Your first overseas assignment: where to begin
Five conversations to have before committing to an arrival date.
Read the guideInsights & PerspectivesPerspective for
Perspective for
your next move.
51 analyses, planning guides and comparisons for people making cross-border decisions, organised by theme. Each is written against official sources and the mobility capital framework.
Planning guides
Corporate mobility collection
One project. Multiple deployment waves.
A practical framework for coordinating people, documents and project milestones.
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A new market starts with your first team
Connect operational readiness with the sequence of your first overseas appointments.
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Before the flight: understand the activity
Why short trips still need a clear description of the work involved.
Read the guideThese original planning notes explain coordination questions. They are not individual legal, tax or immigration advice.
Magellan Global × WG
Mobility capital and sequencing
Canada or the United States for an Asian family's next generation: a structural comparison
The two countries look alike from Singapore or Taipei and behave very differently once a family is inside the system. The differences are structural, not a matter of processing times.
Read the analysisSubstance over form: what nine immigration authorities actually test
The wording differs in every jurisdiction. The question does not.
Read the analysisThe twelve-month decision point
A year into a first station, the facts that decide the second are known. Decide, and write it down.
Read the analysisThe two-station model: four worked sequences
Hypothetical sequences, drawn to show how the pieces fit. Every real case is assessed on its own facts.
Read the analysisWhat mobility capital returns to the origin country
The case for mobility has to be made to the country the person leaves, not only to the one they join.
Read the analysisHong Kong as a first station: speed versus substance
A four-week visa is an invitation to build something, not a substitute for having built it.
Read the analysisTokyo as a first station: what a year of real work in Japan builds
Japan is a demanding first posting, and the demands are precisely what make the year portable.
Read the analysisSingapore as first station for a successor headed to North America
The route to a United States or Canadian affiliate often runs through a year of genuine management somewhere else. Singapore is built for that year.
Read the analysisWG Corporate
Corporate mobility and compliance
From intra-company transfer to Express Entry: the twelve-month path
A transfer permit is temporary; the experience it produces is what the federal system rewards. The path is twelve months long, but only if it is planned from the first day.
Read the analysisExpress Entry category-based draws: what they mean for employers
The federal system now selects by occupation and by wage band as well as by score. For an employer, that changes which hires can stay and how the offer should be written.
Read the analysisSetting up a Canadian subsidiary for an intra-company transfer: the genuineness tests
Incorporating a company in Canada takes a day. Satisfying an officer that it is a qualifying enterprise within a multinational, with a real role for the transferee, takes a plan and evidence.
Read the analysisWhy nominal placement fails twice
It fails the authority. It fails the person. Neither failure is a technicality.
Read the analysisAI transformation and the insider advantage
The technology can be bought. The person who can change the enterprise cannot.
Read the analysisThe evidence pack explained
Filing should be assembly, not archaeology.
Read the analysisGEP intra-company transfers: what the Immigration Department expects
The facilitation measure removes the recruitment exercise, not the substance tests.
Read the analysisTechTAS and the innovation talent pipeline
A two-week visa route for R&D hires, provided the R&D is real and in Hong Kong.
Read the analysisDispatch, contracting or secondment: structuring foreign assignees in Japan
The contract's title does not decide the structure; who directs the work does.
Read the analysisCOMPASS explained for employers: how to plan an Employment Pass application
Half of a COMPASS score is about the firm, not the candidate. Employers who understand that plan differently.
Read the analysisFair Consideration Framework: what MOM tests in practice
The advertisement is the visible part. What MOM actually tests is whether the firm's hiring, taken as a whole, favours foreigners over Singaporeans.
Read the analysisSkilled Worker after the 2025 rules: what sponsors must reassess
The route survived the 2025 reforms, but the assumptions on which most sponsor programmes were built did not.
Read the analysisGlobal Business Mobility: when an intra-company transfer to the UK makes sense, and when it does not
The transfer route is designed for assignments that end. Groups that use it for people who are meant to stay pay for the mistake in years.
Read the analysisFrom L-1A to EB-1C: why the overseas managerial year decides the case
Both classifications turn on a single year of real management abroad; the difference lies in when the year is counted and what the US business must have become by the time the immigrant petition is filed.
Read the analysisWhen the H-1B registration fails: a decision framework for employers
The weighted selection and the entry proclamation have made H-1B less predictable; the alternatives each depend on a different fact about the candidate or the employer, and the framework is to find which fact you have.
Read the analysisMaintaining status: what USCIS, consulates and site visits actually test
Approval is a finding about facts as described; status is maintained by keeping the facts true, and the authorities have several ways of checking.
Read the analysisWG Signature
Talent and founder routes
From Vancouver to the United States: using Canada as a second station
Canada is the only destination in this series whose citizenship carries a treaty route into the United States. The route is real, but it rewards patience and punishes a half-finished Canadian stage.
Read the analysisEmployer-bound and person-bound routes: using the first to earn the second
The quick route belongs to the employer. The durable one belongs to the person. The plan is to use one to earn the other.
Read the analysisCountry of birth and the route map
Two identical people, born in different countries, face different route maps. Say so at the first meeting.
Read the analysisTop Talent Pass renewal: what counts as genuine employment
The first permission is about who you were; the extension is about what you have actually done in Hong Kong.
Read the analysisHSP points: how to reach 70 and 80 without gaming the table
The table is public and arithmetic; the authority examines whether each point is true.
Read the analysisBusiness Manager visa after the 2025 reforms: what founders must now show
The route now tests whether a real company exists before the founder arrives, not after.
Read the analysisONE Pass and the person-bound model of work authorisation
Most work permissions belong to the job. The ONE Pass belongs to the person, and that changes what the holder can build with it.
Read the analysisInnovator Founder endorsement: what endorsing bodies actually test
The visa application is the formal step. The endorsement is the hearing, and most refusals happen there.
Read the analysisO-1 agent petitions: how one filing can cover several employers
The agent route exists for people whose work does not fit a single employer; it works only when the engagements are real, scheduled and documented before the petition is filed.
Read the analysisChina and India priority dates: how the backlog changes the route
The per-country limit turns a question of eligibility into a question of queues; for applicants born in China or India, category choice, early priority dates and a parallel plan matter more than the strength of any single petition.
Read the analysisWG Private
Families, residence and tax
Spousal work permits in Canada after the 2025 changes
The open work permit for a spouse used to follow almost any work permit. Since January 2025 it follows the principal applicant's occupation, programme and remaining permit length.
Read the analysisStudy abroad versus real work: what each builds
A degree opens a door. A job walks through it.
Read the analysisSeven years to the right of abode: managing absences and ordinary residence
The test is not how long the visa lasted; it is whether Hong Kong was, in fact, where you lived.
Read the analysisHong Kong family offices and the successor question
The structure can hold the assets in Hong Kong; the successor still needs seven years of their own.
Read the analysisJapan permanent residence in one year: the HSP 80-point route explained
The residence period shrinks; nothing else does.
Read the analysisFamily life in Japan: schools, health insurance and tax for assignees
Each family member holds their own status, and the household's record is read as one.
Read the analysisBuilding a Singapore family office with a successor inside it
A family office is usually designed around assets. Designed around a person, it becomes a training ground as well as a vehicle.
Read the analysisDependants in Singapore: work, study and National Service
The main pass holder's route is only half the family's plan. The other half is what the spouse can do, where the children study, and what PR means for a son.
Read the analysisLondon as a base for Asian family enterprises: mobility, tax and substance
The UK has no investor visa. A family that wants London must build something there, and the immigration, tax and corporate tests all ask the same question: is it real?
Read the analysisMalta after the CJEU judgment: what remains and what changed
The judgment ended one product and left a jurisdiction. Families should understand exactly which is which.
Read the analysisILR absences and the moving executive
Settlement is lost one business trip at a time. The remedy is a ledger kept from the first day, and a travel policy that respects three different clocks.
Read the analysisUS dependants: work, study and healthcare rights by visa category
The principal's classification decides whether a spouse can work on arrival, after a wait, or not at all; for many families that single fact outweighs the differences between the routes themselves.
Read the analysisYour next chapter
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