This process is managed by the People Connect team as the DRI. For any questions not addressed below, please email people-connect@gitlab.com.
Moving to a new location is an exciting adventure, and at GitLab, we want to encourage team members to utilize the flexibility that our relocation policy offers. However, there are multiple aspects to consider including eligibility, possible impact on compensation (including equity and benefit eligibility) and the impact on your role at GitLab. It’s important to know that any relocation will require business approval after considering the impact of a relocation on the departmental budget and the effectiveness of performing your role in the new location. A relocation that results in no change in compensation can be approved by the team member's direct leader. Relocations resulting in an increase in compensation must be approved by the team member's direct leader as well as an eGroup Member.
Team Members are required to communicate a relocation by following the short-term or long-term relocation process below prior to their move. The consequences of not communicating to the appropriate group could result in underperformance management action or loss of employment, depending on the circumstances.
Generally, team members may live or work outside their permanent residence for an aggregate amount of 183 days (6 months) per year. However, the amount does depend on the particular country (or state) and what it considers to be a "resident" for tax purposes, as well as what it considers the tax year. If you are not sure about the aggregate amount allowed by the country or state where you are visiting, you should check with your personal tax advisor. If you believe you or a team member you manage is at risk of exceeding (or has already exceeded) the aggregate amount of 183 days (6 months) (or less in certain countries), you must contact the People group immediately.
Having team members for 6 months or more working outside of their contractual location poses potential tax liability for both GitLab and the team member. For this reason, it is important to communicate transparently and promptly with the People Team.
If you are not changing your permanent location (where you maintain permanent residency), but instead are traveling to different locations over a period of time, you are responsible for maintaining your health insurance, visas, and any other item directly relating to your travel.
Since any short-term stay is your decision and not required by GitLab as part of your role, you will not be eligible to use the Business Accident Travel Policy or submit any expenses related to your travel. If you are hired in a role requiring a time zone alignment, you must still be able to fulfill that requirement.
If your short-term stay is for less than 6 months in a new location, there should be no need to update your address in Workday.
If you plan on staying in a location for more than 6 months in a single calendar year, or are in that location for an aggregate of more than 6 months in a single calendar year, that becomes your residence and you must complete the long-term relocation process described below. In most countries, tax residency is determined by the place where a GitLab Team Member keeps its vital interests over the span of a calendar year. This is the place where you are registered, where your significant other (SO) and/or dependents live, the place where you work, where you live, where you keep your subscriptions etc.
** Please note that in some jurisdictions, even short term stays can add up to more than 183 days per year and can subject you to payroll tax in the new location. Always make sure to check with your tax advisor before traveling to any location where you will be performing work for an extended period of time, whether it is more than or less than 183 days.
A long-term relocation means that you will establish yourself in a new location. If you are spending more than six months in one calendar year in one location as part of an extensive period of travel and/or will have your mail delivered to an address in a different address, please follow the steps below to request a long-term relocation.
It is at the company's discretion to determine whether it can approve the relocation:
At the onset, this practice may seem harsh when moving to a lower-paid location. One might argue that people should be paid the same regardless of where they live. However, if you look at it from another angle and compare this practice to what most companies do, it should make more sense. For example, if you work for a company with physical locations and they require you to work out of an office or close to an office, you’d have to live in that area. If you wanted to move to a location where they did not have a physical site, you would have no alternative but to resign and seek new employment in your new location. You would find that companies in the area pay at a locally competitive rate.
Now, let's say the company did have a site in your new location and they offered the flexibility to transfer. If they did not have a similar position open, you would have to either apply for a different open position in the same company or resign and apply externally (back to the realization that other companies will pay at a locally competitive rate). If you were lucky enough that they did have a similar role in the new location, a transfer would come with a pay rate based on the local market to ensure equity across all incumbents (people in the job) by location.
Adjusting pay according to the local market in all cases is fair to everyone. We can't remain consistent if we make exceptions to the policy and allow someone to earn more than locally competitive rates for the same work others in that region are performing (or will be hired to do). Being fair to all team members is not negotiable. It is a value we stand behind and take very seriously.
Keep in mind, GitLab retains discretion at all times whether it can accommodate you to continue your role in the new location based on the requirements of your role and the potential impact on the business. In some instances a move will not align to your proposed location, (e.g. a recruiter hired in EMEA to support EMEA would not be approved to move to the US), and in other instances the company may not be able to support a relocation in the proposed location. Second, in almost all situations the compensation, including equity eligibility, may change. During the relocation process, you will learn how your compensation may be impacted and be able to make an informed decision. Any increases in compensation will need to be approved by your leader and by the E-Group member for your division. This allows the business to validate budget availability early in the process. If you have a unique situation, please email people-connect@gitlab.com.
If you are interested in a long-term relocation (defined above), you need to confirm that you would be eligible to work in that location. Except for the Netherlands, GitLab does not provide any form of sponsorship or immigration aid for team members who choose to move to new countries. For more information, please refer to our Visa page. GitLab cannot assist or facilitate a process to help you become eligible to work in a location if you do not already have that eligibility. You are of course free to apply and gain that eligibility if there are steps you can take that do not involve GitLab. Once you are certain that you are eligible to work in your requested location country, you will need to provide proof of eligibility by uploading the proof in the Documents tab of your Workday profile. If you move before establishing eligibility to work, but then cannot establish eligibility to work in the new location within the first six months of residency, it may affect your ability to continue your role with GitLab.
Note: Assuming your relocation is approved, any applicable changes in compensation will not be effective until your move date (or the date you start working in the new location), which will be listed as the effective date on your new contract. We will not be able to process retroactive dated relocations. Please only use future dates when applying for your relocation.
Below are the steps to approve a long term relocation.
No approval is needed. Team Members can update their address in the Contact tab in their Workday profile. A People Connect Team member will approve the address in Workday and reach out if there are any additional steps necessary to complete the relocation process.
Contracts & Changes folder. This approval will include the converted salary where applicable for the authorized signatory on the contract / adjustment letter to audit against before signing.The contract phase is unique based upon the team member's relocation. The different options are as follows;
Make a copy of the Relocation letter and save it to the working documents folder.
Enter all applicable information based on the approval email and the team member's Workday profile.
Please note that the effective date of the change is the date of the expected move for the team member. If unsure, please confirm with the team member who is relocating.
Contracts & Changes folder in Workday.Note: If the team member is relocating away from a location with PEO Employment, they must give notice to the PEO directly, once the relocation has been approved. Most notice periods are usually 30 days for Employee:PEO, and 2 weeks for Contractor:PEO (CXC) but the team member must review their own contract, as it will be specified there.
Note: If the team member is moving to the US, employment authorization (I-9) is required for legal purposes. The People Connect team will manage the I-9 process.
sent by email to: section must have a personal email address#people-ops-exp private slack channel.Contracts & Changes folder in Workday.
-If the team member is relocating to the Netherlands, please see the Relocating To The Netherlands process.Once your relocation has been approved but at least 30 days prior to relocation.
Once your relocation has been approved and the contract has been signed.
I9 Processed field in BambooHR under the Personal TabINELIGIBLE. Please check with the Total Rewards team before updating the benefits section in case there are any delays with deactivating benefits./pops run removei9 "bambooid" in Slack in order to terminate the team member in LawLogix. This will allow the I-9 to be purged at the correct time.The steps our People Connect Team member team uses to support relocations to the Netherlands in addition to above relocation process:
** Review best practices for The Netherlands contracts **
Our PEO in India can only process terminations on working days (typically Monday to Friday), please take this into account when deciding on the relocation effective date.
These are the steps our People Connect Team member team uses to send contracts to team members relocating to, or moving from Germany. Please note all German contracts require a wet signature.
Once the contract, tripartite agreement, or Mutual Termination Agreement (MTA) has been created by the People Connect Team member, next steps are to stage the documents in DocuSign, while also sending the documents to the signatories to have them physically sign and mail them.
In addition to the relocation process complete the following steps:
Access to to the 'Gitlab Team Member Relocations' Workday report can be requested via this issue and automatically sent on a regular basis.
This report will include the following information:
In the event that the team member decides not to proceed with the relocation. Not all of these steps will be needed, depending on how far into the relocation process has taken place.