When a great candidate is stuck behind immigration timelines, momentum dies. You lose people to faster offers, teams stall, and hiring managers start improvising. The fix isn’t a single route: it’s choosing the fastest compliant route for this role, in this country right now, and having the paperwork ready before the interview loop ends.
Summary – the decision in one read
If you need someone working in-country in under 6-8 weeks, and you don’t have an entity there, hire through an Employer of Record (EOR) and move. If you already employ the person in Country A and must relocate them to Country B for strategic reasons, look at either an EOR or an Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) via your entity or PEO in B. If the candidate must sit as your own entity and you can afford lead time, run a work visa with counsel and plan the start date accordingly. Build route selector so Talent can choose in days, not months.
What are we solving for? Speed, location or structure??
Every fast-track decision starts with three truths:
- Speed to productivity. When does the team actually need this person working?
- Legal location. Where must the work legally happen: candidate’s country, your customer’s country, or anywhere?
- Future structure. Will this become a hub that needs an entity, or is it a single hire?
Write those on an intake form. Half of the “immigration crisis” disappears when you tackle them out loud.
When is EOR the right answer?
EOR is the cleanest way to employ someone now in a country where you don’t have an entity. It gives you a local, compliant employment contract, payroll, benefits and statutory reporting. The person can start as soon as background checks and onboarding complete.
Use EOR when:
- You need 0-20 hires in a country within a quarter
- The work can be done where the candidate already lives
- You want to test the market without adding fixed costs
EOR is not a visa. It won’t move a person across borders. It’s how you employ them where they are while you decide whether the country becomes strategic. Tie this to a 90-day review: if demand concentrates, graduates to a PEO or entity and switch cleanly.
Useful links: EOR Services. Global Expansion Without Entities
When should we run a work visa?
Run a visa when the business case requires the person to work in a specific country (customer access, regulated work, on-site equipment), and you can live with the lead time. Visas vary by country, role, salary and sponsorship status. The discipline is to decide early and sequence everything around the likely start date.
Good candidates for a visa route:
- Strategic leaders who must be co-located with a team or customer
- Employees tied to sensitive data or hardware that cannot be accessed remotely
- Roles where in-country presence is part of the commercial value
Don’t improvise timelines. Ask counsel for a range and communicate it in writing to candidate and manager. If the range is too long, keep momentum with a remote EOR hire in the candidates country or a temporary contract if lawful.
Where do Intra-Company Transfers fit?
ICTs are useful when you already employ someone and need them moved to a different country, usually to your own entity. They’re strong for internal moves and can be faster than a fresh outsider-hire visa, but they still require compliance, salary thresholds, and employer sponsorship. If you don’t have an entity in the destination country, and ICT isn’t available; consider PEO or stand up the entity if this is the next hub.
Use ICT when:
- The employee’s knowledge is the asset and must move
- You already meet sponsor requirements in the destination country
- The receiving team is permanent, not an experiment
The route selector your team can run this week
Start with four questions. If any answer is “no” follow the sequence.
- Must the work legally happen in country X?
Yes: Can we start with the visa/ICT timeline? If not, negotiate start scope or consider a temporary remote stint
No: Go to 2 - Does the candidate already live in a country we can employ through EOR?
Yes: Hire via EOR, set a 90-day review to decide on entity/PEO
No: Go to 3 - Do we have an entity or PEO in the needed country?
Yes: Choose visa (new hire) or ICT (internal move).
No: Go to 4 - Is this the start of a hub (>5 heads in 12 months)?
Yes: Open entity or use PEO and plan visas with counsel; bridge with EOR where possible
No: Re-scope work to the candidate’s current country and hire via EOR, or change the geography of the role.
What to prepare before the offer (so you don’t lose them)
- Document pack ready on day one: role scope, comp band, benefits, start date options for each route (EOR start vs visa start), and a plain-English one-pager so the candidate knows what each path means.
- Country fact sheet: working hours, holidays, statutory benefits, probation/notice, and any salary thresholds that impact visas.
- Payroll calendar: align cut-offs now so start dates don’t miss first payroll
- Background checks with consent (partner with Veremark if you want this)
- Sponsor status: if you’re likely to do visas this year, get your sponsorship in place before you need it.
Typical edge cases
- The manager wants relocation, the candidate can’t wait.
Hire via EOR in the current country, agree a target relocation quarter, and run visa prep in the background. Put both start dates in the offer.
- The role is customer-facing and must be on-site within 4 weeks.
If an ICT/ visa can’t hit the date, hire a regional interim via EOR to cover the customer while you run the relocation for the long-term owner.
- We started a visa, the team changed their mind
Close the loop with counsel, update the candidate with a new route (EOR or different location), and keep all decisions in writing. Candidates remember clarity,
