In Case You Missed It:

Here are three top picks to bolster your HR toolkit. Whether it’s crafting an effective communication plan or navigating a relocation talk, these blog posts provide actionable insights you can put to use immediately.

• How to Build an Effective HR Communication Strategy
• Navigating Cost-Effective Relocations: 10 Tips for HR Professionals
• HR Manager’s Guide: Discussing Relocation in Job Interviews

Feature Stories

Digital Borders and New Visa Pathways: How 2025 Rewrote Global Mobility

News.AZ International is reporting that global mobility rules have undergone a dramatic shift in 2025. Governments are moving from paper-based, physical border controls to digital, biometric, and automated systems. Digital travel authorizations and risk assessments before arrival are becoming more common, as are more rigorous ID checks at the border. The European Union’s ETIAS system for visa-waiver countries is one of the largest mobility rule changes to take effect in 2025, requiring pre-registration by travelers from visa-free countries who plan to enter the Schengen zone. The UK, U.S., Canada, and several Asian countries have also expanded or announced similar pre-travel registration systems.

Visa and residency systems are also in flux. On one hand, many governments are loosening rules to capture skilled professionals or remote workers through expanded long-stay or digital-nomad visas. On the other hand, countries are also adding more conditions to their immigration programs. The big picture of global mobility in 2025 has been one of new opportunities for work and residency visas, long-term stays, and remote employment. The potential rewards of these options are high, but the administrative overhead and risks of non-compliance are also on the rise. Travelers must find more accurate guidance and stick closely to official sources or face the cost of errors or delays.

The Impact: Global mobility teams are feeling the pressure of new digital-first borders, biometric identity checks, and rapidly changing visa and residency requirements. Entry permits, digital authorizations, residence programs, and even driving requirements are all in flux at a rate most employees cannot easily track. The resulting compliance gaps leave more room for mis-documentation, rejected applications, and costly project delays.

This is where CapRelo can provide real value. Throughout employee assignments, we work with Visa and Immigration partners to track changes to global mobility rules, translate dynamic requirements into simple actions for HR teams and relocating families, and verify every move is supported by the correct permits, IDs, digital authorizations, and timelines. We also assist clients in exploring new immigration pathways, such as digital-nomad or remote-work visas, while maintaining compliance with more intrusive biometric and security requirements.

From Stress to Renewal: How Couples Adapt During Major Moves

A longitudinal study highlighted by SPSP found that relocating together as a couple, especially when supporting a partner’s career, can feel challenging. However, with awareness and a mindful approach to the transition, couples can learn to manage the stress and navigate the move smoothly. Respondents reported stressors triggered by the move that affected their lives, including upheaval of living arrangements, loss of social support networks, logistical complexity, work demands, and challenges with family routines. The study found that over time, many of these stressors decrease, and the reported benefits of moving (renewal, new opportunities, shared experiences, improved life circumstances) start to rise.

Relocating is quite an emotional experience in the beginning stages, but as couples start to settle in, build new support networks, and adjust to the changed logistics and everyday life, initial stress starts to turn into possibility and a potential to thrive.

The Impact: Relocations have emotional consequences for individuals, couples, and families. A change of physical location is stressful on a practical/logistical level, and the disruption of social support, daily routines, support networks, and familiar surroundings is stressful on a human/emotional level. The emotional ups and downs of moving have a time component and are usually front-loaded. That initial period — often the first 3-12 months — is when the right support makes the most difference.

Look for partners who can ease relocation burden and, to the extent possible, take a holistic view. We provide support to couples who may struggle with relocation through a combination of personalized service, accessibility, and flexibility. From the outset, we invite spouses or partners to participate in the orientation call and subsequent discussions alongside the relocating employee to ensure that we set expectations and address any questions they may have. Employees and their families can engage with a consultant whenever they need additional support, ensuring that individuals who require more assistance receive personalized attention. Our approach ensures that employees and their spouses and partners feel supported, informed, and empowered at every stage of their relocation journey.

Housing Pressure, Policy Shifts, and Rising Costs: Key Trends from the Atlas, CERC, and Ipsos Surveys

The 2025 Atlas Corporate Relocation Survey gathered valuable insights from 558 decision-makers at companies that either relocated employees in the last two years or plan to do so in 2025. Together with recent global employee sentiment research from Canadian Employee Relocation Council Inc. (CERC) and Ipsos, the findings highlight how housing pressure, economic uncertainty, and evolving workforce expectations are reshaping both relocation demand and program design. Highlights of the survey’s findings include:

• Top external factors that constrain relocation volumes include the economic situation (50% of respondents), the availability of qualified talent in the company’s home market (29%), a volatile real-estate market (25%), and increased mortgage interest rates (24%).
• Housing/mortgage affordability and family-related circumstances, along with challenges selling the origin property, were among the most common reasons for employees declining relocations. At the same time, recent survey data on employee mobility preferences indicates that this pressure has not yet translated into employees’ unwillingness to relocate, as long as the right support is given. For instance, in the CERC and Ipsos survey, almost half of employees worldwide indicate they would be willing to relocate for work to a different country, an increase compared to previous years. Candidates continue to face housing shortages and cost-of-living pressures, yet they still show interest in relocation opportunities. Instead, employees may be factoring in the support, flexibility, and long-term value offered as part of a relocation package.
• Despite difficult economic conditions, many companies were able to increase or maintain their relocation spending and relocation volumes in 2024. International relocations have not seen major declines overall; some companies experienced stable or even increased international relocations.
• In 2024, fixed and flexible benefits grew increasingly dependent on individual relocation policies (32% to 36% of respondents). Common benefits include travel expenses for the final move, temporary housing, shipping of household goods, and rental or home-sale assistance, and real-estate transaction support. Alternative assignment options, and partial reimbursements, rather than lump-sum payouts, are also becoming more common. Findings from the CERC and Ipsos study help explain this shift. For instance, when it comes to the benefits employees are most interested in being offered to move abroad, they are most interested in those that would make relocation as easy on them and their families as possible. The most sought-after mobility incentives by employees include paid relocation travel for employees and family members, temporary accommodation, and language training, along with return position guarantees if the new role does not work out. The desire to move is also closely linked to flexible or hybrid work arrangements – a majority of employees indicate that a work-life balance is important to them when considering a move. These employee preferences show continuity with their interest in customized relocation programs driven by specific policies.

Despite macroeconomic uncertainty, elevated interest rates, and ongoing housing-market pressure, many firms continue to invest in mobility. However, they are doing so under more nuanced policies and in response to shifting workforce dynamics.

The Impact: Together, these findings highlight a growing disconnect between traditional relocation models and modern employee expectations. While companies are under pressure to rein in relocation costs amid talent shortages and unprecedented cost-of-living challenges, employees’ relocation decision-making is more closely linked to factors such as quality of life, flexibility, and perceived long-term career value.

For mobility leaders, the Atlas survey results point to several significant risks and considerable opportunities. Relocation complexity increases, demanding greater guidance and support from experts. With companies moving away from standard relocation packages toward more policy-dependent and flexible benefits, mobility leaders may need help designing, implementing, and accounting for more customized relocation programs. CapRelo can provide this expertise by supporting mobility leaders in understanding when relocation can create value and help them with timely and controlled execution, including both cost- and compliance-related benefits.

Our combination of strategic advisory, holistic, and personal support aims to add value by translating mobility into talent-management advantage rather than risk/opportunity.

Global Mobility Radar

CapRelo’s Mobility Radar provides valuable insights into trends worth monitoring. This month, we have detected important global mobility updates in…the UK, Canada, and U.S.:

• Net migration to the UK fell sharply in the year ending June 2025, to about 204,000, a two-thirds decline from 649,000 the previous year, its lowest level since 2021. This drop is largely driven by a steep fall in non-EU nationals coming for work or study, along with increased emigration.
• Canada’s new 2026–2028 Levels Plan aims to stabilize permanent resident admissions at about 380,000 per year, while significantly reducing new temporary-resident arrivals. The plan emphasizes economic immigration to address labor shortages, targets transitioning thousands of temporary workers to permanent status, and seeks to reduce temporary residents to under 5% of the overall population by 2028.
• A proposed U.S. bill (often referred to as the HIRE Act) seeks to increase the annual cap on H-1B visas from 65,000 to 130,000, aiming to boost high-skilled immigration and support the country’s competitiveness. Proponents argue this expansion could ease talent shortages, while critics warn of potential political and labor-market backlash due to fears over job competition.