This article examines offshore doctoral students' challenges and opportunities to negotiate their doctoral identity development during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study draws on collaborative autoethnographic texts from the authors' diaries and a reflective discussion to understand how two offshore doctoral students negotiated their development of doctoral identity facing the pandemic. Informed by a conceptualisation of doctoral identity and distance, we explore challenges and opportunities. Results indicate that staying offshore can bring identity anxiety and a diluted sense of belonging to doctoral students, but they can control their identity by establishing caring relationships among themselves and with others. The conclusion suggests the importance of strengthening doctoral identity in a reflective and caring way to mediate COVID-19's impact.