PurposeThe unprecedented challenges brought about by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affected people's lives worldwide. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual model to explain how natural crisis events, such as COVID-19, cause stress and influence the psychological well-being (PWB) and performance of expatriates.Design/methodology/approachThe model presented in this conceptual paper is based on Bader and Berg's (2014) two-stage stress emergence and outcome model developed to study expatriates' performance in terrorism-endangered countries. The authors apply their model to natural crisis events and provide propositions to explain the postulated relationships.FindingsThe proposed model delineates the stressors that emerge from psychological and situational factors, and how they impact the PWB and performance of expatriates. The article emphasizes how resilience, social network, and support from the organization, supervisor, and family can help mitigate the adverse effects of stress on the PWB of expatriates. Furthermore, keeping in mind the prevailing situations due to COVID-19, the authors shed light on the indispensability of virtual collaboration in ameliorating expatriates' performance in challenging times.Practical implicationsImplications are discussed for organizations in devising plans and strategies to deal with unforeseen crisis events.Originality/valueThis study extends the expatriation literature to the events of natural crisis by incorporating the stress emergence-outcome model. In doing so, the authors identify the factors relevant to natural crises and apply them to understand how they could impact expatriates in such times.