Kathleen van der Wilk-Carlton of the Permits Foundation speaks to Patrick Rovers about how the Foundation’s work is progressing.

Employees often refuse postings due to spouse employment issues.

PR:  What have been the major achievements of the Permits Foundation in the last five years?

KW-C:  When we last spoke, the USA had just passed a law allowing the spouses of intra-company transfers, treaty traders and investors to get work authorisation. Our direct contribution was to propose that the US legislation apply to all nationalities, rather than on a bilateral basis alone, which was the original idea of the legislators. Since then, we have successfully promoted change in The Netherlands, France and Hong Kong. Each of these countries now allows the spouses of highly skilled employees (and intra-group transferees in France) to work freely during an assignment. In the case of the Netherlands and France, this also applies to family members.
We have also developed a clear picture of international best practice and are using this to show countries the gap between where they are now and where they need to be to make their country more attractive to international staff, trade and investment.

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