How to Choose an International Recruitment Agency: 12 Questions Employers Should Ask

Some agencies only do volume crews; others only do executive search. Ask for the range. A full-cycle partner can cover frontline trades, specialists, and leadership hires under one standard, which matters when one company is hiring site crews and a plant manager in the same year.

Ask where the agency sources and where it has placed people. An agency with its own desk in the origin country — ISHC operates from Dhaka, Bangladesh — screens in person instead of relaying CVs from sub-agents. Then ask which destination routes it has written up. ISHC publishes corridor notes for Serbia and Malta and opens wider EU files when a lawful route exists for the occupation.

A serious agency asks hard questions first: the exact occupation, the site, volume, language level, medical or police-clearance bars, and who holds local compliance. If the agency starts sending CVs before it understands the brief, expect a high withdrawal rate later.

Ask for the actual steps: interview, trade test, document check, reference check. Ask whether screening happens before or after the document pack is built. Screening first means unqualified candidates are withdrawn early instead of being discovered at the border or on site.

This is the ethical recruitment question, and it protects you as much as the worker. Internationally recognised guidance, including the ILO's General Principles and Operational Guidelines for Fair Recruitment, says workers should not be charged recruitment fees or related costs. Ask the agency to put its fee policy in writing.

People drop out of international hires for ordinary reasons: family, medicals, a competing offer. Ask how the agency backfills, how quickly it can present an alternative, and whether replacement terms are written into the engagement letter rather than promised in a sales call.

The file is where many international hires slow down. Ask what a complete pack contains — typically passport, medicals, police clearance, the employment contract, and any attestation the corridor requires — and ask to see the checklist before anything is filed. ISHC's standard is that incomplete packs stay in origin until they are desk-ready.

No private agency issues visas or work permits; the competent authority in the destination country does. Ask the agency to spell out which steps it prepares, which the employer or a licensed local partner must file, and how status is reported while the file sits with the authority. Be wary of anyone who guarantees approval or prints a fixed day-count.

Work-permit routes change. Ask how the agency tracks updates for the countries it serves and how it tells you when a requirement shifts mid-file. A good answer names the authorities it follows, not just "we have experience".

Ask what the fee covers: sourcing, screening, document preparation, travel coordination, onboarding, and post-arrival HR are often priced differently. A clear quote lets you compare agencies on the same scope instead of comparing a headline number against a list of extras.

Ask for verifiable operating history: how long the agency has been running, where it is registered, how many people it has deployed, and what independent listings it holds. ISHC, for example, has operated since 2021, is government-registered as a US LLC and in Bangladesh, and publishes 500+ staff deployed and 100+ partners. Treat unverifiable claims with caution, from any agency.

Arrival is where many agencies step away, and where many placements quietly fail. Ask whether the agency supports onboarding, payroll administration, employment documents, and a named contact for exceptions. ISHC treats HR after arrival as a core line, so the first-week file matches the pack that travelled with the worker.