The launch follows regulatory approval from the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) to provide immigration services in the UK. 

Jobbatical’s UK operations will be headed up by Adarsh Girijadevi, a leading UK immigration expert, qualified solicitor and OISC Level 3 adviser.

Jobbatical claims its platform speeds up and makes it less expensive to move talent from one country to another by automating the labour-intensive parts of the relocation process. Its offering combines technology and in-house, and local immigration experts to “streamline the employer licence application and employee visa and permit application form, as well as facilitating fast information exchange between employers and employees and providing personal employee relocation”, the company said.

Karoli Hindriks, CEO and co-founder of Jobbatical, says it is essential to digitise an archaic migration system that hasn’t kept up with where in the world top talent is coming from.

“Skilled migration is still a world-away from where it should be,” Hindriks said. “It’s taking some business leaders months to muddle through the unnecessary bureaucracy and burden of relocation; this puts many off from even thinking about hiring internationally or offering relocation as an option for existing employees in other countries.”

As the UK issues 145,000 work visas annually, with an average visa case taking 10 to 12 hours to process, almost 200,000 working days are spent on employment visa cases in the UK each year, Jobbatical estimated.

Jobbatical’s board members include Patty McCord, former chief talent officer at Netflix, and author and innovation specialist Alec Ross. McCord was responsible for creating the now-famous Netflix Culture Deck. Ross served as senior adviser for innovation to the Secretary of State during the Obama administration in the US.

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