The Middle East and Africa region spans some of the fastest-growing expat hubs in the world alongside markets where relocation infrastructure is still developing. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have built visa and sponsorship systems specifically designed to attract foreign talent, while relocating into much of Sub-Saharan Africa requires navigating far less standardized processes. Companies moving employees into this region need a relocation partner familiar with both ends of that range.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi run on employer-sponsored visa systems built for speed, and a large share of the population in both cities is foreign-born, which has made cross-border relocation almost routine for companies operating there. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 initiative has driven a steady rise in corporate relocations into the Kingdom, though its Nitaqat program ties visa approvals to a company’s ratio of Saudi to foreign employees, adding a layer of workforce planning that doesn’t exist in most other markets.
South Africa functions as a common gateway for companies expanding into Sub-Saharan Africa more broadly, but relocating into many African markets beyond it means working with visa systems, banking infrastructure, and housing markets that are considerably less predictable than what a company would encounter in the Gulf states. Planning for the reality of that unevenness upfront prevents a lot of the delays companies run into when they assume the region behaves like one market.
Much of the workforce across the Gulf states is made up of employees who are neither citizens of the host country nor of the company’s home country, which makes third-country national relocation more the norm here than the exception. That has real implications for tax residency, benefits structuring, and which country’s labor protections actually apply to a given employee.
Whether a company is relocating an executive to Dubai or coordinating a group move into a new Johannesburg office, GMS applies the same centralized oversight and transparent supplier pricing used across its other international services, adjusted for what each specific market actually requires.
Ready to talk through a relocation into the Middle East or Africa? Contact GMS to go over your company’s destination and timeline.
Both rely on employer sponsorship rather than a points-based or independent application system. Saudi Arabia’s Nitaqat program also ties visa approvals to a company’s ratio of Saudi to foreign employees, which adds a workforce planning step most Western relocations don’t require.
No. Gulf state relocation infrastructure, particularly in the UAE, is built for speed and volume. Much of Sub-Saharan Africa involves less predictable visa processing, banking access, and housing markets, and South Africa is often used as a regional gateway for that reason.
A large share of the Gulf workforce is made up of employees who are neither citizens of the host country nor the employer’s home country. That status changes tax residency and benefits handling in ways a standard home-to-host policy doesn’t account for.
Yes. GMS coordinates group moves into new or expanding offices across the Middle East and Africa, managing suppliers, immigration, and destination services for the full group together.
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.
