Can anyone recommend a company that can give immigration/ work permit advice to contractors for short term business travel in multiple countries? I think there are loads of services like this but it's hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. What I'm looking for is a company I can use to outline my requirements for business travel and the nature of trip, and they will tell me if I need visas or work permits and support me in arranging them. I appreciate I will have to pay for this service, which is fine (I'll pass on to client). I also appreciate I *might* be able to do this myself without seeking advice but whether I'm prepared to do that will depend on a) which country and how complex I think the requirements may be and b) how much time I have, which is not much at the moment. Fundamentally I'm looking for a service that I can trust to give me peace of mind that I'm not going to inadvertently fall foul of immigration law in any country. I am hoping you guys are going to tell me that, as with accountants or with QDOS, there is one or a number of companies routinely used and recommended by CUK members. I've done a search though and I can't find anything.
Full explanation below for anyone with time/ inclination...
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I've recently started a contract with a large international company - or rather, contract is with an agency but the client is a large multinational. I was originally under the impression I'd be exclusively UK based (and I'm only contractually obliged to operate in the UK) but it now appears that there is likely to be some global travel needed. I'm happy with this, indeed keen. I'm a PM and am managing a UK team but will also now have oversight over some teams in other countries, and some of my team will be providing expertise and support to them. In some cases I will have a PM working for me who is overall responsible for the delivery in the other countries.
Some of the people on my team will be permies working for the client organisation. In their case, any immigration or work permit requirements will be fully supported by the client's systems and processes - the client has a 3rd party E&Y system that supports this. Individual plugs all their details in, explains purpose of visit to which country and exact details of activity to be performed, and it tells you whether you need any kind of visa or permit and if so it supports you to get it, including e.g. letter of invitation or whatever may be required to support. Clearly there is still shenanigans with the individual potentially having to send off passports or go to embassies or whatever but the client's systems and processes support it and track it.
When the subject of international travel first came up I was given the impression contractors should also use this system but it has just emerged we definitely can't and indeed the support team within the client company who manage it and support the processes have contractors and 3rd parties specifically out of scope - which I can understand in many ways.
We also have some consultants working on the team (Big 4) and as a 3rd party they are also excluded from the client's support but in their case they obviously have the support of their own massive global company so will be covered by similar processes and support there.
Which leaves the individual contractors out on something of a limb. This is a multinational that uses thousands of Limited Company contractors in the UK and our project uses many. On international travel there are several of us who are likely to be in this position - I am one, and some others work for me.
I had one international role before where I worked in Indonesia and there the client (to whom my limited company contracted directly, not via an agency) supported my visa and work permit requirements and sponsored me. So I've not been in this situation before.
The first country we're looking at is Switzerland which everyone takes for granted because it's in Europe, but it's not EU it's EEA and has recently tightened up its criteria. Although the UK government website implies UK nationals are visa-free for up to 90 days, when you dig into it further if you travel for business, depending on activities you may need a work permit. I've been for a one day meeting which was fine, but the next step is for me/ my team to lead weeks of workshops. This is something of a grey area - if we were to be based over there properly we'd definitely need full work permit etc, if we were attending a meeting we definitely don't, but this is in between. From my own investigation it appears this may need a work permit - and the Big 4 firm's internal advice agrees although acknowledges it's a grey area.
All of this is just an example of a scenario - the other countries we need to work with are likely to be tougher in many cases (Far East, US etc).
In principle I don't think there will be an issue with the client paying any costs associated with all of this, or indeed with people in international offices of the client providing sponsorship or letters of invitation or whatever - the issue is one of who is taking the responsibility. It's clear to me that so far people who have travelled have often done so taking some risks e.g. entering on tourist visa in some countries even though attending for business purposes - and I know that sometimes this is OK and sometimes not depending on the exact nature of the business activities undertaken. Since the travel is usually short term the risks are small but having gone into this kind of subject a lot when I worked in Indonesia, I think many (British) people are just oblivious to ever having to fulfil any kind of visa requirements and just ignore it. Since I'd like to continue doing this kind of role I don't ever want to be on the wrong side of this stuff so I'm not going to ignore it! In essence, I need to solve the problem for myself and also be able to offer pointers to other people on the team in the same situation.
Once I understand the position better, as part of the programme 'leadership team' I'm going to try and resolve the problem overall for the programme because I think they've just never twigged that they have this issue that the client company needs to help with (even if that help is only being willing to pay for contractors' expenses in using the type of service i'm looking for) - the current strategy is to resource a large programme with many contractors (they'd rather have permies but can't get enough) and it's gone international so if the programme doesn't resolve this stuff they're going to run into issues. But for now I just want to work out how I will handle what I am being asked to do personally..!
Full explanation below for anyone with time/ inclination...
--------------
I've recently started a contract with a large international company - or rather, contract is with an agency but the client is a large multinational. I was originally under the impression I'd be exclusively UK based (and I'm only contractually obliged to operate in the UK) but it now appears that there is likely to be some global travel needed. I'm happy with this, indeed keen. I'm a PM and am managing a UK team but will also now have oversight over some teams in other countries, and some of my team will be providing expertise and support to them. In some cases I will have a PM working for me who is overall responsible for the delivery in the other countries.
Some of the people on my team will be permies working for the client organisation. In their case, any immigration or work permit requirements will be fully supported by the client's systems and processes - the client has a 3rd party E&Y system that supports this. Individual plugs all their details in, explains purpose of visit to which country and exact details of activity to be performed, and it tells you whether you need any kind of visa or permit and if so it supports you to get it, including e.g. letter of invitation or whatever may be required to support. Clearly there is still shenanigans with the individual potentially having to send off passports or go to embassies or whatever but the client's systems and processes support it and track it.
When the subject of international travel first came up I was given the impression contractors should also use this system but it has just emerged we definitely can't and indeed the support team within the client company who manage it and support the processes have contractors and 3rd parties specifically out of scope - which I can understand in many ways.
We also have some consultants working on the team (Big 4) and as a 3rd party they are also excluded from the client's support but in their case they obviously have the support of their own massive global company so will be covered by similar processes and support there.
Which leaves the individual contractors out on something of a limb. This is a multinational that uses thousands of Limited Company contractors in the UK and our project uses many. On international travel there are several of us who are likely to be in this position - I am one, and some others work for me.
I had one international role before where I worked in Indonesia and there the client (to whom my limited company contracted directly, not via an agency) supported my visa and work permit requirements and sponsored me. So I've not been in this situation before.
The first country we're looking at is Switzerland which everyone takes for granted because it's in Europe, but it's not EU it's EEA and has recently tightened up its criteria. Although the UK government website implies UK nationals are visa-free for up to 90 days, when you dig into it further if you travel for business, depending on activities you may need a work permit. I've been for a one day meeting which was fine, but the next step is for me/ my team to lead weeks of workshops. This is something of a grey area - if we were to be based over there properly we'd definitely need full work permit etc, if we were attending a meeting we definitely don't, but this is in between. From my own investigation it appears this may need a work permit - and the Big 4 firm's internal advice agrees although acknowledges it's a grey area.
All of this is just an example of a scenario - the other countries we need to work with are likely to be tougher in many cases (Far East, US etc).
In principle I don't think there will be an issue with the client paying any costs associated with all of this, or indeed with people in international offices of the client providing sponsorship or letters of invitation or whatever - the issue is one of who is taking the responsibility. It's clear to me that so far people who have travelled have often done so taking some risks e.g. entering on tourist visa in some countries even though attending for business purposes - and I know that sometimes this is OK and sometimes not depending on the exact nature of the business activities undertaken. Since the travel is usually short term the risks are small but having gone into this kind of subject a lot when I worked in Indonesia, I think many (British) people are just oblivious to ever having to fulfil any kind of visa requirements and just ignore it. Since I'd like to continue doing this kind of role I don't ever want to be on the wrong side of this stuff so I'm not going to ignore it! In essence, I need to solve the problem for myself and also be able to offer pointers to other people on the team in the same situation.
Once I understand the position better, as part of the programme 'leadership team' I'm going to try and resolve the problem overall for the programme because I think they've just never twigged that they have this issue that the client company needs to help with (even if that help is only being willing to pay for contractors' expenses in using the type of service i'm looking for) - the current strategy is to resource a large programme with many contractors (they'd rather have permies but can't get enough) and it's gone international so if the programme doesn't resolve this stuff they're going to run into issues. But for now I just want to work out how I will handle what I am being asked to do personally..!
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