Permanent residence and migration consultants guide families through applications to other countries. Clients are hopeful, anxious and spend large sums, so a team must handle documents, rules and conversations with great care and honesty.
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Share your requirementsA migration consultancy helps individuals and families apply for permanent residence, work and study routes in other countries. The team includes counsellors who speak to enquirers and assess fit, case officers who prepare and file applications, document checkers who verify certificates and translations, and client-service staff who update families. Some firms have registered agents or lawyers who sign. Every case has long steps: assessment, document collection, submission and waiting. Rules and processing times change often, and clients take their hopes to the counsellor's door. Sales targets are common, and pressure to promise outcomes is strong. A wrong date, a missing certificate or an overstated promise can cost a family heavily. Staff must learn rules quickly and tell clients the truth. See also HR for professional services.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in PR and migration consultants. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
A monthly sales number tempts staff to say outcomes are certain, and clients later feel misled.
A new notification changes eligibility, and staff are left to find out which cases it affects.
A date mismatch or a missing certificate sends a file back, and the family blames the officer.
Families ring for updates daily, and client-service staff absorb frustration over waits they do not control.
When that officer leaves, the file's status and promises are hard to find.
Fees are large and refund questions are sensitive, and staff are unsure what to say.
Sales promises one thing, the officer finds the facts differ, and the client hears two stories.
Larger consultancies offer higher pay to anyone who has handled many successful files.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Policies, Compliance and Governance; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Onboarding and Probation. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a PR and migration consultants business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A short list of statements staff may and may not make, with a standard assessment note.
A short list of statements staff may and may not make, with a standard assessment note. Teach it in onboarding.
A named person who tracks changes, a short weekly briefing and a dated list of affected cases.
A named person who tracks changes, a short weekly briefing and a dated list of affected cases. Hold it in documentation.
A standard list of papers, dates and translations, checked by a second person before filing.
A standard list of papers, dates and translations, checked by a second person before filing.
A fixed schedule of updates and a script for waiting periods, to reduce daily calls and protect staff.
A fixed schedule of updates and a script for waiting periods, to reduce daily calls and protect staff.
What was promised, what is pending and what the next step is, so any officer can take over.
What was promised, what is pending and what the next step is, so any officer can take over.
A joint review of each new case and incentives that reward good fit and satisfied clients.
A joint review of each new case and incentives that reward good fit and satisfied clients. Test the plan against pay benchmarks.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
New counsellors learn what may be promised before they speak to a client.
Checklists and case notes that make files safe to hand over.
An incentive mix that rewards fit and client outcomes, not just closures.
A routine for staying current with changing rules.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
6 min readRead article
How an India head can sort a global parent's HR policies into apply, adapt or replace, write an India addendum with advisers, and keep headquarters on side.
7 min readRead article
Simple variable pay structures for product and engineering teams: four options, why individual metrics backfire, a build plan and a one page outline to adapt.
6 min readRead article
A first-week plan for bringing in an outside specialist: what access to give, how to protect client data, and the confidentiality steps to settle on day one.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Write what can and cannot be said, record each assessment and review calls. Incentives that reward only closures push people to promise.
Name one person to track them, brief the team weekly and list affected cases. A change that is known late costs the client.
Send regular planned updates and explain waiting periods honestly. People call less when they know when to expect news.
A complete status note on every file lets another officer step in. Without it, clients are left in doubt.
Have a written policy and a senior who deals with them. Confirm legal duties on fees and refunds with a qualified professional.
What counsellors say to clients, how rule changes reach the team, how files are handed over and how incentives are set. A promise policy, a case note format or an incentive review is a likely start. Scope, timing and fees are put in writing after that talk.
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