Relocate Your Employees: How To Move Employees Overseas

As a business owner, there may come a time when you need to relocate your employees overseas. Perhaps you’re considering a strategic expansion into new markets, or looking to cut costs by moving to a country with more favourable tax incentives. Whatever your situation, managing the relocation of your employees and executives must be handled properly to ensure a seamless transition.

In this article, we’ll outline some of the key things to consider when it comes time to relocate employees, including the cost of relocating employees, how to put together an employee relocation package, and some of the pitfalls you might experience along the way.

Guide to relocating your employees overseas

Why relocate your employees overseas?
Could you save money by relocating employees?
What do you need to consider before relocating employees?
How do you convince your employees to relocate?
What are the challenges of relocating employees overseas?
Relocating employees overseas: checklist

Group of young modern people in smart casual wear communicating and using modern technologies while working in a very modern office.

Why relocate your employees overseas?

There are many reasons why your business might decide to move employees around the world. Perhaps you want to gain a foothold in a new market, or exit your current market once it has become oversaturated.

You may be choosing to relocate to a country where both the cost of living and the cost of doing business are cheaper. Or you may simply need to move staff to another country temporarily, such as if they are taking on an overseas contract.

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In any case, relocation is a gamble. You may be moving to unfamiliar territory at great expense to your company, and the risk increases exponentially when you choose to relocate employees and executives along with the company.

What is the cost of relocating employees overseas?

According to relocation experts NRI, the average cost of relocating an employee in 2025 is around US$77,000. This sum includes:

US$7,500 to find the employee a suitable home and US$15,000 to secure temporary accommodation for the employee
US$7,500 for travel costs
US$3,000 to cover departure services and US$25,000 to move an employee’s belongings overseas
US$2,500 for vehicle hire or leasing
US$10,000 for visas, immigration paperwork and tax services
US$5,000 for miscellaneous expenses
US$1,500 for the employee’s return trip budget

As an employer, it’s up to you to cover the costs of your employees’ relocation, which can be very expensive depending on how many staff you are moving, where you are moving to and from, and the type of employee relocation package you offer.

The type of expenses you may need to cover include:

A commercial lease on your new office in a foreign country
Individual property leases to ensure your employees and their families have somewhere to live
Travel expenses, including plane tickets and the cost of shipping personal belongings
Set-up costs, e.g. furnishings, appliances, home and office broadband and personal vehicles
The cost of securing working visas
Any insurance, such as personal health insurance and home contents insurance
Additional business expenses, such as setting up new bank accounts and hiring new accountants overseas

The advantages of relocating employees overseas

Many business owners face a big question when it comes to expanding or relocating their company: should I relocate my existing employees, or hire new employees overseas?

While relocating employees may seem like an expensive and time-consuming manoeuvre, the reality is that it could save you both the time and money spent sourcing talent in a foreign country.

Here are some of the ways your business could benefit from relocating its existing talent:

1/ You’ll avoid the rising cost of re-hiring

Replacing employees is set to become more expensive as the cost of recruitment is climbing fast around the world.

In the UK, the average cost of re-hiring an employee on minimum wage rose £2,367/US$2,990 between 2024–2025 alone, bringing the average cost per hire up to around £6,125/US$7,740 per employee.

And this doesn’t take into account the additional costs that come after recruitment, such as onboarding, training and equipment purchase. Altogether, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) estimates that to recruit an employee earning the average salary of £27,000 will cost the company £63,000/US$80,000 in the first year alone.

2/ Your business will experience lower disruption

Moving your own employees overseas allows you to keep your business running with minimal disruption, compared with hiring new employees in a foreign market.

With your new office set up and your employees settled into their new home, your employees will be able to continue performing at their jobs and delivering value to your business. They will be able to continue existing relationships with colleagues and clients, continue any projects they were working on, and contribute to company culture.

This also helps to support your employees. Being able to continue working in a familiar environment may help them overcome the impact of culture shock, easing their transition into their new country. They will also have the stability of an ongoing salary, and perhaps also the social support of familiar colleagues, to help them hit the ground running and make the most of their new home.

3/ You’ll get to upskill your best employees

Moving your employees abroad helps to increase their cultural exposure, making them more familiar with overseas markets. This can help them to develop new skills and experience in global negotiation, management and law. It also broadens their horizons, and may even help to make those employees more loyal to the company.

In short, sending your best employees overseas can help them to become even more proficient at their jobs, helping your business to grow more competitive, while also ensuring that talent remains with your company for longer.

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Could you save money by relocating employees?

Potentially, yes. While we cannot promise that every business will benefit from relocating its employees (especially since we are not in a position to offer tax or business advice), it is true that many companies do benefit from relocating their employees overseas.

This is because other countries may offer your business the opportunity to enjoy lower operating costs, better tax incentives, a lower cost of living and greater access to talent.

Depending on your current operational costs, the savings could range anywhere from the thousands, to millions of dollars annually.

For instance, let’s look at a business generating £5 million/US$6.23 million annually with a £1 million/US$1.26 million payroll that is considering relocating from the UK to Dubai:

Corporation tax

£1.25 million (25%)

£450,000 (9%)

£800,000

National Insurance contribution

£150,000 (15%)

£0 (0%)

£150,000

VAT*

£1 million (20%)

£250,000 (5%**)

£750,000

*Savings from VAT passed on to the consumer
** 0% in certain VAT-free zones
Correct as of April 2025

So, this business could save close to £1 million/US$1.26 million per year, while also lowering its VAT rate to consumers, thus making its prices more favourable.

Furthermore, with 0% capital gains tax in Dubai versus 24% in the UK, if the owner of the business decided to sell their business for a £1 million profit they would pocket an additional £240,000/US$302,000 from the transaction.

The company’s employees would benefit too. With 0% personal income tax on earnings, an employee earning the average UK salary of £37,000/US$46,590 could walk away with an additional £4,884/US$6,150 per year from their salary.

By moving your company to a country that offers more favourable business rates, you could easily offset the cost of relocating employees. In the above example, given the average cost of US$77,000 to relocate one employee, the company could relocate 16 employees and not make a loss in their first year in Dubai.

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What do you need to consider before relocating employees?

Moving your employees overseas is no small undertaking. As well as preparing for the logistical exercise of getting them to where they need to be, you should also be prepared to support your employees as they settle into their new home. These are the three areas you may want to pay particular attention to when it comes to helping your employee manage their new life abroad:

1/ Mental well-being

Well-being is more than just physical health. Those moving overseas are at a higher risk of mental health problems, especially if and when culture shock sets in.

While moving to a new country can be exciting and enriching, such a significant life event can also take its toll on your employees’ mental health. Ensuring your company has the systems in place to support employees will be especially important to ensure your employees can settle into their new homes, stay productive, and continue to enjoy working for your company.

As an employer, make sure you’re putting your employees’ mental health first. Ensure you check in with them regularly, especially if they are working remotely. Be sure to offer them a little extra time off if they need it, and be ready to support them if they need to take a trip home to recover from culture shock. Be ready to point them to mental health resources if they need them, particularly if they require professional support.

Be sure to read our guide on supporting the mental health of your employees for further tips.

2/ Family and accommodation

It’s not just your employees you need to think of. If your staff are moving abroad with their spouse and children in tow, then school and college places will be a must-have. Be sure to help connect your employees with the information they need about international school places – you may even want to book places in advance, to take some of the burden off their shoulders.

Be sure to also do your research around accommodation. You’ll want to find the best expat neighbourhoods to help your employees settle in quickly. Look for areas that already have a high concentration of expats, especially those from the same country as your employees.

They will be more likely to find home comforts such as familiar foods and cultural activities in these areas. Our country guides may help you when it comes to researching expat neighbourhoods.

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3/ Managing finances

Your employees may struggle to manage their finances during the first few months of living overseas, as they adapt to a new way of life. To help them manage their money while adapting to a foreign culture, you may wish to set them up with pre-arranged things to do, such as social events and meals at local restaurants, or offer them a discretionary spending budget to help them explore their new home.

You may also need to help your employees adapt to a new tax structure. Your employees may need to pay tax in both their home country as well as their new country, and you may also be liable to pay corporate tax in multiple nations. The exact rules will depend on whether your international office is set up as a branch or subsidiary and where your offices are located – the European Union has a useful guide to tax rules for subsidiaries in Europe.

You may also wish to point them to our guide on managing taxes for new expats.

When your employees become expats, it’s up to you to take care of the grunt work. Try to make their transition as easy and straightforward as possible, so they can hit the ground running and feel comfortable in their new home.

William Cooper

Director at William Russell

How do you convince your employees to relocate?

Asking an employee to move overseas is not something that should be taken likely. Your employee will be leaving behind their home, their friends and their culture. They will have a huge number of logistical considerations, including moving their belongings, their family and settling into their new role in a foreign country. With all this in mind, it stands to reason that many of your employees may want to turn down the opportunity to move abroad.

However, even if your employees seem reluctant to go overseas, there is still plenty you can do as an employer to convince them. One thing you may wish to consider is putting together a relocation package. This is a bundle of employee benefits designed to make your employee’s transition overseas as simple and painless as possible.

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What should I include in my relocation package?

A relocation package does not just offer financial incentives. Rather, it provides a host of benefits that will help your employee make the most of their new life abroad. Your relocation package may include:

Money to help cover moving and travel expenses
Additional cash to help them settle in
Accommodation support, either in the form of housing provided, or help for your employee to find their own perfect home
Access to legal and financial support overseas, e.g. a connection to a personal financial advisor
Health insurance that offers your employee access to high-quality medical care
Life assurance benefits to support your employee’s family and friends if they pass away overseas

In 2025, the average employee relocation package adds up to around £8,000/$US10,000, although this sum can be much higher for senior employees, executives and members of your C-suite. The sum you offer will depend on how far you are moving your employees, their current salary, and the extent of the perks you include in your package.

What types of relocation package can I offer?

When it comes to offering a relocation package, there are many ways you can structure your package. These include:

Reimbursement packages

The most popular form of relocation package, used by around 80% of companies, is a reimbursement or repayment package. This is where the company offers to repay particular expenses incurred during a specific timeframe (usually 1–2 years). These could be expenses related to accommodation and housing, vehicle costs, or cultural activities. The employee will typically submit receipts for their expenditure, which are repaid through the company’s payroll. At the end of the agreed reimbursement period, the employee will become financially independent.

Lump sum packages

A lump sum package is when the employer gives their employee a specific sum of money, which they are expected to put towards their relocation costs. This is a less popular form of relocation package, used by fewer than 11% of companies in the case of permanent moves, and 1% for short-term moves. While it offers your employee additional flexibility, it may also create challenges, especially if your employee is unsure where to allocate their funds.

Expatriation assistance and third-party assistance

Alternatively, you may wish to support your employee directly, either by having somebody at your company organise their relocation, or by outsourcing to a professional relocation company. This type of relocation package allows the company to stay in control of expenses, but it will be up to you to organise your employee’s accommodation, relocation fees, vehicle expenses and so on.

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What are the challenges of relocating employees overseas?

Every employee relocation will create new challenges for you as an employer, as every employee will have their own needs and non-negotiables when it comes to relocating.

It’s important to be prepared for these challenges, both financially and in terms of policy. In other words, you should be ready to support your employees in many unique ways, while also remaining in control of your spending. To that end, you may wish to write down new employee relocation policies in order to ensure every employee receives a fair and equitable package.

Some of the most common challenges employers face when it comes to relocating their employees include:

Spouse and family assistance

As well as moving your employee, you may also be responsible for moving their partner, children and any dependents too. This can push up the cost of your relocation exercise, especially if you need to arrange for childcare, schooling or to support the partner to find work overseas too. The number of long-term relocation packages providing family assistance in 2025 is around 74%, up from 61% in 2022.

Relocating pets

If your employee has pets, you may need to cover the cost of transferring these animals overseas too. This will not only involve paying the animal’s airfare, but arranging for a pet passport and any vaccinations it may need to travel. In 2025, the number of employees relocating long-term with a pet is around 39%, up from 30% in 2022. Be sure to read our article about how to move pets abroad.

Relocating heavy items

When it comes to furnishing their new home, your employee may be adamant that they wish to transport their own furniture. This is especially true if they are expected to give up their house in their home country to move overseas. As the employer, it’s up to you to help them move these items overseas. This can be an expensive procedure, so be sure to read our guide on shipping and storing items when moving abroad for advice. The number of permanent relocation packages including a furniture allowance in 2025 is around 48%, up from 37% in 2022.

International health insurance

If your employee is moving to a country where they will require health insurance to obtain a visa, or to a country where the quality of public healthcare is far below what they’d expect, it’s up to you as the employer to help them take out an international health insurance policy. International health insurance can help your employees and their families access high-quality private healthcare overseas. It could be especially useful if your employee will be expected to travel to other countries for work. Find out more about what international health insurance offers here. In 2025, 65% of long-term relocation packages included health insurance.

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Relocating employees overseas: a checklist

Relocating an employee can be a long and complicated process. You may wish to enlist the support of your HR department, or speak to a professional employee relocation service.

Either way, here are some steps that will help you to make the process quick and simple:

Run assignee interviews – make sure your employee is comfortable with the idea of relocating. The worst case scenario is when your employee fails to settle in, and requests to move home, or leave the company altogether, scuppering all the effort you’ve put into relocating them.
Set clear goals and values – make sure your assignee knows what’s expected of them, both at work and in their new life abroad. You may wish to give them an introduction to the culture, or even set them up with a ‘reconnaissance holiday’ to help them get a feel of their new environment.
Allow time – no matter how adaptable your employee, they will need time to find their feet in a foreign country. Be there to support them through the initial culture shock.
Communicate – make sure you’re checking in with your employee regularly. You may wish to send surveys to gauge their feelings – this data could be useful when it comes to future relocations too. Be mindful of their children and spouses, too, as their experiences can shape your employee’s mindset.
Offer a strong employee benefits package – a strong benefits package helps your employee to feel secure and reassured that their basic healthcare and financial needs will always be met. Find out more about our international employee benefits package here.

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Thinking of relocating your employees?

The number of businesses worldwide moving their employees is rapidly increasing. In a survey of 80 large companies, 25% said they had moved 400 or more employees in 2023.

At William Russell, we have over 30 years’ experience providing international employee benefits packages to businesses just like yours. With policies tailored to businesses both large and small, featuring health and income protection plans designed exclusively for expats, we can help make your employee relocation process easier and more straightforward.

Our dedicated team is waiting to answer your call. Speak to us today to get a quote and learn more about our international employee benefits package.

Terms & conditions apply to our insurance products and services. You can find full details of what our plans cover (and what they don’t cover) in our plan agreements.

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How To Relocate Your Employees Overseas