Last updated: 16 September 2026
Usually not, at least not directly. An employer of record arrangement has three parties: you, your employer and the provider. The provider becomes your legal employer in the new country, your own company stays your day to day boss, and your company is the one that signs and gets the invoice. Providers bill the employer because the employer is the client, not the person being employed.
That does not kill the idea. Plenty of moves abroad start with the employee rather than the HR team. It does mean your employer has to be willing to sign a contract and pay a monthly invoice, even where you have offered to cover the cost yourself. Put that to them first, before you start comparing providers.
This page explains why the structure works that way and what to ask before you raise it. It stays general on purpose. The right answer depends on your employer, your contract and the country you are moving to.
Why can't an employer of record invoice you directly?
Because the provider takes on the legal duties of an employer, and those duties have to be owed to a business. When you move, the provider hires you under a local contract, runs your payroll there, pays employer taxes and social contributions, and carries the risk if any of that goes wrong. It needs a commercial customer it can hold to an agreement.
You cannot be the employee and the paying customer at the same time. If the provider billed you, it would be taking money from the person it is legally bound to pay. In most countries that also bumps into the rules on what may be taken from someone's wages. Providers avoid the problem with one rule: the company is the client.
There is a practical reason too. The monthly cost is not just a fee. Your local salary, employer social contributions and any statutory benefits sit in the same invoice, and they differ by country. Our guide to moving countries without losing your job sets out the usual routes.
Who has to sign the agreement?
Your employer signs the commercial agreement with the provider. The provider then signs a local employment contract with you. Those are two documents doing two jobs. The first sets the fees, the notice terms and who is responsible for what. The second is your contract of employment, written to the law of the country you are moving to.
You will sign the second one. You will not sign the first. That catches people out when they have done the legwork themselves, because after weeks of research it feels like your arrangement. In law it is your employer's arrangement, and you are the person employed inside it. Our guide to employer of record contracts covers what sits in that first document.
| Who | What they sign | Who pays whom | Who carries the employment duties |
|---|---|---|---|
| You, the employee | A local employment contract with the provider | You are paid by the provider | None. You are the employee |
| Your employer, the client | A commercial agreement with the provider | Pays the provider's monthly invoice | Day to day direction of your work |
| The employer of record | Both of the above | Pays you, your taxes and your contributions | Payroll, filings and legal employer duties |
Read the commercial agreement before you push your employer to sign it. The parts that matter most are the notice period, what happens if the company stops paying, and whether anything is owed if the arrangement ends soon after it starts. Short engagements tend to be priced case by case, so ask rather than assume a number.
Can your employer take the cost out of your pay?
Only where there is a proper legal basis, and that basis comes from the country you are employed in. A deduction from wages is not a private understanding between you and your manager. It is a change to your pay, and most countries set rules about when an employer may reduce what reaches your account.
In the UK, for example, GOV.UK guidance on deductions from your pay says an employer cannot make a deduction unless the law requires it, your contract allows it, or you agree in writing. Other countries set their own rules. Once the provider employs you locally, it is the new country's wage law that applies, not the law you are used to at home.
People often mix this up with a second route: agreeing a lower gross salary in the new contract from the start. That is not money taken out of your pay. It is a different salary. It still changes your pension, your holiday pay and often your tax. Take local advice before you agree to either one, because the honest answer depends on your own facts.
What happens to your old contract when you move?
It usually ends and is replaced. When an employer of record takes over, you stop being employed by your original company and become an employee of the provider in the new country. Your job, your manager and your work stay the same. The legal employer is what changes, and with it the rulebook your employment sits under.
That has knock on effects worth checking first. Continuous service, notice periods, bonus schemes, share options, life cover and pension arrangements are all tied to the old contract. Some carry across in some form. Some cannot. Ask your employer, in writing, what happens to each one, and do it before the move is announced.
The new contract follows the rules of the country you are moving to. Minimum holiday, notice, probation and severance all come from local law, as our hub on hiring in Ireland shows. Your right to live and work there is a separate question again. Sort that one out first, because it usually takes the longest.
What if your employer says no?
Find out which part they are saying no to. Employers turn this down for different reasons, and most are about admin and risk rather than money. Some do not want another supplier contract. Some worry about being tied in. Plenty have never done it and do not know what they would be signing, which reads as a no but is really a question.
If the objection is cost, a short written comparison helps. Set out what the company pays for you today, and what it would pay with you employed abroad: your local salary, the employer contributions in that country, and the provider's monthly fee. If you have offered to fund the gap, show how you would do it.
If the objection is risk, the answer is in the agreement itself. The company wants to know it can end the arrangement, and that the employer liabilities sit with the provider. Point them at the provider and step back. If the answer is still no, the option to avoid is quietly working from another country on your old contract. That can create tax and employment problems for both of you.