Secondment or expatriation of a foreign employee
International Staff Mobility
An explanation of the concepts
There are two types of international mobility that permit an employee to work abroad: secondment and expatriation. However, each framework has different requirements and legal ramifications.
Secondment
When an employee is temporarily transferred to work overseas while still being under the control of their original employer, the process is referred to as secondment. Short-term, geographically and temporally constrained missions typically require this type of overseas assignment.
In this situation, the home company is still legally liable for its obligations, especially with regard to compensation, social protection, and taxes, while the employee retains their original employment contract.
Expatriation
When an employee is moved to another nation in a more permanent or semi-permanent manner, this process is referred to as expatriation. They might be hired by a company subsidiary in the host nation, or their employment contract might be amended to include new terms pertaining to the overseas assignment.
Expatriation is frequently viewed as a longer-term solution, in contrast to secondment. It may result in a long-term stay in the host nation or even a permanent relocation.
GMBA offers you support in your assignments lasting more than 6 months in order to allow the mobility of your human resource. The complexity of this subject requires continual warning of the rules of both the country of origin and the host country. You need to ensure that your employees situation complies with both the regulations of the country of origin and the host country from an employment, social and taxation point of view. Before they leave, you need to complete all necessary formalities with social security authorities and additional social protection bodies and settle questions relating to the contractual status of your employees.
Our GMBA team assists in managing your business
- Procedures to be undertaken with social protection bodies (certificate A1 applications and other declarations and registrations with the CFE “Caisse des Français de l’étranger” retirement pension scheme and IRCAFEX “l’Institution de retraite des cadres expatriés” international pension scheme
- An estimate of the cost of your proposed mobility and its management
- Drawing up an amendment to the local employment contract
- Operational advice on the employer’s obligations in expatriation and secondment situations (possible residence permit or visa to be applied for, medical examination and vaccinations and responsibility for costs, moving and housing employees abroad, paying salaries etc.
- Payroll management in the host country by an Allinial Global partner firm
- Arrangements for taxation and the payment of income tax along with all necessary declarations
- Managing retentions at source and social charge declarations
Your dedicated team for managing foreign employees
In order to guarantee you reliable and qualitative support, we provide you with dedicated payroll managers, supported if necessary by our team of HR consultants. The skills of our multidisciplinary team dedicated to the international market (accountants, tax specialists, lawyers, HR consultants) will be made available to you over time. Our expertise, based on years of experience in supporting international companies, as well as the technical support of our counterparts who are members of Allinial Global in more than 130 countries, reinforce our added value. Ensuring the international mobility of your employees when one of them is posted or expatriated abroad is a service that GMBA can provide to you.
