Every month at Acumen International, we enable clients and partners to move talent across borders — into roles, industries, and jurisdictions where compliance is complex and timelines are unforgiving. Behind every deployment are multiple moving parts: immigration rules, payroll structures, local labour laws, and sector-specific requirements.
We share selected case studies to show how these challenges are solved in practice, giving clients and partners, current and future, a clear picture of what can be achieved with the right support.
This case looks at a UK-headquartered recruitment consultancy working with a global oil and gas operator. The consultancy faced pressure to prove it could mobilise technical specialists across multiple jurisdictions under strict compliance conditions. What followed demonstrates how a three-sided partnership enabled successful delivery and set the stage for wider expansion.
Project Framework
Global Recruitment Consultancy
- Headquarters: United Kingdom
- Industry: Recruitment & HR consultancy – Oil & Gas, Field Services & Maintenance
- Services Provided: Global Employer of Record (EOR), Immigration support, global employment consultancy.
- Growth Plans: Requests to deploy 25 employees in Qatar, 8 in China, and several in Egypt, as part of a phased workforce expansion programme with a global oil and gas client.
End Client
- Sector: Global oil & gas operator
- Company Size: 5000+ employees
- Project Scope: Time-sensitive, compliance-heavy field services and construction projects across multiple jurisdictions.
- Requirements: Rapid deployment of technical specialists under strict immigration quotas, local labour law, and sector-specific certification rules.
Business Context
A UK-headquartered recruitment and HR consultancy specialises in supplying skilled personnel to the global oil and gas sector.
With more than 200 employees, it supports major energy operators on field services and maintenance projects worldwide. In such a competitive market, success depends not only on sourcing scarce technical specialists but also on demonstrating the ability to hire them compliantly into demanding jurisdictions.
In late 2024, the consultancy began bidding for new projects with a leading a global operator in the oil and gas industry. The programme was designed as a phased, multi-country employment rather than one-off placements: up to 25 employees projected for Qatar, eight for China, and several already requested for Egypt.
To secure the contracts, the consultancy needed to show that it could scale workforce delivery across these high-complexity markets under strict compliance conditions and tight operational deadlines.
For the consultancy, the stakes were high. Each deployment would not only fulfil immediate project requirements but also signal its capability to manage multi-country workforce expansion for one of the world’s most risk-sensitive industries. Failure to deliver compliantly would have jeopardised the bids and weakened its standing with their client in the oil and gas sector.
The Challenge
While the consultancy could source and contract the required specialists, it lacked the infrastructure to employ, sponsor, and pay them lawfully in-country. Each jurisdiction presented a unique set of compliance barriers that threatened to delay or derail the programme.
China
- No local entity to sponsor the employee’s work visa in a highly regulated sector.
- Contract terms agreed on a net daily rate, requiring conversion into a compliant gross monthly salary.
- Tax complexity linked to alternating offshore and onshore assignments.
- Business travel allowances needing lawful structuring under Chinese labour and tax rules.
Egypt
- Work permit access constrained by national visa quotas in the oil and gas sector.
- Dependent visa sponsorship requirements for accompanying family members.
- One case complicated by missing documentation, requiring careful coordination to avoid visa rejection.
- Compliance for rotational schedules and travel allowances under Egyptian law.
Qatar
For the consultancy, these were not procedural hurdles. Each unresolved barrier carried the risk of failed deployments, project delays, and ultimately, reputational damage with a global energy client that demanded absolute compliance.
The Solution
The recruitment consultancy turned to Acumen International to supply the hiring infrastructure that its client, a global oil and gas operator, did not have in China, Egypt, and Qatar.
Acumen acted as Global Employer of Record, providing the legal framework, sector-specific immigration sponsorship, and compliant payroll structures that converted sourced candidates into authorised employees, ready to work on site. This allowed the consultancy to retain ownership of the client relationship while enabling its client to employ staff into highly regulated jurisdictions on schedule and in line with local law.
In China, Acumen secured a work visa for a Surf QA/QC Vendor Package Supervisor in March 2025. The candidate’s net daily-rate contract was restructured into a compliant monthly salary, with correct tax and social insurance deductions and payroll adapted for alternating offshore and onshore assignments. Travel allowances were lawfully structured under Chinese labour rules, ensuring the employee started on time and the project advanced as planned.
In Egypt, Acumen onboarded three senior staff — a fabrication manager and two construction supervisors — later in 2025. Work permits were obtained despite quota restrictions, dependent visas were issued, and missing documentation was recovered in time to avoid rejection. Payroll for rotational schedules and allowances was aligned with Egyptian law, allowing the staff to begin work without delay.
In Qatar, where 25 hirings are planned, Acumen prepared a scalable employment and immigration framework in advance. Sponsorship rules, employer-guarantee requirements, and wage protection standards were addressed from the outset, giving the consultancy the ability to confirm large-scale hiring commitments to its client.
A Three-Sided Partnership for Expansion
Across the first three projects — in China, Egypt and Qatar — Acumen International worked with the recruitment consultancy to turn difficult placements into fully compliant, revenue-generating deployments on the ground.
For the end client, a global oil and gas operator, the benefit was immediate: each project in those markets received the technical specialists needed to move forward on programme and within the law.
Oil and gas work leaves little margin: crew changes, permits and safety clearances run on fixed windows — staffing errors quickly become downtime. Every jurisdiction sets its own rules — visa quotas, sector-specific licensing, and detailed requirements for rotating crews — and the differences from country to country are material.
Without in-country know-how, aligning contracts, schedules and permits to those rules makes getting the right person in at the right time extremely difficult.
By working with Acumen, the consultancy gained a dependable way to meet client demand across multiple jurisdictions while preserving the commercial value of each placement — compliant structures, clear immigration footing and clean audit trails.
The three-party model now provides a stable framework for further expansion: future projects can be implemented more quickly, with work permit and documentation in place from day one, and with confidence that standards align with both industry practice and local law.