Settle the route before you hire the first person.
Provider sales conversations usually start with the route that provider implements. Prior Route starts one step earlier: establish which cross-border hiring route your facts can support, then compare providers that actually fit it.
Four routes, and what each turns on
Company · 1–20 hires in one countryEntity
Depends on headcount and horizonRegister locally, complete employer registration, employ directly.
EOR
Fast to start, costly to holdA provider with a local entity signs the employment contract for you.
Contractor
Needs confirmationThe worker invoices you as an independent business.
Secondment
Needs confirmationPost an existing employee from the home entity, temporarily.
Status is decided by the facts you supply, not by a general rule. When work authorization, classification or registration facts are missing, that route returns needs-confirmation and no recommendation is produced.
What route-first provider research needs to cover
| Role | What they actually care about | Research lens |
|---|---|---|
| HR / People | Can we hire, contract terms, benefits floor, cost of exit | Route conditions, statutory baseline, timing questions |
| Finance | Total cost of employment, cash flow, tax, vendor contracts | Cost components, quote assumptions, like-for-like comparison |
| Legal / Compliance | Permanent establishment, misclassification, labour law, liability | Risk triggers, primary sources and questions to escalate |
| Business lead | Time to start, ability to hire, speed of entry | Route trade-offs and facts still to confirm |
These are research lenses, not a custom brief or recommendation. A cross-border hiring decision usually passes several departments, so the source, assumption and open question need to remain attached when the decision moves between them.
Four expensive mistakes that keep recurring
- 01
Ask what "ready to employ" means in this country
An incorporation confirmation is not proof that payroll can start. Ask local counsel or payroll specialists for the exact employer, tax, social and payroll registrations your fact pattern needs, who owns each step, and the written evidence of completion.
- 02
Do not let the contract label answer the classification question
Ask a qualified destination-country adviser how control, exclusivity, duration, equipment and the person’s other clients are weighed for your facts. A document titled "contractor agreement" does not answer those questions by itself.
- 03
Compare exit terms in writing, not only monthly fees
Ask every provider who handles notice, how termination support is charged, whether a worker can transfer to your entity, and how records are exported. Put the answers beside the same country, salary, benefits and contract period.
- 04
Escalate local sales authority before the person starts
Signing authority and local negotiation can raise tax questions beyond the employment route. Ask a qualified local tax adviser whether the planned role changes the permanent-establishment analysis, then budget only from that written answer.
What we do not do
We do not incorporate, run payroll, act as employer of record or file visas. Others do those jobs. Their commercial model can shape where a comparison starts, which is why this site separates route research from provider implementation.
We also do not give compliance assurances. Classification and permanent establishment are judgements about facts, settled in the end by the authority in the destination country and by the professionals you pay. The free route check only surfaces stated facts and unknowns; it does not replace professional judgement.
Provider files compare public prices, stated coverage and quote questions using official provider pages. They do not test service quality, rank providers or generate a shortlist for your company.