Work backwards from when the predecessor genuinely leaves, then insert the corporate review, evidence gathering, the filing, and the separate visa and admission steps. Where the sequence does not fit, adjusting the handover is a business decision, not something to resolve by assuming a processing outcome.
Name the dependencies out loud
The corporate review gates the position description, which gates the filing. If ownership documentation is unclear, everything behind it waits. Set a date to complete that review first.
Build a defined contingency for the interim: an acting arrangement, a delayed departure, or a temporary reallocation of the function. Announcing a start date internally before the sequence is confirmed creates pressure that no later document can relieve. Add one further dependency that is easy to overlook: the availability of the departing executive.
That person usually holds the knowledge needed to describe the role accurately and the authority to confirm what transfers, and once they have left the organisation both become considerably harder to obtain. Capture the delegation schedule, the transition plan and any confirmation needed from them before the departure date rather than after it. Where a handover is under commercial pressure, that single step often saves more time than any other adjustment to the sequence.