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I can help organisations move talent and manage the accompanying administration of visa applications, tax compliance and legal requirements.
AltoVita’s Smart, Safe and Sustainable Summit, which
took place in London and brought together business executives, HR leaders, and mobility experts, explored the future of work and how AI and technology are changing the way we move people around the world. This was a key theme in the panel discussion hosted by AltoVita, featuring leaders across the global mobility industry. The conference featured a panel discussion: Room for
Improvement: The Headaches of Policy Compliance, which looked at the burden of administrative tasks and compliance that many global mobility departments and professionals are facing. The panel discussion was moderated by Beverly King, Director of Client Partnerships, AltoVita, with expertise provided by Ben Oghene, Chief executive officer at The Cozm; Soren Sturup-Toft, Immigration & Global Mobility Lead, EMEA & APJ at Databricks; and Sigrid Nauwelaerts, Head of Reward, Europe, RSA Insurance.
THE BILLION DOLLAR VISA PROBLEM Beverly King, VP of Client Partnerships at AltoVita, began the session with a striking figure: in 2024 alone, global E-visa spend surpassed $1 billion. That number is expected to double by 2030. When visa agency services are added, the global spend jumps to an estimated $3 to $4 billion this year, and it is rising at a similar pace. This rising volume of international movement
for assignments, projects and business travel, is accelerating, putting greater pressure on mobility teams to deliver. As politicians constantly change the rules over visa and entry requirements, global mobility professionals are having to process complex applications, while managing the expectations of assignees and the wider business, and doing so while operating within budget constraints. “The session today is really about understanding
some of the policy compliance headaches that we all face day in day out, and how that interacts across all of our different services,” Beverly King said.
EXAMINING THE REAL COST OF COMPLIANCE Beverly King began the discussion by asking the panel which aspects of compliance caused the most frustration for travellers and why. “The biggest problem is timing,” said Soren Sturup-
Toft, Lead immigration and mobility for APAC and EMEA at Databricks, which is an AI and data storage company. “It is applications being delayed. It is maybe not having technology for your application flows. These may be manual, they may be paper based, and depending on which jurisdiction you are going into, there may be a lack of knowledge, if your vendors are not linked up as well. So I think timing and headaches with actually getting everything in the right place is a big one.” Sigrid Nauwelaerts of RSA, who was previously
EMEA head of mobility and then Head of Global Mobility at a pharmaceutical company, and is based in Antwerp, Belgium, said there were new challenges in the current global volatility and that delays in mobile intersected with problems of moving the family and finding the right educational setting. “I think there is another element today in our
geopolitical environment, which is uncertainty,” she explains. “People might previously have found it pretty easy to go to specific countries with specific nationalities, but it can become a bit more challenging today. So immigration for sure, is a challenge, and that also translates to the family. If my immigration is delayed, will my kids be able to go or to start a school fast enough? So I don’t know if I really want to go now.” She said the speed of processing immigration
applications was also a challenge, and there was a need for global mobility teams to be consulted as early as possible in the process. “In mobility, we have always asked our business
partners to involve us as soon as possible. And that’s a bit of an ongoing battle, but it’s so important right now in order to deal with the compliance needs.” Beverly King added that if there was a knock on
effect on the immigration side, it had a knock on effect on all of the other services, whether that is for mobility or business travel.
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GLOBAL MOBILITY HOT TOPIC – FUTURE OF WORK
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