Expatriate Contract

You have to read between the lines of your expatriate contract.

Employment of expatriate stands out on the horizon and you come to realize your dream to get faster career development. However, you must prepare for your departure very well to avoid minimum setbacks.

What is expatriate contract?

To make an international career, there are different forms of employment contract that are linked to your status: secondment, expatriation, provision or local contract.

This will affect or not in terms of social protection.

Secondment or expatriate contract: what difference?

Your contract of employment will be different depending on your status, namely:

* Detached: your existing employment contract is maintained, there will be a letter of assignment according to the internal regulations and/or the collective agreement of company.

* Expatriate: the initial work contract is suspended. So you sign a new contract, which generally depends on local law. The initial contract will resume its course at the end of the new contract, retroactively on salary for example.

In case of transfer of the employee, there is a breakdown of the initial employment contract, a work contract under local law is concluded.

Expatriate contract: the main clauses

Be careful reading your expatriate contract and see if the main terms and conditions are specified, namely:

* the identification of parties: employer and employee;

* the work place;

* the duration of contract and/or mission (fixed or indefinite period, what are the conditions for renewal?);

* the function to perform as well as the subordination (what supervisor do you depend);

* the work schedules (weekly or daily);

* the mode of gross annual remuneration:

- distribution of the amount between local payments and payments in your country,

- the currency,

- changes in compensation and its payment periodicity;

* the different benefits: housing, household employees, company car, etc. ;

* the regime of expatriate health insurance and retirement of expatriates by the country of assignment;

* the duration of paid leave;

* the conditions of contract breach and its consequences, the applicable law;

* the place of signing the contract and the competent court in cases of dispute;

* eventually expected support:

- children's tuition,

- the trips for the employee and family,

- moving expenses (customs fees, expatriate insurance, transport),

- installation and resettlement allowances for expatriation return,

- the medical visits expected before the start and at each leave.

The accompanying measures for this contract

Accompanying measures differ from company to another, but the most common are:

* expatriation allowances,

* expatriation premium,

* kind of benefits,

* cultural and/or linguistic training,

* administrative follow.