In fact, there are more overseas contract jobs available to veterans in support of related fields than private security. So regardless of your skillset, you can rest assured you should be able to find a job overseas.

Taking an overseas assignment as a contractor is not all it’s cracked up to be. There are some serious considerations- like tax status- that you must take into consideration.

We interviewed several former military service members who also worked overseas with private contractors. Here is what you need to know about overseas contract jobs for veterans from the men and women who’ve been there.

Overseas Contract Jobs For Veterans – Tip No. 1

Salary. The salaries paid for overseas contract jobs are typically much higher than what would normally be paid for the same services stateside. Even so, just like here in the states, what you earn will depend on the job, your skillset, and your experience. You should also take into consideration why these jobs pay more money; you will be going to a high-risk area.

Taxes. If you are going to take a job overseas, you need to read IRS publication 54, Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad. Here is why:

Citizens and resident aliens of the United States who live and work abroad are still subject to federal income tax. Don’t think you can get away with not reporting your earnings and keeping them secret. The U.S. government has treaties with lots of countries, allowing them to request tax data on you.

If nothing else, remember this: if you take an overseas contract job and choose not to file a tax return for that year… the statute of limitations never runs out, the government will get their taxes.

Bottom Line: there are some very serious tax consequences for taking an overseas contract job for veterans. Don’t believe anyone who tells you it’s tax-free. Always check with a tax professional before you take the job.

Overseas Contract Jobs For Veterans – Tip No. 2

Living arrangements, environment, vacation, and benefits – these are the important topics to ask about. Many veterans see the dollar signs when taking an overseas assignment, and forget to ask the important questions.

Living arrangements: your living quarters can range from a tent to a condo. So make sure you ask where you will be staying. Especially if you are taking a contract in a known hostile area. For example, several private security contract firms offer “condo” style living arrangements for their personnel. However, security was being provided by the host nation (Kuwait). When it comes to your personal safety, you may want to consider an employer who offers U.S. security personnel or who operates from a U.S. installation.

Environment: Don’t expect a tropical resort destination. Most overseas contract jobs for veterans are located in third-world countries or actual “combat zones.” Make sure you review and research your area of operation. Also, make sure to review what amenities- if any- are available. A warm shower and hot coffee can go a long way in boosting your morale. 

Work Schedule: Don’t expect a typical nine-to-five job. Overseas contract jobs usually consist of some pretty grueling schedules. One contractor required 12-hour days, six days a week. Know what you are getting into before you sign on the dotted line.

Vacation and benefits: If you are taking an overseas contract that is going to last a year or more, you are going to want to make sure you get a vacation. You are going to need it. Areas, where overseas contract jobs for veterans are available, are usually very high-stress, high-demand areas. Also, make sure you know who is going to pay for your vacation.

For example, one private contractor offered four weeks of paid vacation to anywhere in Europe, all expenses included. Just make sure you know what you are getting.

Travel, Health, and other insurance. It’s a fact. Kidnapping for ransom has become an international business. For example, in Mexico alone, kidnappings have grown by 245 percent. And that’s just the numbers that are reported. So make sure you have your insurance in place. Double-check to see what type of insurance your potential employer is offering, and insist on K&R (kidnapping and ransom) insurance… PERIOD.

Overseas Contract Jobs For Veterans – Tip No. 3

Make sure you know the rules of engagement. Especially when it comes to firearms and self-defense laws. If the country allows it, seriously consider purchasing a firearm. You can always pawn or resell it when your tour is done.

If you are not a “shooter” (I.E. received comprehensive training on firearms) make sure you get the training you need before you go overseas. There is an old adage in special operations: “Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”

Finally, you need to be aware of a change that was made in 2007. It’s called the “MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007.) And it has very serious implications for private American citizens working abroad. In short, Congress amended the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to allow U.S. civilians working for the U.S. military to be subject to the UCMJ.

Bottom Line: If you are thinking about taking an overseas contract job where you’ll be working for the U.S. military, you better read the UCMJ.

If, after all of this, you are still considering taking an overseas contract job for veterans, the State Department has a great library of resources for you. Here is an additional website that keeps a pretty accurate list of overseas contractors.

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Others believe that loans and business investments also are forms of aid. This can be true, but sometimes loans and investments come with strings. Loans must be paid back. Sometimes a country borrows to build infrastructure, and the donor nation’s own workers get the best construction and other jobs. And aid that does not guard against corruption can hurt rather than help the recipient nation. That’s why some kinds of foreign aid amount to debt-trap diplomacy.

Avoiding the debt trap

The U.S. seeks long-term partners rather than debtors.

Researchers at the College of William and Mary found that loan assistance does not improve economic growth. And, they noted, countries can have a hard time paying off the loans. Sri Lanka, for example, was forced to give up one of its ports in a 99-year lease to China when it struggled to pay for its loans.

“The price being paid to reduce the China debt could prove more costly than the debt burden Sri Lanka seeks to reduce,” said N. Sathiya Moorthy of the Observer Research Foundation in an interview with the New York Times.

Aid recipients can find themselves greatly indebted to a single creditor: Over half of Kenya’s sovereign debt, for example, is held by China.

Even when a program is not grant-based, the U.S. is working with countries to avoid the debt trap. India, for example, is trying a bold approach. A U.S.-backed initiative leverages private investor capital to improve health care for 600,000 new mothers and their babies in India. The project, which makes economic sense for the hospitals involved, is called the largest and most ambitious of its kind.

“This is our first health-impact bond. I’m quite sure it won’t be our last,” USAID Administrator Mark Green said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2018. “It is a step forward toward a more sustainable and increasingly country-led approach to maternal and child health.”

Who gets the jobs?

Aid isn’t really aiding if it’s used to hire donor-country workers. One example: Nearly three-quarters of the laborers who constructed Angola’s Ombaka National Stadium were imported from China. In Cameroon, half the workers on a major port reconstruction hailed from China. Locals were not trained in engineering and other skills for high-value positions on the project. Even less-skilled positions such as truck drivers were filled by Chinese workers.

By contrast, consider how the U.S. structured the Power Africa program. Power Africa is a true partnership, working to add 60 million new home and business connections to Africa’s power grid. U.S. and private firms provide the financing to build the new electricity projects, but local workers are hired to do the work.

Osike Kenneth of Uganda said working on a solar plant helped his family through a 2016 famine. “Because I was working in the solar project, I was able to feed my family,” the 24-year-old said. Two Power Africa projects bringing reliable electricity to Senegal should create more than 68,000 jobs and grow the economy by $400 million, according to recent studies.

Administrator Green celebrated Power Africa’s multidimensional partnerships in a March event, highlighting an electricity project in Ghana. General Electric and Endeavor Energy are building the plant, which will supply about a fifth of the country’s power. U.S. government agencies are providing technical assistance and finance. The result? “Citizens being employed, communities being connected and Ghana charging ahead in its journey to self-reliance and prosperity,” Green said.

Transparency

Without anticorruption measures, aid can create economic distortion, according to James Roberts of the Heritage Foundation. “It reinforces instead of fixing the problems that undermine sustainable development — including corruption.”

That’s why U.S. aid programs include safeguards that allow people anywhere to follow the money.

The U.S. government makes public all of its program data since 1946 through the Foreign Aid Explorer. This “dashboard” of U.S. assistance presents decades of accurate data in understandable terms. The U.S. government also provides detailed foreign-assistance transaction data from 2006 to the present at Foreignassistance.gov.

Geoffrey Chongo of Zambia said transparency was crucial in starting up a $30 million electricity project in a community of 100,000. Four years after obtaining assistance, the government hadn’t started work. Community leaders spoke out. “They became passionate, to just find out where their money had gone. The government had to respond,” Chongo said.

Transparency also lets countries coordinate efforts to make development assistance more effective.

Green said that each sector — the public sector and the private sector — playing by the rules and doing what it does best, is key to prosperity for all. “This is Africa’s time, but only if all of us here work together.”

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