Getting Paid as an International Contractor

Getting paid by a company in another country is a chain of six links: the contract, the acceptance rule, the invoice, the payer's vendor onboarding, the payment rails, and the landing in your local account. Money almost never gets stuck "in general" — it gets stuck at one link, usually one nobody agreed on before the work started. Settle scope, currency, terms and paperwork such as Form W-8BEN before the first invoice, and keep clean records for filing where you live.

This is not legal, tax or financial advice. It is a general description of how cross-border contractor payments usually work, with links to official sources. Rules differ by country, contract and person. Talk to a qualified local accountant or lawyer before your first invoice.

This article assumes you already landed the work. If not, start with how to get a remote job with a US company and remote AI jobs for LatAm.

In short

• Diagnose payment problems by link. Each link has a different fix.
• Agree acceptance criteria in writing. "Done" is the most expensive undefined word in contracting.
• An invoice has to pass through someone else's system. Format it for that system.
• The IRS says Form W-8BEN goes to the payer, not the IRS, and generally lasts until the end of the third calendar year after signing.
• Compare payment options on total cost — transfer fee and exchange-rate margin.

The payment chain

When a payment is late, work down this list. It is almost always link 2, 3 or 4.

Link 1: the contract

Whatever the arrangement is called, get it in writing before you start. At minimum:

• Scope in deliverables rather than hours where possible, plus the rate and basis.
• Currency, and who carries the conversion cost.
• Payment terms — and when the clock starts. "Net 30 from receipt of a correct invoice" and "net 30 from acceptance" are different months.
• Invoicing cadence and cut-off date. Many finance teams run one or two payment cycles a month; missing the cut-off by a day costs two weeks.
• Deposit or first milestone for new relationships, and late-payment terms.
• Who owns the work, and when ownership transfers. A common structure is on payment.
• Notice period on both sides.
• Whether you may reference the work publicly — the moment to secure permission for a future case study.

Being engaged as an independent contractor, through an employer of record, or by a local entity affects almost everything above. That comparison is covered in how to get a remote job with a US company.

Link 2: acceptance — the link nobody writes down

This is where the most money is lost, and it costs nothing to fix. Define, in one or two sentences per deliverable, what has to be true for the work to be accepted and how long the client has to raise issues. For systems work this is easy, because the criteria are testable:

"Accepted when a test lead submitted through the web form appears in the CRM within 60 seconds with the correct branch owner and source field, for five consecutive submissions. Client has five business days to report defects; otherwise the deliverable is accepted."

That paragraph prevents the most common contracting failure: indefinite revisions with no billing trigger. It is also good async work practice — written, testable, no meeting required.

Link 3: the invoice

Your invoice is not a letter. It is an input to someone else's accounts-payable system, and it can be rejected on format alone. Ask in week one: "What does an invoice need to contain for AP to process it?" A workable baseline:

1. The word Invoice, a unique sequential number, and the issue date.
2. Your full legal or business name, address and tax identifier, as required where you live.
3. The client's exact legal entity name and billing address — the entity on the contract, often not the brand name.
4. Any purchase order, vendor ID or reference number. A missing PO number is the most common cause of a parked invoice.
5. Line items with the deliverable, the period covered, and the currency on every amount.
6. Total due and the due date as a date, not "net 30".
7. Payment instructions exactly matching the account registered during vendor onboarding.
8. Any tax treatment required in your country, as your accountant advises.

Send it to the address AP asks for, not only your day-to-day contact, and keep every copy.

Link 4: vendor onboarding and the paperwork

Before a company can pay you, its finance system has to know who you are: a vendor form, banking details, and — for US payers — a Form W-8 series certificate.

Form W-8BEN in plain terms

According to the IRS page About Form W-8 BEN, you give the form to the withholding agent or payer if you are a foreign person and the beneficial owner of an amount subject to withholding. Three practical points from the instructions:

• It does not go to the IRS. The instructions are explicit that the form is handed to whoever requested it, not filed with the agency.
• It expires. Generally it remains in effect from the date signed until the last day of the third succeeding calendar year, unless a change in circumstances makes information on it incorrect. In certain conditions it can remain valid indefinitely until circumstances change.
• Changes carry a 30-day duty. If a change makes any information incorrect, you must notify the withholding agent, payer or financial institution within 30 days and file a new form.

Claiming reduced withholding under a tax treaty has further requirements, including identification numbers. Whether a treaty applies to you is a question for a professional, not a blog.

Where the income is "sourced"

This causes more confusion than anything else, so go to the official source. The IRS page Source of Income — Personal Service Income explains that what generally fixes the source of personal-service income is where the services were physically performed — not where the contract was signed, where the money was paid from, or where the payer lives. Where services span both sides of the border, the split is generally made on a time basis. Relatedly, the IRS page on pay for personal services performed explains that payers must withhold at a 30% rate on compensation paid to a nonresident alien individual for services performed in the United States.

What that means for your paperwork, and what your own country requires, are not questions this article can answer. Ask your accountant, and ask the client's finance team what they need — they deal with it constantly.

Link 5: the rails

Described generally, the common routes are:

• International bank transfer into a local account.
• Online payment or money-transfer platforms that receive funds and let you convert or withdraw locally.
• Multi-currency accounts that hold the original currency until you choose to convert.
• Contractor-payment platforms the client already uses, which may handle documents and payment together.
• Payroll via an employer of record, paid locally like a salary.

No prices here: fees change constantly and depend on corridor, amount and method. What does not change is how to compare them.

The World Bank, custodian agency for the UN's remittance-cost indicator, defines price in a way worth borrowing. The SDG indicator 10.c.1 metadata treats the price of a transfer as the full cost to the end user: the fees charged to the sender plus the amount by which the exchange rate applied sits above the interbank rate. It also calls a service transparent only when its cost can be split into those two components, and says a provider that does not disclose the applicable exchange rate is not transparent.

That gives you a clean test, even though the indicator measures remittances rather than business payments:

The transparency test. Before accepting a payment method, ask for the transfer fee and the exchange rate that will be applied, and compare that rate to the mid-market rate. If a provider will not show you both, you cannot know the total cost.

Then compare on four axes: total cost (fee plus margin), speed, availability in your country, and records you can hand an accountant.

Link 6: landing, and keeping records

• Keep every invoice, remittance advice and statement, filed by month.
• Number invoices sequentially and never reuse a number.
• Record the amount invoiced, the amount received and the gap. That gap is your real cost of getting paid.
• Reconcile monthly, not annually.
• Earning from abroad generally does not remove your obligations where you live. Get local advice early.

When a payment is late

1. Check your own links first. Was the invoice correct, sent to the right address, with the reference number? Was the work formally accepted?
2. Email AP and your contact together, invoice re-attached, one question: "Can you confirm the payment date, and whether anything is missing?" Neutral, dated, in writing.
3. Escalate on a schedule set in advance — contact at day 5 past due, manager at day 10, contract terms at day 20 — rather than on emotion.
4. Change the structure, not just the tone. Next engagement: a deposit, shorter milestones, or work paused at an agreed threshold. Put the pause clause in the contract so using it is procedure, not conflict.

Payment traps and scams

The US Federal Trade Commission's guidance on job scams lists warning signs that apply directly to contractors:

• Honest employers never ask you to pay to get a job — no fees for certifications, directories, starter kits or guarantees.
• Overpayment and fake-check schemes: you are sent a payment and asked to send part back. The FTC warns the check bounces and the bank wants the money from you.
• Being asked to pay, or be paid, via gift cards, cryptocurrency or mobile payment apps at someone else's direction.
• Unsolicited offers, high pay for little work, and reshipping arrangements.

Two specific to contractors: never let a "client" route money through your personal account to a third party, and confirm any change of banking details by voice with a known contact, never by email alone.

First-payment checklist

1. Signed contract with scope, rate, currency, terms and notice.
2. Written acceptance criteria per deliverable.
3. Vendor onboarding done, including any W-8 form the payer requests.
4. Invoice template validated with AP first.
5. Payment method agreed, with the fee and exchange rate disclosed.
6. A local accountant briefed before the first payment lands.
7. A filing system for invoices and statements from month one.
8. Permission settled on referencing the work later.

Get those eight right and payment becomes boring, which is exactly what you want. Your attention belongs on the work that makes you worth rehiring — and on the documented results that let you raise your rate at renewal. That is what proof of work buys.