The Atlas HXMVisa Mobility Index (AVMI)

The weights are, in the listed order: 10%, 10%, 45%, 35%. The last two pillars are specific to AVMI and they need to be read together, because they frequently disagree. A country can publish a straightforward work permit and still refuse a large share of applications; another can run a demanding process that approves nearly everyone who completes it. The first pillar tells you what the process looks like. The second tells you whether it works.

The scores are absolute, not a relative ranking. Each one is measured against fixed reference points that stay the same from one edition to the next, so a country's score does not move because another country was added or taken out of the set. And a country only appears once there is real data behind every pillar.

The index is built on a blended data model. We use established public sources — including the World Bank, the OECD, the International Labour Organization, the European Commission, the IMF, multiple national governments' immigration and labor authorities, national statistics offices, published laws and regulations — to establish the baseline for every country, while Atlas HXM layers in proprietary data from its own visa and work permit services, including real processing times, approval outcomes, and documentation complexity drawn from cases Atlas HXM has actually run.

Read the results as bands, not as a ranking. The scores are precise enough to separate a strong country from a weak one, but they are not precise enough to say that 12th place beats 17th. In practice, differences of less than a point should be considered a tie. A high score also means one specific thing and nothing more — a high AVMI score means work authorisation is obtainable on predictable timelines and terms. The AVMI score is not a statement about a country's immigration policy in general. It measures employer-sponsored work mobility only, and says nothing about permanent residency, dependants, or any route that does not run through an employer.