Most failed overseas assignments fail for personal reasons, not professional ones. The employee can do the job. What breaks is the visa timeline, the tax position nobody checked, the spouse who cannot work, or the sense of having disappeared from the home office. Preparation covers all four.
Eight things to get right before someone goes, and one question worth asking first: does this role actually require relocating anyone? Last updated September 2026.
| Before departure | During the assignment |
|---|---|
| Pre-move and cultural training | Structured communication with the home team |
| Immigration and visa clearance | On-the-ground support for the practical setup |
| Tax position established in both countries | Home and host sponsors |
| Alignment meeting with all stakeholders | Family support, asked about regularly |
Worth asking before the rest of this applies.
Relocation is expensive, slow and disruptive, and it is often chosen because employing someone locally seemed impossible. If the real need is capability in that country rather than a specific person from head office, hiring locally through an Employer of Record achieves it in days, with no visa, no relocation package and no family upheaval.
Where relocation genuinely is the answer, and often it is, the following eight apply.
Research the specific requirements before anything else. Identify:
The first hard barrier, and the one most likely to delay a start date.
Border controls, visa categories, and short-term or permanent residency applications all have to align with immigration policy in both the home and host country. Processing times vary from weeks to many months, and the requirements change.
Our global immigration team handles this alongside employment. See also our guide to the UK work visa if that is the destination.
Ad hoc contact is how assignees drift out of view.
Set a rhythm: weekly check-ins, monthly reviews. Structure matters as much as frequency, because it makes what the assignee is learning visible to the home team rather than trapped with them.
The practical setup determines how quickly someone becomes productive. HR should be covering:
Tax is the one with legal consequences. An assignee's position can involve obligations in both countries, and getting it wrong creates liability for the employee as well as the company.
An Employer of Record employs the person locally and deducts tax at source, which removes most of this. Payroll mechanics across borders are covered in how to pay a global workforce.
Once residency, tax and logistics are settled, get the employee, the host manager and the home team in one conversation.
The purpose is to surface friction before it happens and to establish what each side expects of the other. Cover timelines, goals, what data gets collected, and how progress is reported.
Unstated expectations are the most common source of conflict on assignments, and they are cheap to resolve at this stage.
Assignments generate knowledge about a market that usually leaves with the person.
Write it down and circulate it. What worked, what surprised them, what they would do differently. The second assignment to that country should be materially easier than the first, and it will not be unless someone records why.
Email alone is not enough to keep someone connected to an organisation they are no longer physically in.
Assign named sponsors in both locations: points of contact or mentors who oversee the experience rather than just the output. They anchor the assignee to developments at home and give them someone to raise problems with in each place.
Choose home sponsors who have been expatriates themselves where possible. Most of this role is empathy rather than performance management, and people who have done it understand what is difficult.
The most common cause of failed assignments, and the least discussed.
Spouses who cannot work under the visa terms, children struggling to settle, isolation in a place where nobody speaks their language. Employees are often reluctant to raise any of it, because the assignment is a big investment and they do not want to appear ungrateful.
That reluctance means the people best placed to help are the last to know. Ask directly and regularly, and make it explicit that raising difficulties carries no judgement. Check that the accompanying partner's visa actually permits work, because that single detail ends more assignments than anything else on this list.
Employing someone in the country instead.
An Employer of Record legally employs staff where you have no entity, handling contracts, payroll, tax and compliance. No visa, no relocation package, no family disruption, and the person already understands the market.
It is not always right. Some assignments exist to transfer specific knowledge or to establish something only a trusted insider can. But it is worth testing the assumption before committing to a relocation, particularly since the two can be combined: local hires supported by one expatriate rather than several.
We handle employment, payroll, benefits, immigration and compliance across 214 countries and territories, for relocated employees and local hires alike.
Country requirements are in CountryPedia. Talk to our team about the assignment you are planning.
Most commonly for personal rather than professional reasons: family difficulty settling, a partner unable to work under the visa terms, isolation, or feeling disconnected from the home organisation. Performance is rarely the initial cause.
Immigration usually sets the timeline, and it ranges from weeks to many months depending on the country and visa category. Start the immigration process before committing to a start date, not after.
It depends on the countries involved, the length of the assignment and any treaty between them. An assignee may have obligations in both jurisdictions. This needs establishing before departure, since errors create liability for the employee as well as the employer.
Hire locally if what you need is capability in that market. Relocate if you need specific knowledge transferred or a trusted person establishing something new. An Employer of Record makes local hiring possible without an entity, so the choice is genuinely open rather than forced by structure.
Practical help with accommodation, schools, healthcare and banking, plus confirmation that an accompanying partner's visa permits work. Ask regularly and explicitly, because employees frequently will not raise these issues unprompted.
Named sponsors in both locations and a fixed communication rhythm. Weekly check-ins and monthly reviews work better than ad hoc contact, which tends to decay as the assignment goes on.