Paying Freelancer in Belarus

[bartholomeus]

Hello,

What would be most efficent and easiest way to pay Belorussian resident from EU company for freelance work in 2023?

Is the offical way (self employes in BY invoices EU) or some EMI / offshore bank setup.

Asking for a friend.

 

[Alexmorgan]

i dont recommend that

They will lock your account

Try to make someone in UAE to do it for you

 

[bartholomeus]

Can Belarussian resident open a bank account or EMI in a neutral country these days?

 

[Alexmorgan]

Can Belarussian resident open a bank account or EMI in a neutral country these days?

i dont think so

a lot of Russians and Bealrussians got rejected even in countries we considered neutral

Only in GCC they can

They can go to Dubai and get residency permit and use their banking or Bahrain

 

[JackAlabama]

Hello,

What would be most efficent and easiest way to pay Belorussian resident from EU company for freelance work in 2023?

Is the offical way (self employes in BY invoices EU) or some EMI / offshore bank setup.

Asking for a friend.

Bitcoin lightning

 

[Sols]

Check out Deel.

https://www.deel.com/employees/belarus

 

[Forester]

What would be most efficent and easiest way to pay Belorussian resident from EU company for freelance work in 2023?

Is the offical way (self employes in BY invoices EU) or some EMI / offshore bank setup.

Asking for a friend.

For a small fish like your friend presumably is, this is practically undoable in the direct way BY-EU nowadays, I'm afraid; especially if it is a new business relationship and not the maintaining of a long-term established one. Political pressure at all participants is too high, I would say. He can give it a try with his current accout in BY but chances for success are IMO very low. (The problem is not only the payment but the business relation with BY subject itself.)
With a middleman in some of usually used destinations (UAE, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Georgia, LatAm) it is well doable. Or with crypto, of course.
(And if there is some big business /in millions/ behind, it is of course doable even directly.)

Can Belarussian resident open a bank account or EMI in a neutral country these days?

Very probably yes but it will not help him much to solve the above described situation. It will still be an account belonging to BY citizen.

 

[bartholomeus]

how is doable over crypto? since is also trackable if you buy it as company or private in EU and than someone withdraws it as fiat in BY

 

[JackAlabama]

how is doable over crypto? since is also trackable if you buy it as company or private in EU and than someone withdraws it as fiat in BY

This brings up another issue.
First it was before the banks just dont want anything to do with by.
Now, it is more a question of your country being ok with this. There are places where the country does not really care about black/greylists but the banks do, then bitcoin is a good alternative. But if the country cares about this as well, then it wont help since you need a way to deduct these expenses.

 

[Forester]

it wont help since you need a way to deduct these expenses.

Oh well. You are right. I somehow have overlooked this. My attention was dedicated only to the fact that the crypto payments are (or could be) anonymous (AFAIK), so nobody knows that you are paying someone who is Belarussian or Korean or Italian or ... (I am not a crypto expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong). But the expenses deduction is the another issue; and probably anyone does not want to fabricate some fake invoice from some freelancer from a non-sanctioned country...
So a middleman is perhaps the only reasonably feasible way.

 

[Don]

Check out Deel.

https://www.deel.com/employees/belarus

As far as I remember they charge like 1k USD a month.
It feels like an overkill to pay so much to an intermediary in a country where average monthly salary is around 650 USD.

 

[Sols]

As far as I remember they charge like 1k USD a month.
It feels like an overkill to pay so much to an intermediary in a country where average monthly salary is around 650 USD.

Wow, I wasn't aware of such a high monthly minimum/flat rate. Have only seen it used by larger corporations. It probably isn't very good for a small business in that case.

 

[Forester]

As far as I remember they charge like 1k USD a month.
It feels like an overkill to pay so much to an intermediary in a country where average monthly salary is around 650 USD.

Wow, I wasn't aware of such a high monthly minimum/flat rate. Have only seen it used by larger corporations. It probably isn't very good for a small business in that case.

Well, their fees apparently vary – https://www.deel.com/pricing; but for hiring just one freelancer it is perhaps overkill anyway...

 

[Don]

Well, their fees apparently vary – https://www.deel.com/pricing; but for hiring just one freelancer it is perhaps overkill anyway...

Yes. Just sharing personal experience. Needed to hire 1-2 people in Belarus and got a quote like USD 1k/person per month.
USD 599 month is thevery minimum they charge, but i guess that dont apply in Belarus.
If anyone knows better alternatives Id love to know.

 

[Forester]

USD 599 month is thevery minimum they charge, but i guess that dont apply in Belarus.

A robbery.

Needed to hire 1-2 people in Belarus and got a quote like USD 1k/person per month.

If anyone knows better alternatives Id love to know.

Do you need to hire these people as employees or as freelancers? (If the latter, one idea appeared in my mind a couple of minutes ago and it seems to be feasible...)

 

[bartholomeus]

I’ve talked to Deel today and its possible to hire contractors from Belarus - costs €50/ per contract / month. They offer different forms of transactions even bank transfer to belarusian bank

oh and btw, their rate of 600€ is full time employee - i know cause i used it, but thats whole other service beast … and it covers a lot, for lot of companies that want to be compliant in certain country not that much of a cost actually

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

What about something like Upwork? I guess Upwork have stopped working with RU/BY freelancers, but aren't there similar platforms that still work?

 

[Forester]

I’ve talked to Deel today and its possible to hire contractors from Belarus - costs €50/ per contract / month. They offer different forms of transactions even bank transfer to belarusian bank

Really nice – if it can work for your friend's case, it looks like this problem is solved

oh and btw, their rate of 600€ is full time employee - i know cause i used it, but thats whole other service beast … and it covers a lot, for lot of companies that want to be compliant in certain country not that much of a cost actually

Well, may be. Of course it depends on the budget of the project, whole payroll, etc.

 

[zzz888]

If you just want them to open an international VISA/MC Virtual card then there is a legal Binance+PYYPL hack (open online it for free) or "not that legal" Binance EUR VISA Virtual card (open it online for $10 approx). Conversion overhead is approx 3%-7%. At least this works for Russia, but also should work for Belarus.