Two families of routes
Most work-based immigration routes are bound to an employer. The United States' L-1 and H-1B, Canada's employer-specific permits, the United Kingdom's Skilled Worker, Singapore's Employment Pass, Australia's 482, Japan's ordinary work statuses: in each, the status exists because of the job and ends, or must be re-applied for, when the job ends. A smaller family of routes attaches to the person: Singapore's ONE Pass and Personalised Employment Pass, Japan's Highly Skilled Professional (ii), the United Kingdom's Global Talent, the United States' O-1 filed through an agent, and permanent residence in every system.
What each is good for
Employer-bound routes are usually faster to obtain and, because they are tied to a specific organisation, they are where enterprise knowledge is built. They are the natural first station. Person-bound routes confer optionality: a change of employer, several employers at once, the freedom to found something. They are the natural second station or end point. The mistake is to want the second kind first. The person-bound routes are earned: the ONE Pass requires an income or achievement record, the Global Talent visa requires endorsement on a record of work, the O-1 requires evidence of extraordinary ability, and permanent residence everywhere requires years of lawful presence and, usually, employment.
The sequence
An employer-bound first station builds the record. The record qualifies the person for a person-bound route or for permanence. Between the two sits a transition that each system handles differently. In the United States, the adjustment-of-status portability rule lets a person whose permanent-residence application has been pending for 180 days change employer in the same or a similar occupation; it is the most important optionality mechanism in that system and WG plans around it explicitly. In Canada, permanent residence itself ends the employer bond. In Singapore, the move from an Employment Pass to a ONE Pass or permanent residence depends on the record built on the pass.
A caution about shortcuts
Routes that appear to offer a person-bound status without a record of work exist, and most of them are investment-based. They acquire the opportunity component of mobility capital without the knowledge and cognition components, and in several jurisdictions they have been narrowed, suspended or struck down in recent years. For a family that wants a successor who can run an enterprise in a second country, they are not a substitute for the sequence; at most they are a supplement to it.
General information, not an individual eligibility decision or legal, tax or investment advice. The competent authority determines the outcome. WG’s engagement and any regulated professional work are scoped separately.