Permits for partners – a passport to mobility

In recent years, several surveys, including ECA’s latest Managing Mobility survey, have shown partner career issues to be the main reason for staff turning down expatriate assignments. Our own research has shown that work permits for spouses and partners are one of the keys to location attractiveness for highly skilled international staff. In fact, almost 60 per cent of spouses say that they would be unlikely to relocate in future to a country where it is difficult for a spouse or partner to get a work permit. To attract internationally mobile staff, companies and organisations are increasingly having to reassure employees that their partners may be able to work in the host country.

 

Permits Foundation has been promoting open work permits or authorisation for legally resident expatriate spouses or partners since 2001 and while we have seen a number of changes this is still very much an area that can be improved on in many countries.

There is a whole range of issues making it particularly challenging for the partner to pursue their career whilst accompanying an assignee. Whereas the employee usually transfers within his or her company as part of a career plan, the partners have to uproot themselves from their current job and company. They may have no professional network in the new country and the market for their skills may be completely different.

 

Looking for a new job can be difficult under any circumstances but factor in an unfamiliar location, foreign qualifications that may not be recognised at the same level, possible language difficulties or culture clashes, and the process becomes even harder. Particularly so if competing with well-qualified local staff for whom a company doesn’t need to apply for a work permit. If a company does, however, agree to apply for the permit, there is then the inevitable wait for it to be granted. And all of this needs to tie in with the timings of the assignee’s move as well.

 

Enabling partners to have immediate access to the employment market once they have obtained their accompanying family member visa brings enormous benefits. If employers can demonstrate that the expatriate partner will be able to work while away, they will allay some of the prospective assignee’s fears. However, the receiving country can also benefit on several levels. Governments increasingly acknowledge the importance of dual careers in making their country an attractive business destination, supporting trade and investment and the attraction of highly skilled staff. They are also recognising that business related transfers can be treated differently from long term immigration. Open work permits demonstrate equal opportunity and support the integration of legally resident persons.

 

Work permit regulations worldwide can broadly be put into three groups based on the length of time it takes an accompanying spouse or partner to get a work permit after they have obtained a resident visa as a dependant or family member:

 

1. Best practice countries – open work permits for spouses: the first group is a growing number of best practice countries. Here, an accompanying spouse or partner is granted an automatic and open permission to work, allowing them freedom to apply for jobs with any employer and move to a new job, or be self-employed, during the assignment. This group includes Europeans working in the European Union or the European Economic Area (subject to transition arrangements for new member states) and, for spouses moving inter-continentally, the UK, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Panama, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA. This makes these countries attractive destinations for international business. In some of these countries, the regulations are limited to the spouses or family members of higher skilled staff or certain visa categories, such as intra-company transfers.

 

Regarding the 12 Member States that have joined the European Union since May 2004, conditions may be applied that restrict the free movement of workers from, to and between these member states. These restrictions are gradually being removed country by country and by 2011 at the latest, free movement for work purposes will be extended to European citizens and family members of all ‘’EU 25’’ member states. By 2014 this will also apply to citizens of Bulgaria and Romania.

 

For citizens from outside the EU/EEA, who have typically found it difficult to get a work permit in many EU countries even though they are legally resident, the adoption of the so called EU Blue Card Directive by the Council of the European Union in May 2009 is a significant development. The directive establishes attractive conditions for third country nationals to take up highly qualified employment within the European Union, by creating a common fast-track procedure and conditions for member states to issue a special residence and work permit called the EU Blue Card. Holders will have equal treatment with nationals in a number of areas. Dependants will be able to access the employment market directly. Participating member states have up to two years to incorporate the provisions into national legislation. The UK, Denmark and Ireland opted out of the scheme but already allow family members of certain categories to work.

 

In the two other groups of countries, the spouse or partner has to obtain a work permit through his or her own potential employer and may not start work without it. The process must be started again if the partner needs a new job.

 

2. Countries with a quick procedure for spouses: in the second group of countries, such as Belgium, Ireland, Japan (for spouses who work only up to 20 hours per week), Malaysia and Singapore, the application procedure is straightforward and can be completed within about 4 weeks, though this is also sometimes restricted to the spouses of higher paid staff or knowledge workers.

 

3. Countries without any concession for spouses: In the third group of countries, the procedure can take up to several months and requires the employer to show that the spouse brings skills not available locally. The length of time and the uncertainty of the outcome often deter employers from offering a job to a well-qualified candidate. In some countries, for example India and Russia, the spouse needs to return to the base
country to apply for employment authorisation.

 

In order to promote change, Permits Foundation currently has local sponsor networks in India, Japan, Indonesia and Russia. These networks help us plan an approach to the government Ministries, taking the local political, economic and social circumstances into account. Representations to the Indian and Japanese governments are currently in progress. In 2009, we submitted evidence to the UK’s Migration Advisory Committee and successfully argued against a tightening of regulations for intra-company transferees and their dependants. We are also expecting an EU draft directive on intra-company transferees and anticipate that this, too, will allow spouses to work. As success is achieved, we will set up new networks to promote change in Latin America, Middle East and Africa.

 

Being unable to re-integrate into the work place when they return home is also a major concern for partners nowadays. Companies that send staff on international assignment increasingly try to help partners in practical ways. However, the lengthy work permit regulations represent a real deterrent both to the partners themselves and to companies that might otherwise be prepared to employ them. Which is precisely why we advocate regulations where spouses and partners are allowed to work freely, without a test of the labour market and not restricted to a particular employer.