How to Hire International Employees in 2026

Remote work may have been a futuristic idea at some point. But today, most jobs do not require in-person presence as more and more businesses are embracing remote work.

According to Gartner, 50% of all knowledge workers will be working remotely. This technological infrastructure supports the effective management of distributed teams and ensures that cross-border hiring can be successful.

While the popularity and perks of remote work are driving companies to hire workers based in other locations, with the cross-border workforce market growing to $9.6 billion in 2024 and expected to reach $19.2 billion by 2033 amid rising global talent demand, the task of hiring overseas remains daunting. 

We have come up with a seven-step process to help you understand how to hire foreign workers.

This process will tell you how to hire employees overseas in a hassle-free way. But, before that, let’s see why you should know about hiring a foreign employee and the benefits of global hiring.

How to Hire an International Employee

When hiring international employees, companies generally choose from a few proven approaches depending on expansion goals, compliance needs, and budget:

1. Set up a local legal entity in the country where you want to hire
2. Relocate the employee to a country where you already operate
3. Hire through an Employer of Record (EOR) for compliant remote employment
4. Work with international contractors for flexible hiring

Each option has different timelines, costs, and legal responsibilities. Let’s explore them in detail below.

Option 1: Establish a Local Legal Entity

Setting up a local legal entity allows your company to directly employ workers in a foreign country and manage all employment obligations internally.

This option typically involves:

• Registering a subsidiary or branch office
• Opening local bank accounts
• Managing payroll, taxes, and statutory benefits
• Complying with country-specific labor laws and reporting requirements

Best for organizations that:

• Plan long-term expansion in a specific country
• Need a physical office or manufacturing presence
• Have the resources to manage HR, payroll, and compliance locally

While it offers full operational control, establishing an entity is time-consuming, costly, and requires ongoing legal and administrative oversight.

Option 2: Relocate the Employee to Your Home Country

Relocating international employees allows them to work in a country where your business already operates legally.

This approach usually includes:

• Sponsoring work visas and permits
• Handling immigration paperwork and approvals
• Providing relocation assistance, such as housing or travel support
• Ensuring ongoing compliance with immigration laws

Best for companies that:

• Require employees to work on-site
• Want to build a diverse in-office team
• Are you hiring talent specifically interested in relocation?

However, visa processing times, legal fees, and relocation costs can significantly increase overall hiring expenses.

Option 3: Hire Through an Employer of Record (EOR)

An Employer of Record (EOR) enables companies to hire international employees legally without establishing a local entity. The EOR becomes the official employer while the employee works for your organization.

With an EOR, companies can:

• Hire employees across multiple countries quickly
• Ensure compliance with local labor laws and tax regulations
• Run payroll in local currencies
• Provide mandatory benefits and protections

This is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to expand globally while minimizing compliance risk.

Option 4: Hire International Contractors

Hiring international contractors offers flexibility for short-term or project-based needs. Contractors are self-employed and typically manage their own taxes and benefits.

It is commonly used when companies:

• Need temporary or specialized skills
• Prefer lower upfront employment costs
• Want flexible workforce arrangements

However, businesses must ensure proper worker classification. Misclassifying employees as contractors can lead to legal penalties, back taxes, and compliance issues in many countries.

Benefits of Hiring Foreign Employees

An ambitious business can benefit by hiring employees from around the world in more than one way. The top benefits include-

1. Scope of accessing a larger talent pool

Sometimes, hiring individuals who reside close to the head office restricts a business's ability to find and connect with the best talent. Opening up to the idea of scouting talent from beyond immediate locations broadens the scope of accessing an excellent talent pool and reduces labor costs.

Additionally, with the help of reputable third-party service providers like Gloroots, limitations on candidate discovery and distribution of global payroll have become more accessible to manage.

2. Cultural Diversity

When you hire employees from around the world, you bring together professionals who:

• Speak different languages
• Understand local markets
• Represent diverse cultures

This diversity of thought helps your organization gain deeper insights into global user behavior and regional customer needs. 

Additionally, having team members across multiple time zones enables your company to operate continuously, improve response times, and support customers around the clock, creating a more agile and globally connected workforce.

3. Opportunity to enter a new market

Scouting talent from foreign markets allows businesses to enter new regions while gaining access to professionals with deep expertise in specific niches and industries. This approach not only helps companies test new products and services in local markets but also enables them to attract new customer segments more effectively. Additionally, hiring internationally often offers significant cost advantages, allowing organizations to build highly skilled teams while optimizing labor expenses.

Hiring global talent gives businesses the upper hand in adding a localized feel to their products and services. It also places a company in a better position professionally and culturally. Additionally, it helps the brand understand what its consumers expect from it.

Above all, hiring international employees to enter a new market lowers the need and expense to transfer existing employees to newer locations.

What Are the Challenges in Hiring Foreign Employees?

Hiring foreign employees comes with several operational, legal, and financial complexities. Understanding these challenges helps businesses prepare better and avoid compliance risks.

1. Navigating Immigration Laws and Work Permits

Immigration regulations vary widely across countries and can be difficult to navigate.

Each country has its own:

• Visa requirements and eligibility criteria
• Application timelines and approval processes
• Employment authorization rules

Failure to comply with immigration laws can expose businesses to penalties and legal risks, making this one of the most critical challenges in international hiring.

2. Understanding Tax and Employment Regulations Across Countries

Each country operates under different tax systems and employment frameworks.

Employers must manage:

• Local tax structures and withholding requirements
• Social security contributions
• Country-specific reporting obligations

Keeping up with these varying regulations can be overwhelming, especially when hiring across multiple regions.

3. Compliance with Local Labor Laws

Adhering to local employment laws protects both employers and international employees.

 This includes compliance with:

• Working hour regulations
• Overtime payment rules
• Statutory benefits and leave policies
• Contract termination requirements

Non-compliance can lead to legal disputes, fines, and reputational damage.

4. Employee Misclassification Risks

Correctly classifying workers as employees or independent contractors is essential.

Independent contractors typically:

• Work on short-term or project-based assignments
• Manage their own taxes, insurance, and social contributions
• Control their work schedules and rates

Employees typically:

• Work under employer-defined terms and conditions
• Receive salaries, statutory benefits, overtime pay, and protections under labor laws

Misclassification can result in:

• Legal action and financial penalties
• Back payments for benefits and taxes
• Damage to the company’s reputation and credibility

5. Employer and Employee Liability and Insurance

Workplace injuries or work-related incidents can result in costly legal claims. International employees may also be subject to different safety regulations depending on the country.

Businesses must ensure:

• Proper workplace safety compliance
• Adequate insurance coverage for employees
• Alignment with country-specific insurance requirements

Many countries mandate minimum insurance coverage levels to protect both employers and workers.

6. Managing Competitive Salaries and Benefits

Compensation expectations differ significantly across countries. 

Employers must consider:

• Local market salary benchmarks
• Cost of living differences
• Statutory benefits requirements
• Common regional employee perks

Global compensation packages must also comply with:

• Minimum wage laws
• Income tax regulations
• Pay equity requirements

Maintaining competitive and compliant compensation structures places a significant workload on HR teams, who must stay updated on changing labor laws across multiple countries.

Hiring Process of International Employees: Step-by-Step Guide

Follow these steps if you plan on hiring employees from across the globe:

Step 1: Check and confirm job profile

Before starting the interviewing process, ensure you have a clear idea of what you want and expect from new hires. Chalk up a job profile highlighting desired tasks, qualifications, and experience requirements. Don't forget to add company culture into the mix.

Such a profile will help applicants understand the job description and allow hiring managers to match the requirements with the applying candidate better.

In fact, the location from where a company intends to hire employees is quite crucial. For instance, when a US company plans to hire a foreign employee in the States, it needs to carefully plan so that the hired individuals meet the highly restrictive work visa requirements.

Also, companies need to be aware of the challenges that could arise with hiring employees overseas. However, one could avoid such a situation by setting up a subsidiary or with the assistance of a global employment solution provider.

Step 2. Find out about taxes and employment norms

Different countries follow different norms of taxation and employment policies.

So, before a business starts the remote hiring process, it is crucial to understand how these policies vary across regions. Get well-versed in the policies to ensure smooth hiring, onboarding, and retention of remote workers.

For example, NRIs pay taxes overseas and therefore need to be hired at a different pay grade than remote workers from India. When you have a niche partner like Gloroots on your side, the process becomes a lot simpler.

You get the right assistance for everything from taxes and talent requisition to help your business find the right motivation!

Step 3: Be clear about the type of worker you want

Take some time to figure out if your organization needs an employee or could use an international contractor. Typically, when a company hires an international contractor, it does not have to offer any payroll to provide social security or employer tax.

However, companies usually have to pay contractors a higher hourly rate and pay them a lump sum. As a result, businesses often planning on minimal engagement with professionals feel more comfortable hiring international contractors.

That said, companies must be cautious about treating employees as contractors, as any non-compliance while hiring abroad can land them back taxes and hefty fines. Contractors tend to seek different growth opportunities than full-time employees and prefer a more defined and niche job role.

Step 4: Explore relevant channels of recruitment

As a next step, businesses should find an ideal hiring channel to find the type of candidate they desire. Currently, LinkedIn and industry-specific job sites are a rage in different countries. However, in most cases, big companies often outsource the hassle of scouting eligible candidates to reliable partners like Gloroots that have a good presence in international markets.

Step 5: Assessing candidates' skills by company standards

This step is crucial as it helps understand whether applicants fit the job profile and description. Due to the difference in educational processes worldwide, there will likely be candidates with different levels of applicable skill at the same level of education. Therefore, a certain standardization of credentials must be conducted before hiring.

However, as someone willing to hire candidates from abroad, it is wise to keep an open mind regarding CV formatting conventions or presentation of information.

Step 6: Initiating the interview process

Typically, the interview process includes a series of steps. Planning them helps to carry out the process smoothly. A standard interview process comprises initial screening, testing, task assignment, and a final round of discussion.

With the emergence and enhancement of digital technologies that offer video communication, remote interviews have become personalized and safe. However, companies must ensure neutral hours to make candidates feel more comfortable during interviews while hiring abroad.

Step 7: Hire and onboard candidates

If the interview round is concluded positively, the selected candidate is ideally hired and onboarded. Subsequently, companies should walk the hired employee through the norms and regulations of working in a remote company and crucial in-house policies.

It is best to carry out the remote hiring process single-handedly or via their subsidiaries. However, given the overbearing process of narrowing down on a location, learning about employee regulations of the region, and scouting candidates, it can be quite tedious.

As a result, more companies are now opting for the smarter route of delegating the recruitment and onboarding task to global employment solution providers like Gloroots.

How Gloroots Simplifies International Hiring

When hiring international employees through Gloroots, the entire process is managed for you end-to-end. You do not need to coordinate vendors, navigate local regulations, or handle administrative workflows.

International Hiring Workflow with Gloroots End-to-End

• Candidate sourcing, shortlisting, and background verification
• Initial screening to assess skills, experience, and role fit
• Interview coordination for final selection
• Offer issuance with locally compliant employment contracts
• Employer of Record (EOR) setup for legal employment
• Statutory registrations, payroll setup, and benefits enrollment
• Employee onboarding aligned with local labor regulations

This model removes operational overhead, allowing you to focus on building and managing your team while Gloroots handles hiring execution, compliance, and onboarding from start to finish.

Gloroots offers end-to-end Employer of Record (EOR) services across more than 140 countries, enabling companies to hire international employees without setting up local entities. The platform manages locally compliant employment contracts, global payroll processing in local currencies, tax filings, statutory contributions, and mandatory benefits administration.

Gloroots combines digital onboarding and contract workflows with real-time payroll visibility and detailed reporting. The platform provides audit-ready compliance documentation, transparent cost breakdowns by country and employee, and finance-friendly invoicing with GL mapping. These capabilities give businesses full control and clarity over their global workforce operations.

Gloroots scales with your business, whether you are hiring your first international employee or expanding a distributed team across global markets, without the complexity of managing multiple entities.

Want to Hire Internationally with Ease?

Simplify international hiring, payroll, and compliance across countries with Gloroots’ end-to-end Employer of Record solution.

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Hiring International Employees - FAQ

1. How to hire someone from another country?

To hire someone from another country, get the United States Department of Labor certification. Then, interview the candidates who meet your requirements. Apply for a work visa from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

2. Can I hire foreign workers?

To hire foreign workers, you must follow a set process and prove to the Department of Labor that there are insufficient local workers to fulfill the job role at the prevailing wages.  

3. How to hire overseas workers without a work visa?

Hiring an employee without a work visa requires the employer to sponsor the foreign national for a work visa or assist the worker in obtaining a work visa before they start working officially.