Global Mobility
Global Mobility: the people side of entering a market.
Placing a person legally in another country is four problems, not one: the visa, the employer, the terms and the payroll. Where they are split across suppliers, the gaps belong to the client. We hold all four from our own offices in the market.
Services
Four, one counterpart
Markets with our own team
Angola · Mozambique · South Africa · India
Entity required
No — or yours, if you have one
Also covered
Portugal · Spain · Brazil · China
The four
Four services that only work together
Each is available separately. The value is in holding them together: the permit route governs the start date, the employment terms govern the permit, and payroll outsourcing that never saw the contract will reproduce whatever the contract got wrong. We run the four as one file.
01
Work permits and visas
Work permits, residence permits and the legalisation that sits behind them — for expatriate staff entering the market and for local hires whose paperwork has to be right before day one.
- Work and residence permit routes assessed per role and nationality
- Document legalisation, apostille and sworn translation
- Renewals, dependants and exit formalities
- Employer-side obligations that the permit creates
02
Employer of Record
We become the legal employer in the market. Your people work under local law and under your direction, with no entity of your own — or alongside one you already have.
- Compliant employment contracts in the local instrument and language
- Statutory registrations with tax and social security authorities
- Labour compliance, terminations and the exposure that comes with them
- A route to transfer staff into your own entity later
03
HR consultancy
The decisions that come before the contract and outlive it: what the role should pay, how it should be structured, and what local practice actually expects of an employer.
- Role structuring, grading and benchmarking against local practice
- Employment policies and handbooks that hold up locally
- Recruitment support and candidate assessment in-market
- Restructuring, disciplinary process and exit handling
04
Global payroll
One payroll cycle across several countries, each one run to its own rules, reported to you as a single view rather than as four sets of files in four formats.
- Monthly gross-to-net in each jurisdiction
- Statutory filings, contributions and year-end obligations
- One consolidated invoice and one reporting pack
- Expatriate arrangements, allowances and cross-border cases
Where to start
Start from the problem, not the product name
Which of the four you need
You have no entity in the market and need people working now
Employer of RecordWe employ them; you direct the work.
You are bringing in staff from abroad
Work permits and visasThe permit route governs the start date, so it goes first.
You have an entity and staff, but payroll is a monthly fire
Global payrollWe take the cycle and the filings.
You are unsure what the role should pay or how to structure it
HR consultancyBenchmark and structure before you commit to a contract.
Usually two Most engagements combine a permit route with an employer, or an employer with payroll. They are sold separately by the market and they fail at the joins.
By market
Employer of Record, jurisdiction by jurisdiction
The employer question is the one that changes most between countries — the registry, the statutory registrations and the labour instrument are different everywhere. These pages set out how each one actually works.
- Employer of Record in Angola
- Employer of Record in Mozambique
- Employer of Record in South Africa
- Employer of Record in India
- Company formation, if you need an entity
- All markets we operate in
India is served from our Noida office for Employer of Record and visas; Portugal, Spain, Brazil and China from the Lisbon, Brazil and Beijing desks.
Why it sits with us
People are one link. We run the chain around them.
A team is rarely the whole requirement. It usually arrives with an entity to form, goods to source or cargo to clear — and those are the same file here.
Our own people in the market
Not a platform reselling a local partner. When a permit needs collecting at a counter, someone from Horizon goes.
Entity and people together
Start under our Employer of Record while your entity is formed in parallel, then transfer the staff across. One counterpart for both halves of the move.
One invoice, several countries
Payroll, permits and employment across Angola, Mozambique, South Africa and India consolidate into a single reporting pack.
Common questions
What clients ask about mobility
Is Global Mobility simply Employer of Record renamed?
No. Employer of Record is one of the four. It answers who the legal employer is. It does not answer whether the person may legally enter and work, what the role should pay, or who runs payroll across five countries. Most engagements require at least two of the four, which is why they are held on one file.
Can you handle the visa without being the employer?
Yes, where the destination allows a permit sponsored by your own entity. Where it does not, or where you have no entity, the two are linked and we say so before you plan around it.
We already have entities. Do you still add anything?
Usually payroll and HR. Running payroll in four countries through four local providers means four formats, four calendars and no consolidated view. Taking the cycle centrally is often the first thing clients ask us for.
Which markets do you run this in with your own people?
Angola, Mozambique, South Africa and India. Portugal, Spain, Brazil and China are covered from our Lisbon, Brazil and Beijing desks. Anywhere else, we tell you it is a partner arrangement rather than presenting it as our own team.
How long does a work permit take?
It depends on the country, the nationality, the role and the current state of the queue at the authority — all four of which move. We confirm the current position for your specific case before you commit to a start date, rather than publishing a number that would be wrong by the time you read it.
Can the team transfer into our own entity later?
Yes, and it is a common sequence: staff start under our Employer of Record while the entity is formed in parallel, then transfer across with continuity of service preserved. We handle both ends because we do both.
Tell us who has to be working, and where.
One person or forty, local or expatriate, with an entity or without one. We come back with the route, the sequence and what it depends on — before any commitment.