One job, four titles: how we brought the plumbers' position from India down to one line

01 / Tuesday, 7:15

One question from Patna and four titles for one job

On Tuesday at 7:15, when it was already 9:45 in Patna, Rajesh, our Worker Relations Manager for India, opened his laptop to finish the information sheets for twelve candidates. A message was waiting from Mohan, one of the approved installers, with two photos: his technical college diploma, which gave his trade as plumber, and a reference letter from Qatar, where Mohan had spent six years installing pipes on hotel projects, which called him a pipe fitter.

Mohan had one question, and a very practical one. The partner had told him he was going as a plumber. A friend who had worked in Europe warned him that the consulate asks what job you are going to do, and the answer has to match the paperwork. Mohan wanted to know exactly which word would be in his documents, so that he would not say something different at the consulate.

Rajesh laid out the documents the contractor had sent for the permit filing and saw that Mohan's question was sharper than it seemed. In the request to WORKIN the chief engineer had written plumbing installer. The extract from the staffing table, which we always ask for before filing, said plumber. The contractor's lawyer had drafted the employment contract from a template used on another project, and it said installer of sanitary engineering systems and equipment. And the HR manager, without waiting for our template, had written a draft invitation in English with the title plumbing technician. The permit filing was planned in three days.

For a person, it is one trade. For the permit, the contract and the consulate, it is four different positions.

02 / Request

Four blocks of a residential complex and the choice of country

A month earlier the contractor, which installs internal building services in new housing, came to WORKIN with a task: twelve experienced installers of water supply, drainage and heating for a four-block residential complex on the outskirts of Lviv. The people were due on site in three and a half months. The contractor did not know where to find them and asked us to compare the options.

We compared them on four points: experience on multi-storey projects specifically, the language the senior workers would use with the chief engineer, the length of the route against the start date on site, and our partners' candidate pools. Our partners do find plumbers in visa-free countries, but at that point most of them had worked on private houses rather than large residential complexes. Our licensed partner in Patna, in the state of Bihar, had a pool of installers who had spent years building hotels, hospitals and residential towers in Qatar, Oman and the Emirates. The senior ones speak English, as does the contractor's chief engineer.

Indian citizens need a D visa, and the route takes eight to twelve weeks on average. It fitted into three and a half months, provided selection took no more than three weeks. We proposed India, and the contractor agreed. At the end of the conversation the chief engineer added a remark we noted down but did not yet weigh up: two or three of these people would also weld steel pipes in the heating substations when needed.

Who is needed

12 installers of water supply, drainage and heating

Why India

Experience on large projects, English among senior workers, a candidate pool in Patna

Route

Permit, D visa, entry across a land border

Timing

On site in three and a half months

03 / Selection

Pipe fusion, pressure testing and a drawing at the partner's workshop in Patna

Rajesh held the interviews with the partner in Hindi and English. Out of forty applications, twenty people were invited to a practical task, and each did it on camera at the partner's workshop: assemble a polypropylene pipe assembly, pressure-test it and show that the joints hold, then use an isometric drawing to explain where each branch runs. The chief engineer watched the recordings, spoke to the senior candidates in English, approved twelve people and asked for three more to be kept in reserve.

Mohan was among the first. He is thirty-four, from a village near Patna, and worked six years in Qatar on hotels and two years in Oman building a hospital. At home he has his wife, a teenage son and his mother, who farms a small plot on her own. He is going to Ukraine because contracts in the Gulf have become short, while here he is offered a one-year contract and housing close to the site.

During selection Rajesh noticed something else: three candidates had, besides their plumbing experience, welding certificates and years of work with steel pipes. Irfan, Deepak and Sunil each welded a steel pipe joint as an extra part of the practical task, and the chief engineer watched those recordings twice. At the time it looked like a pleasant bonus.

04 / The mismatch

Request, staffing table, contract and invitation: one job in four words

Each document looked fine on its own. The chief engineer wrote the request the way people talk on site. HR took the title from the staffing table. The lawyer did not want to draft a contract from scratch. The HR manager was looking for an English word candidates would understand. Nobody made a deliberate mistake; everyone simply called the job by their own name for it.

The problem appears when the documents come together. The permit application and the draft employment contract certified by the employer are filed in one package, and the position in them has to be the same. The consulate checks the invitation against the permit. The contract the person signs after arrival has to match the permit. And the candidates' diplomas and references live a life of their own. The more titles there are, the more places where someone will ask a question.

And there was still the chief engineer's remark about welding. If a plumber welds steel pipes when needed, he is in practice working on conditions other than those stated in the permit. That is no longer a matter of wording.

05 / The law

Why a job title is not a formality

A work permit is issued to the employer for a specific foreign national and a specific position. That is why the Law on Employment of the Population deals separately with what happens when the job title changes after the permit has been issued, and with what happens when a person in practice does a different job. We put it all into one table and on Wednesday went through it on a video call with the chief engineer, the HR manager and the contractor's lawyer.

The chief engineer listened carefully and asked what almost everyone asks: what is the harm if a plumber welds a joint once a week. Rajesh answered with lines from the table. If it is found, it is work on conditions other than those in the permit, which means grounds to revoke the permit and a fine for each person. With twelve people that is twelve risks, and a crew left without permits in the middle of an installation costs more than any week saved.

The lawyer was more interested in the second line. An amendment is needed not only on a transfer but also when the job title itself changes. So if in six months HR decided to tidy up the staffing table and rename the position, that would mean a permit amendment for everyone working in it. The title is best chosen once and chosen right.

06 / The decision

Plumber for ten people and a separate permit for two welders

The answer was found not in a dictionary but in the job description. The chief engineer listed what the people would do: risers and distribution pipework for water supply and drainage, connecting fixtures, and heating in polypropylene and metal-plastic pipe. The staffing table already had a plumber position for this, and the HR manager confirmed that the job description fitted it. Welding steel pipes is a separate job, and the staffing table had a separate position for an electric and gas welder.

The result was two positions instead of one vague one. Ten people travel as plumbers. Irfan and Deepak travel as welders: they had shown their welding in the practical task, and the chief engineer spoke to them again by video call, this time as welders. Sunil, who also held a welding certificate, stayed among the plumbers because only two welders were needed.

Next, Nataliia, Head of Documents at WORKIN, drew up a position card for the contractor: the title exactly as in the staffing table, one English equivalent and a short job description. For the plumber, plumber; for the electric and gas welder, welder. Using this card we prepared twelve draft contracts and the invitations from our template, the lawyer reviewed the contracts, the contractor's director signed, and we checked every document against the card before it went into a package.

The permit filing moved from Friday to Monday, and in the route calendar that one day did not even show. Decisions on all twelve permits came within seven working days, and in each one the position matched the card.

1. 01

   Plumber, 10 people

   Water supply, drainage, heating. English documents say plumber.

2. 02

   Electric and gas welder, 2 people

   Welding steel pipes, a separate call with the chief engineer. English documents say welder.

3. 03

   Position card

   Title from the staffing table, one translation, job description. Every document is checked against the card.

4. 04

   Rule for the site

   A plumber does not weld. Other work only through a transfer and a permit amendment.

07 / Before departure and the journey

What Mohan heard in Hindi and what he said at the consulate

Now Rajesh could answer Mohan, and he answered the whole group at once on a video call. He explained in Hindi that their position has one Ukrainian title from the staffing table and one English equivalent, plumber, and that this is how it will appear in the permit, the invitation, the contract and the information sheet. Their diplomas and references may use other words, and that is fine: those show what a person can do, not the position they are being hired for. Irfan and Deepak heard the same with the word welder.

Everyone received an information sheet with the job title from the card, the site and housing addresses, the contract term, the pay from the draft contract, the costs borne by the candidate and WORKIN's phone numbers. Rajesh filled in the visa application in the e-Consul system together with each person and made sure the position and the employer in it matched the invitation. We obtained consulate appointments in New Delhi in three groups.

Mohan went in the second group. When he was asked what job he would do in Ukraine, he gave the position from the invitation and said he would install water supply and heating in residential buildings. When asked about his experience, he talked about the hotels in Qatar and the hospital in Oman. One did not contradict the other, because Rajesh had explained beforehand the difference between what a person has worked as and the position they are being hired for.

All twelve visas were issued in week nine. The group arrived in a country neighbouring Ukraine and crossed the land border the same day, each with a folder holding a passport with visa, a permit copy, the invitation and the housing address. Rajesh met them at the checkpoint. The contractor rented two flats and a small hostel near the site, and we had checked the documents for all three addresses in advance, because they are used for temporary residence permits and registration of the place of residence.

The employment contracts were signed in the first week, and the position in each matched the permit to the letter. We filed the contract copies within the 10-day term, the workers received tax numbers in the first days, and the residence permit applications went in in three groups. After that the chief engineer took over the crew on site.

1. Weeks 1-3

   Interviews in Patna, practical tasks on video, 12 approved, 3 in reserve.

2. Week 4

   Four titles in the documents, position card, new draft contracts and invitations.

3. Weeks 4-5

   12 permits filed, decisions within seven working days.

4. Weeks 6-9

   Visa applications, consulate in New Delhi in three groups, D visas.

5. Week 10

   Group entry, housing, contracts with the position as in the permit.

6. Weeks 11-12

   Contract copies, tax numbers, residence permit applications, crew handed over.

08 / Month four

Sunil becomes a welder: a supplementary agreement and a permit amendment the next day

In the fourth month the contractor also took on the installation of heating substations in two blocks, and the chief engineer wrote to Rajesh: three welders were needed, not two, and he saw Sunil as the third. This time nobody suggested that Sunil could simply help the welders. The chief engineer remembered the table and asked how to arrange the transfer properly.

We set out the steps day by day. First Rajesh talks to Sunil in Hindi: does he agree to the transfer, and what will change in his documents. The position in his contract and permit changes, while the employer, the permit term and the housing address stay the same. Sunil agreed at once. Next, Nataliia prepares a draft supplementary agreement to the employment contract with the welder position and the permit amendment application, the lawyer reviews the agreement, and the HR manager makes sure the transfer date in the order and in the agreement is the same.

The law gives the employer 30 days after a transfer to apply for a permit amendment. We did not wait: the application with a copy of the supplementary agreement was filed on the working day after signing, because every extra day on which the position in the permit and the actual job differ is a risk for the contractor. No fee is charged for amendments. The decision came in two working days out of the three the law allows, and Rajesh sent Sunil a copy so that his folder held a permit with the new position.

Nothing changed for the rest of the crew, but Rajesh still told the group how Sunil's transfer had been done. The rule on the position card became clear through a real example: other work is possible, but only through a transfer, a supplementary agreement and a permit amendment.

What changed

Sunil's position: from plumber to electric and gas welder

What was signed

A supplementary agreement to the employment contract

What was filed

A permit amendment application with a copy of the agreement

When it was filed

The next working day, although the law allows 30 days

Decision and fee

Two working days, no fee charged

09 / Summary

One title from the request to the residence permit

Titles

Four titles for one job brought down to two staffing table positions

Position card

Title, one English equivalent, job description

Permits

10 plumbers and 2 electric and gas welders

Consulate and entry

The position in the invitation, visa form and answers matched the permit

Transfer

Permit amendment for Sunil the next working day, decision in two days

A job title is easy to dismiss as a detail until it appears at the same time in the permit, the contract, the invitation and a person's answer at the consulate. We look for such mismatches before filing, not after, so the crew goes through the whole route with one title and any change of position is handled on time. 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 the position in the invitation matches the permit in D visa packages is covered in the scenario on a construction crew from India, how to assign candidates to positions based on a trial in the scenario on CNC operators, and checking welders before the permit in the scenario on a welders' skills test. The company's documents for filing follow the checklist, what rests with the employer is on the page on employer duties, and we handle documents after arrival as part of migration support. More on the pages on workers for construction, builders from abroad, workers from India and How it works.

10 / FAQ

Questions and answers