How to choose

Choosing a route: five questions

1. Is it a salary or a contractor's invoice? Mexico and Brazil require salaries in local currency (Brazil treats any other as "not made"), and India codes salaries and service exports differently. "Pay them in dollars" only works as a contractor product.
2. How much, and how often? Small and urgent: a card or wallet, inside its caps. Recurring, in a major corridor: a local rail from a prefunded account. Large, rare or without a local partner: a wire.
3. Does the destination control its currency? India converts through authorized dealer banks with a purpose code; Brazil needs an FX contract and charges IOF, an FX tax (0.38% for individuals, 0% on service exports); Argentina now lets individual service exporters keep dollars.
4. Whose calendar must it land on? Brazil pays by the 5th business day counting Saturdays, India by the 7th, Mexico every 15 days. Fund before the earliest holiday in either country.
5. Who holds the money in between, under whose licence? In the US, money transmission unless an exemption fits; in Canada, registration under the Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA); abroad, a local partner's licence.

My defaults: an EOR until headcount justifies an entity; wires for large supplier payments and partnerless countries, after comparing what arrives; push-to-card for small or urgent payouts, with a bank fallback; stablecoins for treasury rebalancing, but not for paying people in Brazil without a licensed partner; short quote windows. For contractors I'd use local currency on local rails from prefunded accounts, and never pay before a W-8BEN is on file.