Remote work from a foreign country?

For federal government workers with positions of “public trust” that are 100% virtual/remote, and who have established residence in a US city, is it legally permissible to work remote from hotels in say Canada or Mexico for short durations?

That is, if say a federal government worker with a job related to IT who resides in San Francisco takes a flight to Cancun, Mexico and works from his hotel room there. Would that be a problem? What if he did this for a month? Would this then become a problem on his subsequent 5 year renewal of “public trust”?

Check IT policies. Usually you can do a secure VPN and be OK.

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Check with your management. I don’t know that much about the public trust level, but if you had a Secret or higher you would be required to report the international travel anyway.

My guess is that they may have reservations about having you work while on vacation as much as anything else. By any chance, are you reading The Four Hour Work Week?

Yes, I’ve read The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. The question is partially inspired by his book.

For a position of “public trust” I’m trying to research if this violates any rules.

I am 100 percent virtual, a fed and have a mrpt. Have been working in the Caribbean for months at a time. As long as it is permissible with your agency and supervisor its totally fine. In fact this is the world we live in as far as IT is concerned. No need for organizations to continue to lease office space, it’s much better to have personnel work remotely for so many reasons. BTW I get more done in four hours virtually than I ever did commuting and working in an office.

Thank you for your answer, good to know it’s possible.

My lingering concern is that upon renewal of say “public trust”, after 5 years, the investigator might consider it peculiar that you spent say 4 months in Puerto Rico in one year. But I suppose I’m probably worrying too much, maybe this isn’t an issue at all with public trust.

Puerto Rico no problem, North Korea problem. It’s all relative.