We employ staff in more than a dozen countries, and we’re always interested in expanding our portfolio in support of our clients' projects. Where we can offer employment and payroll services depends on:

• your project's activities
• your project's funding sources
• your project's duration
• our registration status and jurisdiction to operate in the selected country

Local registration is often required before we can engage in certain activities (i.e., open a bank account; employ and pay staff; pay taxes; operate a long-term program).

• In a country where we’re already legally established or have jurisdiction to operate via a memorandum of understanding (MOU), we can likely add staff to our payroll. The staff must be legally authorized to work in that country. Although rare, we may be able to provide visa sponsorship in certain scenarios. Based on our type of registration, restrictions may apply on the work, the location, or both.
• In a country where we’re not legally established, our ability to employ and pay staff depends on the funding sources for your project and the country’s relationship with the U.S. For example, we may be able to hire U.S. expatriates and third-country nationals paid from federally funded projects if a bilateral agreement allowing employment exists between the governments of the host country and the U.S.

See Where We Operate for the complete list of countries where we have ongoing operations and operations in development. Note: We do not provide employment services in the U.S.

If your program will span several years and you’ll need office or lab space in addition to employment and payroll services, you may want to consider our office administration service, which includes employment and payroll services.

We offer two competitive pricing tiers, and roll our service fee and the employment costs into one monthly invoice.

• Tier I – In a country where there is a bilateral agreement allowing employment and we’re not registered: $250 per employee, per month
• Tier II – In a country where we’re registered or have jurisdiction to operate in: $750 per employee, per month; there is also a one-time startup fee of $1,000

In addition to our service fee, your monthly invoice includes employment costs that we pay on your behalf, including:

• employee salary
• assignment allowances (e.g., housing, cost of living)
• fringe expenses
• tax equalization
• employee reimbursements
• employer-owed taxes

An optional tax return service for U.S. expatriates and third-country nationals is available for an additional fee.

Our service fee covers our administrative expenses and replaces the expense and effort that your department would otherwise incur on your own.

Tier I includes:

• Harvard Global acting as the employer of record
• Pre-assignment tax briefing (for U.S. expatriates and third-country nationals)
• Dedicated Associate Director of International HR
• Managing labor relations (as applicable for unions)
• Payroll processing
• Currency conversion
• Direct deposit into a foreign bank account
• Payment of bank fees
• Accounting
• Auditing
• Financial reporting
• Compliance tracking

Tier II includes all of Tier I, plus:

• Entity registration
• Permits and licensing
• Local employment contracts
• Local payroll
• Legal counsel
• Tax services

Our service fee does not cover:

• Visa sponsorship and work permits. In certain countries, we may be able to sponsor visas locally; if so, these costs are quoted and billed to you on a case-by-case basis. If we can’t sponsor visas, we can obtain quotes from in-country immigration services, and then pass that information to you.
• Accounts payable (e.g., vendor payments) and employment costs (e.g., salaries, assignment allowances, and benefits). These costs are billed to you in our monthly invoices.

Our ability to sponsor visas and work authorizations depends on the country and on potential quotas tied to our registration status.

• In certain countries where we’re registered, we can sponsor visas locally. Any costs related to immigration are quoted and billed to clients on a case-by-case basis.
• In countries where we’re not registered or where our registration is restricted, we cannot sponsor visas or work permits. We can, however, coordinate and obtain quotes from in-country immigration services, and then pass that information to you. Your department, or the employee(s), would still be responsible for obtaining visa sponsorship from a local partner (e.g., in-country university or NGO).

This determination is made on a case-by-case basis after careful review of the grant terms and other factors that govern allowability. We’ll work with Harvard’s Office for Sponsored Programs (OSP) to help you determine if our service fee is appropriate to charge to a particular grant. If allowed, the service fee should be included in the grant budget at the proposal stage. In some cases, only part of the service fee is allowable, which we’ll itemize as necessary.

Generally speaking, you'll continue to perform the tasks that you normally perform for domestic operations, such as:

• recruiting, selecting, and managing staff
• conducting performance evaluations
• maintaining direction and oversight of project programming
• procuring supplies or equipment needed for the project
• requesting overseas IT needs
• coding and submitting expenses
• approving expenses and payroll

We'll perform the tasks that Harvard’s Central Administration performs for domestic operations, plus certain tasks unique to overseas work (e.g., paying taxes required by a host country).

Each case is unique, but 6-8 weeks is typically the standard processing time. We'll advise you on expected timelines at the outset and continue to update you throughout the set-up process. It's important to plan early. Administrative delays are common when operating internationally. Your project timeline should account for flexibility and build in extra time to account for international office closures around holidays, backlogs in paperwork processing, or sudden changes in government policies and labor laws.

The following criteria influence your overall time frame:

• Country where your project will occur
• Your project’s funding source
• Number of employees to hire
• Employee(s) immigration status and work authorization in the selected country
• Our legal presence or jurisdiction to operate in the selected country

The activities to undertake include:

• Scoping the project to understand your activities and needs (HG and client)
• Researching the country requirements (HG)
• Developing and negotiating a service agreement (HG and client)
• Recruiting and selecting employees (client)
• Hiring and onboarding employees (HG)

Some of the activities can occur in tandem, while others are conditional. In countries where we're registered or already have jurisdiction to operate, these activities can take three to five months; in countries where we're not registered and where there’s a bilateral agreement, these activities can take four to six months. These timelines should be built into the time frames listed above.

The two engagements are very similar, although we’re able to provide additional services useful to U.S. expatriates, as well as to third-country nationals and host-country nationals in some cases. Additional services include tax advice, direct deposit into foreign bank accounts, and a dedicated International HR and Benefits Manager.

The Harvard University Payroll is limited to employees based in Massachusetts (and select other states) for the majority of the year. Additionally, Harvard University is not registered to do business in most of the world, which limits its ability to employ staff abroad, and the Harvard University systems are not capable of processing multi-currency payrolls and complying with country-specific tax regulations.

For payroll, benefits, and work authorization purposes, we categorize employees into the following three groups:

Expatriate: a U.S. citizen or permanent resident working abroad on international programs. Expatriates may be hired specifically to work outside of the U.S. or be transferred from a Harvard University position to an international assignment scheduled to last six months or more. Some temporary positions may have an assignment less than six months, and we review these on a case-by-case basis.

Third-country national: an employee working in an assigned country where he or she is neither a citizen of that country nor the U.S.

Host-country national: an employee hired to work within his or her home country; also referred to as a foreign national or local national.

Our employees receive nearly the same benefits as Harvard University employees—and in some cases better, including:

• Harvard University ID (HUID) number and HarvardKey account
• Harvard University Library access
• Affiliation with Harvard University
• Integration with Harvard University financial and HR systems
• Harvard University network access (e.g., shared drives, calendars, online databases), if required
• IT support (determined by respective School)
• Dedicated Associate Director of International HR
• Pre-assignment tax briefing (for U.S. expatriates and third-country nationals)
• Direct deposit into a bank account of employee’s choice
• Payment in currency of employee’s choice
• Global health benefits, including options for bundled health care (medical, dental, vision), supplemental life, and long-term disability insurance
• Pension (U.S. expatriates only)
• Service credit
• Harvard Global email address
• Harvard Global business cards
• International SOS emergency response services and resources*
• Visa sponsorship, if possible**

In some countries, we may need to use local contracts that reflect the benefits mandated by its employment legislation.

*Eligibility for Harvard's International SOS membership varies based on employment category.
**Visa sponsorship restrictions apply. We can sponsor visas only in certain countries on a case-by-case basis.

Harvard Global employees are considered to be employees of an affiliate of Harvard University. They can describe themselves as members of your lab, department, or School. As we are their legal employer, any documents that list the legal employer will specify the local Harvard Global entity that is their employer of record; these documents include HR forms (e.g., conditional offer letter, employment agreement, visa sponsorship letters), tax filings, and business cards.