For example, if you're going to accept a job overseas for the summer months, you might be able to sublet your residence for a short period. However, if you accept a two-year expat assignment, consider a longer-term solution to what you'll do with your home while you're out of the country.

Compensation

Many organizations with overseas locations provide additional compensation to employees who accept expatriate assignments. The money helps you adjust to a new country, which includes settling into a new home, learning a new language, navigating your way through the region and finding suitable schools for your children. They will also pay for your relocation expenses, as well as travel expenses for you and possibly money for house-hunting trips. You'll need to know what amount of compensation you're entitled to in addition to your salary. If you're accepting a job overseas, you need to know your salary, the cost of living and whether the salary you're offered is enough to maintain your standard of living. Also, you need to be aware of your tax liability for income earned in the U.S. vs. overseas.

Work Authorization

Before you earn a dime in the host country, you'll need authorization to work overseas. If you've found employment with an overseas company, you must determine whether your prospective employer will assist you in obtaining a work visa. During the process of learning how to obtain a visa, you should also verify that your job opportunity is a legitimate one. If your spouse or partner intends to work, you also need to know if a spousal visa is permitted or available. U.S. employers that send employees on expatriate assignments assume responsibility for their employees' visas and work authorizations, as well as spousal visas, depending on the host country's labor regulations.

Health

Having an illness in a country far away from home can be scary if you're not familiar with the availability of medical treatment and health care in your host country. Sort out any health insurance issues -- check the limitations of your current medical coverage or consider purchasing health insurance specifically for foreign travel and long-term overseas stays. Ensure you are fully covered or that you can access health care while living abroad.

Cultural Assimilation

Moving to a new country requires assimilation into a new culture, which can be difficult for some employees, based on the length of the assignment and perhaps the reason for the overseas assignment. Even if your employer pays living expenses and offers additional compensation to make the adjustment easier, you still need to know if your company provides a support system once you accept the overseas job. If you've found overseas employment on your own, you may be left to your own devices to transition into a new culture without much assistance from your new employer.

Coming Home

Returning to the U.S. after a lengthy stay abroad requires repatriation, the process of assimilating back into your home culture. Depending on the extent to which you embraced your host country's culture, repatriation could take time and assistance from your employer, family and friends. Repatriation completes the cycle of expatriation, which is important to the overall experience of working and living abroad.

In connection with his guilty plea, Lee admitted that, as the president and chief executive officer of American Logistics Services (ALS), a Kuwaiti company providing supplies to the U.S. military in Iraq, he paid a $15,000 bribe to former Lieutenant Markus E. McClain in exchange for favorable official action in the awarding of an extension of a lucrative bus contract to ALS. Specifically, Lee admitted that, in August 2004, several of his employees met with former Lieutenant McClain at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, and offered McClain $15,000 and a Rolex watch in exchange for former Lieutenant McClain’s assistance in getting the contract extension to ALS. Former Lieutenant McClain ultimately accepted the bribe payment.

During the sentencing hearing, the court also made specific findings that Lee directed the payment of over $1 million in bribes to other Army personnel.

Former Lieutenant McClain previously pleaded guilty to one count of accepting a gratuity, and will be sentenced on Oct. 23, 2015. In addition, Lee’s son, Justin Lee, previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and four counts of bribery for his role in the scheme, and is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 29, 2015.

The case is being investigated by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and previously was investigated by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys John Keller and Richard Evans of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

SOURCE: Department of Justice