Ninety days against fourteen weeks: bringing a group from Nepal to a fish plant

01 / The request

Experienced fish processors who had already worked abroad

A fish processing plant near Kyiv expanded its filleting and salting workshop and asked for sixteen people: fish processors and packers. Experience in fish processing was a must. Many people from Nepal have it, having worked for years at fish plants in the Gulf states and South-East Asia.

Arif, our manager for workers from Nepal, selected candidates with that experience together with our licensed partner in Kathmandu. Each showed a video of himself filleting fish, and the plant's technologist watched the videos and approved sixteen people plus three in reserve. Our partner verified experience abroad by calling former employers, not just from what was written on the forms. Each received an information sheet in English and Nepali: job, pay, hours, housing, conditions in the cold workshop, the costs he covers himself, and confirmation that he hadn't been charged for placement.

The main challenge of this project wasn't skills but time. The route from Nepal takes ten to fourteen weeks, and it contains a point after which the clock starts ticking faster. It was the plant's first group from Nepal, so Arif explained to the director how a visa route differs from a visa-free one and why the first people wouldn't start in the workshop for at least two and a half months.

Who's needed

16 experienced fish processors and packers

Checks

Filleting video, approved by the plant's technologist

Route

Ukrainian permit, exit permit in Nepal, D visa

Main risk

Not fitting into 90 days to sign after the permit

02 / The clock

Ninety days start from the permit date

Under the Employment Law, an employment contract with a foreign national is signed no later than 90 calendar days from the issue date of the work permit. For visa-free countries there's almost always plenty of margin: permit, entry, contract, all within a few weeks. Not for Nepal.

The Nepali side issues an exit permit for work abroad only after seeing the Ukrainian permit. The consulate also issues a D visa only after the permit. So both of the route's longest steps come after the date from which the 90 days run. If anything drags on, a person may arrive when the permit can no longer be used to sign a contract, and the plant pays for a new one.

So for Nepal we count the route from the permit date in both directions. Everything that can be done before filing is done before filing. After the permit, only the steps that are impossible without it remain, and each has a margin.

The plant first wanted to file for permits straight after the interviews so as not to lose time. We showed it on a calendar: the 90 days would then run out around the time people were just getting their visas, and any delay would cost new permits. The plant agreed to wait six weeks before filing.

03 / Preparation

Six weeks of preparation so the permit isn't a starting gun

We spent the six weeks before filing on what's usually done after the permit. Candidates ordered police clearance certificates prepared for use in Ukraine: under our checklist these take several weeks and are what most often slows a visa route. Two candidates' passports expired within a year, and they got new ones before filing.

We agreed insurance policies with cover of at least EUR 30,000 with candidates in advance, to take them out right after the permit. Passport translations with a certified translator's signature were ready before filing. The plant prepared the draft employment contract and invitation, and we checked they showed the same job, term and pay terms.

We found one discrepancy at exactly this stage: the invitation stated monthly pay while the draft contract gave an hourly rate. For Ukrainian documents that isn't a contradiction, but the Nepali side cross-checks terms between documents, and the same figure expressed differently could have got the file returned. The plant added the same hourly rate next to the monthly sum in the invitation. Meanwhile Arif held a video meeting with candidates about what would happen after the permit: how long each step takes, what they'd need to do and why tickets are bought only after the visa. People who understand the schedule don't worry when there are weeks of quiet between steps.

• police clearance certificates ordered right after candidates were approved;
• passports valid with a margin, two new ones obtained before filing;
• passport translations with a certified translator's signature;
• draft contract and invitation with identical job, term and pay;
• insurance policies agreed, taken out on the permit date.

04 / The exit permit

Documents from Ukraine that the Nepali side needs

Citizens of Nepal need an exit permit issued by the Nepali side to work abroad. Without it they won't be let out of the country even with a visa in their passport. Our partner in Kathmandu handles it, and we prepare the Ukrainian-side documents. We've described how this stage works in the scenario about seamstresses from Nepal.

This time the documents for our partner were ready on the very day the plant received the permits: certified permit copies, draft contracts, invitations and proof of housing. All terms matched to the figure because we'd checked them before filing. Our partner submitted the files the following week, and none were returned. Each week our partner sent a status for every candidate, and Arif copied it into the shared table with the plant.

1. 01

   Permit copy

   A certified copy of the work permit for each candidate.

2. 02

   Draft contract

   Job, term and pay as in the permit and invitation.

3. 03

   Invitation

   The plant's letter with the same terms and housing address.

4. 04

   Housing

   Proof of residence in the plant's dormitory.

05 / The countdown

From permit day to contracts: what happened each week

After the permit, Arif ran the countdown in a table shared with our partner and the plant. Each step had a planned date and a deadline after which we'd switch to a fallback. All three parties could see the table, so the plant didn't need to ask every day how things were going. We'd provisionally planned consulate appointments before the permit, so as not to wait for free dates once the Nepali exit permits were ready.

One step did slip: the consulate moved biometrics for five candidates by a week. There was a margin at that stage, and the group flew on a single date as planned. We bought tickets on day fifty-nine, once all sixteen visas were in passports, for a flight eleven days later, so people had time to pack and say goodbye to their families.

1. Day 0

   Permits issued. Documents to our partner and insurance taken out the same day.

2. Days 5-35

   Exit permits in Nepal via our partner, every file checked.

3. Days 36-58

   Consular stage: appointments, biometrics, D visa decisions.

4. Day 70

   One group flies with a connection; meeting and drive to the dormitory.

5. Day 74

   Employment contracts signed. Copies submitted within 10 days.

06 / Arrival

Sixteen people at the dormitory and sixteen days to spare

The group landed on day seventy after the permits were issued. Arif met them, took them to the plant's dormitory and handed out a guide in Nepali: address, phone numbers and the plan for the first week. People rested for the first day after the journey with its connection. Contracts were signed on day seventy-four, with sixteen days left before the deadline.

We'd checked the plant's dormitory before filing: the building documents were in order, and the plant as owner provides everything needed for temporary residence permits and registration of residence. People got tax numbers in the first week, and residence permit filings went ahead in groups of four. We kept the three reserve candidates informed until departure day: if anyone had been refused a visa, a reserve candidate would have taken the place, but with a new permit, so that was a last resort.

That's where our work with the group ended: training and briefings in the workshop are run by the plant. The plant gathered its filing documents using the company checklist, and its ongoing document obligations are described on the employer duties page. What happens when the 90 days to sign are almost used up before an agency even starts is covered in the scenario about stalled permits after an intermediary.

07 / Outcome

A route of up to fourteen weeks that fitted into ninety days

Preparation

Six weeks before filing: certificates, passports, translations, terms checked

Exit permit

Documents to our partner on permit day, no files returned

Consulate

Appointments planned ahead; the biometrics delay absorbed by the margin

Contracts

Day 74 after the permit, with 16 days to spare

The group

16 people on one date, residence permits in the first weeks

The plant ordered its next group from Nepal on the same calendar. There's nothing WORKIN can't solve on long visa routes: we know which steps must be done before the permit, which documents the Nepali side needs, and how to keep a margin at every stage so the 90 days to sign never become a problem. The WORKIN replacement guarantee lasts at least 6 months from the worker's first shift, provided the agreed working, pay and housing conditions are kept. The whole route is described on how it works, and you can estimate costs in the calculator. More on our pages about workers from Nepal, workers for agriculture and recruitment.

08 / FAQ

Questions and answers