Managing an international workforce is more than simply moving employees from one country to another. Immigration laws, visa requirements, tax obligations and long-term employment rules increasingly influence the considerations companies weigh as they deploy talent across borders.
“Global mobility” generally refers to the movement of employees across borders through assignments, relocations, permanent transfers and international hiring. As organizations restructure and budgets tighten, corporate travel teams are increasingly finding themselves involved in questions that once belonged squarely to Human Resources, Immigration/Legal or Global Mobility.
This growing convergence between travel and mobility does not mean travel managers should take ownership of every aspect of global mobility. Rather, their role is more about recognizing when a business trip may be moving outside the boundaries of traditional transient travel and into global mobility territory.
With an Eye to the Future
Increasingly, travel managers are looking beyond the immediate itinerary and considering what the employee’s broader activity might mean for the organization. This larger perspective also positions travel managers to recognize workforce mobility as a strategic business function.
“Although cost reduction and geopolitical uncertainty may be causing some organizations to reconsider traditional relocation and assignment activity, access to international talent remains strategically important,” says Nan Park, SVP of immigration at Newland Chase/CIBT, which provides visa, immigration and document services.. “Companies are increasingly evaluating whether a long-term assignment, permanent transfer, commuter arrangement or series of properly structured short-term trips best supports the business need.”
For example, suppose a company needs specialized engineers in the US. It begins discerning which workforce model best supports the business need by asking basic questions such as: Does the work genuinely need to be performed in-country? Is this knowledge transfer, project delivery, leadership development, trying to fill a skills gap or establishing longer-term organizational capability? Is the approach sustainable?
As a result, it may establish a smaller US-based team supported by short-term visits from specialists overseas, rather than permanently relocating 10 or 20 employees. No doubt, costs affect the equation: According to a 2025 KPMG Global Mobility Benchmarking Report, 70 percent of respondents are leveraging these kinds of short-term assignments, often as a lower-cost alternative to traditional long-term moves.
The Evolving Role of Travel
But a short-term assignment does not necessarily mean a simple assignment. “Travel managers do not need to become immigration or employment law specialists, but they should put in processes that identify when expert guidance is required,” says Jennifer Fackelman, global commercial director at Fragomen, a firm specializing in international immigration law. Some of these processes involve “scheduling” triggers such as repeated travel to the same location, cumulative days in-country, or situations in which dependents begin to enter the picture.
The triggers are best identified, ideally, “before the risk materializes – not when somebody realizes an employee has already spent 140 days in a country,” cautions Karen Hamady, consultant and former global mobility manager at Chevron. “For example, an employee can start as a traveler and, without anyone deliberately deciding it, accumulate immigration, tax, employment, payroll, corporate tax, duty-of-care and even family implications. The danger is that every individual trip can look perfectly reasonable while the aggregate activity creates the exposure.”
That collective effect is one of the clearest examples of why the distinction between business travel and global mobility is becoming less straightforward.
According to Fackelman, the traditional travel management playbook is no longer sufficient in an environment where business travel, immigration, relocation and global mobility increasingly intersect. “Employee duty of care cannot be separated entirely from immigration and employment compliance. Sending an employee abroad without the correct immigration status or access to support creates risk for both the individual and the organization, particularly in today’s environment of increased border scrutiny and enforcement.”
Handling Duty of Care
Cumulative risk also changes how companies think about duty of care. “As immigration regulations have become more dynamic and complex, we have become more vigilant regarding duty of care,” explains David Smith, travel, immigration and relocation manager, at Amdocs Americas. “This includes more closely monitoring cumulative days spent in-country, identifying frequent travelers entering higher-risk destinations, and providing improved guidance and communication on entry requirements.”
Other factors can change the risk profile of an otherwise routine business trip, affecting duty of care obligations as well. For example, previous travel to certain countries can affect visa-waiver eligibility or trigger additional border questioning, even when a booking system confirms the employee is allowed to board. Stricter border controls may require employees to carry documentation proving legitimate business travel when returning to their country of residence. As searches of travelers’ electronic devices have increased, travel managers are coordinating with their company’s security, privacy and legal teams to prepare employees with the appropriate response.
The result is a broader definition of duty of care that’s everyone’s responsibility – one that extends beyond knowing just where an employee is, to understanding what support is available if circumstances change. It also reinforces why travel managers can no longer operate in isolation.
“We ultimately adopted a hybrid mobility model, bringing in a relocation management company (RMC), while maintaining oversight through our regional mobility focal points,” explains Smith. “This approach allows us to leverage the expertise and scalability of the RMC while retaining local knowledge and control. In addition, the RMC utilizes our travel management company for relocation-related travel, allowing us to leverage our existing travel program and drive greater consistency, service quality and cost efficiency across both travel and mobility.”
While outsourcing can be valuable, it does not eliminate the need for internal ownership, Hamady cautions. “An RMC can execute and coordinate a tremendous amount, but someone still needs to determine what populations are covered, what exceptions are appropriate, what risks are present, and whether the solution actually supports the business and the employee. Regional focal points can work extremely well – provided there is central governance and clear escalation criteria,” she warns. “Otherwise, you’ve simply decentralized ambiguity.”
Ownership Matters
The question of ownership is critical because managing an international workforce can bring complex issues involving immigration and individual income tax, making even seemingly straightforward cross-border travel decisions thornier. At the recent Houston chapter meeting of the Forum for Expatriate Management (FEM), organized by Rui Diemart, managing director at KPMG, tax implications were discussed repeatedly.
“Regardless of how organizations reimburse assignees for tax related expenses when they’re on assignment, or how tax equalization makes sense for those employees being sent abroad but headquartered in the USA, the center point remains removing tax barriers in mobility. An assignee shouldn’t have to decide whether to take an assignment or not based on tax,” said Nita Patel, partner at KPMG.
Other issues, such as short-term remote work, can also create hurdles involving immigration authorization, payroll withholding and corporate tax exposure. For example, companies are increasingly implementing tracking and guardrails for cross-border remote work. According to the 2025 Deloitte Business Travel and Remote Work Survey, over half (54 percent) of organizations have manual tracking while the rest (46 percent) do not. Long-term workforce timelines may also need to be scheduled around major visa cycles, such as the US H-1B filing season.
Another major concern for travel managers is the employee experience, which extends far beyond the flight and hotel. Global mobility expands the scope of that experience to include the practical realities of working in another country. “Employees need clarity around healthcare, family support, housing, taxation, personal security and what happens if regulations or geopolitical conditions change unexpectedly,” advises Katie Virtue, a consultant with TEMOJI Consulting. “The most effective mobility programs will balance compliance with consideration for these aspects.”
Breaking Out of the Silos
An outstanding challenge travel managers face is that no single department necessarily has full visibility into the entire mobility picture. “Travel managers often do not have access to an employee’s nationality, immigration status or residency information because of privacy and data-governance restrictions,” says Park. “Nevertheless, they are increasingly being asked to help ensure that appropriate pre-travel assessments occur before employees cross borders,” he says.
“Human Resources may hold nationality, compensation and family information. Global Mobility may only track employees who are currently relocating or on expat assignments. Travel may know where an employee is going but not the person’s immigration status or ability to return to their country of residence. Security may monitor destination risk without knowing whether a traveler is particularly vulnerable because of nationality, visa status or travel history,” Park explains.
The issue becomes especially apparent when organizations look at multiple trips collectively rather than individually. Travel managers may assume that a series of individually approved business trips is simpler and cheaper than putting a formal mobility arrangement in place.
However, until clear ownership is defined, cross-functional escalation protocols are launched, and data is shared, that assumption may not be true. “For example, in conversations with travel buyers, I have heard growing concern about employees unintentionally crossing the line from business travel into employment or immigration risk. One buyer described employees traveling repeatedly to the same market for projects, with each trip approved individually and appearing compliant. However, when the trips were viewed collectively, the employee had spent a significant amount of time working in that country, potentially creating immigration, tax and permanent establishment implications,” Virtue says.
No one could anticipate these violations because travel, HR, tax and immigration teams were each seeing only one part of the picture.
Travel Manager in the Middle
This fragmentation is forcing travel managers to quickly learn who should be brought into the conversation when mobility questions arise. Today’s travel manager is becoming a cross-functional connector, Park points out, with links to HR, mobility, immigration, finance and tax, risk and security, legal, and government affairs. “The modern travel manager’s value lies in recognizing the risk, bringing the right stakeholders together and determining where internal capabilities end and specialist support is required.”
As the travel manager’s role shapeshifts, buyers and suppliers are both bracing for more change. “Governments are gaining access to richer traveler information, digital border systems and AI-enabled tools that can help identify inconsistencies between travel activity, immigration status and tax reporting,” Virtue says. “For suppliers, that creates an opportunity to move beyond processing individual travel or relocation transactions and help clients connect the full mobility journey. Buyers will increasingly value partners that can integrate travel, immigration, relocation, risk and employee-support data into a clear, proactive experience,” Park says.
As an organization considers what cross-border employee movements mean as a long-term workforce strategy, the modern travel manager strategically shifts into becoming “the connective tissue” across mobility functions. “Travel and mobility are distinct disciplines because they solve different problems,” explains Hamady. “But the information, triggers and governance connecting them need to become much tighter.”
