Twenty D visa packages: how we prepared the documents of a construction crew from India

01 / Request

Three buildings, twenty bricklayers and the choice of country

The general contractor was building three residential blocks near Kyiv and had no one to lay the walls and do the plastering. The contractor did not know where to find the people and asked us to work it out. We compared the options on four points: experience on large residential sites, the language the crew leads would use with the site manager, the length of the route against the bricklaying start date, and the reserve of candidates at our partners. Visa-free countries offer a shorter route, but at that moment our candidates there included few bricklayers with high-rise experience. India has many: they have spent years on construction sites in the Gulf countries, are used to large projects and can read drawings, and crew leads speak English, as does the contractor's chief engineer. The visa route is longer but fitted into three months. We proposed India, and the contractor agreed.

Citizens of India need a D visa to work in Ukraine, and the whole route takes eight to twelve weeks on average. The longest and most sensitive stage is the consulate. A work permit is issued within a few working days after a complete filing, while the consulate issues a visa only when the package is complete and every document in it agrees with the others.

So at the first meeting with the contractor we built the calendar not from the permit filing date but from the date the crew had to be on site. From there we counted back the consulate stage, the candidates' documents and the selection. That showed selection had to be finished in three weeks, or the crew would miss the start of bricklaying on the second building.

Who is needed

12 bricklayers and 8 plasterers with large-site experience

Why India

Large-site experience, English-speaking leads, the route fits the deadline

Vetting

Work videos, approval by the chief engineer

Route

Permit, D visa package, consulate, entry

Goal

The whole crew on site on one date

02 / Selection

Interviews in Punjab, bricklaying videos and a record for every candidate

Rajesh, our manager for workers from India, held interviews in Punjab together with our licensed partner. Every candidate showed a video of their work: laying a corner, pointing joints, plastering to screeds. The contractor's chief engineer watched the videos and approved twelve bricklayers, eight plasterers and four in reserve.

For every approved candidate we opened a record: the name in Latin letters exactly as in the passport, date of birth, passport number and expiry date, and the job title they were approved for. That record became the single source of data for everything that followed: the permit filing, the invitation, the insurance and the tickets. If the data in the record is right, it is right in every document.

Before approval Rajesh checked the passports: the consulate needs a passport with validity to spare, and two candidates had passports that expired too soon. Both applied for new passports at once, and we entered the new numbers in the records before the permit filing, so the permits would not need changes after issue.

Before departure everyone received an information sheet: the address of the site and the dormitory, the job title and salary from the contract, which documents to collect and in what order, what the consulate would ask and how to describe their work. Rajesh went through the sheet with the group on a video call and answered questions, and his phone number was on everyone's sheet.

03 / Package

What a D visa package for a worker consists of

A D visa package is not one document but a set in which each paper confirms another. The permit confirms that the employer may hire the person. The invitation shows where they are going and in what role. The insurance covers the trip. The passport must be valid with time to spare. If one document says "bricklayer" and another says "builder", the consulate sees a discrepancy.

So we treat visa packages the same way as permit packages: first the list, then the collection, then a check by a second person. The candidates' own documents - passport, photos, a police clearance certificate prepared for use in Ukraine - were started right after approval. Clearance certificates take several weeks, and they are what most often delays the visa route.

04 / Invitation

Twenty invitations from one template filled from the permit

The contractor's HR team first wrote the invitations themselves: each worded a little differently, some saying "bricklayer" and others "mason", some giving the term in months and others in dates. A person understands all of them. For the consulate they are twenty different documents, each to be checked against its permit separately.

We proposed one template filled from the permit and the candidate record: the name in Latin letters exactly as in the passport, the job title exactly as in the permit, the term as dates, the site and housing address and the HR contact. HR printed the invitations from the template, the director signed them, and we checked each one against its permit before it went into the package.

We agreed the address separately: the invitation gives the address of the dormitory where the workers will live, not the company's registered address. We checked the dormitory documents before the permit filing: they are needed for the visa and later for residence permits and address registration.

05 / Insurance

Two packages returned over the name on the insurance policy

We booked consulate appointments in groups of five so the crew would pass the consulate stage within two weeks. The first two groups went through without questions. In the third group the consulate returned two packages: on their insurance policies these two candidates were spelled differently from their passports, with a different spelling of the first name and the surname in a different position.

It turned out the two had bought policies on their own from an agent they knew, so as not to wait, and dictated their names the way they usually write them. At the check we confirmed the policies existed and the coverage period was right, but did not compare the name on the policy with the candidate record: the policies arrived the day before the appointment. That was our miss in the check, and we fixed it immediately.

The same day Rajesh helped both get new policies with names exactly as in the passport, and we arranged a new appointment for the following week. We added a separate line to the checklist: the name on the policy is compared with the candidate record letter by letter, and a policy bought without us is accepted only after that check. All remaining packages went through the first time.

1. 01

   What happened

   The name on two policies was spelled differently from the passport.

2. 02

   Why it was missed

   We checked the coverage period but not the name, and the policies came in at the last moment.

3. 03

   What we did

   New policies with the passport spelling the same day, a new appointment a week later.

4. 04

   What we changed

   A separate checklist line: the policy name matches the candidate record letter by letter.

06 / Calendar

One entry date for twenty people with different visa dates

The contractor wanted the crew to arrive on site together: bricklayers and plasterers follow each other, and half a crew cannot finish a floor. So we bought tickets not when each person got a visa but when all twenty had them.

Because of the two returned packages the last visa came ten days after the first. The calendar had room: the 90 days for signing employment contracts after the permits were nowhere near the limit. Eighteen people waited at home with visas, and Rajesh stayed in touch and explained why the group was travelling together. Nobody travelled alone and nobody changed their mind. Tickets for the whole route were bought for one date, and the passenger list was checked against the candidate records.

1. Weeks 1-3

   Interviews, videos, approval, candidate records, police clearance certificates.

2. Week 4

   Permits for 20 people, invitations from the template, package checks.

3. Weeks 5-7

   Appointments in groups of 5, consulate, two packages returned.

4. Week 8

   Resubmission of two packages with new policies.

5. Week 10

   All 20 visas ready, tickets for one date, crew entry.

07 / Handover

The crew on site with contracts and residence permit filing dates

The crew arrived as one group, and Rajesh met them and took them to the dormitory. Employment contracts were signed in the first days and copies filed within the 10-day term. Tax numbers and bank accounts were done in the first week, and the temporary residence permit filings went ahead in groups of five over the first weeks.

The candidate records paid off again here: the dormitory address, the Latin spelling of names and the passport numbers for the residence permits came from the same records as for the visas. The migration partner accepted the residence permit packages without corrections, and the contractor received a list with the filing date for every crew member and the date each permit card could be collected.

That is where our work with the crew ended: assigning people to buildings and floors is the contractor's job. From here we keep the crew's documents under migration support, and what stays with the contractor is described on the employer duties page.

08 / Summary

Twenty visas, one date and a checklist that became more precise

Records

One data source for the permit, invitation, policy and ticket

Invitations

20 from one template filled from the permit and passport

Packages

Checked against the list before the appointment, 18 first time

Returns

2 packages over the policy name, new policies the same day

Entry

The whole crew on one date after 10 weeks

For WORKIN there are no unsolvable problems on the visa route: we build packages so that every document confirms another, and if the consulate returns something, we fix it the same day and improve the checklist so it does not happen again. The WORKIN replacement guarantee runs for at least 6 months from the worker's first shift, provided the agreed working, pay and housing conditions are kept. How candidates' answers at the consulate match their documents is covered in the scenario on an honest job description at a pig farm, and how to fit a visa route into 90 days in the scenario on a group from Nepal. The contractor's documents for filing follow the company checklist, and the whole route is on the How it works page. More on the pages on workers for construction, builders from abroad, workers from India and the work permit.

09 / FAQ

Questions and answers