Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series about global business travel. This article digs into travel to the U.S. The next segment covers compliance risks international employers face when employees come to the U.S. for work.
The U.S. State Department issued one of its most urgent travel directives in years this week, calling on American citizens in more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries— including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt—to depart immediately using available commercial transportation amid escalating regional conflict.
For HR leaders, the move lands as a real-time stress test. Organizations with employees traveling or based in the region were suddenly managing flight cancellations, closed airspace and uncertain return timelines, often without a clear protocol in place.
It is a scenario that underscores a broader challenge in global business travel: Most HR teams do not own it until something goes wrong. For U.S.-based HR teams, business travel risk often reads as an inbound problem, with employees who can’t get into the United States, face border questioning or run into visa complications upon arrival.
But the exposure goes in both directions. Sending employees abroad carries its own compliance obligations, and some organizations are not fully prepared for them.
What employees are actually permitted to do abroad
For U.S. employers, the risk is not only whether an employee can enter a country, but whether their activities after entry remain compliant. Short-term business travel is frequently misunderstood. Employees often undertake activities that fall outside what is permitted under visitor rules in destination countries, according to global immigration firm Fragomen.
This is particularly relevant in the U.K. and across the EU, where business visitor categories are narrowly defined. Permitted activities generally include meetings, conferences and negotiations, but not productive work for a local entity or direct service delivery, according to consultancy Noble Rose Immigration.
Additionally, the European Commission similarly distinguishes between permissible business visits and work requiring authorization under Schengen rules, with enforcement varying across member states.
Business travel to the Middle East carries elevated compliance risks for U.S. HR teams, including permanent establishment from short-term activities and stricter visa enforcement in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. For instance, sustained employee presence or hands-on technical support can trigger taxation under force-of-attraction rules, even without a physical office, according to PwC analysis.
In a bulletin, Fragomen partner Abeer Al Husseini further warns that regional tensions heighten the need for robust mobility planning to avoid visa breaches and evacuations.
Tax and legal exposure from short trips
Even brief business travel can trigger financial and legal obligations that most HR teams do not anticipate. Employees traveling internationally may create corporate tax exposure, including the risk of establishing a permanent establishment in the host country, depending on the nature and duration of their activities, according to Deloitte.
Short-term assignments can also give rise to payroll withholding obligations and social security considerations, according to PwC. Trouble could brew if a three-day client engagement in London or a week of on-site work in Frankfurt quietly creates obligations that take months to unwind. What if HR only discovers when finance or legal flags the exposure after the fact?
Immigration risk abroad
Business visitors often breach conditions unintentionally through hands-on or productive activities on short trips, especially when roles blur into local labor market engagement, according to immigration compliance experts, with enforcement varying by jurisdiction and strict scrutiny in high-risk cases.
U.S. citizens traveling abroad must comply with the entry requirements and local laws of destination countries and may be subject to questioning, refusal of entry or detention, according to guidance from the U.S. Department of State. Prior successful travel or visa-free access does not guarantee admission or compliance.
What HR needs to assess
For HR teams, global business travel is a cross-functional risk area, not a logistics function.
Before approving international travel, organizations should assess whether the employee can enter the destination country. HR should also confirm whether planned activities are permitted under local visitor rules and what tax, legal or employment obligations may arise.
Industry guidance increasingly identifies global mobility as requiring coordination between HR, legal, tax and immigration specialists. The role of HR is not simply to enable travel. It is to ensure employees can operate within the rules wherever they go.
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