Hey community,
I wanted to share this story in hopes that it will help another person avoid this situation. This is about a co-worker of mine.
I work at a vocational school and personally have had a great experience. Everything has been above-board as far as business practices, time off, salary, benefits, working environment and support staff for the past few years. Really, a place that I’ve come to want to stay at for several years to come.
However, on Friday, this situation happened.
One department (not mine) hired a foreign instructor. Naturally, this person needs visa support, and their current visa expires next month. They were hired in April and assured that our school would support their renewal.
Now here is the cautionary tale: this person was not presented a work contract until 3 weeks AFTER they started working. To be clear, this was not my experience, and I’m not sure why this differed. But the moral of this story is NEVER EVER START YOUR FIRST DAY WITHOUT HAVING A SIGNED CONTRACT!
So, three weeks in, this person was showed a contract that they signed but had not yet been signed by the higher ups. It was then sent to the higher ups for approval.
I guess you can see where this is going….
On Friday, it was determined that the school didn’t want to support their visa because it is expiring soon. I have no idea what happened behind the scenes. No idea why this back and forth happened. I understand why companies might be hesitant to hire someone whose visa is expiring soon… however! The department that hired this person could not have scheduled this teacher without initial approval from the higher ups. Obviously there was a miscommunication somewhere, and I don’t have the details on that. This is all the information I have.
This person was promised visa support and began working despite never seeing a contract. Then was told a month after their first day that they wouldn’t receive visa support. I’m very unclear on how this all happened and what caused the change of heart.
Here’s the ask: I know the details are murky, but have you ever heard of such a situation? Is there any recourse for this person?
by ZephirRingALing