4th December 2025
Date
Interviewee
Ray Rackham
Ray Rackham on Leading Global Immigration Through an Era of Unprecedented Change
How the Newland Chase Co-Chair Found His Calling and Now Guides Corporations Through the World's Most Complex Borders
Twenty years ago, Ray Rackham was filling out work permit applications in ink, mailing them to the UK Home Office, and waiting weeks for a response. Today, as Co-Chair of Newland Chase, he oversees immigration services across more than 180 countries, helping multinational corporations navigate what he calls the most fraught period in immigration law he has ever witnessed.
The path that brought him here was anything but planned.
"I'm the son of a librarian and one of the world’s few bibliographic and manuscript conservationists, so immigration law wasn't always what I wanted to do with my life," Rackham admits. "I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do."
He had intended to study political science at Queens College, Cambridge. Then a friend began talking about the excitement of the King's College law course, and something competitive stirred in him. "I thought, well, I can do one better than that. I'll get to the LSE and I'll do that instead."
That decision would eventually lead him to a career that sits at what he describes as the intersection of the personal and the professional, where the movement of people across borders touches everything from family life to the code that built Silicon Valley.
Ray Rackham's Early Career: Finding Purpose in Immigration Law
Law school proved enjoyable, but the prospect of actual legal practice filled Rackham with dread. He completed four training seats at CMS Cameron McKenna, and for three of them, that dread seemed justified. Then came the fourth seat: immigration.
"It was the first time that I'd really enjoyed my training contract," he recalls.
What made the difference was working under Julia Onslow Cole, a veteran immigration practitioner who Rackham credits with opening his eyes to how exciting immigration law could be "when you operated at that optimum level." He followed Onslow Cole to PwC Legal, where he found himself genuinely enjoying life as a practicing solicitor, something he had never expected.
Then came an opportunity that would fundamentally reshape his understanding of the field. HSBC was looking to build out its immigration program, and Rackham grabbed the chance with both hands. He spent a decade at the global bank, constructing an immigration and business travel compliance program for thousands of employees.
"It was a real learning curve for me to understand both sides of the fence," he explains. "I'd always been on the service-provision side, but then to be the recipient of those services taught me an incredible number of lessons about how to provide solutions for your clients."
That dual perspective, understanding both what immigration professionals deliver and what corporate clients actually need, would prove invaluable.
Newland Chase and the Mission to Simplify Global Mobility
When Newland Chase came calling, Rackham saw an opportunity to apply everything he had learned. Through a succession of roles in thought leadership, client solutions, and business development, he rose to become co-chair of an organization he describes as the epitome of a global service provider.
"We operate in over 180 countries across all time zones, speaking numerous languages as we do," he says. "We truly believe that our role is to simplify the journey, and to open the world."
He acknowledges the phrase sounds like business speak, but insists the mission is genuine. "That simplification of crossing borders of getting the anxiety out of it has been something that Newland Chase does exceptionally well for its clients."
That mission has never been more critical. Immigration law, Rackham argues, has never been more fraught, never carried more tension. The evidence is visible in how governments worldwide are responding to migrant workers, caught in what he describes as a real balancing act between filling labor shortages, protecting local labor, and the more performative aspects of immigration compliance.
2024 Elections and Their Impact on Global Immigration Policy
The year 2025 has been particularly interesting, Rackham notes, and the reason traces back to nearly 70 countries holding elections in 2024. In many of those contests, immigration was not a footnote but the headline.
"Elections in almost 70 countries last year either replaced existing governments or weakened the strongholds of some existing governments," he observes. "The immigration policy changes of 2025 are a direct result of those headline-grabbing election promises of 2024."
The result has been a slew of changes that corporate clients must navigate, often without the time or resources to understand the nuances involved.
Understanding Immigration Through Walls and Windows
Rackham has developed a framework for making sense of the global immigration landscape. He divides the world into what he calls walls and windows.
"The walls are where immigration policy is getting more difficult to navigate," he explains. "It is innately protectionist. It's the hiking of fees that we've seen in recent months."
He points to the proposed increases in H-1B visa fees in the United States, with application costs potentially reaching $100,000 for new petitions in 2026. But he is quick to note that fee escalation is not uniquely American. "Immigration fees invariably have only gone one way over the last decade and that's going up." The UK, where Rackham is based, has been among the most expensive countries for employers to hire migrant workers, with various levies, skills charges, and health charges associated with work authorization for employees and their families alike.
The windows, meanwhile, represent countries where immigration policy is being used to revitalize economies, fill labor gaps, or address societal issues such as aging populations.
"You can't place a line on the map and say these countries are open for business and these aren't," Rackham cautions. "It's a much more nuanced conversation that you need to have."
That nuance is precisely what his clients often lack the time to explore, which is where Newland Chase steps in, opening windows and climbing walls on their behalf.
What Corporate Clients Need Most from Immigration Partners
When asked what challenges corporate clients are expressing most urgently, Rackham points to two primary concerns: compliance burdens and associated costs.
"The advent of very bespoke compliance considerations is one of the things that we are hearing loud and clear," he says. Changes in right-to-work policies and eligibility criteria create what he calls a compliance framework and tapestry that clients always wish to comply with but might find difficult without strategic assistance.
The response, he argues, requires ensuring compliance obligations are fulfilled while procuring the most relevant work authorization at the best cost. "That kind of intersection is really where you need strategic partnership from an immigration service provider."
What encourages him is that at the corporate and business level, there remains an absolute acceptance that moving people around the world for various reasons is crucial to operating globally. "It's that shared human existence piece that you wouldn't get otherwise."
The THEME Framework for Immigration Program Excellence
Newland Chase is developing what Rackham calls a THEME framework to help organizations optimize their immigration programs. The acronym captures five essential qualities.
Immigration programs should be Transparent, Holistic, Metric-driven, and focused on the individual Experience. The E also stands for Engaging, meaning organizations should engage partners throughout everything they do, whether that is the immigration service provider, the wider business, legal, or HR.
"We believe these elements of the THEME framework will really help elevate the entire program and improve the employee experience," Rackham says.
The key is looking at immigration programs not in isolation but as they affect broader mobility and business goals. "Mobility has always been an evolving creature," he reflects. "It responds to the world. It also informs the world in many cases. But it has to respond to the changing tides."
And the tides have shifted dramatically. "The world is spinning on a different axis now."
Building Success Through Values and People at Newland Chase
When asked what has made Newland Chase successful, Rackham returns to fundamentals: the behavior of the organization and its commitment to being people-centric.
"We deal with people and our greatest assets are our people," he says. "Part of operating across various time zones and cultures and countries is having that innate integrity and respect for each other."
He credits CEO Steven Diehl's vision for the organization as being driven and led by values. "Sometimes that can get lost along the way," he acknowledges, "especially if you're growing at an alarming rate or if you're diversifying your portfolios or if you are looking at entering new markets."
But he believes integrity, respect, and courage are what make both exceptional professionals and decent people. "It is singularly the most important thing in my view.What makes a business successful is the integrity of the people within it."
Digital Transformation and AI in Immigration Services
Rackham has witnessed the field's transformation from paper applications mailed to government offices to the digitized systems emerging worldwide. The UK recently launched its electronic travel authorization program. Europe has entry-exit systems. Most of APAC has digitized immigration pathways. Even the United States is moving away from the piles of paper that once defined the practice.
Being prepared for this age of digitization is something Newland Chase is intensely focused on, he says. But preparation also means staying ahead of conversations rather than reacting to them.
"Reaction is inaction," Rackham states. "Newland Chase wants to be at the forefront of so much of this discussion and not wait for our clients to come to us and say what's going on with this piece of news."
Artificial intelligence represents both excitement and head-scratching for immigration service providers, he admits. "It sits at the very heart of the connection we have with our clients."
But he sees proper AI implementation as revolutionary for the industry, making once-cumbersome tasks less burdensome. "It's not going to be the ultimate answer to everything," he cautions, noting that immigration remains a human-centered industry. "However, it's going to be a great enabler, a great facilitator, and it already is."
Much of what the industry is developing remains shrouded in secrecy given its proprietary nature, but Rackham's enthusiasm is evident. "It is going to be, if anything, the greatest enabler for smart and agile working. And I think that is nothing but exciting."
Why Immigration Matters: A Human Perspective
Throughout the conversation, Rackham returns to a fundamental truth that animates his work. Immigration policy, for all its complexity and political charge, ultimately determines something profoundly human.
"Immigration policy gets to determine who dreams the American dream," he says. "Immigration policy built some of the code that has defined Silicon Valley. Immigration policy is part of that infrastructure of the trans-European railway network."
These pivotal moments in human existence are precisely why he has remained in the field for so long. "Because it changes and it's interesting and, ultimately, it’s always for the benefit of that person at the end of the work permit, at the end of the work visa."
The expectations of those individuals have evolved dramatically in the digital age, Rackham notes. If someone can go online and procure a book within 20 seconds, that transactional ease becomes the benchmark. "That kind of relationship is so easy that it has to be replicated in the provision of legal services."
Newland Chase exists to ensure that the anxiety of crossing borders is eased, that the complexity is simplified, and that there is always someone thinking about the human being at the end of the paperwork.
"There's always a human being at the end," Rackham concludes, “if we can simplify that journey, then we can actually open the world.”
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