As trends of short-term assignments have increased, a new category of worker has emerged, “stealth expatriates” (expats). This term is used to describe employees who work in another country outside of the country’s official international assignment program— often without the knowledge of Human Resources. These stealth expats originate from a number of different sources: employees or short-term assignees who have extended their planned overseas visit due to business reasons: foreign nationals who have been hired locally but on a semi-expatriate package; cross-border commuters whose job responsibilities have been extended; employees who are sent on assignment by business leaders who do not understand company procedures.
Flying under the radar, stealth expats inadvertently increase the risk of noncompliance for themselves and for their employer in the areas of tax, immigration and employment laws. Consulting companies in particular are caught in the dilemma of balancing contract deadlines to avoid penalties with lengthy work permit application requirements in the host country. It has become the job of Human Resources to educate the stakeholders on the options available to transfer assignees into the host country as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is often accomplished by taking advantage of special immigration legislation aimed at allowing people with special skills to work in host countries. Human Resources also are responsible for the corporate governance requirements of their companies to build processes that bring stealth expats into their companies’ processes and mitigate risk.
Companies that consult on global relocation are now developing sophisticated tools and processes to help organizations identify and track stealth expats and bring them back into company processes while not disrupting the stealth expats’ valuable contribution to their organizations’ international businesses.
For more information, visit our resource library
Flying under the radar, stealth expats inadvertently increase the risk of noncompliance for themselves and for their employer in the areas of tax, immigration and employment laws. Consulting companies in particular are caught in the dilemma of balancing contract deadlines to avoid penalties with lengthy work permit application requirements in the host country. It has become the job of Human Resources to educate the stakeholders on the options available to transfer assignees into the host country as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is often accomplished by taking advantage of special immigration legislation aimed at allowing people with special skills to work in host countries. Human Resources also are responsible for the corporate governance requirements of their companies to build processes that bring stealth expats into their companies’ processes and mitigate risk.
Companies that consult on global relocation are now developing sophisticated tools and processes to help organizations identify and track stealth expats and bring them back into company processes while not disrupting the stealth expats’ valuable contribution to their organizations’ international businesses.
For more information, visit our resource library
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