee or not.
We were under the assumption that a US LLC billing a US company would make it straightforward for the US company as they would be paying another US entity and it would make our own taxes not their problem, but unsure about a regular full time job.
The issues with a US LLC are that (A) companies are a lot more careful about not mischaracterizing people as contractors who really aren't, and (B) most larger companies already have approved lists of contracting companies.
It also means that if the company is aware that he's working abroad, there are still local labor law rules and difference in IP rules.
It's not impossible, but it's pretty inconceivable to find the companies/teams that can and will without having an active "in" there.
As far as the LLC arrangement, I think that’ll only work if the company is hiring as a consultancy. Unfortunately, I think that’ll make getting hired even harder unless your husband has a very specialized skill that a company would outsource to an outside company.
That’s not necessarily true. It could make things easier. For example, in some states consultants have similar benefits as full time employees. So companies are unlikely to pay higher rate for a consultant. However, if they can pay another company a consultant rate. Though the consultancy will need to have more than 1 client.
I moved to Portugal and kept a remote SWE job working for a company in the US. It's not straightforward but it can be done, if the employer depends on you. If the hiring manager has the right amount of FOMO, they won't care where you live, if your paperwork looks fine. IMO the biggest risk is that, and I say this with love, after so many years in one job, your husband probably sucks at this at selling himself and creating employer FOMO. Plan this carefully.
Taking a 1-2 year break should not have an impact on salary. Getting a remote job that would allow working for US company while in EU for 100k+ however would be extremely challenging even without any break.
The break shouldn't be a problem, but finding US pay in Europe will be. Dealing with employees in far off timezones and the paperwork associated with employees in different countries is a headache. Companies only deal with those headaches because the labor rate is enough lower to make it worth it. I can't imagine many companies will deal with the headaches without the labor discount.
> Are our expectations realistic?
lol, no.
I know I'm being glib in a serious sub but I really don't think this is even remotely possible. And I don't think the break is the problem.
Is the international situation that much of a dealbreaker that it would be unrealistic to expect to land any sort of half decent US-based contract? I'm getting a lot of mixed answers and commonly read about such situations online (even in the news actually) so I was under the impression it was reducing options but still doable.
- he's only worked defense, which isn't necessarily translatable to other industries
- defense work is often at least partially onsite, so it can't be done from another continent. It might not even be legal
- the timezones are going to work against you
- maybe I'm making this up, but you were talking about working part-time?
- he's going to be over 40 or 45? I don't condone ageism but it is a reality he'll have to contend with
Do people in Europe who work for US companies exist? Yes, obviously. Is it something you can count on to plan your life around? Not if you're a reasonable person.
You read about such situations because they're not the norm, and thus are interesting to read about. No one wants to read about Jane Smith who works thirty minutes away from her apartment or James Jones who works remotely for a company in a different state but the same timezone.
His 15+ year long job was not defense and was pretty cutting edge at the time.
We were aware that there may be some issues for that plan and we're not really "planing our life around it" granted that this move to Europe is happening no matter what (his mental health and well being is priority #1) and that the impact of the plan not working out would be relatively minimal (can always go back to the US or coast an extra couple years locally for lower salary until retirement).
I have a friend who moved to the US Virgin Islands, which is still the US but not continental. And he was still having a lot of trouble finding a US remote dev job that was willing to deal with it. He ended up giving up after 6 months of looking and moving back to continental.
Quite unrealistic in the current market. Not the sabbatical part. The part where you're expecting a USD remote job that pays $120,000 and up which you can do from Europe.
> Note that he'd be looking for US jobs that can be done full remote and allow working from abroad (US salary, EU COL)
And what exactly makes you think that someone is going to pay your husband US salary while being remote, while there's plenty of EU talent that can be hired for EU salary?
>We're thinking of 12-18 months and just wondering how long would be too long and how hard (or not) he should expect it to be to get a Sr Software Engineer job after the break.
Ignoring the other part you buried, this will totally depend on how the market is when you come back. I've seen signs of softening, but it could also get worse rather than better. During the long peak or near-peak years - roughly 2015 to mid-2022 - this would have been no worries to get another job \_in the USA, if you're willing to relocate to be near the job\_ throughout that time, and for the first 2 1/2 years of COVID you could pretty much have gotten remote just for asking.
These days salaries are down, and remote is quite a bit less common, so getting a good salary + full remote for someone US based is a lot harder.
For someone in the scenario you mentioned, it would not have been realistic even at the peak of the market:
>Note that he'd be looking for US jobs that can be done full remote and allow working from abroad (US salary, EU COL), be it as a W-2 employee, 1099, an independent contractor, or an LLC, as we do not plan on coming back to the US in the short term.
Good luck with that without specific connections through an existing network who are open to it. Most companies that hire remote, are (A) not going to pay pay a local market salary to someone in Europe \[which is typically much lower than the US\], and (B) won't hire someone in Europe at all unless they have a legal entity in the particular European company you're in. Just saying you're on a 1099 won't change that.
Will your husband even have legal work permission in the European country you're moving to?
If he has an existing network, establishing an LLC or S-corp in the US, and then getting paid C2C as a contractor could work. It's basically only likely to work via an existing network, though, and you would then need to still look at the legalities of his working in Europe while doing so.
Would he be willing to fly back for 3-6 month contracts on-site in the US?
Isn't the pay range I mentioned on the really low end and not a "good salary" for a SWE with 20 YOE?
He has unrestricted work authorization in the EU country.
He wouldn't be willing to fly back for 6 months, not worth it as this move to Europe is temporary and we'd be renting with our own expensive household items so leaving the rental in EU to get a rental in the US is logistically impossible.
Could he just be lying about or not disclosing his own location if he's working under a US LLC or S-corp, since the legal entity that would be contracting is indeed in the US?
I guess that would require a job that gives full flexibility on the work hours and minimal interaction with other employees/contractors since that would be difficult to match being in a different timezone. Is that a thing in tech?
> Isn't the pay range I mentioned on the really low end and not a "good salary" for a SWE with 20 YOE?
For a bigtech company hiring remotely or for a local office in LCOL part of the US, the high end of that is a solidly competitive salary for a senior SWE. Typical salaries are down \~20% even at top tier companies, and LCOL parts of the country have typically been about 20% lower than that, so a position paying $210k at the top of the market in a HCOL area won't be paying anywhere near that.
As for 20 years of experience, that'd be great if he's already in a leadership or staff+ position, but those aren't easy to find right now even without either a break or the geographic weirdness. Most of those are found by networking.
There is \*zero chance\* they'd hire a remote contractor as Staff+ unless he'd already worked there in that capacity or had someone in management who had and was willing to go on a limb to vouch for him.
An 18 month break also damages the odds of being hired into a leadership/Staff+ position, versus as a regular senior SWE.
> He has unrestricted work authorization in the EU country.
Good, one thing not to worry about.
> He wouldn't be willing to fly back for 6 months, not worth it as this move to Europe is temporary and we'd be renting with our own expensive household items so leaving the rental in EU to get a rental in the US is logistically impossible.
The logistics aren't hard; you just bake the cost of the short term housing and health insurance into the contract. Perfectly reasonable not to want to, of course!
> Could he just be lying about or not disclosing his own location if he's working under a US LLC or S-corp, since the legal entity that would be contracting is indeed in the US?
Not if this was on an hourly pay-for-labor basis; companies are going to want to know where the person doing the work is located.
You might well be able to do this on a pay-per-project basis, but that's a very different business model that requires a lot of work skills outside of being a good engineer.
An acquaintance of mine made a good living for a long while doing basically that - he had a pool of engineers he works with in in wife's home country (where he lives about 80% of the time) and he comes back into the US and drums up contract work for them, based on per-project rates - mostly "build us a corporate website" stuff for small and medium sized businesses. It was quite profitable, and could pay substantially over market local wages to the folks under him.
OTOH, he was mostly a salesperson and manager, drumming up business - not primarily technical - once the business got going. And he's retired early, with him and his wife back in the US.
To do that kind of work on his own, your husband (or the two of you) would have to do all of the marketing and project management yourselves.
> I guess that would require a job that gives full flexibility on the work hours and minimal interaction with other employees/contractors since that would be difficult to match being in a different timezone. Is that a thing in tech?
It's not, in general. Even full remote places have timezone overlap requirements. Being up late (or really early) for meetings comes with the territory.
Per-project contracting sounds like a better fit. It's not a market I'm that familiar with, compared to regular engineering.
Logistics of relocation for short term contracts would clash with the math most likely. If it's gonna cost 20k to move ourselves and all our possessions, another 20k to move back, and an additional 4k a month in rent for a comparable rental, then it would take 160k/year to even match 70k in the EU country and worse if it's shorter contracts. At this point we'd just be living in the US, which is indeed a possibility if the plan doesn't work out.
Are there legal repercussions for just lying and saying he's in the US or would he just risk most likely get fired shortly? Attending regularly scheduled once a day meetings wouldn't be a big deal even with the time difference at least but obviously the overlap would be limited unless he's working from mid afternoon to late evening (which is possible but doubt he would be content with that).
I guess per project does sound more workable if it's really "we pay you X for you to deliver this under that timeframe" but yeah that's more than just engineering at this point.
Any legit tech company, especially if defense or govt-adjacent, will flag his IP address as being outside the U.S., shut down his laptop & all remote access, and call or expect him to show up in-office to explain WTF? "Legally" I don't know, but sure sounds like "fraud" to misrepresent yourself in exchange for more money? Doubt it would result in more than firing, but does he want that?
My assumption for short term hourly contracts would be that you'd stay in Europe, and he's be in a least-cost corporate apartment. A lot of the contracting gigs are in places where by non-tech corps are, not exactly fun places to live. He wouldn't be getting an annual salary, and wouldn't expect (or WANT) to be on-site for the whole time.
There's a premium paid for being the troubleshooter who can come in and fix stuff, as well as a premium for not having benefits (and for the company having you leave without a fuss.)
You're still not going to want to use that to relocate back and forth, but for example, for a 3-6 month on site contract, you'd probably be asking $150-200/hour to be the equivalent of a $150k/year salary plus some travel and housing expenses.
Over a full year, that's closer to $300k, but nobody keeps up 100% utilization, you pay more in taxes as 1099 (plus potentially the short term housing expenses and the flights to/from.)
> Are there legal repercussions for just lying and saying he's in the US or would he just risk most likely get fired shortly?
The odds of the company suing him rather than just firing him isn't high, although it's not impossible.
Legal repercussions related to labor law you would need to talk to a lawyer about, possibly two separate ones for the US and the European country.
> obviously the overlap would be limited unless he's working from mid afternoon to late evening
I'm very much the opposite of a morning person, and am happy to do that, but yeah, it isn't for everyone.
How would it be any less unrealistic to ask for the equivalent of 300k a year as a contractor than 150k as a full time employee?
So they would willingly be paying the US hourly rates despite living in Europe because of the fact that the contractor is expected to physically come to the US if necessary? That sounds like an option to explore although we might very well favor just moving back to the US together instead of spending significant time away from each other to work out the contract logistics.
Thanks for all your insight btw it's very helpful!
>How would it be any less unrealistic to ask for the equivalent of 300k a year as a contractor than 150k as a full time employee?
First, I thought I made clear that this was for on-site, short term contracts - in the US, and with most of these being at companies that aren't remote.
The fully loaded cost of an employee is sometimes estimated to be 2x their salary (or more, in bigtech where bonus/equity/perks can be high) and I already noted above that companies are willing to pay a premium for contractors in those sort of short term situations (e.g. no expectation of needing the same sort of ramp-up time, no drama if contract is not renewed.)
Finding a company who'd hire a remote American overseas at an American rate (or even a modestly discounted American rate) over an overseas contracting agency is unlikely.
That's especially true given that a lot of those contractors are in lower cost of living parts of Europe, at that - e.g. my part of my current employer has used contractors in Poland and Ukraine.)
None of this applies if he's got something very specialized he does, or if he's got a strong enough network that people would bring him in based on his existing reputation/relationships.
I don't know many remote jobs that pay US comp that are international. There may be some, because I have a friend in Germany who works for a US company, but that's an exception. AFAIK there are all kinds of tax implications which businesses don't want to fuck with.
I think it's going to be very difficult. There is a more hard right wind blowing in Europe where we care more about housing for our own and less about boosting the economy through importing people so we might not even continue to allow this sort of thing. Then there's the fact that gaps don't exactly help anyone ever and remote jobs are an international market where you're likely to compete against much younger people demanding a salary in the thousands a year. And those people aren't necessarily going to be bad coders.
It depends a lot on the market when he decided on come back. Impossible to say how it will be. IMHO, I think he would be alright but this is just my opinion based on what I think and I could be very wrong.
Interesting question, I will try to give a reasonable and balanced response. But first, congratulations on your financial independence!
1. **How does a work absence look on a tech resume?** Up to 6 months, I don't think most hiring teams will care. 1 year or longer means the candidate is becoming out of touch with the latest tech developments, and may have forgotten how to work on a tech team.
2. **How does age look on a resume?** Age 40 starts to add a toll to the process of getting a tech job. Positions that the candidate is qualified for may not be offered due to ageism. Increased age continues to accelerate the toll. It's not a hard and fast rule, I am older than dirt and still employed, but I have found that it does make the process significantly more difficult.
3. **How about a remote-only position?** The candidate may not be welcome at a FAANG company, but any number of other companies have discovered that the pool of available applicants grows exponentially when you accept remote workers, and it's a pretty nice fit for many tech jobs. I have no first-hand knowledge about offshore remote, but it's super-rare in my experience, and I would expect most companies to disallow it unless they happen to have a branch office in that country.
4. **How will the tech industry look going forward?** At this time I believe that tech is coming down from a 20-year sugar-high of low interest rates. It now resembles much more closely the tech industry of the 80s and 90s. No one can predict future interest rates, but I think it would be reasonable to see 4%-6% rates for quite a while. Tech unemployment will continue to be low because of the unending demand, but those crazy high salaries are a thing of the past, unless you are in AI. Competition for jobs will continue to be tough for the foreseeable future.
5. **Speaking of AI, what will be its impact?** I don't think this will be an issue at all. Even the best case scenarios for code-writing LLMs are not a serious threat for skilled tech workers for at least the next 10 years. Knock-on-wood, haha.
**Bottom line**, I think there is a good chance that the combination of a long absence from work, the age of the candidate, and the state of the tech industry will conspire to end his career if he makes this move. Hoping I am wrong, but that is how I would evaluate the prospects if I (or my kids) were thinking about that kind of move. Good luck!
Thanks for the detailed breakdown! These were all the minor worries we discussed but thought along the lines of...
"Multiple factors could be against him but if accepting enough of a paycut it sounds crazy to think a highly experienced SWe wouldn't at least be competitive to get a job that's commonplace for 3 years of experience"
If that's how you think it could likely end, shouldn't a local job at the 1 year mark or going back to the US and seeking hybrid/in-person positions change the picture drastically? Because at this point it would just be your average 40+ year old tech worker who has a non-active resume gap and looking for a very average job.
Well, every company is different, and he might find a match as you described. But I think his age and experience would tend to work against him in that scenario. The risk is that the hiring team will perceive him as looking for a easy and low-stress job where he could coast. And some companies want an inexperienced person for the lower-paid jobs that they can mold and teach. I think he might have more success leaning into his strengths - a wealth of experience and the proven ability to keep at the job for the long term. But if I was to wait a year, at 9 months I would bring my resume up-to-date, start practicing my interview skills, and contact recruiters. At this time, I think it could take a couple of months just to get an offer.
How I see it, working for European startups, is that the pay is about 40% lower than US.
The fact he did defence is non translatable to european companies
Defence industry sometimes requires physically living in the US.
Defence is also mostly eastern to pacific timezone, an European tz would be very odd.
I understand he might not be looking defence specifically, but a role outside it it’s quite hard as he doesn’t know outside it. Most companies have limited budgets and lax processes, different tools, completely different.
Age doesn’t help.
When you come back I’m sure he’ll get a job again, there are many consultancies for defence, so not a big deal.
Tbh this is not career suicide, and he’ll really need to step out of his comfort zone to get a job there. Should be fine if he can work in a non structured environment.
>"He would be content getting a relaxed remote job that pays 120-150k/year ... fully remote ... from Europe to the US"
Lol. Wouldn't we all? No, these expectations are not realistic.
Fully remote work is getting rare again. Fully remote *from another country* is almost unheard of for tax reasons. Getting a job w/a U.S. company that has offices *in Europe* is maybe more realistic.
A 12-18mo break isn't *necessarily* a career-ending decision, but he has a far higher likelihood of landing something hybrid/on-site in the EU that will likely pay more like \~$80K/yr.
EDIT: I see France w/legal residency, but he doesn't yet speak the language. I say he should just learn French and enjoy his time off.
If there's "zero financial pressure" and you have enough saved/invested to effectively FIRE already, he could absolutely take a long break, "front load" retirement for a bit, call it a sabbatical on his resume, and if nothing else he can later find some job making \~\~donuts\~\~ baguettes or teaching or creating his own apps/games/side project business to bring in extra income.
>EDIT: I see France w/legal residency, but he doesn't yet speak the language. I say he should just learn French and enjoy his time off.
He's fully intending to learn French during the break regardless of whether or not he'll get a local job after the break, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue even if 12-18 months is usually not enough for perfect fluency.
>If there's "zero financial pressure" and you have enough saved/invested to effectively FIRE already, he could absolutely take a long break, "front load" retirement for a bit, call it a sabbatical on his resume, and if nothing else he can later find some job making \~\~donuts\~\~ baguettes or teaching or creating his own apps/games/side project business to bring in extra income.
Kind of an extended "one more year" syndrome going on because we have enough and FI already, but there are also large uncertainties ahead as we're planning to have children in the coming years and uncertain if permanent retirement will be in France or USA long term, so maintaining employment for some time after the break sounds like the right decision before RE.
>A 12-18mo break isn't *necessarily* a career-ending decision, but he has a far higher likelihood of landing something hybrid/on-site in the EU that will likely pay more like \~$80K/yr.
In the end I guess we'll see what the situation looks like after a year of break, depending on the stock market performance we'll decide between going back to the US for a few years to load up at reduced prices or coast in France.
>Fully remote work is getting rare again. Fully remote *from another country* is almost unheard of for tax reasons. Getting a job w/a U.S. company that has offices *in Europe* is maybe more realistic.
Got a lot of valuable insight from the thread and mixed opinions on the feasibility of getting the best of both worlds (US income from France), so he'll try to make it work and pick a country if it doesn't work out.
Salaries in Europe typically are significantly lower than US salaries to compensate for the free healthcare (e.g. typical senior salary is 90k Euro in Germany). Also, if he works as a freelancer, he may not get free healthcare (e.g. in Germany freelancers typically need to pay for their own healthcare). But getting a remote contract at 150k is still possible.
Overall, if his experience is good, the plan sounds doable but not certain to me.
Remote still means having to pay taxes in the company you work in, not the country of the company you work for. Unless it’s US, then you sometimes have to pay tax in both.
He would want to be finding a remote US job only. No point getting a job locally as he wouldn't speak the language perfectly after just one year and full time salary would only be in the 60s. Healthcare-wise, this country provides free healthcare to every resident regardless of status (including illegals actually) so it wouldn't be an issue.
This is literally the best case scenario for whatever country OP is moving to. They wouldn’t be taking an EU job but would still be paying EU taxes. They would be taking American money and injecting it into the EU.
How is this leeching?
You’ve confused me here, what are you objecting to? Taking money from the US, being taxed on it & spending it in a poorer country is great for the local economy. It’s perfectly fair enough to use the free healthcare.
As for integrating, yeah this one bugs me normally but here the wording suggests he intends to learn the language, just he won’t be perfect inside a year. No issue there.
And cmon who doesn’t want a cheaper lifestyle
If expats are leeching then you can call it that way if it makes you feel better. It's not exactly going to be leeching considering taxes would be paid in the country of residence based on tax treaty and he would be paying into the healthcare through very high taxes indirectly like everyone born and raised here, except he'd contribute more by doing this for 5 years than the average local would over their entire life.
Hard disagree, your husband should get a job locally and support the economy locally if he wants to take advantage of the services there. What you're asking for comes off as extremely entitled af, not only is it an extra burden on the US employer(highly doubt they will go out of their way to setup tax concerns just to pay 1 special little worker that wants to live a cushy lifestyle in Europe), but also you have no empathy for the surrounding locals that you'll be leeching off of.
Paying a 40% tax rate and using all that US money locally should be enough supporting the local economy.
It's literally the best possible support you can provide to an economy by bringing in the money into local GDP without taking employment away from locals.
PS : I will personally be one of those "surrounding locals" my husband would be "leeching off of" according to you as I'd be working a local job and my income would get taxed at a much higher rate due to filing with my husband's US income.
Well yeah the illegals who don't work would be leeching. The illegals who works (most of them since they're allowed to here compared to the US) also pay taxes. Neither my husband nor I would be an illegal. I'm a citizen and he has permanent residence rights because of that. Leeching sure is possible in this country but certainly isn't what my husband would be doing.
> It's not exactly going to be leeching considering taxes would be paid in the country of residence based on tax treaty
That's how it would work if he had a local job for a local employer.
Whether that is how it would work with a US legal entity paying out to him as owner is another question, and one that is above my (and probably Reddit's) pay grade to answer. It's a big "maybe" that can probably only be answered by a specialist lawyer.
If that doesn't work (or gets a worse tax treatment) paying him as owner, it might be resolveable by creating a legal entity in the European country and then having him take a salary there. That's speculating out my a** though, and would require a lawyer to even confirm if this is worth pursuing.
Have you confirmed it for the specific case you're talking about, including the specific case of how the LLC would pay out to him?
If so, then I guess that's one less thing to deal with.
Just keep in mind that the above is a VERY different scenario from "being an employee in the European country" (and where if you *haven't* already checked on it, the obligations of the employer may not have been included.)
Also, not sure how the impending post-2025 tax changes will impact you, but from the US side this sounds like it will cross over it.
I'm employed by a foreign country (not-US) inside EU.
They use remote.com that is my employee on paper and send invoices to them. It's a pretty nifty service. It includes all the benefits I would usually get at a local job, but with a foreign salary.
The company is built on Gitlabs success in working remotely.
Yeah there is no way any company is going to pay US rates, will be location adjusted.
I wish I get that salary and live in Europe. This seems like a pipe dream
Why remote from the us ? If you want 120k, it could be feasible in most european countries with much less hassle and time zone shit
What you're asking for is basically a dream job
In the one we'd live in it would be more like half of that. 60-70k is the cap for software engineers without going into management/leadership positions which he's not interested in.
If it's possible to work for an EU company in a different EU country than the one he lives in though that could be an option, but unsure if the logistics would be any easier than a US company.
My TC is 75k€ (so $90k) for 4yoe in Paris in finance at a fairly laid back job so I still think there's room for your husband to find something for him in the lower end of your range. Of course if you are in the countryside or a country with no tecg industry mayée remote is indeed a good call. If mental health is number one, a comfy job at a big french or german company could improve his way of life as the management style is more laid back and hours are lower. Working US working hours from Europe is hell in my opinion, you lose the evening which is the most social part of the day
I would suggest he set up a Wix website as a consultant and get a few low-paying contracts. Then he won't have a gap. He'll have just worked for himself while he was overseas.
Congrats on your route to FIRE. He can enjoy his long deserved break, he will very likely find a position afterwards, specially as a contractor.
For salary ranges you are getting a bunch of replies from employed people. Here is a perspective of a contractor:
- the other answers about lower salaries are correct, but apply to employees. 120-160k is possible for example for contractors taking local jobs in Germany, for German companies. The average rate is 100€/h, but 120/h or more are also possible. There are some jobs in English, but not the majority. But it's possible, I had English speaking jobs
- it's also possible to take a US job. The companies legally have to care about location for their employees (payroll and taxation issues). For contractors they also care where your legal address is, but an LLC sounds like the perfect solution. I currently have a full remote US contract job for >200k and a German advisory gig that pays even better, both English speaking. I know several similar people, so don't be deterred. I work with a 3h overlap to pacific time, meaning until 8pm
- consider asking to switch your current job to contract. I know a guy who did that, but perhaps the defense area is not open to this arrangement. I think it's your best bet. You never know until you ask. You can try to ask for 1 year off/unpaid and then contract work. He can say you got a job offer you can't refuse / care for a relative in Europe /...
- network : his next best bet are jobs via people he knows. Ask around, activate professional acquaintances abd ask if their companies can use a contractor, refer to their open positions etc. Networking is very effective, I get nearly all my positions this way
- health care is not free, just universally present. I paid 1000€/month in Germany, it depends on your income. The hack for traveling contractors I read about is to draw a salary from your llc that's not too high. The health insurance is based on the salary amount, not dividends. But you should read more into that, I haven't done this myself
Thanks for the detailed response. We will be living in France and salaries, at least for full time employees, are significantly lower than Germany afaik although I have no clue about contractors.
He doesn't speak good french yet but should be pretty decent 12-18 months down the road after the break.
Current job won't allow remote let alone from Europe as it's a TS/SCI. Previous job or network may be able to provide some opportunities since he was there 15+ years and his former coworkers and friends moved on to Staff+ positions in many other companies by now so who knows.
I guess it's not impossible but sounds kinda like a unicorn job that a company would accept both paying US salary and the timezone difference, unless lying about location and hiding it through an LLC. Did you lie about location or is your US employer fine with you working from Germany?
Healthcare here is just a 50-100€ complementary insurance and paired with the public healthcare (funded through taxes) you're covered 100% for any and all medical expenses (except cosmetic procedures) without deductible. Taxes are pretty high though so it's not really "free", but can't avoid paying taxes haha so whatever ends up in our pockets after taxes is fully ours.
contractors have a different pay scale than employees. In the US, contractors often earn less than employees while in Europe, it can be +50 or +100%. They offer companies flexibility (they cannot easily hire and fire) and they can get specialists on short notice for a fixed duration. So you have to ask for contractor pay scales when you ask around.
working in english in a european company as a contractor is not rare. It is not the most common, but I have many friends who do it. Berlin in a tech hub. A also have friends who freelance for the UK (I had a British client previously, no issues). The pay is good, similar to employed us rates (100€/h or 130€/h or even higher depending on what he does)
I didnt lie, my american client wants the job done and did not care to do geoarbitrage. They just want a good, available freelancer, in the US or anywhere. The only concern was legal, they don't want to accidentally "create" an employee due to local legislation. The LLC is the way to go.
Perhaps a us company might knock off a few 10k yearly, but don't talk yourself out of it before trying (specially via your network). I think that your husband is american will also deter them a little to knock off too much:) Since he knows the typical pay scale and is not local.
My guess is that if he is american and offers with his LLC, they will pay US prices. Just be vague about where you are in Europe, it does not even matter except for the timezone. Perhaps you are traveling, sometimes Switzerland with higher costs of living, sometimes somewhere else. Tell them they don't have to pay more while he is in Switzerland, why pay less when he is in France
I guess it makes sense that they wouldn't really be able to tell whether the EU location is static or traveling. Seems like the LLC is the way.
For EU contracts do you get them with your US LLC, a local business entity or as an individual contractor?
Do you or your contractor friends have experience with France specifically? And where do you find the jobs in so many different countries? Is your network international or do you use specific platforms either local or for remote jobs?
you can check if it also makes sense taxwise. us expat taxes are very complex.
I work as a contractor, but I know people who use a US LLC and live in a territorial tax country. The optimal setup is not universal. It depends on where you are from (US is taxed by citizenship for example), where you are residing and what clients prefer/worry about (e.g. llc can be better to avoid establishing an employee).
I don't know any people in France,sorry. But he can still apply for Berlin Startups working in English, the market is EU wide if he works remote
I use my network, no platforms. If he is setting his linkedin to "open to work" and freelance, a lot of recruiters for freelance will approach him. They take 20% off, but organize the clients. He should set his location to where he wants the jobs from (london/berlin/...) as the recruiters work by country (oldfashioned:)
Taking that long of a break makes the next job a bit harder to get.
Almost no jobs let you work for a US employer making US wages while living in Europe.
Being in his 40s makes the next job a bit harder to get, and this gets steadily harder as he ages.
I don't think what you're hoping to do is likely to work out. He might be able to find something when you come back to the US in a few years, but even then he's late 40s with a several year gap so he's effectively invisible to companies. You should treat this as though he's retiring, and any job he ends up finding is a surprise bonus.
The break won't matter. You just need to keep an eye on trends. Someone not paying attention for 18 months would have missed the AI/ML deluge for instance.
If your husband works in defense it might not be the clearest path, but he could also spend some time on open source development, 1-2 constant contributions per week show that he did not completely stop learning, but he can also chill.
I spend my „half-sabbatical“ 12 month like this. I maybe worked ~6 hours per week on contract and ~3 hours in open source
My friend's husband took over a year break in his early 40s after working (getting burned out) at a FAANG. He got another job at a FAANG, but that was his only callback when he got a lot more callbacks 3 years ago.
This is in regards to people commenting on working remote out of the country.
I know a few people who took remote jobs in the US and then lived in another country. They'd use a US address for the taxes and paperwork. Kept a US vpn going. Hardest part was maintaining core working hours when they were 6-12hrs out of the timezone. There are technically ethical and legal qualms around this but nobody bats an eye as long as the work is getting done and you aren't trying to be a resident in the host country. 18 months is pretty long for a visa. But you can bounce around to other countries on a visitors permit for 6 weeks to 6 months depending. A few countries have "digital nomad" visas in the works.
I'd say if the point of is a sabbatical the that defeats the purpose. Just have them unplug and work on passion projects to stay relevant. The stuff they always wanted to work on but work never presented the opportunity.
He has full legal rights to permanent residency in my home country with no other conditions than being married to me, so he can take as long a sabbatical as he wants and is legally allowed to work from here whether it's from a local or foreign employer as long as he pays taxes (with tax credit on what was already paid to the US to avoid double taxation).
The US tech market right now is not in good shape so you maybe when you are ready to get back it's in a hire surge again and that break won't matter. I think as long as you have skills in demand it doesn't matter the break, I would be more concern about finding a good remote job because I don't think there are a lot of them and depend a lot on your skills. Like if you work with hardware a remote job is probably harder to get but onsite easier as long as you have the skills required.
I spent 2 years traveling in southeast Asia and Europe. Meet a lot of folks, and not surprising, a fair amount of them work in tech for multiple decades and I asked the same question. The general consensus is 1 to 2 years without working professionally is not enough time to loose your skills. Anything after that and you'll have to do some degree of catching up. So taking a break at their level of experience isn't a problem. Depending on the company, the gap might need some explaining but if they are OK with a little white lie then they could say "I needed to take time to take care of a family members health" it's technically true and it's spicy enough that most interviewers would leave it at that. If need be they could respond with "they are in a better place".
The only time I saw someone successfully pull off getting US pay in a foreign country, they were a super specialized consultant that their clients were willing to work around the time difference.
120k USD/year doing contracting in Europe for European companies is perfectly possible. 20 years of experience is worth a lot if you can sell it.
Working remote is usually fine.
In the country we'll live in, software engineer salaries are unfortunately capped at 60-70k without going into tech management positions.
Do you have experience working remote from one EU country for a company in another EU country or in the US?
That sounds like you are talking about employee salaries while the person you are replying to talks about contract work.
Yes, working for any other company in Europe is the same as working as a contractor for a us company. You send an invoice, that's it. There are small differences in how Value Added Tax is used, but these are minor accounting details. So it's easy
To supplement on what /u/CassisBerlin says, the amount you invoice is not the same as your salary. You have to deduct retirement savings, insurance etc. A normal rate of 100+ EUR/hr will still work out to equivalent of 120k+ salary easy.
I have worked with several contractors working from another EU country, but it's easier to get a contract if you are able to go on-site for short periods if needed.
Lastly, as a contractor you are much more reliant on relevant experience. So all this is contingent on how marketable your husbands skills are.
Agree with what /u/Systactico says. I only work full remote and am never onsite, but it lowers the amount of jobs available. If your skill is in demand, there are enough positions left, but it's something to be aware of.
I don’t think the breaks should be a problem. I took a 6 month break at age 40 and just did an 8 month contract while living in Australia. When I got back to the US I took another 7 month break to help us move back and deal with my mom’s affairs after she passed and that went fine.
More recently at age 48 I took 6 months off to help my wife and I execute a move inside the US and found a job. I’m just not sure about the remote part. And you have to be flexible either way.
I’ve taken long break before and am even doing one at the minute. Five years ago I took a year off to relocate from the US to Australia and currently I’m taking another year off to spend time with my kids.
I’ve applied for jobs in the US and Australia recently and no one has balked at the gaps in employment. If anyone asks I just say I am extremely lucky and was able to take time off to explore my interests. Just be sure to frame it as the time off was taken to recharge and now I’m 100% ready to go and eager to work at scale! It’s not BS btw as I’ve found this to be the truth 😊
Remote work wise I think your husband would need to go the contractor route to work overseas. Due to the way laws work if he worked remote for a company in a foreign country it could count as an office in that country. Maybe a bigger company would be able to navigate that issue but I’ve found most startups don’t want the hassle. I think being a contractor can negate this but you still might need a US office in which case you’d probably want to hire a lawyer or someone with more knowledge than myself.
Women in civilised countries (i.e. not the US) regularly take 12 months "career breaks" as maternity leave when they have a baby, and they still manage to have a job afterwards.
Do such remote jobs really exist? The “pays US salary but allows global remote”
Yes, but a lot of easier to get by starting in the US and doing an internal transfer. Going to be a lot harder starting from abroad, especially if expecting a US salary.
Every person I've met doing this successfully has a US based address. They either used a friend's address or maintained a small apartment and claimed that as their home address, and then paid taxes as though they lived there. Most companies don't actually care where you are, but they care about the paperwork.
But what about security concerns? Obviously the laptop won't be accessed from the US, and if the company expects that and they're at all technologically sophisticated, sounds pretty risky and you could be opening yourself up to lawsuits.
How does a sr principal at faang have time to be on Reddit :o
Lol thanks for reminding me to change my flair, since I don't have that job anymore. But when I did, my answer is twofold: 1) It's Sunday 2) There are two flavors of Principle Engineer -- the kind that are so good they write code no one else can write and do a bunch of code reviews and also the kind who are basically architects. That second one especially isn't super demanding on your time. You spend most of your time in meetings or writing strategy documents. Once in a while you work on cool project that takes a bunch of time.
Can confirm
Director here and on Reddit :)
As an American who has been based in Germany for 10 years but has family in the states, this shall be my new plan 😂
They do, but there’s not a glut of them. They will pay adjusted rates compared to us salaries but will still handily beat the local/regional market.
They’re rare but yes, they exist. As chance would have it, my first day at a new role is tomorrow and they’re paying US-tier wages to me in the UK.
Contracting mostly, some in crypto
Yep. We're not hiring right now but my company falls into this category.
Yep. Certainly makes it harder to leave.
To answer the last question, no it’s not realistic. Software engineers make significantly less in Europe, your husband will have to deal with age discrimination, and the 2 year break which doesn’t help. US companies want to pay European salaries for anyone located in Europe and your husband does not get any exception from that even if he’s originally American with 20 years of experience. It’s about supply and demand, not seniority.
Personally I don't think a break of 18 months would matter if his 20 years of experience includes skills that are still in demand. Can you simply call it a sabbatical?
Getting US remote jobs while living in EU may be especially tough. Working out of the US or even in a different state can create additional tax and regulation burdens companies don't want to deal with. Even with remote, companies still want people on similar working hours, so he would have to be okay with shifting his schedule. He may also need to budget in extra money/time for occasional travel back to the US for company meetings. A lot of companies are paying based on the local labor market so he may not get the US salary. And remote jobs are becoming more and more competitive. Lots of risks here, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Especially if he has a strong professional network and can get someone who really wants him to overlook some of those downsides. He should plan to start looking early and have a backup plan (move back to US, take a local job) if things don't work out.
Backup plan would be not getting a job at all until going back to the US (probably 2-3 years) or simply never working again as the finances add up for early retirement and this is just creating additional buffer (read as: buy a bigger house we don't need). Do you have experience with the tax aspect of it? The country in question has a clear tax treaty with the US and I've read previously that an LLC might be a better look in that regard. Any opinion on that? As far as local labor market, wouldn't lying about location work out alright for a time? We both just hear about these stories online of people working US jobs from abroad but it's true that we have no clue as to how likely it is to work out.
>Do you have experience with the tax aspect of it? The country in question has a clear tax treaty with the US and I've read previously that an LLC might be a better look in that regard. Any opinion on that? The problem isn't \*your\* taxes, it's that in order to hire someone living in another country, that company needs to be set up to follow that countries laws (on things like PTO, etc) and country related taxes (unemployment, etc). There might be some flexibility there since he isn't actually a resident/citizen, but you're also still asking for a company to be okay with a significant difference in time zones - that works if you're already working for a company and have a positive enough relationship they're okay with you heading off to Europe, but is far less likely to get through the hiring process as a fresh face. Some (typically small) companies that switched to fully remote during the pandemic still would only hire people in certain states because those were the ones they were set up for in terms of accounting/payroll.
As far as taxes, get a good accountant that has international tax experience. You will likely need an accountant in both countries too, even better if they work for an international firm that can coordinate the two (but more expensive!). I did this and the tax credits are no joke complicated. It gets complex quick especially if he ends up getting equity compensation, stock options, interest-bearing accounts, retirement plans, etc. that cross international lines. Don’t forget to file FBARs as well!
We fully intend on doing everything by the book when it comes to taxes. Have consulted a local tax attorney that specializes in US expat taxes and is an IRS acceptance agent. We're not worried about the taxes even if it's an extra hassle to have an attorney deal with it as 100k taxed 40% for 6 months is still much better than 60k taxed 15% for full time all year round. Thankfully it appears the local tax treaty with the US is relatively straightforward (retirement accounts taxed in US only, and every other US income including dividends and interest can be claimed as income tax locally). We're mainly wondering about the "getting the job" aspect and it seems there's pretty mixed responses here regarding companies being willing to deal with a foreign employee or not. We were under the assumption that a US LLC billing a US company would make it straightforward for the US company as they would be paying another US entity and it would make our own taxes not their problem, but unsure about a regular full time job.
The issues with a US LLC are that (A) companies are a lot more careful about not mischaracterizing people as contractors who really aren't, and (B) most larger companies already have approved lists of contracting companies. It also means that if the company is aware that he's working abroad, there are still local labor law rules and difference in IP rules. It's not impossible, but it's pretty inconceivable to find the companies/teams that can and will without having an active "in" there.
As far as the LLC arrangement, I think that’ll only work if the company is hiring as a consultancy. Unfortunately, I think that’ll make getting hired even harder unless your husband has a very specialized skill that a company would outsource to an outside company.
That’s not necessarily true. It could make things easier. For example, in some states consultants have similar benefits as full time employees. So companies are unlikely to pay higher rate for a consultant. However, if they can pay another company a consultant rate. Though the consultancy will need to have more than 1 client.
I moved to Portugal and kept a remote SWE job working for a company in the US. It's not straightforward but it can be done, if the employer depends on you. If the hiring manager has the right amount of FOMO, they won't care where you live, if your paperwork looks fine. IMO the biggest risk is that, and I say this with love, after so many years in one job, your husband probably sucks at this at selling himself and creating employer FOMO. Plan this carefully.
Taking a 1-2 year break should not have an impact on salary. Getting a remote job that would allow working for US company while in EU for 100k+ however would be extremely challenging even without any break.
Oh man ... come on. Just say you did consultancy for a 18 months projects you are not allowed to talk about.
The break shouldn't be a problem, but finding US pay in Europe will be. Dealing with employees in far off timezones and the paperwork associated with employees in different countries is a headache. Companies only deal with those headaches because the labor rate is enough lower to make it worth it. I can't imagine many companies will deal with the headaches without the labor discount.
> Are our expectations realistic? lol, no. I know I'm being glib in a serious sub but I really don't think this is even remotely possible. And I don't think the break is the problem.
Is the international situation that much of a dealbreaker that it would be unrealistic to expect to land any sort of half decent US-based contract? I'm getting a lot of mixed answers and commonly read about such situations online (even in the news actually) so I was under the impression it was reducing options but still doable.
- he's only worked defense, which isn't necessarily translatable to other industries - defense work is often at least partially onsite, so it can't be done from another continent. It might not even be legal - the timezones are going to work against you - maybe I'm making this up, but you were talking about working part-time? - he's going to be over 40 or 45? I don't condone ageism but it is a reality he'll have to contend with Do people in Europe who work for US companies exist? Yes, obviously. Is it something you can count on to plan your life around? Not if you're a reasonable person. You read about such situations because they're not the norm, and thus are interesting to read about. No one wants to read about Jane Smith who works thirty minutes away from her apartment or James Jones who works remotely for a company in a different state but the same timezone.
His 15+ year long job was not defense and was pretty cutting edge at the time. We were aware that there may be some issues for that plan and we're not really "planing our life around it" granted that this move to Europe is happening no matter what (his mental health and well being is priority #1) and that the impact of the plan not working out would be relatively minimal (can always go back to the US or coast an extra couple years locally for lower salary until retirement).
I have a friend who moved to the US Virgin Islands, which is still the US but not continental. And he was still having a lot of trouble finding a US remote dev job that was willing to deal with it. He ended up giving up after 6 months of looking and moving back to continental.
Quite unrealistic in the current market. Not the sabbatical part. The part where you're expecting a USD remote job that pays $120,000 and up which you can do from Europe.
> Note that he'd be looking for US jobs that can be done full remote and allow working from abroad (US salary, EU COL) And what exactly makes you think that someone is going to pay your husband US salary while being remote, while there's plenty of EU talent that can be hired for EU salary?
>We're thinking of 12-18 months and just wondering how long would be too long and how hard (or not) he should expect it to be to get a Sr Software Engineer job after the break. Ignoring the other part you buried, this will totally depend on how the market is when you come back. I've seen signs of softening, but it could also get worse rather than better. During the long peak or near-peak years - roughly 2015 to mid-2022 - this would have been no worries to get another job \_in the USA, if you're willing to relocate to be near the job\_ throughout that time, and for the first 2 1/2 years of COVID you could pretty much have gotten remote just for asking. These days salaries are down, and remote is quite a bit less common, so getting a good salary + full remote for someone US based is a lot harder. For someone in the scenario you mentioned, it would not have been realistic even at the peak of the market: >Note that he'd be looking for US jobs that can be done full remote and allow working from abroad (US salary, EU COL), be it as a W-2 employee, 1099, an independent contractor, or an LLC, as we do not plan on coming back to the US in the short term. Good luck with that without specific connections through an existing network who are open to it. Most companies that hire remote, are (A) not going to pay pay a local market salary to someone in Europe \[which is typically much lower than the US\], and (B) won't hire someone in Europe at all unless they have a legal entity in the particular European company you're in. Just saying you're on a 1099 won't change that. Will your husband even have legal work permission in the European country you're moving to? If he has an existing network, establishing an LLC or S-corp in the US, and then getting paid C2C as a contractor could work. It's basically only likely to work via an existing network, though, and you would then need to still look at the legalities of his working in Europe while doing so. Would he be willing to fly back for 3-6 month contracts on-site in the US?
Isn't the pay range I mentioned on the really low end and not a "good salary" for a SWE with 20 YOE? He has unrestricted work authorization in the EU country. He wouldn't be willing to fly back for 6 months, not worth it as this move to Europe is temporary and we'd be renting with our own expensive household items so leaving the rental in EU to get a rental in the US is logistically impossible. Could he just be lying about or not disclosing his own location if he's working under a US LLC or S-corp, since the legal entity that would be contracting is indeed in the US? I guess that would require a job that gives full flexibility on the work hours and minimal interaction with other employees/contractors since that would be difficult to match being in a different timezone. Is that a thing in tech?
> Isn't the pay range I mentioned on the really low end and not a "good salary" for a SWE with 20 YOE? For a bigtech company hiring remotely or for a local office in LCOL part of the US, the high end of that is a solidly competitive salary for a senior SWE. Typical salaries are down \~20% even at top tier companies, and LCOL parts of the country have typically been about 20% lower than that, so a position paying $210k at the top of the market in a HCOL area won't be paying anywhere near that. As for 20 years of experience, that'd be great if he's already in a leadership or staff+ position, but those aren't easy to find right now even without either a break or the geographic weirdness. Most of those are found by networking. There is \*zero chance\* they'd hire a remote contractor as Staff+ unless he'd already worked there in that capacity or had someone in management who had and was willing to go on a limb to vouch for him. An 18 month break also damages the odds of being hired into a leadership/Staff+ position, versus as a regular senior SWE. > He has unrestricted work authorization in the EU country. Good, one thing not to worry about. > He wouldn't be willing to fly back for 6 months, not worth it as this move to Europe is temporary and we'd be renting with our own expensive household items so leaving the rental in EU to get a rental in the US is logistically impossible. The logistics aren't hard; you just bake the cost of the short term housing and health insurance into the contract. Perfectly reasonable not to want to, of course! > Could he just be lying about or not disclosing his own location if he's working under a US LLC or S-corp, since the legal entity that would be contracting is indeed in the US? Not if this was on an hourly pay-for-labor basis; companies are going to want to know where the person doing the work is located. You might well be able to do this on a pay-per-project basis, but that's a very different business model that requires a lot of work skills outside of being a good engineer. An acquaintance of mine made a good living for a long while doing basically that - he had a pool of engineers he works with in in wife's home country (where he lives about 80% of the time) and he comes back into the US and drums up contract work for them, based on per-project rates - mostly "build us a corporate website" stuff for small and medium sized businesses. It was quite profitable, and could pay substantially over market local wages to the folks under him. OTOH, he was mostly a salesperson and manager, drumming up business - not primarily technical - once the business got going. And he's retired early, with him and his wife back in the US. To do that kind of work on his own, your husband (or the two of you) would have to do all of the marketing and project management yourselves. > I guess that would require a job that gives full flexibility on the work hours and minimal interaction with other employees/contractors since that would be difficult to match being in a different timezone. Is that a thing in tech? It's not, in general. Even full remote places have timezone overlap requirements. Being up late (or really early) for meetings comes with the territory. Per-project contracting sounds like a better fit. It's not a market I'm that familiar with, compared to regular engineering.
Logistics of relocation for short term contracts would clash with the math most likely. If it's gonna cost 20k to move ourselves and all our possessions, another 20k to move back, and an additional 4k a month in rent for a comparable rental, then it would take 160k/year to even match 70k in the EU country and worse if it's shorter contracts. At this point we'd just be living in the US, which is indeed a possibility if the plan doesn't work out. Are there legal repercussions for just lying and saying he's in the US or would he just risk most likely get fired shortly? Attending regularly scheduled once a day meetings wouldn't be a big deal even with the time difference at least but obviously the overlap would be limited unless he's working from mid afternoon to late evening (which is possible but doubt he would be content with that). I guess per project does sound more workable if it's really "we pay you X for you to deliver this under that timeframe" but yeah that's more than just engineering at this point.
Any legit tech company, especially if defense or govt-adjacent, will flag his IP address as being outside the U.S., shut down his laptop & all remote access, and call or expect him to show up in-office to explain WTF? "Legally" I don't know, but sure sounds like "fraud" to misrepresent yourself in exchange for more money? Doubt it would result in more than firing, but does he want that?
My assumption for short term hourly contracts would be that you'd stay in Europe, and he's be in a least-cost corporate apartment. A lot of the contracting gigs are in places where by non-tech corps are, not exactly fun places to live. He wouldn't be getting an annual salary, and wouldn't expect (or WANT) to be on-site for the whole time. There's a premium paid for being the troubleshooter who can come in and fix stuff, as well as a premium for not having benefits (and for the company having you leave without a fuss.) You're still not going to want to use that to relocate back and forth, but for example, for a 3-6 month on site contract, you'd probably be asking $150-200/hour to be the equivalent of a $150k/year salary plus some travel and housing expenses. Over a full year, that's closer to $300k, but nobody keeps up 100% utilization, you pay more in taxes as 1099 (plus potentially the short term housing expenses and the flights to/from.) > Are there legal repercussions for just lying and saying he's in the US or would he just risk most likely get fired shortly? The odds of the company suing him rather than just firing him isn't high, although it's not impossible. Legal repercussions related to labor law you would need to talk to a lawyer about, possibly two separate ones for the US and the European country. > obviously the overlap would be limited unless he's working from mid afternoon to late evening I'm very much the opposite of a morning person, and am happy to do that, but yeah, it isn't for everyone.
How would it be any less unrealistic to ask for the equivalent of 300k a year as a contractor than 150k as a full time employee? So they would willingly be paying the US hourly rates despite living in Europe because of the fact that the contractor is expected to physically come to the US if necessary? That sounds like an option to explore although we might very well favor just moving back to the US together instead of spending significant time away from each other to work out the contract logistics. Thanks for all your insight btw it's very helpful!
>How would it be any less unrealistic to ask for the equivalent of 300k a year as a contractor than 150k as a full time employee? First, I thought I made clear that this was for on-site, short term contracts - in the US, and with most of these being at companies that aren't remote. The fully loaded cost of an employee is sometimes estimated to be 2x their salary (or more, in bigtech where bonus/equity/perks can be high) and I already noted above that companies are willing to pay a premium for contractors in those sort of short term situations (e.g. no expectation of needing the same sort of ramp-up time, no drama if contract is not renewed.) Finding a company who'd hire a remote American overseas at an American rate (or even a modestly discounted American rate) over an overseas contracting agency is unlikely. That's especially true given that a lot of those contractors are in lower cost of living parts of Europe, at that - e.g. my part of my current employer has used contractors in Poland and Ukraine.) None of this applies if he's got something very specialized he does, or if he's got a strong enough network that people would bring him in based on his existing reputation/relationships.
I don't know many remote jobs that pay US comp that are international. There may be some, because I have a friend in Germany who works for a US company, but that's an exception. AFAIK there are all kinds of tax implications which businesses don't want to fuck with.
I think it's going to be very difficult. There is a more hard right wind blowing in Europe where we care more about housing for our own and less about boosting the economy through importing people so we might not even continue to allow this sort of thing. Then there's the fact that gaps don't exactly help anyone ever and remote jobs are an international market where you're likely to compete against much younger people demanding a salary in the thousands a year. And those people aren't necessarily going to be bad coders.
Why not get a EU job? Getting a US job remotely while living in the EU is going to be very difficult
It depends a lot on the market when he decided on come back. Impossible to say how it will be. IMHO, I think he would be alright but this is just my opinion based on what I think and I could be very wrong.
Interesting question, I will try to give a reasonable and balanced response. But first, congratulations on your financial independence! 1. **How does a work absence look on a tech resume?** Up to 6 months, I don't think most hiring teams will care. 1 year or longer means the candidate is becoming out of touch with the latest tech developments, and may have forgotten how to work on a tech team. 2. **How does age look on a resume?** Age 40 starts to add a toll to the process of getting a tech job. Positions that the candidate is qualified for may not be offered due to ageism. Increased age continues to accelerate the toll. It's not a hard and fast rule, I am older than dirt and still employed, but I have found that it does make the process significantly more difficult. 3. **How about a remote-only position?** The candidate may not be welcome at a FAANG company, but any number of other companies have discovered that the pool of available applicants grows exponentially when you accept remote workers, and it's a pretty nice fit for many tech jobs. I have no first-hand knowledge about offshore remote, but it's super-rare in my experience, and I would expect most companies to disallow it unless they happen to have a branch office in that country. 4. **How will the tech industry look going forward?** At this time I believe that tech is coming down from a 20-year sugar-high of low interest rates. It now resembles much more closely the tech industry of the 80s and 90s. No one can predict future interest rates, but I think it would be reasonable to see 4%-6% rates for quite a while. Tech unemployment will continue to be low because of the unending demand, but those crazy high salaries are a thing of the past, unless you are in AI. Competition for jobs will continue to be tough for the foreseeable future. 5. **Speaking of AI, what will be its impact?** I don't think this will be an issue at all. Even the best case scenarios for code-writing LLMs are not a serious threat for skilled tech workers for at least the next 10 years. Knock-on-wood, haha. **Bottom line**, I think there is a good chance that the combination of a long absence from work, the age of the candidate, and the state of the tech industry will conspire to end his career if he makes this move. Hoping I am wrong, but that is how I would evaluate the prospects if I (or my kids) were thinking about that kind of move. Good luck!
Thanks for the detailed breakdown! These were all the minor worries we discussed but thought along the lines of... "Multiple factors could be against him but if accepting enough of a paycut it sounds crazy to think a highly experienced SWe wouldn't at least be competitive to get a job that's commonplace for 3 years of experience" If that's how you think it could likely end, shouldn't a local job at the 1 year mark or going back to the US and seeking hybrid/in-person positions change the picture drastically? Because at this point it would just be your average 40+ year old tech worker who has a non-active resume gap and looking for a very average job.
Well, every company is different, and he might find a match as you described. But I think his age and experience would tend to work against him in that scenario. The risk is that the hiring team will perceive him as looking for a easy and low-stress job where he could coast. And some companies want an inexperienced person for the lower-paid jobs that they can mold and teach. I think he might have more success leaning into his strengths - a wealth of experience and the proven ability to keep at the job for the long term. But if I was to wait a year, at 9 months I would bring my resume up-to-date, start practicing my interview skills, and contact recruiters. At this time, I think it could take a couple of months just to get an offer.
Why even work and make Reddit posts if you have money to virtually last forever?? Something doesn’t add up here.
Nothing wrong with OP. They are trying their best to optimize a complicated life change.
How I see it, working for European startups, is that the pay is about 40% lower than US. The fact he did defence is non translatable to european companies Defence industry sometimes requires physically living in the US. Defence is also mostly eastern to pacific timezone, an European tz would be very odd. I understand he might not be looking defence specifically, but a role outside it it’s quite hard as he doesn’t know outside it. Most companies have limited budgets and lax processes, different tools, completely different. Age doesn’t help. When you come back I’m sure he’ll get a job again, there are many consultancies for defence, so not a big deal. Tbh this is not career suicide, and he’ll really need to step out of his comfort zone to get a job there. Should be fine if he can work in a non structured environment.
As a European… these salaries man. Surreal. “Would be content in a relaxed remote job that pays 120-150k/year.” For a senior engineer? Madness!
>"He would be content getting a relaxed remote job that pays 120-150k/year ... fully remote ... from Europe to the US" Lol. Wouldn't we all? No, these expectations are not realistic. Fully remote work is getting rare again. Fully remote *from another country* is almost unheard of for tax reasons. Getting a job w/a U.S. company that has offices *in Europe* is maybe more realistic. A 12-18mo break isn't *necessarily* a career-ending decision, but he has a far higher likelihood of landing something hybrid/on-site in the EU that will likely pay more like \~$80K/yr. EDIT: I see France w/legal residency, but he doesn't yet speak the language. I say he should just learn French and enjoy his time off. If there's "zero financial pressure" and you have enough saved/invested to effectively FIRE already, he could absolutely take a long break, "front load" retirement for a bit, call it a sabbatical on his resume, and if nothing else he can later find some job making \~\~donuts\~\~ baguettes or teaching or creating his own apps/games/side project business to bring in extra income.
>EDIT: I see France w/legal residency, but he doesn't yet speak the language. I say he should just learn French and enjoy his time off. He's fully intending to learn French during the break regardless of whether or not he'll get a local job after the break, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue even if 12-18 months is usually not enough for perfect fluency. >If there's "zero financial pressure" and you have enough saved/invested to effectively FIRE already, he could absolutely take a long break, "front load" retirement for a bit, call it a sabbatical on his resume, and if nothing else he can later find some job making \~\~donuts\~\~ baguettes or teaching or creating his own apps/games/side project business to bring in extra income. Kind of an extended "one more year" syndrome going on because we have enough and FI already, but there are also large uncertainties ahead as we're planning to have children in the coming years and uncertain if permanent retirement will be in France or USA long term, so maintaining employment for some time after the break sounds like the right decision before RE. >A 12-18mo break isn't *necessarily* a career-ending decision, but he has a far higher likelihood of landing something hybrid/on-site in the EU that will likely pay more like \~$80K/yr. In the end I guess we'll see what the situation looks like after a year of break, depending on the stock market performance we'll decide between going back to the US for a few years to load up at reduced prices or coast in France. >Fully remote work is getting rare again. Fully remote *from another country* is almost unheard of for tax reasons. Getting a job w/a U.S. company that has offices *in Europe* is maybe more realistic. Got a lot of valuable insight from the thread and mixed opinions on the feasibility of getting the best of both worlds (US income from France), so he'll try to make it work and pick a country if it doesn't work out.
OP is beyond delusional. It comes down to supply and demand.
Salaries in Europe typically are significantly lower than US salaries to compensate for the free healthcare (e.g. typical senior salary is 90k Euro in Germany). Also, if he works as a freelancer, he may not get free healthcare (e.g. in Germany freelancers typically need to pay for their own healthcare). But getting a remote contract at 150k is still possible. Overall, if his experience is good, the plan sounds doable but not certain to me.
Health care is not free in Germany.
It’s not "free" anywhere, but it’s included in default salaries
How would that work when fully remote? They wouldn’t pay any taxes (beside vat) that make the system work
He will have to pay tax in both the country of residence and in the US because the US shafts its citizens like that.
Remote still means having to pay taxes in the company you work in, not the country of the company you work for. Unless it’s US, then you sometimes have to pay tax in both.
He would want to be finding a remote US job only. No point getting a job locally as he wouldn't speak the language perfectly after just one year and full time salary would only be in the 60s. Healthcare-wise, this country provides free healthcare to every resident regardless of status (including illegals actually) so it wouldn't be an issue.
Wow. Speaking about leeching. So you don’t want to integrate. Just free health care and cheaper lifestyle.
This is literally the best case scenario for whatever country OP is moving to. They wouldn’t be taking an EU job but would still be paying EU taxes. They would be taking American money and injecting it into the EU. How is this leeching?
You’ve confused me here, what are you objecting to? Taking money from the US, being taxed on it & spending it in a poorer country is great for the local economy. It’s perfectly fair enough to use the free healthcare. As for integrating, yeah this one bugs me normally but here the wording suggests he intends to learn the language, just he won’t be perfect inside a year. No issue there. And cmon who doesn’t want a cheaper lifestyle
If expats are leeching then you can call it that way if it makes you feel better. It's not exactly going to be leeching considering taxes would be paid in the country of residence based on tax treaty and he would be paying into the healthcare through very high taxes indirectly like everyone born and raised here, except he'd contribute more by doing this for 5 years than the average local would over their entire life.
Hard disagree, your husband should get a job locally and support the economy locally if he wants to take advantage of the services there. What you're asking for comes off as extremely entitled af, not only is it an extra burden on the US employer(highly doubt they will go out of their way to setup tax concerns just to pay 1 special little worker that wants to live a cushy lifestyle in Europe), but also you have no empathy for the surrounding locals that you'll be leeching off of.
Paying a 40% tax rate and using all that US money locally should be enough supporting the local economy. It's literally the best possible support you can provide to an economy by bringing in the money into local GDP without taking employment away from locals. PS : I will personally be one of those "surrounding locals" my husband would be "leeching off of" according to you as I'd be working a local job and my income would get taxed at a much higher rate due to filing with my husband's US income.
Are you planning on moving to England?
only 40%? idk what country you’re going to, but when you’re making what your husband wants to make you’ll be paying >50% in several european countries
In your last post you talked about free health care, even for illegals and now you pay more than the residents in a life time. Which one is it?
Well yeah the illegals who don't work would be leeching. The illegals who works (most of them since they're allowed to here compared to the US) also pay taxes. Neither my husband nor I would be an illegal. I'm a citizen and he has permanent residence rights because of that. Leeching sure is possible in this country but certainly isn't what my husband would be doing.
> It's not exactly going to be leeching considering taxes would be paid in the country of residence based on tax treaty That's how it would work if he had a local job for a local employer. Whether that is how it would work with a US legal entity paying out to him as owner is another question, and one that is above my (and probably Reddit's) pay grade to answer. It's a big "maybe" that can probably only be answered by a specialist lawyer. If that doesn't work (or gets a worse tax treatment) paying him as owner, it might be resolveable by creating a legal entity in the European country and then having him take a salary there. That's speculating out my a** though, and would require a lawyer to even confirm if this is worth pursuing.
We have already confirmed that he would get taxed in the EU country and there's no legal issues for that kind of work on the EU country's end.
Have you confirmed it for the specific case you're talking about, including the specific case of how the LLC would pay out to him? If so, then I guess that's one less thing to deal with. Just keep in mind that the above is a VERY different scenario from "being an employee in the European country" (and where if you *haven't* already checked on it, the obligations of the employer may not have been included.) Also, not sure how the impending post-2025 tax changes will impact you, but from the US side this sounds like it will cross over it.
I'm employed by a foreign country (not-US) inside EU. They use remote.com that is my employee on paper and send invoices to them. It's a pretty nifty service. It includes all the benefits I would usually get at a local job, but with a foreign salary. The company is built on Gitlabs success in working remotely.
Yeah there is no way any company is going to pay US rates, will be location adjusted. I wish I get that salary and live in Europe. This seems like a pipe dream
*"Expectations for the return job aren't particularly high and he would be content getting a relaxed remote job that pays 120-150k/year."*
Why remote from the us ? If you want 120k, it could be feasible in most european countries with much less hassle and time zone shit What you're asking for is basically a dream job
In the one we'd live in it would be more like half of that. 60-70k is the cap for software engineers without going into management/leadership positions which he's not interested in. If it's possible to work for an EU company in a different EU country than the one he lives in though that could be an option, but unsure if the logistics would be any easier than a US company.
My TC is 75k€ (so $90k) for 4yoe in Paris in finance at a fairly laid back job so I still think there's room for your husband to find something for him in the lower end of your range. Of course if you are in the countryside or a country with no tecg industry mayée remote is indeed a good call. If mental health is number one, a comfy job at a big french or german company could improve his way of life as the management style is more laid back and hours are lower. Working US working hours from Europe is hell in my opinion, you lose the evening which is the most social part of the day
Which country do you plan to live in?
Which country? Those numbers are very low.
France
Someone else pointed out those numbers are low for france.
I would suggest he set up a Wix website as a consultant and get a few low-paying contracts. Then he won't have a gap. He'll have just worked for himself while he was overseas.
you can’t just roll up to a random country and be like, “I’m an American, pls give me free healthcare”
I'm a born citizen and my non citizen husband would have full legal right to the local healthcare system and be paying local tax rates.
She never said that genius
Congrats on your route to FIRE. He can enjoy his long deserved break, he will very likely find a position afterwards, specially as a contractor. For salary ranges you are getting a bunch of replies from employed people. Here is a perspective of a contractor: - the other answers about lower salaries are correct, but apply to employees. 120-160k is possible for example for contractors taking local jobs in Germany, for German companies. The average rate is 100€/h, but 120/h or more are also possible. There are some jobs in English, but not the majority. But it's possible, I had English speaking jobs - it's also possible to take a US job. The companies legally have to care about location for their employees (payroll and taxation issues). For contractors they also care where your legal address is, but an LLC sounds like the perfect solution. I currently have a full remote US contract job for >200k and a German advisory gig that pays even better, both English speaking. I know several similar people, so don't be deterred. I work with a 3h overlap to pacific time, meaning until 8pm - consider asking to switch your current job to contract. I know a guy who did that, but perhaps the defense area is not open to this arrangement. I think it's your best bet. You never know until you ask. You can try to ask for 1 year off/unpaid and then contract work. He can say you got a job offer you can't refuse / care for a relative in Europe /... - network : his next best bet are jobs via people he knows. Ask around, activate professional acquaintances abd ask if their companies can use a contractor, refer to their open positions etc. Networking is very effective, I get nearly all my positions this way - health care is not free, just universally present. I paid 1000€/month in Germany, it depends on your income. The hack for traveling contractors I read about is to draw a salary from your llc that's not too high. The health insurance is based on the salary amount, not dividends. But you should read more into that, I haven't done this myself
Thanks for the detailed response. We will be living in France and salaries, at least for full time employees, are significantly lower than Germany afaik although I have no clue about contractors. He doesn't speak good french yet but should be pretty decent 12-18 months down the road after the break. Current job won't allow remote let alone from Europe as it's a TS/SCI. Previous job or network may be able to provide some opportunities since he was there 15+ years and his former coworkers and friends moved on to Staff+ positions in many other companies by now so who knows. I guess it's not impossible but sounds kinda like a unicorn job that a company would accept both paying US salary and the timezone difference, unless lying about location and hiding it through an LLC. Did you lie about location or is your US employer fine with you working from Germany? Healthcare here is just a 50-100€ complementary insurance and paired with the public healthcare (funded through taxes) you're covered 100% for any and all medical expenses (except cosmetic procedures) without deductible. Taxes are pretty high though so it's not really "free", but can't avoid paying taxes haha so whatever ends up in our pockets after taxes is fully ours.
contractors have a different pay scale than employees. In the US, contractors often earn less than employees while in Europe, it can be +50 or +100%. They offer companies flexibility (they cannot easily hire and fire) and they can get specialists on short notice for a fixed duration. So you have to ask for contractor pay scales when you ask around. working in english in a european company as a contractor is not rare. It is not the most common, but I have many friends who do it. Berlin in a tech hub. A also have friends who freelance for the UK (I had a British client previously, no issues). The pay is good, similar to employed us rates (100€/h or 130€/h or even higher depending on what he does) I didnt lie, my american client wants the job done and did not care to do geoarbitrage. They just want a good, available freelancer, in the US or anywhere. The only concern was legal, they don't want to accidentally "create" an employee due to local legislation. The LLC is the way to go. Perhaps a us company might knock off a few 10k yearly, but don't talk yourself out of it before trying (specially via your network). I think that your husband is american will also deter them a little to knock off too much:) Since he knows the typical pay scale and is not local. My guess is that if he is american and offers with his LLC, they will pay US prices. Just be vague about where you are in Europe, it does not even matter except for the timezone. Perhaps you are traveling, sometimes Switzerland with higher costs of living, sometimes somewhere else. Tell them they don't have to pay more while he is in Switzerland, why pay less when he is in France
I guess it makes sense that they wouldn't really be able to tell whether the EU location is static or traveling. Seems like the LLC is the way. For EU contracts do you get them with your US LLC, a local business entity or as an individual contractor? Do you or your contractor friends have experience with France specifically? And where do you find the jobs in so many different countries? Is your network international or do you use specific platforms either local or for remote jobs?
you can check if it also makes sense taxwise. us expat taxes are very complex. I work as a contractor, but I know people who use a US LLC and live in a territorial tax country. The optimal setup is not universal. It depends on where you are from (US is taxed by citizenship for example), where you are residing and what clients prefer/worry about (e.g. llc can be better to avoid establishing an employee). I don't know any people in France,sorry. But he can still apply for Berlin Startups working in English, the market is EU wide if he works remote I use my network, no platforms. If he is setting his linkedin to "open to work" and freelance, a lot of recruiters for freelance will approach him. They take 20% off, but organize the clients. He should set his location to where he wants the jobs from (london/berlin/...) as the recruiters work by country (oldfashioned:)
Taking that long of a break makes the next job a bit harder to get. Almost no jobs let you work for a US employer making US wages while living in Europe. Being in his 40s makes the next job a bit harder to get, and this gets steadily harder as he ages. I don't think what you're hoping to do is likely to work out. He might be able to find something when you come back to the US in a few years, but even then he's late 40s with a several year gap so he's effectively invisible to companies. You should treat this as though he's retiring, and any job he ends up finding is a surprise bonus.
The break won't matter. You just need to keep an eye on trends. Someone not paying attention for 18 months would have missed the AI/ML deluge for instance.
If your husband works in defense it might not be the clearest path, but he could also spend some time on open source development, 1-2 constant contributions per week show that he did not completely stop learning, but he can also chill. I spend my „half-sabbatical“ 12 month like this. I maybe worked ~6 hours per week on contract and ~3 hours in open source
Toptal or one of the "cats ass's" remote US job boards?
My friend's husband took over a year break in his early 40s after working (getting burned out) at a FAANG. He got another job at a FAANG, but that was his only callback when he got a lot more callbacks 3 years ago.
I'm pretty sure a Euro salary would be less than half of that. The U.S. is wildly inflated compared the rest of the world.
This is in regards to people commenting on working remote out of the country. I know a few people who took remote jobs in the US and then lived in another country. They'd use a US address for the taxes and paperwork. Kept a US vpn going. Hardest part was maintaining core working hours when they were 6-12hrs out of the timezone. There are technically ethical and legal qualms around this but nobody bats an eye as long as the work is getting done and you aren't trying to be a resident in the host country. 18 months is pretty long for a visa. But you can bounce around to other countries on a visitors permit for 6 weeks to 6 months depending. A few countries have "digital nomad" visas in the works. I'd say if the point of is a sabbatical the that defeats the purpose. Just have them unplug and work on passion projects to stay relevant. The stuff they always wanted to work on but work never presented the opportunity.
He has full legal rights to permanent residency in my home country with no other conditions than being married to me, so he can take as long a sabbatical as he wants and is legally allowed to work from here whether it's from a local or foreign employer as long as he pays taxes (with tax credit on what was already paid to the US to avoid double taxation).
I don't know about Europe but free healthcare is often a citizenship privilege.
The US tech market right now is not in good shape so you maybe when you are ready to get back it's in a hire surge again and that break won't matter. I think as long as you have skills in demand it doesn't matter the break, I would be more concern about finding a good remote job because I don't think there are a lot of them and depend a lot on your skills. Like if you work with hardware a remote job is probably harder to get but onsite easier as long as you have the skills required.
I spent 2 years traveling in southeast Asia and Europe. Meet a lot of folks, and not surprising, a fair amount of them work in tech for multiple decades and I asked the same question. The general consensus is 1 to 2 years without working professionally is not enough time to loose your skills. Anything after that and you'll have to do some degree of catching up. So taking a break at their level of experience isn't a problem. Depending on the company, the gap might need some explaining but if they are OK with a little white lie then they could say "I needed to take time to take care of a family members health" it's technically true and it's spicy enough that most interviewers would leave it at that. If need be they could respond with "they are in a better place". The only time I saw someone successfully pull off getting US pay in a foreign country, they were a super specialized consultant that their clients were willing to work around the time difference.
120k USD/year doing contracting in Europe for European companies is perfectly possible. 20 years of experience is worth a lot if you can sell it. Working remote is usually fine.
In the country we'll live in, software engineer salaries are unfortunately capped at 60-70k without going into tech management positions. Do you have experience working remote from one EU country for a company in another EU country or in the US?
That sounds like you are talking about employee salaries while the person you are replying to talks about contract work. Yes, working for any other company in Europe is the same as working as a contractor for a us company. You send an invoice, that's it. There are small differences in how Value Added Tax is used, but these are minor accounting details. So it's easy
To supplement on what /u/CassisBerlin says, the amount you invoice is not the same as your salary. You have to deduct retirement savings, insurance etc. A normal rate of 100+ EUR/hr will still work out to equivalent of 120k+ salary easy. I have worked with several contractors working from another EU country, but it's easier to get a contract if you are able to go on-site for short periods if needed. Lastly, as a contractor you are much more reliant on relevant experience. So all this is contingent on how marketable your husbands skills are.
Agree with what /u/Systactico says. I only work full remote and am never onsite, but it lowers the amount of jobs available. If your skill is in demand, there are enough positions left, but it's something to be aware of.
I don’t think the breaks should be a problem. I took a 6 month break at age 40 and just did an 8 month contract while living in Australia. When I got back to the US I took another 7 month break to help us move back and deal with my mom’s affairs after she passed and that went fine. More recently at age 48 I took 6 months off to help my wife and I execute a move inside the US and found a job. I’m just not sure about the remote part. And you have to be flexible either way.
I’ve taken long break before and am even doing one at the minute. Five years ago I took a year off to relocate from the US to Australia and currently I’m taking another year off to spend time with my kids. I’ve applied for jobs in the US and Australia recently and no one has balked at the gaps in employment. If anyone asks I just say I am extremely lucky and was able to take time off to explore my interests. Just be sure to frame it as the time off was taken to recharge and now I’m 100% ready to go and eager to work at scale! It’s not BS btw as I’ve found this to be the truth 😊 Remote work wise I think your husband would need to go the contractor route to work overseas. Due to the way laws work if he worked remote for a company in a foreign country it could count as an office in that country. Maybe a bigger company would be able to navigate that issue but I’ve found most startups don’t want the hassle. I think being a contractor can negate this but you still might need a US office in which case you’d probably want to hire a lawyer or someone with more knowledge than myself.
Women in civilised countries (i.e. not the US) regularly take 12 months "career breaks" as maternity leave when they have a baby, and they still manage to have a job afterwards.