Relocating employees into or across Europe means managing a region with no single rulebook. What applies to a move into Germany doesn’t carry over to the UK, Switzerland, or Poland, even though all four sit within a few hours’ flight of each other. GMS has coordinated corporate relocations throughout the region for companies of every size, managing the country-by-country details that determine whether a transferee arrives on schedule and compliant, or stuck in a visa queue three weeks past their start date.
The EU’s freedom of movement provisions simplify things for EU citizens moving between member states, but they don’t extend to third-country nationals, non-EU spouses, or UK-based employees relocating post-Brexit. A German employee based in Singapore who gets reassigned to a company’s Paris office, or an Indian engineer moving from a UK subsidiary into Germany, falls into a category of move that standard home-to-host relocation policy was never built to handle, and the gaps in that policy show up constantly across European assignments.
Tax equalization adds another layer. Income tax treatment, social security totalization agreements, and reporting deadlines vary by country and rarely align with a U.S. tax year. A transferee moving to the Netherlands may qualify for the Highly Skilled Migrant visa track; the same move to France or Italy follows an entirely different process, timeline, and sponsorship requirement.
Not every European relocation calls for the same setup. A company hiring new local talent in a country where it has no legal entity is usually better served by an International PEO arrangement, while relocating an existing employee already on payroll typically runs through a traditional assignment structure instead. That decision, an International PEO versus a traditional global assignment, tends to surface as unnecessary cost or unnecessary compliance risk later on when it’s made the wrong way upfront.
GMS’s network model applies the same dual-bid supplier process in European markets that it uses domestically, so companies keep visibility into cost and service quality even in cities where they have no existing presence. That includes:
Whether it’s a single executive relocating to London or a team moving into a newly opened European office, GMS applies the same program management approach used across its broader international services: centralized oversight, transparent supplier pricing, and one point of contact managing the process from start to finish.
Ready to talk through a relocation into Europe? Contact GMS to go over your company’s destination and timeline.
Yes. GMS coordinates directly with immigration counsel in each destination country to manage sponsorship documentation, work permit applications, and renewal timelines, which vary significantly from one European country to the next.
EU citizens benefit from freedom of movement provisions that simplify relocation between member states. Non-EU citizens, including UK nationals post-Brexit, go through country-specific visa and work permit processes that take longer and require employer sponsorship.
Timelines depend heavily on the destination and visa category. Some countries, like the Netherlands under its Highly Skilled Migrant track, move relatively quickly. Others require longer processing windows, which is why planning should start as early as possible once a move is confirmed.
Yes. GMS manages group relocations into single or multiple European markets, coordinating suppliers, immigration, and destination services across each location involved.
The GMS network model is an innovative approach to relocation management, allowing us to induce competition within our supplier base. With our multiple-bid process, GMS is able to gather quotes with lower prices and heightened service quality levels. We collect these quotes from a robust supply of mobility vendors.
Each key service includes a dual-bid process that ensures the most competitive pricing available. This covers services such as shipment of household goods, booking corporate housing, travel, or other key services. You can rely on GMS to ensure the best price (direct cost) possible 100% of the time.
In addition to our dual-bid approach, GMS also reviews our supplier pricing rates on a quarterly to an annual basis. Our team does this to ensure competitiveness by service and is specific to relocating markets. These two approaches provide GMS clients with an umbrella cost savings coverage while enhancing the quality of each domestic relocation.
