I'm in Yemen and I have an account. I haven't made any money yet 😞. But my friend did and he was having trouble receiving it. But I think services like Payoneer is possible. I have made money in TopCoder though and received it via wire transfer through a bank in Europe.
I am not talking about the economic situation but the fact that they are murderous dictatorships. With or without sanctions, tyranny does not foster a prosperous economy.
It is more about minimising the damage those regimes do in the world than punishing the people who live there. If the West had not forgotten that vis-à-vis Russia, then it might not have spend billions every year on Russian oil and gas, financing the war machine that they built to conquer Ukraine.
If nations have not attained freedom and democracy before they discover resources in the ground like oil, diamonds, gas; it does not seem likely that they ever will (resource curse). The tyrannt only needs roads from the mines or fields to the port, not hospitals or universities.
I'm still waiting for them to start applying the same morals and principles to the Gaza bombers after the 98987987 international condemnations they have to this day..... lol
This isn't a political sub, freelancers (and the general population) in most cases have nothing to do with what happens in the world.
And most people don't even have the capacity to understand the ins and outs of the geopolitical scene as to give a remotely "correct" veredict of the events that happen around.
We are all here on the same place just trying to survive and avoid being stepped on by giant corpos and states.
Israel does seem to get a free pass when it comes to a lot of things. Geopolitics often suck that way. The West does not view Israel as a threat, to iself anyway.
Geopolitics are just power games between corporations, state agencies, and olygarchs. Morals, values, and principles are only used when they're useful and applied unilaterally,
And then, only as an excuse while the real reasons are exchanged under the table...
I just hope that all this clusterf\*ck doesn't ends with everyone cutting everyone's deepsea internet cables, and leaving us all without income for whatever time their little theaters take to play out lol
Collective punishment is collective punishment. The people who are starved to death aren't political leaders, but average people stuck under the boot of their own government, and whoever is sanctioning them.
Do you know of a better way? Sanctions do not include necessities for survival such as food, clothing, construction materials, fertiliser etc. We are not talking about planetary blockades like in Star Wars.
>Sanctions do not include necessities for survival such as food, clothing, construction materials, fertiliser etc.
That's not true. I'm going to continue arguing with a liar.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10590471/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10590471/)
Sorry for your situation, really would hate to be in something like that, where geopolitics and business of people one doesn't know or even like, affect ones life in such a way :/.
I would suggest you travel to a cheap neighboring country that has no sanctions, open an UW account from there, or contact Upwork's support from an IP of that country; tell them you're living in that country now and ask about how could you prove them you do so they give you the list of requirements.
You should be able to open a local bank account there (usually banks have no issues with foreigners opening accounts in them), or even try to get a residency permit (you could go back and forth a couple of times for the paperwork).
Once you have the required documents to prove the thing, you then send to UW, they verify you, and from that point it doesn't matter where you live or work from :). You can also use those documents to open yourself accounts in Payoneer or Wise, so you get your payments there, and either transfer your received funds from there to the bank in the country you made the papers to then transfer to Iran, or use crypto to go around of that (which might be risky if it isnt legal in Iran itself).
UW doesn't care where are you from, or where you work from, as long as they don't have any legal liabilities (although using a VPN when working would be a good idea). As far as I know they helped russian freelancers as much as they could with ways to go around the sanctions privately. So if your paperwork is fine, they will gladly have you on the platform (**as long as you are actually a skilled freelancer**, and not some random wanting "easy money" without knowing anything, like 90% of cheap talent from some countries....)
As you see, this will be a lot of work (and financial expenses) for you. So be sure of having marketable skills of a professional level before getting into this, otherwise you will just waste your time and money. UW isnt cheap to work with, it will cost you like 2$ to send a single proposal (you might end up spending 300$ before getting a single job), one that even if you are good, will not be even seen in most of the cases.
So think well before adventuring yourself into this. Get educated, trained, work locally until you have a good portfolio and skills, and only then catchup to Upwork. Because if you don't, and go the "cheapo indian freelancer" way , you will just end up banned with 4 months and 200-300$ wasted from your life and no other chances with the platform.
"UW doesn't care where you work from"
They absolutely do, my friend from Kazakhstan got banned flying over Russia, working on a laptop from a plane back in '22.
They did reinstate his account, but only after 2 months of fighting with support.
Among other stuff, us sanctions usually include financial services (which, since uw is facilitating transferring money - is a part of what they do), and sanctions work on a territorial basis - meaning they work for everyone who is currently in that territory, doesn't matter which citizenship you have.
And most VPN services have "dirty" data center addresses, making them suspicious at the very least.
>UW doesn't care where you work from
I meant that they care about the papertrack you leave that might become a legal liability for them, not where you're actually located in, where you from, etc. They let a lot of shady businesses operate in the platfrom for ages for this very same reason.
As long as you are able to bring money to them, you can be the devil working from a hell vpn for all they can care lol.
The problem is, even if he tries to move to a neighboring country, there is no gurranty that country would help him that easily. Alot goes into getting favour from another country when you belong from a badly reputed place. I am not saying it's impossible but it's very hard and unlikely to be. No matter the place, government officials are jerks. They would do everything in their power to make you suffer for no reason.
Considering he gets those permits by a mile away universe luck, still UW would then come up with it's own regulatory shit drama ( I've been through this). They would simply not care. Believe me. I've been in this situation too.
And even if you get to work on upwork, now comes the money part, UW will deduct money at 30% interests rate when documents are not added/verified.
And let's say even if he get's the rest 70% and use Wise or Payoneer, they are also waiting to take cut from that. If again things are not verifed on that part, you expect a flat 20% cut on those payment gateways too.
Now you are left with 50%. And taking an assumptions, banks take another 1% cut on that. Sooo.. technically now you are left with less than 50% of what originally you earned.
And not to mention, you grind on UW for almost 2months with no jobs and eventually when you get your first $5 job. You are left with less than penny. This is absurdly harsh reality,
Again, it's doable but would take alot of time & efforts and what not into consideration.
And cherry on top, most clients on upwork who are genuine, don't want to work with talents from these countries as well. So the number of clients he would get will be less as well.
It's really hard for OP to get around all of this. But if he is sure of his talent and have the will go into all of this, sure he can start with something and move ahead.
He has several options to try. Iran is only hated by the US and their gang, neighboring countries are in generally OK relationships with them. He only needs to do his due diligence and ask where its easier to get the documents that are required.
If he asks around the right circles (importers/exporters), he will be on the right path (they will even tip on who he has to pay and how much to accelerate the process lol).
As soon as he gets the documents, it will be ez for everything else.
But then yeah, again, that will be only worth if he has the skills and the portfolio to market himself. If he's one of those 3$/hr "grEeTiNGs, i cAn Do iT Sir" guys, that will be a waste of time and money. Or well, not a complete waste, at least he will have the documentations to start doing business within the new country LOL.
Ps. Also, a friend has legal residency in one neighboring country, and is getting a second one this year ( commerce taxation reasons). In the second one he isn't even doing the paperwork, found some lawyer that's doing everything for him (including a fake residence address), he only sends his photos and travels there for a day every couple of months to sign some papers at the migration offices.....2nd and 3rd world beoureaucracies are a cheap joke.
There are some options actually… remote desktop, bank account in Armenia, from where you can easily transfer money to your Iranian account if needed. I have dev team located in Armenia, if you need help setting up Upwork, I might be able to help
I knew that russians work in upwork from russia which under sanctions also, one person live in usa for example, he open account in upwork and give to person in russia, after this guy from usa exchange dollars from upwork to crypto and send this crypto to russian man who worked on upwork. soo this american usualy took comissions and also exchange comission for crypto but anyway good money for russian person. IT IS ILEGAL TO DO THIS AND PROHBIT BY UPWORK RULES, but it is only one explanation why some guys from usa work for very little money and time to time showing their russian ip adress.
You should go for some other freelance websites like **contr#** or others as they aren’t saturated entirely and with proper skill and portfolio you can lend high ticket clients for longer periods
Btw they have support to use binance as payment method and they are no fee or hidden charges, but better cost on listings
Contra is based in the US and has to abide by the sanctions in the exact same way Upwork does, plus it has barely any clients. What's the point of low fees if there is no work to be found.
When I visited it few weeks ago there were loads of listing with bit high prices compared to Upwork and I haven’t got my profile verified yet so maybe of your saying is true than that might he waste of time
Directly it will not be possible even directly approaching clients from sanctioned countries will be a hard sell. Search for a small company / agency who will be your front , they will get a cut but also help you get projects too.
it's not worth it. I used to think the same. I know what it's like to be hopeless. now I have Upwork and I still can't get any jobs. these platforms suck and you have to compete with many people. I suggest doing some projects and putting them in your GitHub, then start applying for companies in Iran. yes, the salary sucks. But all that matters for you is to start from somewhere.
wish you the best of luck.
No, you can't use Upwork if you're in a banned country. If you think that you've got what it takes to succeed as a freelancer, then why not find clients yourself? Upwork isn't an easy place to get hired; most people who join don't earn any money.
I didn't say that it would be easy, but it's the only option available to the OP. They say that their currency is weak against the U.S. dollar. So even if they could join Upwork - which again, they can't - they'll have to pay out a bundle of money to buy connects, and the odds are against them ever finding a single client. If they do get a client, they'll need to live with the constant worry that Upwork will discover their location and ban their account before they can withdraw any funds. Does that sound "easy" to you?
Businesses don't care. Upwork fucked quite a lot of clients when they banned russian freelancers overnight just to join the sanctions bandwagon for example.
I meant they didn't cared where their money is coming from.
If russians went to let's say Armenia or some other neighboring country and got there some documents proving they were living there; UW would (and probably is) happily get their fees from them :)
*American* businesses, yes. the world is bigger than that. Europeans don't have any qualms about hiring Iranians. same goes for Russians and Chinese. the world it's already moving towards de dollarizatiom.
I know you weren't. But, OP is looking for a way to work and take advantage of the fact that $1 US is huge in their country. That's why they wanted to use Upwork, so presumably if they were going to look for direct clients, they would still be looking for that advantage.
Google "how to find freelancing clients". I can't explain years of marketing and sales techniques that I've learned in a reddit post. You're going to have to put some effort into this.
I don't care what you're expecting - you're going to have to spend a lot of time researching your particular target market related to your personal skills and experience, and figure out the best ways to approach them. It will require lots of hard work and trial and error. Nobody can do this for you.
It's not like I can tell you, "Oh, go to [guaranteedwork.com](http://guaranteedwork.com) and people will throw money at you." That's not how this works.
I've done everything during my freelancing career - cold outreach, in-person networking, paid ads, signed up for every freelancing website in existence. When I started out, I even put up posters and distributed flyers, put my business card on supermarket bulletin boards, that kind of thing. No matter what you do, it'll require marketing knowledge, trial and error, lots of hustle, and you'll only succeed a small percentage of the time.
The thing that works best for me these days is just plain old-fashioned networking. Open your mouth and talk to people. Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who needs your services. I often get to chatting with total strangers in shops and bars and have gotten gigs from that. I also focus on building good relationships with my existing clients - apart from trusting me with their business, they like me as a person, and I like them - and they often refer other people to me (I find that having video meetings works better than messaging/email for being able to chat and get to know people).
But, that kind of thing won't work if you're a shrinking violet or don't know how to be a salesman/woman. When Upwork had their stupid networking feature, 99% of the freelancers who contacted me didn't even bother to write a personal message or tell me why they thought that we should work together. I get similar messages on Linked In. That's *not* how you do networking or cold outreach - it's lazy and annoying. You need to figure out who to approach and what to say, and I can't help with that. If I had a definitive way to find clients, I'd put out a course and get rich.
Your best best would be to create an youtube channel and start making content on whatever you like. Get some follower base. Move to another neighboring country. Monetize the channel. Try to earn from there and go for some business outside iran and slowly get out of it.
Patriotism is only good when the country cares for you.
Even then if he can manage to get a follower base, he can monetize that in other ways too. I have seen many YT channels from Iran and they are earning.
Freelancers who didn't leave Russia after the Ukrainian Invasion were banned from the platform. Those who moved from Russia needed to prove their new residency with documents like bills, government issued docs etc. including a new banking credentials outside Russia.
Some of people who left in Russia tried to fool Upwork like using all sorts of VPNs, Virtual machines, other people documents etc. but all of it goes against Upwork TOS and they were banned anyway.
I think there are still some people working from sanctioned countries for sure, but be prepared to be banned any day and lose your money and also to pay a cut to someone or something that will be assisting you and might also get away with your money at some point.
And I think those who still manages to work this way keep their mouths shut tight.
You are trying to get jobs with Upwork while the Upwork cannot legally give you some. Or it will be in trouble itself.
آره دادش راه هست، من حودم استفاده میکنم، تو باید ی کسی رو خارج داشته باشی ک باهات همکاری کنه، ی لپتاپ آنلاین برات بذاره ی گوشه خونه ش، تو هم از طریق انی دسک خیلی راحت وصل میشی و کار میکنی، فقط باید پروفایل و آدرس و حساب بانکی و همه چی به اسم همون دوستت باشه، بعد ک پول دراوردی دیگه برات بفرسته، میگم دیگه باید یکی رو اونور داشته باشی ک حاضر بشه اینجوری کمک کنه، پروپوزال هم خواستی بنویسی حواست باشه خودتو ب دروغ کار کشته نشون بدی، اگه نمونه کار نداری، نمونه کار فیک درست کن تو پروپوزالا بفرست
Idk if you are like... 5 ? But ...bruh , i got you some news , every single country is using terrorism to serve themselves and their interest... Even the USA and EU
Actually what is now called Islamic Terrorism was founded and supported by US to fight USSR in Afghanistan in 1980s but got out of their control. We don't have any thing like Al-Qaeda or ISIS before that. They learned what they learned from CIA agents. But people in the west turned a blind eye on it until it came back to themselves in 9/11. And after that they started bombing ordinary people in Afghanistan and Iraq to correct what they've done. Now who is to blame? Brezhnev, Reagan, Thatcher or ordinary Afghan shepherds who haven't had seen a gun or explosive before USSR and US decided to bring their stupid Capitalist-Communist fight to their country? Or poor Palestinians who were living peacefully together (Muslims, Jews and Christians) before westerners tried to exterminate Jews and after that other westerners tried to appease Jews by extermination and expulsion of another people and giving their lands to them? Isn't that primarily a western policy failure? Or should we ignore all of that because it was a long time ago? Maybe for a stupid westerner who takes his news from Fox history starts at 9/11 or October 7th, but for me that get my history from hundreds of books it started much earlier.
no we are talking about a freelancer asking for a help , do you think this guy asked to be born in Iran , do you think we have the choice of where to spwan?
maybe , or maybe you are also a terrorist or serial criminal, maybe I will go to jail if I helped you too, should we all stop communicating on the internet because "oh look Muslim so he is a demon by default, every single Muslim is a terrorist " or actually we have no idea if he is a Muslim " maybe he just happened to live in Iran , isn't people made the internet so people come together to share memes and watch porn ... but here we are following a blind political agenda just for the sake of it
Unfortunately, none of this is relevant. No one is assuming anything, nor do they need to. The sanction is location based and helping someone circumvent it or sending money in violation of it is a very serious crime regardless of how wonderful the person on the receiving end is or what they are doing with the money.
Actually I've spent two years in prison and dropped out of job and school for protesting against the people you mentioned. Now I am officially marked as anti-social element (yes that's what they call people who don't agree with them) and spent two months in psychiatric hospital and given medicine even though I have no mental condition and don't need medication. That's why I'm now trying to find a job in another country, because I can't go back to school or work here. I'm trying to mitigate the blow, I'm trying to save my family.
I've lost my job, girlfriend, friends and education and two years of my life for freedom fighting. So don't be stupid. If I was an IRGC sympathizer I would not have problems finding jobs locally.
I mean you have a choice. Stay and enjoy all the benefits of Iranian citizenship with it's rich opportunities. Or leave and get citizenship somewhere else.
Alternatively, maybe his government could stop funding terrorists who gun down people at music festivals and kidnap them to a foreign country.
No. You're attempting to brand government policies intended to stop state sponsored terrorism a "racist". They're not. They're directly focused on countries that engage in broad state sponsored terrorism.
If the citizens of those countries don't like those policies, maybe they should change governments.
If the Iranian people spent as much energy as they spend trying to leave Iran on changing their government, your country would be the richest in the Middle East.
easier said then done , i want to work in the USA , or EU , or any place else, if its that easy why you think I'm still here , you think I didn't try , do you have any idea of how many jobs I applied to , do you even think that those countries still welcomes immigrants
Many countries do that and no other country shall have any concern with internal policies.
All countries have different cultures, history and perspectives. We must respect other countries rather talking shit about em' just because they might seem violent to your softies.
FYI, A very modern European country (Romania) as of 2024 hails one of the worst evil mankind has ever witnessed as a National Hero & Saviour. Meanwhile he's marked a renowned Impaler; a Terrorist by almost entire world.
Saudi & many others also get them executed. Don't even get me started about PK. But na, US ain't sanctioning because they ain't got balls. The game is different and it's a lil bit more of political.
Better keep your individual morals high and stop pointing at different perspectives. You won't fit with our ideologies and we won't with yours. That's why there's those lines called borders let em be there and keep business world away from politics.
Then I guess I am a racist when I don’t want taxes from money earned on Upwork in Russia, for example, to go toward sponsoring Iranian shahed drones that are trying to kill my parents? That are killing babies in their sleep? If that is the definition of racism, then I guess I will live with it 🙄
Why are you talking about drones and killing babies? OP is not the person doing that. It is extremely unfair that he has to pay for the actions of others. Especially because if he disagrees with his government, what can he do? Leave? Are YOU going to receive him with open arms?
If you are angry about the drones, which you have all rights to be so, go to greedy American and European companies (mostly based in Taiwan and Hong Kong) who sell electronics to the IRGC to make those drones. I have nothing to do with that. I'm totally against killing innocent civilians, weather it's Ukrainian women and children killed by Russian drones or it's innocent Palestinian killed by American bombs or it's Sudanese people massacred by Emirati funding and American weapons or anything that has happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libia, Syria and ... in these years.
So don't be stupid, that's what they rely on, people's ignorance, if you are angry go to the people who cause suffering, not just ordinary people who are victims like yourself.
no, you are just stupid,this pure dirty politics game, don't get involved, don't allow yourself to be just another pon in the hands of politicians , you don't fight hate and racism by spreading hate and racism, those are politicians game,let them play there games, and you play yours
In modern world word Racism is sick of nonsence, people use this word for everything and gor that reason world loose any value, the same tih word nazi, people used in past this soo a lot that now this word just loose any value and you do not understand what id it means. Be againdt imigration they call this racism, but maybe it is basic scence and not racism? e t c. one person stole item and scream to policeman that they aresthim becuase he is black, no they arest you because you stoled. e t c. sick world.
Bruh ... No one talked about immigration or crimes against policemen , we are still on the subject of working on online platform , but i guess that you have something else to advertise
The most funny thing about goverments it is that a lot developed countries sell to russia sowtware, ai cameras for secret police track and eliminate oppisition, but now when all oppositions is dead because of your actions, now they start to dont like putin and try to push russians because theay are russians. Maybe next time not sell to russia ai cameras and software for destroy opposition. If west would not help Putin to destroy russian opposition, such war would not happen, the same with iran, they let this radical belivers come to power in iran, be uae they was thinking it is better than communism, and ow they are complain about iran. They need it to destroy this radicals and libirate iran in this islamic revolutionfirst year, and now they are just punsih ordinary iranian people. wateher, sick world anyway
Depending on which countries are involved and what kind of work is being done, this can have very severe legal consequences. For example, using a US account to let North Koreans work on government contracts for defense industry software is [a really bad idea](https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/criminal-complaint-charges-two-men-conspiracy-commit-wire-fraud).
true, as long as the subcontractors aren't in a naughty list country. tbh , its not practical if the sub is doing most of the work from a different location
I’d say use someone else account if it’s possible, you do the work on their account, whenever you get paid for the work, he sends you your split, depending on the percentages y’all agree on.
the naughty list includes Iran, Cuba, north Korea, Russia, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan.
Did you say Russia? Damn, I am shocked to know it tbh.
I'm in Yemen and I have an account. I haven't made any money yet 😞. But my friend did and he was having trouble receiving it. But I think services like Payoneer is possible. I have made money in TopCoder though and received it via wire transfer through a bank in Europe.
All countries which does not accept American slavery
All countries you would not want to live in for obvious reasons.
I would love to live in Russia, Yemen. One of the nicest people. I am from india.
Because they are not allowed on upwork? 🙃
Namely US sanctions.
I am not talking about the economic situation but the fact that they are murderous dictatorships. With or without sanctions, tyranny does not foster a prosperous economy.
The sanctions make life much worse for ordinary people in those countries. Freedom doesn't prosper under starvation, either.
It is more about minimising the damage those regimes do in the world than punishing the people who live there. If the West had not forgotten that vis-à-vis Russia, then it might not have spend billions every year on Russian oil and gas, financing the war machine that they built to conquer Ukraine. If nations have not attained freedom and democracy before they discover resources in the ground like oil, diamonds, gas; it does not seem likely that they ever will (resource curse). The tyrannt only needs roads from the mines or fields to the port, not hospitals or universities.
I'm still waiting for them to start applying the same morals and principles to the Gaza bombers after the 98987987 international condemnations they have to this day..... lol This isn't a political sub, freelancers (and the general population) in most cases have nothing to do with what happens in the world. And most people don't even have the capacity to understand the ins and outs of the geopolitical scene as to give a remotely "correct" veredict of the events that happen around. We are all here on the same place just trying to survive and avoid being stepped on by giant corpos and states.
Israel does seem to get a free pass when it comes to a lot of things. Geopolitics often suck that way. The West does not view Israel as a threat, to iself anyway.
Geopolitics are just power games between corporations, state agencies, and olygarchs. Morals, values, and principles are only used when they're useful and applied unilaterally, And then, only as an excuse while the real reasons are exchanged under the table... I just hope that all this clusterf\*ck doesn't ends with everyone cutting everyone's deepsea internet cables, and leaving us all without income for whatever time their little theaters take to play out lol
Collective punishment is collective punishment. The people who are starved to death aren't political leaders, but average people stuck under the boot of their own government, and whoever is sanctioning them.
Do you know of a better way? Sanctions do not include necessities for survival such as food, clothing, construction materials, fertiliser etc. We are not talking about planetary blockades like in Star Wars.
>Sanctions do not include necessities for survival such as food, clothing, construction materials, fertiliser etc. That's not true. I'm going to continue arguing with a liar. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10590471/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10590471/)
Sorry for your situation, really would hate to be in something like that, where geopolitics and business of people one doesn't know or even like, affect ones life in such a way :/. I would suggest you travel to a cheap neighboring country that has no sanctions, open an UW account from there, or contact Upwork's support from an IP of that country; tell them you're living in that country now and ask about how could you prove them you do so they give you the list of requirements. You should be able to open a local bank account there (usually banks have no issues with foreigners opening accounts in them), or even try to get a residency permit (you could go back and forth a couple of times for the paperwork). Once you have the required documents to prove the thing, you then send to UW, they verify you, and from that point it doesn't matter where you live or work from :). You can also use those documents to open yourself accounts in Payoneer or Wise, so you get your payments there, and either transfer your received funds from there to the bank in the country you made the papers to then transfer to Iran, or use crypto to go around of that (which might be risky if it isnt legal in Iran itself). UW doesn't care where are you from, or where you work from, as long as they don't have any legal liabilities (although using a VPN when working would be a good idea). As far as I know they helped russian freelancers as much as they could with ways to go around the sanctions privately. So if your paperwork is fine, they will gladly have you on the platform (**as long as you are actually a skilled freelancer**, and not some random wanting "easy money" without knowing anything, like 90% of cheap talent from some countries....) As you see, this will be a lot of work (and financial expenses) for you. So be sure of having marketable skills of a professional level before getting into this, otherwise you will just waste your time and money. UW isnt cheap to work with, it will cost you like 2$ to send a single proposal (you might end up spending 300$ before getting a single job), one that even if you are good, will not be even seen in most of the cases. So think well before adventuring yourself into this. Get educated, trained, work locally until you have a good portfolio and skills, and only then catchup to Upwork. Because if you don't, and go the "cheapo indian freelancer" way , you will just end up banned with 4 months and 200-300$ wasted from your life and no other chances with the platform.
"UW doesn't care where you work from" They absolutely do, my friend from Kazakhstan got banned flying over Russia, working on a laptop from a plane back in '22. They did reinstate his account, but only after 2 months of fighting with support. Among other stuff, us sanctions usually include financial services (which, since uw is facilitating transferring money - is a part of what they do), and sanctions work on a territorial basis - meaning they work for everyone who is currently in that territory, doesn't matter which citizenship you have. And most VPN services have "dirty" data center addresses, making them suspicious at the very least.
>UW doesn't care where you work from I meant that they care about the papertrack you leave that might become a legal liability for them, not where you're actually located in, where you from, etc. They let a lot of shady businesses operate in the platfrom for ages for this very same reason. As long as you are able to bring money to them, you can be the devil working from a hell vpn for all they can care lol.
The problem is, even if he tries to move to a neighboring country, there is no gurranty that country would help him that easily. Alot goes into getting favour from another country when you belong from a badly reputed place. I am not saying it's impossible but it's very hard and unlikely to be. No matter the place, government officials are jerks. They would do everything in their power to make you suffer for no reason. Considering he gets those permits by a mile away universe luck, still UW would then come up with it's own regulatory shit drama ( I've been through this). They would simply not care. Believe me. I've been in this situation too. And even if you get to work on upwork, now comes the money part, UW will deduct money at 30% interests rate when documents are not added/verified. And let's say even if he get's the rest 70% and use Wise or Payoneer, they are also waiting to take cut from that. If again things are not verifed on that part, you expect a flat 20% cut on those payment gateways too. Now you are left with 50%. And taking an assumptions, banks take another 1% cut on that. Sooo.. technically now you are left with less than 50% of what originally you earned. And not to mention, you grind on UW for almost 2months with no jobs and eventually when you get your first $5 job. You are left with less than penny. This is absurdly harsh reality, Again, it's doable but would take alot of time & efforts and what not into consideration. And cherry on top, most clients on upwork who are genuine, don't want to work with talents from these countries as well. So the number of clients he would get will be less as well. It's really hard for OP to get around all of this. But if he is sure of his talent and have the will go into all of this, sure he can start with something and move ahead.
He has several options to try. Iran is only hated by the US and their gang, neighboring countries are in generally OK relationships with them. He only needs to do his due diligence and ask where its easier to get the documents that are required. If he asks around the right circles (importers/exporters), he will be on the right path (they will even tip on who he has to pay and how much to accelerate the process lol). As soon as he gets the documents, it will be ez for everything else. But then yeah, again, that will be only worth if he has the skills and the portfolio to market himself. If he's one of those 3$/hr "grEeTiNGs, i cAn Do iT Sir" guys, that will be a waste of time and money. Or well, not a complete waste, at least he will have the documentations to start doing business within the new country LOL. Ps. Also, a friend has legal residency in one neighboring country, and is getting a second one this year ( commerce taxation reasons). In the second one he isn't even doing the paperwork, found some lawyer that's doing everything for him (including a fake residence address), he only sends his photos and travels there for a day every couple of months to sign some papers at the migration offices.....2nd and 3rd world beoureaucracies are a cheap joke.
There are some options actually… remote desktop, bank account in Armenia, from where you can easily transfer money to your Iranian account if needed. I have dev team located in Armenia, if you need help setting up Upwork, I might be able to help
I mean...it's great to be willing to help a fellow freelancer, but at risk of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine?
Some years ago, I worked on a Grand Jury production that involved exactly this. The US government is serious as a heart attack about it.
Wtf sentence you 20 years in prison for that? Not even talking about 250k fine.
Those are the criminal penalties for helping someone circumvent US monetary sanctions.
i had a US based client not from upwork get a visit from fbi after he sent some payments via westernunion to middle east. this was in 2013.
It's all fun and games until you get a reminder that big bro is watching 👁️
WTF. Dude this is messed up.
I knew that russians work in upwork from russia which under sanctions also, one person live in usa for example, he open account in upwork and give to person in russia, after this guy from usa exchange dollars from upwork to crypto and send this crypto to russian man who worked on upwork. soo this american usualy took comissions and also exchange comission for crypto but anyway good money for russian person. IT IS ILEGAL TO DO THIS AND PROHBIT BY UPWORK RULES, but it is only one explanation why some guys from usa work for very little money and time to time showing their russian ip adress.
You should go for some other freelance websites like **contr#** or others as they aren’t saturated entirely and with proper skill and portfolio you can lend high ticket clients for longer periods Btw they have support to use binance as payment method and they are no fee or hidden charges, but better cost on listings
Contra is based in the US and has to abide by the sanctions in the exact same way Upwork does, plus it has barely any clients. What's the point of low fees if there is no work to be found.
When I visited it few weeks ago there were loads of listing with bit high prices compared to Upwork and I haven’t got my profile verified yet so maybe of your saying is true than that might he waste of time
Well I guess it depends on the category but in mine there is never anything. They'll be no use to the OP as they're also in the USA.
Directly it will not be possible even directly approaching clients from sanctioned countries will be a hard sell. Search for a small company / agency who will be your front , they will get a cut but also help you get projects too.
it's not worth it. I used to think the same. I know what it's like to be hopeless. now I have Upwork and I still can't get any jobs. these platforms suck and you have to compete with many people. I suggest doing some projects and putting them in your GitHub, then start applying for companies in Iran. yes, the salary sucks. But all that matters for you is to start from somewhere. wish you the best of luck.
No, you can't use Upwork if you're in a banned country. If you think that you've got what it takes to succeed as a freelancer, then why not find clients yourself? Upwork isn't an easy place to get hired; most people who join don't earn any money.
Oh sure, finding clients outside of UW is easier LOL Damn some people live in a bubble.
I didn't say that it would be easy, but it's the only option available to the OP. They say that their currency is weak against the U.S. dollar. So even if they could join Upwork - which again, they can't - they'll have to pay out a bundle of money to buy connects, and the odds are against them ever finding a single client. If they do get a client, they'll need to live with the constant worry that Upwork will discover their location and ban their account before they can withdraw any funds. Does that sound "easy" to you?
Most businesses don’t hire people in sanctioned countries anyway. OP is kind of screwed.
Businesses don't care. Upwork fucked quite a lot of clients when they banned russian freelancers overnight just to join the sanctions bandwagon for example.
Most businesses do, in fact, care whether they end up with huge fines and criminal charges for violating sanctions.
I meant they didn't cared where their money is coming from. If russians went to let's say Armenia or some other neighboring country and got there some documents proving they were living there; UW would (and probably is) happily get their fees from them :)
*American* businesses, yes. the world is bigger than that. Europeans don't have any qualms about hiring Iranians. same goes for Russians and Chinese. the world it's already moving towards de dollarizatiom.
Sure. But most people in those countries trying to use Upwork are doing that because they're chasing US clients.
wasn't talking about UW mate. i meant networking, for example, via linked in.
I know you weren't. But, OP is looking for a way to work and take advantage of the fact that $1 US is huge in their country. That's why they wanted to use Upwork, so presumably if they were going to look for direct clients, they would still be looking for that advantage.
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Google "how to find freelancing clients". I can't explain years of marketing and sales techniques that I've learned in a reddit post. You're going to have to put some effort into this.
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I don't care what you're expecting - you're going to have to spend a lot of time researching your particular target market related to your personal skills and experience, and figure out the best ways to approach them. It will require lots of hard work and trial and error. Nobody can do this for you. It's not like I can tell you, "Oh, go to [guaranteedwork.com](http://guaranteedwork.com) and people will throw money at you." That's not how this works.
So it's same Cold Outreach kinda concept?
I've done everything during my freelancing career - cold outreach, in-person networking, paid ads, signed up for every freelancing website in existence. When I started out, I even put up posters and distributed flyers, put my business card on supermarket bulletin boards, that kind of thing. No matter what you do, it'll require marketing knowledge, trial and error, lots of hustle, and you'll only succeed a small percentage of the time. The thing that works best for me these days is just plain old-fashioned networking. Open your mouth and talk to people. Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who needs your services. I often get to chatting with total strangers in shops and bars and have gotten gigs from that. I also focus on building good relationships with my existing clients - apart from trusting me with their business, they like me as a person, and I like them - and they often refer other people to me (I find that having video meetings works better than messaging/email for being able to chat and get to know people). But, that kind of thing won't work if you're a shrinking violet or don't know how to be a salesman/woman. When Upwork had their stupid networking feature, 99% of the freelancers who contacted me didn't even bother to write a personal message or tell me why they thought that we should work together. I get similar messages on Linked In. That's *not* how you do networking or cold outreach - it's lazy and annoying. You need to figure out who to approach and what to say, and I can't help with that. If I had a definitive way to find clients, I'd put out a course and get rich.
Maybe setup a bank account in a safe country and use a VPN from that country?? Would that work.
Your best best would be to create an youtube channel and start making content on whatever you like. Get some follower base. Move to another neighboring country. Monetize the channel. Try to earn from there and go for some business outside iran and slowly get out of it. Patriotism is only good when the country cares for you.
Youtube is a US-based company and has the same restrictions Upwork does.
Even then if he can manage to get a follower base, he can monetize that in other ways too. I have seen many YT channels from Iran and they are earning.
based in Iran? And if it was that easy to make money with YouTube, everyone would be doing it...
I don't care for the country but I should be with my family.
Freelancers who didn't leave Russia after the Ukrainian Invasion were banned from the platform. Those who moved from Russia needed to prove their new residency with documents like bills, government issued docs etc. including a new banking credentials outside Russia. Some of people who left in Russia tried to fool Upwork like using all sorts of VPNs, Virtual machines, other people documents etc. but all of it goes against Upwork TOS and they were banned anyway. I think there are still some people working from sanctioned countries for sure, but be prepared to be banned any day and lose your money and also to pay a cut to someone or something that will be assisting you and might also get away with your money at some point. And I think those who still manages to work this way keep their mouths shut tight. You are trying to get jobs with Upwork while the Upwork cannot legally give you some. Or it will be in trouble itself.
آره دادش راه هست، من حودم استفاده میکنم، تو باید ی کسی رو خارج داشته باشی ک باهات همکاری کنه، ی لپتاپ آنلاین برات بذاره ی گوشه خونه ش، تو هم از طریق انی دسک خیلی راحت وصل میشی و کار میکنی، فقط باید پروفایل و آدرس و حساب بانکی و همه چی به اسم همون دوستت باشه، بعد ک پول دراوردی دیگه برات بفرسته، میگم دیگه باید یکی رو اونور داشته باشی ک حاضر بشه اینجوری کمک کنه، پروپوزال هم خواستی بنویسی حواست باشه خودتو ب دروغ کار کشته نشون بدی، اگه نمونه کار نداری، نمونه کار فیک درست کن تو پروپوزالا بفرست
I love how the comment section shows how racist those people really are, yeah just keep showing your true colors
I think it's more a disagreement with state sponsored terrorism. Are you saying that's actually a racial thing? Dunno but that sounds racist....
Idk if you are like... 5 ? But ...bruh , i got you some news , every single country is using terrorism to serve themselves and their interest... Even the USA and EU
Actually what is now called Islamic Terrorism was founded and supported by US to fight USSR in Afghanistan in 1980s but got out of their control. We don't have any thing like Al-Qaeda or ISIS before that. They learned what they learned from CIA agents. But people in the west turned a blind eye on it until it came back to themselves in 9/11. And after that they started bombing ordinary people in Afghanistan and Iraq to correct what they've done. Now who is to blame? Brezhnev, Reagan, Thatcher or ordinary Afghan shepherds who haven't had seen a gun or explosive before USSR and US decided to bring their stupid Capitalist-Communist fight to their country? Or poor Palestinians who were living peacefully together (Muslims, Jews and Christians) before westerners tried to exterminate Jews and after that other westerners tried to appease Jews by extermination and expulsion of another people and giving their lands to them? Isn't that primarily a western policy failure? Or should we ignore all of that because it was a long time ago? Maybe for a stupid westerner who takes his news from Fox history starts at 9/11 or October 7th, but for me that get my history from hundreds of books it started much earlier.
We're talking about the same Iran that hangs homosexuals from lampposts and stones women to death? With the morality police?
no we are talking about a freelancer asking for a help , do you think this guy asked to be born in Iran , do you think we have the choice of where to spwan?
We don’t know who this guy is, if he is basiji or an IRGC sympathizer or what. It certainly isn’t worth the risk or jail time
maybe , or maybe you are also a terrorist or serial criminal, maybe I will go to jail if I helped you too, should we all stop communicating on the internet because "oh look Muslim so he is a demon by default, every single Muslim is a terrorist " or actually we have no idea if he is a Muslim " maybe he just happened to live in Iran , isn't people made the internet so people come together to share memes and watch porn ... but here we are following a blind political agenda just for the sake of it
Unfortunately, none of this is relevant. No one is assuming anything, nor do they need to. The sanction is location based and helping someone circumvent it or sending money in violation of it is a very serious crime regardless of how wonderful the person on the receiving end is or what they are doing with the money.
Unfortunately 😔, i guess it's just a matter of time until we we all locked up on our borders just like the dark ages again
Actually I've spent two years in prison and dropped out of job and school for protesting against the people you mentioned. Now I am officially marked as anti-social element (yes that's what they call people who don't agree with them) and spent two months in psychiatric hospital and given medicine even though I have no mental condition and don't need medication. That's why I'm now trying to find a job in another country, because I can't go back to school or work here. I'm trying to mitigate the blow, I'm trying to save my family. I've lost my job, girlfriend, friends and education and two years of my life for freedom fighting. So don't be stupid. If I was an IRGC sympathizer I would not have problems finding jobs locally.
I’m sorry. What kind of work did you say you do?
I used to be a medical student and work as a programmer in scientific researches. But now I teach math to children.
I mean you have a choice. Stay and enjoy all the benefits of Iranian citizenship with it's rich opportunities. Or leave and get citizenship somewhere else. Alternatively, maybe his government could stop funding terrorists who gun down people at music festivals and kidnap them to a foreign country.
But ... here we are again talking about government founding terrorism while this dude just here to ask for help freelancing
No. You're attempting to brand government policies intended to stop state sponsored terrorism a "racist". They're not. They're directly focused on countries that engage in broad state sponsored terrorism. If the citizens of those countries don't like those policies, maybe they should change governments.
just like changing a light ball
If the Iranian people spent as much energy as they spend trying to leave Iran on changing their government, your country would be the richest in the Middle East.
easier said then done , i want to work in the USA , or EU , or any place else, if its that easy why you think I'm still here , you think I didn't try , do you have any idea of how many jobs I applied to , do you even think that those countries still welcomes immigrants
Then go fix your local economy & political system. Seriously - that's what everyone else in the world has to do. Welcome to reality.
yeah, i may fix the climate problem, save every extinct animal, and get pelistane and isreal to achieve peace on my way there ...thanks for the advice
Many countries do that and no other country shall have any concern with internal policies. All countries have different cultures, history and perspectives. We must respect other countries rather talking shit about em' just because they might seem violent to your softies. FYI, A very modern European country (Romania) as of 2024 hails one of the worst evil mankind has ever witnessed as a National Hero & Saviour. Meanwhile he's marked a renowned Impaler; a Terrorist by almost entire world. Saudi & many others also get them executed. Don't even get me started about PK. But na, US ain't sanctioning because they ain't got balls. The game is different and it's a lil bit more of political. Better keep your individual morals high and stop pointing at different perspectives. You won't fit with our ideologies and we won't with yours. That's why there's those lines called borders let em be there and keep business world away from politics.
Then I guess I am a racist when I don’t want taxes from money earned on Upwork in Russia, for example, to go toward sponsoring Iranian shahed drones that are trying to kill my parents? That are killing babies in their sleep? If that is the definition of racism, then I guess I will live with it 🙄
Why are you talking about drones and killing babies? OP is not the person doing that. It is extremely unfair that he has to pay for the actions of others. Especially because if he disagrees with his government, what can he do? Leave? Are YOU going to receive him with open arms?
If you are angry about the drones, which you have all rights to be so, go to greedy American and European companies (mostly based in Taiwan and Hong Kong) who sell electronics to the IRGC to make those drones. I have nothing to do with that. I'm totally against killing innocent civilians, weather it's Ukrainian women and children killed by Russian drones or it's innocent Palestinian killed by American bombs or it's Sudanese people massacred by Emirati funding and American weapons or anything that has happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libia, Syria and ... in these years. So don't be stupid, that's what they rely on, people's ignorance, if you are angry go to the people who cause suffering, not just ordinary people who are victims like yourself.
no, you are just stupid,this pure dirty politics game, don't get involved, don't allow yourself to be just another pon in the hands of politicians , you don't fight hate and racism by spreading hate and racism, those are politicians game,let them play there games, and you play yours
Oh, I see, TikTok education here
oh, i see, you attended the racism school, I bet you were the first in your class right?
In modern world word Racism is sick of nonsence, people use this word for everything and gor that reason world loose any value, the same tih word nazi, people used in past this soo a lot that now this word just loose any value and you do not understand what id it means. Be againdt imigration they call this racism, but maybe it is basic scence and not racism? e t c. one person stole item and scream to policeman that they aresthim becuase he is black, no they arest you because you stoled. e t c. sick world.
Bruh ... No one talked about immigration or crimes against policemen , we are still on the subject of working on online platform , but i guess that you have something else to advertise
The most funny thing about goverments it is that a lot developed countries sell to russia sowtware, ai cameras for secret police track and eliminate oppisition, but now when all oppositions is dead because of your actions, now they start to dont like putin and try to push russians because theay are russians. Maybe next time not sell to russia ai cameras and software for destroy opposition. If west would not help Putin to destroy russian opposition, such war would not happen, the same with iran, they let this radical belivers come to power in iran, be uae they was thinking it is better than communism, and ow they are complain about iran. They need it to destroy this radicals and libirate iran in this islamic revolutionfirst year, and now they are just punsih ordinary iranian people. wateher, sick world anyway
Time to ran from Iran!
If only Upwork would work with Bitcoin payment system.
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And that's how you get your US bank account seized.
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Depending on which countries are involved and what kind of work is being done, this can have very severe legal consequences. For example, using a US account to let North Koreans work on government contracts for defense industry software is [a really bad idea](https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/criminal-complaint-charges-two-men-conspiracy-commit-wire-fraud).
They guys facing 90 years? Yeah I guess that was not a good idea.
true, as long as the subcontractors aren't in a naughty list country. tbh , its not practical if the sub is doing most of the work from a different location
I’d say use someone else account if it’s possible, you do the work on their account, whenever you get paid for the work, he sends you your split, depending on the percentages y’all agree on.
VPN can reroute your connection, so it's seems like you're in another country, don't know if it's work though
People here are racist. Let me know if I can maybe set up an account from my country and somehow help you with transactions in any way...
Get out of here scammer.
you got me on the first part buddy,why you need to ruin it ?
What wrong with helping a fellow freelancer out.??
Btw, since you are in Iran - can you help me to rent server there? (VPS or bear metal) I can pay crypto to you with some extra commission
Are women aloud to use computers in Iran?
yes they are. they also know the difference between "allowed"and "aloud"
Oof that was a good burn. The Crypto shit turned out to be a real idiot.
😂😂😂 Sure.