Questions to Ask in an Interview for a Job Abroad
For candidates interviewing with an employer in another country: questions to put to the recruiter, the hiring manager or HR before you accept anything. They run in the order the subjects tend to come up, from the visa and the day-to-day of working there, through the contract, pay and benefits and the move, to what happens if the job ends. Immigration, tax and employment rules change from one country to the next, so many are worded to draw out how it works in that one and who can confirm it.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Visa
Do you sponsor a work visa or permit for this role, and have you done it for someone with my passport?
Why ask it
Raise it in the first conversation, because a no ends the process for both of you. A yes backed by a recent hire from your country is worth more than a general yes, since the rules often turn on nationality. If you already have the right to work there, say so up front: it is an advantage, and most of the visa questions fall away.
Which visa or permit would I be working on, and what is its official name?
Why ask it
The exact name is what lets you check everything else, because one country can have several work routes with different rules on length, family and changing jobs. Read that route's page on the government's immigration site the same evening. A recruiter who cannot name it may be new to hiring from abroad, and someone in HR or at their law firm will know.
Who prepares and files the application: your HR team, an immigration lawyer or me?
Why ask it
An employer with a lawyer or a mobility team on call has usually done this many times. If the filing falls to you, find out what the company supplies, who you can call when a form is unclear, and whether any of their applications has been refused.
Which visa costs do you pay, and which are mine: government fees, legal fees, translations, medical checks?
Why ask it
'We cover the visa' can mean the government fee and nothing else, so go through the four items in the question one at a time. Add your family's applications if they are coming, which are often billed separately. Keep the receipt for anything you pay yourself until you know whether it is reimbursed.
How long did it take your last few hires from abroad to get from a signed offer to their first day?
Why ask it
Their recent cases are a better guide than the official processing time. Use the answer to plan your notice at your current job, and ask which step makes the permit certain enough to resign on.
Is the offer conditional on the permit being granted, and what happens if it is refused or delayed?
Why ask it
An offer to someone abroad often carries this condition, so the useful part is the second half. Listen for whether they would reapply, hold the job open or withdraw, and whether the start date can move without a new contract.
Does the permit tie me to this employer, this job title or this office?
Why ask it
In many systems the permit names the sponsor, and some name the role or the region too. That matters for a move between offices as much as for leaving. The practical test is a promotion: would a new title mean a new filing, and has that ever held one up here?
How long is the permit valid, who handles the renewal, and does it lead toward permanent residence?
Why ask it
The employer can tell you what they do at renewal and whether anyone has been turned down. Whether years on this permit count toward settling is a question for the immigration authority or a lawyer, so take the interviewer's view as a starting point only.
Do my degree or professional licenses have to be recognized there before the permit can be issued?
Why ask it
Recognition can be a separate process with its own office and its own queue, and regulated professions often need it first. Get the document list in writing and start with the slowest item. Skip this if your work needs no formal qualification.
Could I start remotely from my home country while the permit is being processed?
Why ask it
Some employers can arrange it and some cannot, because employing you where you live now raises payroll and tax questions of its own. A yes needs two details before you rely on it: whose contract covers those weeks, and how you are paid.
Working there
What language does the team work in: meetings, written documents, chat, calls with customers?
Why ask it
'The working language is English' can be true of meetings and untrue of the contract templates, the lunch table and the customer calls. Go through them one at a time. A quick test is to ask what language the last company-wide meeting was held in.
How much of the local language would I need on day one, and do you pay for lessons?
Why ask it
Listen for a level and a deadline, such as conversational within a year. Lessons held in working hours are meant seriously, while lessons you are left to fit in after work tend to lapse. If the next role up needs fluency, it is better to hear that now.
Why are you hiring from abroad for this role instead of locally?
Why ask it
The reason tells you how much they need you. A skill that is scarce locally gives you room to negotiate on relocation and pay. In some countries the employer also has to show it looked for local candidates first, so ask whether that step applies here and whether it is done.
What would my first month look like, given that I would be new to the country as well as the company?
Why ask it
A good plan leaves room for the appointments a new arrival cannot avoid, which in many places include registering an address, opening a bank account and collecting a residence document. If what you hear is the standard induction for a local hire, mention that you will need a few days for paperwork and see how that is received.
How many people on the team moved from another country for the job, and how long have they stayed?
Why ask it
A team with several people in their third or fourth year has worked out how to bring someone in from outside. If you would be the first, that is not a reason to walk away, but expect to explain your own paperwork to HR as you go.
Could you introduce me to an employee who relocated from abroad to join you?
Why ask it
Save your practical questions for that person: how long the permit really took, what the first month cost, what they wish they had asked. An employer that is confident about how it treats foreign hires usually agrees quickly. If they hesitate, ask again at the offer stage.
Who would I report to, and are they in the same country and time zone as the role?
Why ask it
A manager several hours away means your day bends toward theirs, with early or late calls as a fixed part of the week. Get the overlap as clock times, and the name of whoever in the local office settles things that cannot wait a day.
What are the working hours and annual leave for this role, and what do people on the team actually take?
Why ask it
Part of the answer comes from that country's law and part from the contract, and HR can tell you which is which. With family far away, the detail that matters is whether two or three weeks can be taken in one block. An allowance nobody on the team uses in full is smaller than it looks.
Could I work from my home country for a few weeks a year, for instance around a family visit?
Why ask it
Employers that allow it often set a limit in days, because working from another country can raise tax, social security and permit questions for them as well as for you. A written policy with a number in it is the good answer. 'We are flexible' from a manager is worth checking with HR before you count on a month at home every winter.
Does the role involve travel to other countries, and has a permit or passport ever made that difficult for someone on the team?
Why ask it
A work permit for one country may not cover business trips to its neighbors, and some passports need a visa for each one. If the job depends on visiting clients or other offices, find out who arranges those visas and whether trips are planned far enough ahead to get them. Leave it out for a role with no travel.
How do people here tend to disagree with a manager or give critical feedback?
Why ask it
Directness varies between workplaces as well as between countries, and what reads as rude in one office is ordinary in another. A recent example tells you more than a description: who objected, in what setting, and what happened next. A colleague who came from abroad can describe the adjustment better than the manager can.
Contract
Which company would employ me: the local entity, the parent company abroad or an employer of record?
Why ask it
The name on the contract is usually who pays you and who holds the sponsorship, so get it before you read any other clause. An employer of record is a third party that hires you on the company's behalf. That can work well, but find out how bonuses, benefits and the ending of the contract are handled under it.
Would I be on a local contract like colleagues hired there, or on an assignment from another office?
Why ask it
A local contract generally puts you on the same footing as everyone else in the building. An assignment tends to come with allowances, an end date and a question about what you return to. Find out which this is before comparing it with any other offer.
Is the contract permanent or for a fixed term, and what has happened to others when their term ended?
Why ask it
Renewal, a permanent contract and a goodbye are three different futures, and the employer's record says which is likely. Compare the contract's end date with the permit's as well, because one can stop before the other.
Which country's law governs the contract, and where would a dispute be heard?
Why ask it
A recruiter may not know offhand, and that is fine: the clause is in the draft, usually toward the end. It can affect which rules on notice, dismissal and leave you could rely on, and how that works is a question for a lawyer in the country where you would work. If the governing law is another country's, ask the employer why.
Will I receive the contract in a language I can read, and if it is translated, which version is binding?
Why ask it
An English copy supplied for convenience is helpful and may carry no legal weight. Have the employer say in writing which text governs. If it is the one in the local language, a translator of your own choosing should go over at least the clauses on pay, notice and repayment before you sign.
Is there a probation period, and what would happen to my permit and relocation costs if it did not work out?
Why ask it
Probation carries more risk when failing it could mean leaving the country as well as the job. Three facts to collect: its length, how often people do not pass, and whether the repayment clause applies in that window. How it affects the permit is set by local rules, and HR can say how it went for anyone it happened to.
How much notice applies on each side, and does it change after probation?
Why ask it
Notice is your runway if the job ends, and abroad it is also the time you have to find another sponsor or plan a move. Check the contract figure against what local law requires, which HR or a lawyer in that country can tell you.
Are there non-compete or exclusivity clauses, and am I allowed to do other paid work?
Why ask it
A non-compete matters more when your right to stay depends on finding the next employer quickly. Whether such a clause holds up varies by country, so get local advice before assuming either way. Side work can be limited by the permit as well as by the contract.
Will what we have agreed on visa costs, relocation and the journey home be written into the contract or a side letter?
Why ask it
The person who makes a promise in an interview may have moved on by the time you need it kept, and from another country you are poorly placed to argue about what was said. List each commitment in an email and ask which document it will appear in. One that cannot be written down has probably not been approved by whoever signs it off.
May I take the draft contract to an employment lawyer in that country before I sign?
Why ask it
Most employers agree and allow a few days. One hour with a local lawyer answers what an interviewer cannot: what the law adds to the contract and which clauses are unusual there. If you are pressed to sign the same day, say that you are moving countries on the strength of this document and need the time.
Pay and benefits
In which currency is the salary paid, and into a bank account in which country?
Why ask it
If your rent is in one currency and your loan or savings in another, the exchange rate becomes part of your pay. Two details help: whether part of it can go to an account at home, and how salary reaches you in the weeks before you have a local account.
What would this gross salary come to as monthly take-home for someone in my situation?
Why ask it
Deductions depend on the country and on your own circumstances, such as whether a partner or children come with you. A net estimate from payroll, or an anonymized payslip at the same grade, beats your own arithmetic from a tax table. It is still an estimate, and a tax adviser there can confirm it if the decision turns on it.
Is the salary for this role in the same band you pay people hired locally at the same level?
Why ask it
The risk runs both ways: being placed under the local band because you are new to the market, or being priced against your old salary at home. A recruiter who can state the band has given you something to negotiate with. One who cannot might still explain how the figure was set.
What do recent hires from abroad pay in rent, and how far from the office do they live?
Why ask it
Rent is usually the largest cost and the one a general cost-of-living figure hides best. Say what size of home you need, so that you hear about a family apartment and not a studio. Then look at current listings yourself, since what someone signed two years ago may be out of date.
Would I be tax resident there from my first day, and do you pay for tax advice in the first year?
Why ask it
When you become tax resident, and what your home country still wants from you in the year you leave, turn on both countries' rules and your own dates. Nobody in an interview should settle that for you. What the employer can answer is whether it pays for an adviser, and for which tax years.
Is there a special tax arrangement for people recruited from abroad, and does HR help with the application?
Why ask it
Some countries have one, often with conditions and a deadline counted from arrival. Leave it out of your budget until an adviser confirms you qualify. Whether recent hires received it is a fair measure of how well HR knows the paperwork.
Are a bonus, stock or any customary extra month's pay part of the package, and which parts are written into the contract?
Why ask it
Pay customs differ, and an annual figure may be split into more than twelve payments or include parts that depend on results. Have the fixed and the discretionary amounts listed separately. For each one, the thing to know is what you would receive if you left partway through a year.
How does healthcare work for employees there, and from what date would I be covered?
Why ask it
The answer might be a public system you join through payroll, a company plan, or both, and it differs by country. Pin down the start date: cover that begins with your first payslip or a residence registration leaves the first weeks to private or travel insurance. If you take regular medication or see a specialist, raise that with the plan's administrator before you move.
Would my partner and children be covered too, and who pays for that?
Why ask it
Family cover is sometimes automatic, sometimes an added cost and sometimes not available through the employer at all. Get the monthly amount and add it to your budget before comparing offers. Leave this one out if you are moving alone.
What pension contributions come with the job, and what happens to that money if I leave the country?
Why ask it
Whether a pension can be transferred, refunded or left to mature depends on the plan and on agreements between countries. With the plan's name you can read its own rules on leaving. Your provider at home can say whether you may keep paying in while you are away.
Would I pay social security there, at home or both?
Why ask it
This depends on arrangements between the two countries and sometimes on how long the posting lasts. The payroll team will know what they did for the last person from your country. It changes your payslip now and what you can claim later, so get the answer by email.
The move
What relocation support comes with the offer: flights, shipping, temporary housing, a lump sum?
Why ask it
The written policy shows the limits a spoken summary skips: a cap on shipping volume, a number of nights, whose flights count. If the model is pay first and claim back, work out how much you would be carrying on your own card, and for how long, during the most expensive month of the move.
Is there a repayment clause on the visa and relocation costs, and how does the amount reduce over time?
Why ask it
Have them give the figure you would owe if you left at six months and at twelve, which says more than the wording of the clause. The second thing to settle is whether it applies when the company ends the job, including during probation. An employer that waives it in that case should be willing to say so in the contract.
Who helps in the first weeks with registering an address, a bank account, a tax number and a phone?
Why ask it
In many places these depend on one another, and the order matters. A named person or a relocation agency is the good answer. The number to take away is how long new arrivals usually wait for their first salary, so you can bring cash for that stretch.
How do new hires from abroad usually find a long-term rental, and will the company help with the deposit or act as guarantor?
Why ask it
Landlords may want a local credit history, a guarantor or several months paid up front, which a newcomer cannot always offer. A letter confirming your job and salary costs the employer nothing and often helps. What the last arrival had to show a landlord is the list to prepare from.
Can my partner come on my permit, and would they be allowed to work?
Why ask it
The right to come and the right to work are separate questions in many systems, and the answer can depend on whether you are married. HR can say what previous hires' partners were granted. Confirm it on the immigration authority's page for that permit before you both plan around it.
Do you offer any help with a partner's job search or with finding schools for children?
Why ask it
Support here ranges from nothing to paid career coaching, language classes and a school search, and it is seldom mentioned unless you raise it. Schooling can carry fees and waiting lists that change the sums, so ask where colleagues' children go. An employer with a ready answer has moved families before.
Would any interview round be in person, and would you cover a visit before I have to decide?
Why ask it
A few days in the city tells you things no video call can: the commute, the neighborhoods, how the office feels at five o'clock. If a final round is held on site, ask to stay an extra day or two at your own cost and use them for that. Without a trip, a video walk through the office and an hour with a future colleague is the least to request.
Is there an allowance for flights home, and does it cover my family?
Why ask it
Home flights are more often part of an assignment package than a local contract, so ask without assuming. If there is none, price two return trips a year for everyone who is moving and set that against the salary. It is a cost people leave out of the comparison and then pay every year.
Is there anything about safety, health or local laws that you brief new arrivals on?
Why ask it
For some destinations the answer is a formal briefing, covering vaccinations, areas to avoid and rules on conduct or medication that differ from home. For others it is a shrug, which is also an answer. Read your own government's travel advice for the country too, since an employer describes its location kindly.
What did your foreign hires find hardest in their first six months?
Why ask it
An interviewer who has watched people settle will have an answer ready: the paperwork, the winter, making friends outside work. A blank suggests nobody followed up. Whatever they name, ask what the company now does about it.
If it ends
If the company ended my job, how long could I stay in the country to look for other work?
Why ask it
Some permits allow a period after employment ends and others stop with the job, and that is the country's rule, not the company's. Check the official figure yourself. What the employer controls is what it has done before, such as longer notice or a later end date.
What would I be paid if the role were cut: notice, severance, unused leave?
Why ask it
The contract sets part of this and local law may add to it, and the two can be far apart. Without asking for names, find out what people received the last time roles were cut. The legal minimum, which a lawyer there can give you, is the number to budget on.
If my job ended, what would happen to my partner's and children's right to stay?
Why ask it
A family's status often follows the main permit, so one dismissal can put a partner's job and a child's school place in question at once. HR may only know what happened in past cases, which is still worth hearing. Read the rule itself on the immigration authority's page for dependents before the move, not in the middle of a crisis.
If the job ended, would you pay for the journey home and for shipping my belongings?
Why ask it
Repatriation is more often written into assignment contracts than local ones. If it is missing, the time to have it added is before you sign, when agreeing costs the employer little. Read whether it still applies if you are the one who resigns.
If this office closed or the company were sold, what would happen to employees on sponsored permits?
Why ask it
A permit is usually linked to one legal entity, so a change of owner can mean paperwork for you even when the job carries on. A company that has been through it can describe what its sponsored staff had to do. Whether another group company could take over the sponsorship depends on the rules there, so hear the answer as the employer's intention and not a guarantee.
Could I later transfer to another of your offices, or back to a role in my home country?
Why ask it
A promise is not on offer here, so the useful answer is a history: who moved between offices, after how long, and who paid. Where transfers happen regularly, the company is a second route out if the country turns out not to suit you. Where they do not, plan as if this job is the only one it has for you.
How to ask about a job in another country
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Which question belongs in which round
Settle sponsorship on the first call
Whether the employer will sponsor you decides if there is a process at all, so the first two or three questions under Visa belong in the opening conversation with the recruiter. Ask them plainly and early. An employer that hires across borders expects them, and one that does not will be glad to find out before three rounds of interviews.
Let the job come before the package
Once sponsorship is clear, spend the middle rounds on Working there: the language, the manager, who else came from abroad. A hiring manager who hears only about allowances starts to wonder whether you want the job or the country. Pay, tax and relocation fit best after they have said they want to move forward.
Keep the ending for the offer stage
Questions about being laid off, repaying costs and getting home are fair, and they land better with an offer on the table. Say why you are asking: you would be giving up a home and a job to come. Put that way, most employers hear them as a sign that you are taking the move seriously.
Send each question to the person who knows
A hiring manager can describe the team and the language in the room and may have no idea how the permit works. HR, a mobility specialist or the company's immigration lawyer handles the rest. When an interviewer says they are not sure, ask who is, and whether you can have twenty minutes with that person.
Homework that makes the answers useful
Look up the work route for your passport
Search the destination government's immigration site for the work routes open to your nationality and occupation, and note the name of the one that seems to fit. Twenty minutes is enough. The aim is to recognize the route when the recruiter names it, and to notice if what they describe sounds like a different one.
Price a month of your own life there
Look up rent for the size of home you need, a transit pass, groceries, and childcare or school fees if they apply. Current listings and local forums are closer to the truth than an index. With that figure in hand, the take-home question becomes a comparison you can make on the spot.
Know your dates
Write down your notice period, when your lease ends, the school year if you have children and any date you cannot move. Visa timelines run into all of them. An interviewer can only tell you whether the plan works if you can say what the plan has to fit around.
Expect the same questions back
An employer hiring across a border will want to know why this country, who is coming with you and how soon you could realistically start. Have plain answers ready. Your questions about permits and housing then sound like planning by someone who intends to come, not doubt about whether to.
Weighing what they tell you
Plan on cases, not policies
'We sponsor visas' is a policy. 'The last person we brought over started about three months after signing' is a case, and cases are what you can plan on. For anything about timing, cost or family, ask for the most recent example.
'We will sort it out' is not an answer yet
It is often said in good faith by a manager who wants you and has never dealt with a permit. Thank them, then ask who will sort it out and by when. If the same phrase comes back from HR, treat the point as unsettled.
Separate the company's choices from the country's rules
Relocation money, lawyers' fees and repatriation are things the employer decides and can change for you. How long a permit lasts, what tax you owe and whether a partner may work are set by the state. Negotiate the first kind, and verify the second kind with the authority itself or a professional.
The hiring process is a preview
Notice who bends on call times when you are eight time zones apart, how quickly a visa question reaches someone who can answer it, and whether documents arrive when promised. An employer that looks after a distant candidate with care is showing you how it is likely to handle your permit renewal. One that goes quiet for two weeks is showing you that too.
Mistakes that cost the most
Resigning before the permit is certain
A signed offer and permission to work are two different things. Keep your current job until the employer confirms the step after which the permit is safe, and count your notice period back from that date.
Judging the salary at today's exchange rate
An exchange rate makes the figure look generous or thin and tells you nothing about a month of rent and groceries there. Set take-home pay against local costs, and set the salary against what people hired locally at your level earn.
Treating the interviewer as a lawyer
A recruiter's summary of tax or immigration rules is secondhand, however kindly meant. Use it to learn what the company does, and take anything your plans depend on to the official source or a qualified adviser in that country.
Forgetting it is still a job interview
With so much paperwork to ask about, some candidates never ask what the work is like. You could get every visa answer right and still land in a team that does not suit you. Keep at least two of your questions for the role and the manager.