Solutions/In-country employment/Plant advance team
Manufacturing · Southeast Asia
Plant advance team
The plant entity was not registered yet. Operators and office staff had to start. They were employed under local labour law and payroll.
Project background
The plant entity was still in registration. Commissioning needed operators, maintenance, and an office on site. Headquarters first planned visitor-visa rotations.
Local labour law does not treat commissioning as a business visit. In-country employment put them on a local contract, payroll, and filings. The client’s managers still ran the floor.
Profile
- Will take a local contract and local pay — not a long expense-account rotation.
- Operators and maintenance willing to shift through commissioning.
- Office staff who can process onboarding and attendance so a start date can be shown if inspected.
- Visitor visas were not used to cover actual hours.
Search timeline
First gate
Contracts in 10 business days
Second gate
First payroll the next month
Once documents were in, local contracts went out on business day ten. First pay and filings followed the country’s payday the next month. When the entity was approved, employment moved across.
CVs presented
Presented
11
Landed
11
All eleven of the advance team went on local contracts and payroll. The search had already been done. These figures are joiners, not a second public campaign.
What we took from it
Commissioning hours were no longer covered by visitor visas. Contract, start date, and filings can be shown if inspected.
Conversion waited for the entity and did not stop payroll in between. Office attendance matched the payroll calendar.
For the next brief: expected entity date and advance-team size. Do not substitute visa rotations for contracts.