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Do you work for an international Company?
Posted by stlsurveyor on September 22, 2020 at 1:16 amCurious if anyone here works for an international company? In particular, do you work for a US company that also works in Canada, Mexico or Europe?
If so how do you handle clients that may be based in USA but need work in other lands? Sending crews across borders?
mike-marks replied 3 years, 6 months ago 6 Members · 5 Replies- 5 Replies
Not quite what you are asking, but I have clients who are international companies and I do work for them in other countries, usually third world countries (El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Guyana, Eqypt, India). I always do international work alone. I have found it easy to get in to third world countries with my equipment, always as checked baggage and carry-on. Not to say that I wasn’t nervous. Canada, not so much. Every time I have had to go to Canada to do some work it has been a hassle, except one time I drove across with my wife so that we appeared to be tourists going to Niagara Falls, and then she flew back from Toronto. I also had trouble getting my equipment in to the US Virgin Islands, which is part of the US. It was held up for a week in customs, even though I was coming from the US with equipment manufactured in the US. Finally got it released when the end client, the US government, intervened. Also, my first time in Puerto Rico we decided to send the equipment (early 90’s, more bulky at the time) by fedex. Fedex tried to charge $2000 in import duties. Subsequent trips there I just took the equipment as baggage.
Renting the gear in the country you’ll be working in is the easiest way. I have shipped gear to and from Mexico, Canada, and helped with stuff in the UAE area. Detonators, and special stuff got driven by moi. 🙂
ITARS and a few other alphabet agency this and thats want to make sure you’re not sending fancy GPS or IMUs( drones etc) that can be used for clandestine return trips and or just good ol mom and pop industrial espionage for the win.
Fedex is reasonable depending on the gear size and weight, UPS isnt bad either. Off this continent, DHL is a power house, and many other airlines and freight forwarding operations can make the transition less complex.
Yeah. Rent there, charge the clients in a line item directly. less hassle.
Ping me if you have any other questions.
Crossing international lines, for me, has always been a hassle. Getting the papers to do work in Michigan for St. Mary’s cement (ie. a Canadian doing work in the US) was mind-boggling.
A fellow crew in the Sarnia area thought they would save time getting to Windsor by crossing at Port Huron into the US and then crossing back in at Detroit. 6 hours later being held up at the border, they realized the error of their ways.
The idea of renting the equipment in the other country seems like a great idea. If they specifically want you there to do the job, they show that by the money they’re willing to give you to do the job. Obviously, that would only work of a “one-off” and you have to consider that Customs (on both sides) will be less friendly to you if they get even a faint whiff that you’re working somewhere you’re not supposed to.
I’ve travelled a bit, and worked international a bit.
Travels included a 3 week holiday to stay with relatives in Vancouver (summer – fantastic place), maybe 10 years ago, and on arrival there late one night I got a 10 question drilling related to whether I was entering the country to work or look for work. Things were not looking good until the final question: “Well, then, just who do you work for?” I answered honestly, stating the name of my employer in the SW Pacific – a name that the very attractive immigration lady could not have possibly known – and she swung that stamp at my passport like Pete Townsend doing a reverse power-cord and pounded that thing and boomed: “Welcome to Canada”. Off I sailed.
Anyway, I can never work out what the definition/legality of work/employment is any country that one might be visiting. In most cases there is resident/citizen, visitor (tourist), work visa paid in country, student, journalist, business (not sure what that means, too), etc – but not the case of someone employed/paid in their home country but doing something other than the aforementioned for a day, week, month, but not employed or paid or receiving any benefit from the host country.
Only foreign work I’ve done was in Cabo San Lucas for a tricky beachfront construction topo. Boundary control and fieldwork was performed by local agrimensores and was top notch.
The survey problem it was in meters and all the ancillary docs were in Spanish; the main issue was ownership sorta ALTA title stuff which was handled by FATCO (long since abandoned foreign business). Somehow our firm was involved in financing it and made big bucks by facilitating the US end of the financing. My role was minor.
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