Corporate Immigration Strategy: How to Manage Visa Delays and Protect Employee Transfer Timelines

Visa delays have become an all-too-common scenario for global mobility HR teams as they scramble to protect employee transfer times and their organizations’ global productivity. What’s behind these immigration hiccups, and how can your HR team mitigate the business impact of immigration delays? Here’s some insight from our 25 years of managing visa applications and global transfers.

Why are visa delays increasing?

There’s no single answer to that question.

First, we can blame COVID – call it the gift that just keeps giving. During the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, embassies were closed; once reopened, applicants faced a two-year backlog of appointments. Even some six years later, the immigration system is still recovering.

For example, travel consultants Journey Connected noted, “In countries like India, Brazil, and the Philippines, wait times for a B-1/B-2 tourist visa can stretch well beyond six months, with some applicants reporting year-long delays.”

Factor in the increased security and scrutiny surrounding international travel. Nowadays, most countries require authenticated documentation of a US applicant’s background and criminal history.  Writes Mauricio Ramos, “Whether you’re applying for a long-stay visa in Spain, residency in Portugal, a work permit in Dubai, permanent residency in Australia, or citizenship by descent in Italy, foreign governments and immigration authorities around the world require US citizens to submit an FBI Identity History Summary as proof of a clean US criminal record.”

In addition, in many countries, transferees also will need a US Department of State apostille and a certified translation of their FBI background check. Lack of awareness of these requirements can create significant delays in visa processing.

And then there’s the impact of volume versus staffing capacity. In its recent analysis, MarketBiz found that applications for short-stay visas jumped nearly 14% in 2024. Short-staffed consulates processed some 11.7 million applications that year alone.

3 strategies to protect transfer timelines

Delays disrupt relocation timelines, assignment start dates, project staffing, and workforce planning. We recommend several strategies to reduce the chance of visa delays.

Plan ahead.

Increasingly, compliance requirements are adding complexities – and potentially, time – to visa application schedules. Take for instance recent regulatory changes in France and Canada, making language readiness a requirement for residency approvals. Beginning this year, applicants for long-term residency must pass both a formal civic exam and higher language proficiency standards to ensure French is embraced among immigrants. A transfer timeline must factor in time for the employee to prepare for and successfully pass these requirements.

It is just one example of how near-constant changes in immigration rules, entry requirements and visa processes can impact transfer timelines. In recent months, Canada also announced changes to its Express Entry Program while China announced a new trial policy that “unilaterally grants visa-free entry” to citizens of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay. While some countries are loosening rules, others are adding more conditions.

Our advice: set your transfer timeline, and then pad it for the unexpected. Have a Plan B, should your transferee’s visa application be delayed or denied. Contingency planning might involve creating a temporary remote work assignment to fill the gap. Or adjusting temporary assignments. Or offloading to other team members in the interim. Have alternative visa pathways already in mind, should plans not go according to plan.

Prepare diligently.

Strong document preparation is critical, so power up your Type A organizational skills.

For most Americans working abroad, start by securing the FBI Identity History Summary. The other required documents are built from this foundation. Countries in the Hague Apostille Convention require that the US State Department apostille it as well, a requirement that many applicants overlook or aren’t aware of. In addition, many non-English speaking countries will require a certified translation of these documents in their official language.

Not all countries require all three documents, but for those that do, these are non-negotiable requirements that if not adhered to can dramatically delay – or deny – a relocation.

Partner wisely.

Given the shifting landscape, utilizing Visa & Immigration Coordination services is your secret sauce to avoid denials or delays in your work authorization. Requirements change frequently. A seasoned international relocation consultant like CapRelo tracks regulatory updates in each destination country and proactively flags changes affecting your active assignees — including quota updates, salary threshold changes, and policy shifts. Having a knowledgeable partner and strong vendor network takes the burden off the HR team to constantly stay ahead of regulatory changes that might impact a transferee’s timeline.

Let CapRelo’s experts help.

International assignments involve more than logistics. Immigration compliance and timely visa processing are crucial to a successful relocation. CapRelo’s Visa & Immigration Coordination services offer end-to-end support, helping employees and their families navigate complex immigration systems and avoid delays or denials that could jeopardize assignments. Put our experts to work to efficiently manage your transferees’ moves. Learn more.