01 Oct When Employees Get Stranded: Why Global Mobility Needs a Contingency Plan

An employee can now become “stranded” without ever being caught at an airport.

Visa backlogs, sudden immigration-rule changes, conflict, natural disasters, expired travel documents, closed airspace, or an inability to enter either a host or home country can leave internationally mobile employees working—or waiting—in unexpected locations.

For global mobility teams, that turns what might initially look like a travel disruption into something much larger. Immigration compliance, payroll, tax, employee safety, business continuity, workforce planning and duty of care can all become involved at the same time.

KPMG describes this growing group as employees caught “between borders”—workers whose deployment is interrupted by visa delays, processing backlogs or changing immigration requirements. The challenge, KPMG argues, is no longer simply responding to isolated immigration problems. Organizations increasingly need mobility systems capable of functioning when disruption itself becomes routine.

More employees can become stranded

The traditional expatriate assignment is only one part of today’s mobile workforce.

Companies now manage short-term assignees, business travelers, international commuters, rotational employees, cross-border remote workers, foreign hires awaiting authorization and employees temporarily working outside their normal jurisdiction.

Each creates another potential point of failure. A transferee may be unable to start work because a permit has not been approved. Someone who leaves a host country may discover that a pending renewal prevents re-entry. A business traveler can be caught by conflict or flight disruption. Another employee may simply begin working remotely from a third country while waiting for immigration issues to be resolved.

The employee may still be productive. Legally, however, the arrangement may be far more complicated.

Physical presence in a country does not automatically mean an employee has authorization to work there—or that the company can continue paying, employing and managing that person under the same structure.

That is why KPMG emphasizes coordination across mobility, tax, payroll, HR, legal and business stakeholders rather than treating immigration as an isolated administrative function.

One disruption can create several risks

Consider an employee originally assigned from the United States to Country A who travels temporarily to Country B while a visa renewal is being processed.

If that employee cannot return to Country A, the company suddenly has several questions to answer.

Can the employee legally work from Country B? Does payroll withholding need to change? Could the employee become subject to local tax or social-security requirements? Does the company have an employment entity there? Could the employee’s activities create corporate-tax exposure? Are company systems and client data permitted to be accessed from that jurisdiction?

At the same time, the organization may be paying additional accommodation, transportation and immigration costs while a project in the original host location remains understaffed.

That means a single immigration delay can quickly become an immigration, tax, payroll, employment, security and business-continuity event.

Mercer similarly argues that global mobility risk now extends well beyond physical security and regulatory compliance. It can include psychological stress, operational disruption, financial exposure, data risk and reputational damage—particularly as companies manage a wider variety of internationally mobile workers.

Know where employees actually are

The first requirement of an effective contingency plan is visibility.

Companies may know where an employee is supposed to be without knowing where that employee is actually working.

A resilient mobility program should therefore maintain current information on assignees, international commuters, extended business travelers and other cross-border workers, including immigration status, passport validity, work authorization, employing entity, payroll location and relevant travel deadlines.

Where appropriate, organizations also need visibility into accompanying dependents because an assignment can fail even when the employee is legally able to travel.

A spouse waiting for documentation, a child unable to enter the host country or a dependent requiring medical support may make continuation of the assignment impractical.

Crisis-management guidance from Cartus emphasizes anticipating disruptions and preparing contingency responses rather than waiting for a crisis to force decisions. Its 2026 mobility guidance also highlights crisis readiness as an increasingly important responsibility for mobility teams confronting political disruption and major weather events.

Build fallback locations before they are needed

Knowing where someone is solves only part of the problem. Companies also need to know where that employee can legally go next.

For strategically important international positions, mobility teams can establish a hierarchy of alternatives before disruption occurs.

An employee might remain temporarily in the current jurisdiction if working there is legally permissible. If the company has an entity in that location, temporary local employment could sometimes be considered. Another possibility is transferring the employee to a pre-approved third country or temporarily redesigning the assignment as remote work.

KPMG specifically identifies flexible workforce frameworks and advance cross-functional planning as important tools for organizations dealing with immigration uncertainty.

The important word is pre-approved.

Waiting until an employee becomes stranded to determine whether another jurisdiction creates immigration, tax, payroll or employment problems can turn an emergency into a prolonged compliance review.

Establish who can make the decision

Crisis response also fails when too many people need to approve every action.

A mobility contingency plan should establish decision rights in advance.

Who can approve an alternate work location? Who decides that the employee must temporarily stop working? Who authorizes emergency accommodation or evacuation expenses? When should tax, immigration counsel, corporate security or senior management become involved?

Clear escalation rules allow companies to respond quickly without abandoning governance.

KPMG identifies cross-functional alignment as one of three important imperatives for building mobility resilience, alongside anticipating disruption and keeping employees at the center of the response.

Duty of care does not stop with the employee

The human element becomes particularly important when disruption lasts for weeks rather than days.

Employees may face unexpected housing costs, family separation, medical concerns, uncertainty over income and prolonged anxiety about whether an assignment—or even their employment—can continue.

And duty of care may extend beyond the employee.

Mercer notes that accompanying family members can fall within an employer’s broader duty-of-care considerations. In some emergencies, employees may even need to be evacuated to a third country rather than their original home country because they no longer have housing, family support or a functioning personal network there.

That makes emergency accommodation, transportation, immigration assistance, medical support, payroll continuity and family communication part of mobility resilience rather than optional benefits.

From emergency response to business continuity

The larger change is conceptual.

Companies should stop treating stranded employees as unusual exceptions and begin considering stranding a foreseeable global-mobility risk.

That could mean automatically reviewing a case when work authorization approaches expiration, a visa appointment falls beyond a deployment deadline, geopolitical risk rises, or a worker plans travel while an immigration application is pending.

The review would identify where the employee could legally work, what alternative locations are available, who has authority to approve them and who will pay for an extended stay or emergency relocation.

The strongest global mobility programs will therefore resemble business-continuity programs more than traditional relocation departments.

They will combine employee-location data, immigration monitoring, pre-approved alternate work arrangements, cross-functional decision-making, emergency funding and meaningful support for employees and their families.

Because when an employee becomes stranded between borders, the question is no longer simply, “How do we get this person on the next flight?”

It is “How do we keep the employee safe, compliant and productive—and keep the business operating until normal mobility becomes possible again?”