Expatriate, Secondment & Assignment Agreements

Outten & Golden attorneys work with a network of immigration lawyers in matters concerning executives' status, including expatriate, secondment, and assignment agreements. Our lawyers can also advise employees on employment-related immigration problems.

Expatriate, secondment, and assignment agreements are employment agreements that are used to secure employment and to provide health coverage, relocation and immigration expenses, and often tax benefits for employees working outside of their home country. Multinational corporations do business globally and hire American executives and employees to work in countries with laws and regulations different from U.S. law. These laws may or may not apply to expatriates depending on the choice of law designated in these employment agreements, and the laws and statutes of the foreign or host country. 

In our expatriate practice at Outten & Golden, we understand the needs of executives and their families going abroad for expatriate opportunities. We are also committed to protecting the civil rights of these expatriates if they are discriminated against far from home when U.S. law applies extraterritorially. Our lawyers are experts in this field and speak and write internationally on these subjects. 

When local law applies, local counsel should be consulted. We also have a network of international and local lawyers in many foreign countries that we work with to ensure that our clients obtain reliable information and advice concerning local law issues such as notice and termination, repatriation, data privacy, unfair or wrongful dismissal, directives, and other foreign employment laws. We also have our own network of experts in the U.S. to advise on complex foreign tax law, immigration issues, equity, pensions, and social security.

Multinational and expatriate employment also requires employees to maintain legal immigration status when they work and live outside their home country. Immigration laws vary in every country, as do the consequences for maintaining and changing status.