Glossary/Expatriate
People
Expatriate
Expatriate seats cluster on country general manager, technical director, and some plant director roles in the first years of a site. The rest of the organisation is typically local.
The work pass, tax residence, and payroll country have to match where the person actually works. A home-country contract with a visitor visa is not a structure.
How we deliver this: Global mobility.
FAQ
Questions we get
- Should the first country manager be an expatriate?
- Sometimes, for a ramp, when the parent company needs a known operator. Plan the local successor in the same brief. Several roles — HR in Indonesia, for example — stay closed to foreign nationals.
Related
Other terms
Local hire
Someone employed in the country of work as a local, on a local contract and local pay — not as an expatriate on a home-country package.
Work permit
The government authorisation a foreign national needs to be employed in that country. A business visa is not a work permit.
Local-plus package
A local employment contract with extra items on top — housing, schooling, a mobility allowance — rather than a full expatriate balance-sheet package.
Global mobility
Moving a person into a country to work: the work pass, the local-plus package, and the moment a local hire should replace the expatriate seat.
Reviewed 11 September 2026. Statutory figures follow the country hiring guides. This is a briefing for multinational employers, not legal advice.
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