Three lines, three permit batches: a Turkish crew for a precast concrete plant

01 / The request

Three lines launching one after another

A precast concrete plant in the Ivano-Frankivsk region won large orders for floor slabs and piles and decided to launch three new moulding lines. They launched one after another, roughly a month apart, and each needed ten people: rebar fixers, concrete workers and moulders.

We recruited experienced workers for plants like this in Turkey, where many people have spent years at precast concrete plants. Turkish citizens enter Ukraine without a visa, and the route takes four to seven weeks on average. Emre, our manager for workers from Turkey, held interviews in Konya and Kayseri with our licensed partner, and the plant's chief technologist watched videos of each candidate's work.

The plant set one condition: people should arrive for their own line's launch, not all thirty at once. Thirty people with no work on a line that isn't running yet is a problem for the plant and demotivating for the people. So we handled the documents as three separate batches. It was the plant's first experience with foreign workers, and the HR director asked for a single contact responsible for the whole project, from interviews in Turkey to the last residence permit filing.

Who's needed

30 rebar fixers, concrete workers and moulders

Schedule

Three lines launching a month apart, 10 people per line

Country

Turkey, visa-free entry

The plant's condition

People arrive for their own line's launch

02 / Selection

Precast plant experience specifically, checked on video

Emre wasn't looking for builders in general but for people who had worked at precast concrete plants: tying rebar cages to drawings, placing concrete in moulds, stripping and preparing moulds for the next cycle. On a building site and in a plant these are similar but different skills, and the plant's technologist wanted plant experience specifically.

Each candidate sent a video from his plant, and in the interview Emre asked in Turkish exactly which products he'd made and on which moulds. The technologist reviewed the videos in batches twice a week and approved people for specific lines: those who had worked with long products went to the pile line.

Each approved candidate received an information sheet in Turkish with the name of his line, job, pay, housing and approximate departure date, plus confirmation that he hadn't been charged for placement. We told the third batch honestly that they wouldn't travel for two months and agreed on weekly contact until departure, so they wouldn't look for other work.

• tying rebar cages to drawings;
• placing and compacting concrete in moulds;
• stripping and preparing moulds for the next cycle;
• reading product drawings;
• experience in a plant, not only on a building site.

03 / Batches

Why thirty permits aren't filed on one day

Filing thirty work permit applications on one day is easier on paper but not on deadlines. An employment contract must be signed within 90 days of the permit's issue date. If the third group starts on its line two and a half months after the first, its permits, issued alongside the first ones, would reach the 90-day limit just as people arrived.

So we split the documents into three batches of ten, each with its own calendar: filing, issue, entry, contract, residence permit filing. Each batch was tied to its line's launch date rather than to filing convenience. Between batches Emre stayed in touch with the next groups' candidates so nobody lost interest during a month of waiting.

Batches had another advantage for the plant: permit fees were spread over three months, and each batch was paid for once it was clear the line was launching on schedule. How we run large-scale recruitment in several waves is described on our mass hiring page.

04 / A new director

Powers of attorney that lapsed between the first and second batches

The first batch went smoothly: permits issued within a week, ten people entered, signed contracts and started on the slab line the day it launched. Then, two weeks before the second batch was due for filing, the plant changed director. For production that's personnel news; for documents it means checking everything the previous director had signed. We didn't learn about it from an order but from the HR director, who warned us as soon as the decision was made.

Nataliia, head of our documents department, immediately checked three things. We reissued the powers of attorney for filing that the previous director had signed, rather than risk filing under authority from someone who no longer ran the company. Draft employment contracts for the second batch had to be signed on behalf of the new director. And we obtained a fresh register extract showing the new head, so no document in the file carried outdated details.

The director change didn't affect the first batch's permits: same employer, and the name, code and job titles were unchanged. But we postponed the second filing by three days while the new director signed powers of attorney, which the second batch's calendar margin allowed. The new director didn't initially know foreign workers were already employed under permits, and in an hour Nataliia walked him through the whole project: who, in which jobs, which deadlines, and which document obligations sat with the plant.

• a new register extract with the new director's details;
• new powers of attorney for filing on behalf of the plant;
• draft employment contracts signed by the new director;
• a check that the account for permit fees hadn't changed;
• confirmation that the plant's name and code were unchanged.

05 / The job title

HR renamed a job title for which permits had already been issued

Before the third batch, the plant's HR updated the staffing schedule for the new lines and renamed 'moulder' as 'precast concrete moulder'. For the plant it was a clarification: the order was signed as a routine personnel change, and nobody thought about permits. For the documents it was a change to a job title for which the first and second batches' permits had already been issued.

The Employment Law requires a permit update to be filed within 30 days of a job title change. We found out about the renaming when checking the staffing schedule before the third filing, a week after the order. The change affected ten moulders from the first and second batches. We prepared update applications with revised contracts in two days and filed them within the deadline. We also updated all ten information sheets straight away, so people held the same job title as their permits. Updates are free, and decisions are made within three working days.

The third batch was filed with the new job title, as in the current staffing schedule. Since then the plant's HR tells us about any order affecting foreign workers' job titles on the day it's signed. What to do with permits when the company itself is renamed or restructured is covered in the scenario about updates after a reorganisation.

06 / Arrival

Three groups, three dates, each for its own line

Each group entered a week before its line launched, and Emre met each one personally. At the border everyone carried a permit copy, the plant's invitation with the housing address and Emre's phone number. More on the visa-free route on our visa-free entry page. Employment contracts were signed in the first days, with copies submitted within 10 days.

The plant rented housing for all three groups in one dormitory, and we'd checked the building documents before the first batch. The plant arranged a bus from the dormitory to the plant, and we put the route in the information sheets. Each group filed for temporary residence permits in its first weeks, separately from the others, so thirty people never gathered at the migration office at once. The second and third groups arrived to compatriots already working at the plant and spent their first evening with them at the dormitory.

1. Month 1

   First batch: permits, 10 people enter, contracts, slab line launches.

2. Month 2

   Director changes, new powers of attorney, second batch filed 3 days late within the margin.

3. Month 2

   Second group enters, block line launches.

4. Month 3

   Job title renamed, 10 permits updated, third batch filed with the new title.

5. Month 3

   Third group enters, pile line launches, all 30 people on the lines.

07 / Outcome

Thirty people for three launches, with documents that kept up with changes at the plant

Batches

Three batches of 10, each with a calendar for its line

New director

Powers of attorney, extract and contracts updated before the second filing

Job title

10 permits updated within 30 days, third batch filed with the new title

Entry

Each group a week before its line launched

Residence permits

Filed separately for each group in the first weeks

What mattered most to the plant wasn't the documents but that no line stood idle for lack of people. There's nothing WORKIN can't solve when a company changes mid-project: we check powers of attorney, extracts and the staffing schedule before every filing and update permits on time without stopping recruitment. 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. How recruitment in waves with a video test works is covered in the scenario about seamstresses from Uzbekistan and Nepal. The plant's filing documents follow the company checklist, employer obligations are on a separate page, and ongoing support runs through migration support. The whole route is on how it works, and costs in the calculator. More on our pages about workers for manufacturing and builders from abroad.

08 / FAQ

Questions and answers