In the recent years, diaspora communities have begun to play an active role in policymaking, both in home and home countries. The rapid increase of the percentage of migrants and the desire of tired migrants to return in their countries of origin, as well as the desire to be able to take a more active role in the political life in the countries of origin represent the new challenges of the migration phenomenon. One of the most obvious and natural forms of diaspora political engagement is participation in the elections. Our study will explore the main extra-territorial voting patterns used in the world, providing a comparative framework of research and discusses the applicability of these models to Republic of Moldova, emphasizing the advantages and disadvantages, costs and benefits of each solution. The paper opens the important discussion about how we define diaspora and the role that can or should to play in domestic politics.