Remote jobs with no location restrictions
Remote jobs with no location restrictions exist, but they are rare. Of the 21,301 remote tech jobs open on PickedJobs today, 728 (3%) accept applicants from any country: about 1 in 29. The other 97% are remote only within certain countries, regions or time zones.
The reason is paperwork, not trust: to employ you, a company has to handle payroll, tax and employment law in the country where you live.
By PickedJobs · Updated · Live figures from 62,231 open jobs, as of (method)
Remote, but where? The live numbers
| Work arrangement | Open tech jobs | Share of all jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Remote, from anywhere | 728 | 1% |
| Remote, some countries or regions only | 20,573 | 33% |
| Hybrid | 17,962 | 29% |
| Onsite | 22,968 | 37% |
Counts come from the work arrangement and hiring regions stated in each listing. See the market statistics for the method.
Why most remote jobs have a location
- Employment law and payroll. An employee in Germany needs a German employment contract, social security and tax withholding. A company needs a local entity, an employer of record (EOR) or a contractor agreement for each country, and every one costs money and legal work.
- Tax exposure. Employees working in a country can, in some cases, create a taxable presence there for the company. Finance teams prefer a short, known list of countries.
- Time zones. Many “remote” teams still need a few hours of overlap each day. A listing that says “UTC−5 to UTC+1” is a location restriction in practice.
- Data, security and export rules. Roles that touch government contracts, regulated data or controlled technology can be limited to citizens or residents of one country.
- Sanctions. Companies cannot pay people in comprehensively sanctioned countries, so even “anywhere” listings have exceptions.
What “anywhere” usually means in practice
- You are often a contractor. Outside the countries where a company has entities or an EOR, it may only be able to hire you on a contract. You invoice, handle your own tax and get no employee benefits. Our contract vs full-time guide explains what rate makes up for that.
- Pay may or may not follow you. Some fully distributed companies pay one rate everywhere; others use location bands. Among remote listings that state a yearly US-dollar salary, work-from-anywhere roles show a median of $192,500 (114 listings), against $185,000 for region-restricted remote roles.
- Time zone expectations still apply. Look for “async” or a stated overlap window, and check it against your day.
How to find them
- Start with listings that explicitly accept every country. On PickedJobs these are in remote jobs worldwide; region-restricted roles are left out on purpose.
- Then widen to remote roles that include your region. A job open to “Europe” or “Americas” is not location-free, but if you live there it is just as good. Browse all remote tech jobs and check each job's hiring regions.
- Search descriptions for the phrases fully distributed companies use: “work from anywhere”, “we hire in 50+ countries”, “fully distributed”, “async-first”, or the name of an EOR provider.
- Ask early. “Can you hire in [your country], and would I be an employee, employed through an EOR, or a contractor?” is a normal first-call question.
Two practical checks: if a US company asks a non-US contractor for a W-9 form, it is treating you as a US person, which is wrong; non-US individuals normally give a W-8BEN. And a listing that lists only US cities or says “US-based” is not open to you from abroad, whatever the word “remote” suggests. Our guide to what “Remote (US)” means decodes the common labels.