Boundary between Travel and Expats with regards to Work/Study

Question

There's a perception sometimes expressed in comments (and close votes) on Travel that any mention of work/study places the question off topic for travel, and on topic for expats. Others obviously disagree.

This question has been discussed before:

• This question considers the issue only with regards to digital nomads
• This question with respect to UK visa refusals (and appears to have been resolved with a change to expats policy) However, I'm interested in dicussiong how people are reacting at the moment (early 2016), specifically to mentions of work (and to a lesser degree study).

In priciple, I want to discuss whether the immediate reaction to mentions of working as necessarily deserving the "expats" tag, and whether question askers are genuinley better helped on expats as opposed to travel (realising there is of course, always an overlap of both users and topic).

Answer 1

From my point of view, the key difference is not any fixed duration, or the purpose of travel, but how the person in question will be experiencing the country.

• Where the person in question will be experiencing the country in a manner similar to a tourist - so staying in temporary accomodation, visiting on visas with clear expiries and would not be expected to be renewed or converted to residency. Traveling around in a non-regular manner so as to be unfamiliar with how things work constantly. Not having to worry about local taxation rules. This would be a Travel question.
• Where the person is likley to be staying in a conventional "home", and will be experiencing the country largley like an existing resident - ie regular commutes, worrying about local taxtion, would be considered to be "importing" their personal effects, etc. These questions would seem more suited to Expatriates part of Stack Exchange.

The implication of this is that even some long-term visas + visits, like a 1-year working holiday visa, could fall better under the scope of Travel than of Expatriates.