People ask me a few times a week about working remotely from the Philippines. Here's one big warning for remote workers: when you're job hunting, set your VPN to your home country. If you have a Dice or LinkedIn profile and the location on it doesn't match where you actually are when you apply, your account can get banned.
Don't send job applications to companies back home from the Philippines. I've even had a recruiter check the IP address I emailed from. They said, "What? You're in the Philippines right now?"
Even worse is mixing applications sent from the Philippines with ones sent through a VPN. It looks really suspicious.
Remote means remote. If a US company doesn't allow US citizens to live in another country, they should state that in the job posting. I would never advise anyone to lie about where they live. I'm a software engineer who has lived in the Philippines and worked remotely for years. My employers are mortgage lenders, and I'm a W2 full-time employee. I always disclose my location before the interview. Most employers check social media before interviews, and 98% of us reveal where we live there. My LinkedIn profile is accessed without a VPN and I've had no issues. In fact, my employers require all remote employees to use the company VPN for security reasons. For payroll and tax purposes I use an Anytime mailbox in Florida. Living here, the first 120k is exempt from federal tax. I don't mean to criticize, but using a VPN to hide where you live for a position designated as remote looks suspicious.
In some cases, if the contract requires you to work from your home country, a VPN isn't enough. In that case you have to set up a computer in your home country and connect to it remotely. You might get away with it for a while, but there are some things a VPN can't handle.
I hate LinkedIn anyway. They sell your personal info to third parties. I know because of what I shared there.
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