What do I need to do with a German?

[Paul FilmMaker]

So I have a contractor who's worked for me for a few days. She's been great and it fits in with her current training course. She's a British resident but from the EU.

I'm seriously contemplating making her a permanent offer because she does a great job.

What do I have to do these days to hire an EU person in the UK? What's the process?

 

[WaveJumper]

Something like this Google says:

"To hire an EU citizen in the UK, a UK employer typically needs to obtain a "sponsor licence" from the Home Office, unless the EU citizen already has settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), which allows them to work in the UK without sponsorship; in this case, you would need to verify their status through a right-to-work check"

Right to work checks: employing EU, EEA and Swiss citizens

Information for employers on checking EU, EEA and Swiss citizens’ right to work.

www.gov.uk

Pretty sure @Newchodge will put us straight

 

[Newchodge]

Exactly the same as you would for any employee. Check their right to work.

Checking a job applicant's right to work

Make sure a job applicant can work in the UK - check they have the right documents and make sure you're not prosecuted for employing an illegal worker.

www.gov.uk

If they have the right to work, hire them.

 

[FreddyG]

Just give her regular work and then see how that pans out.

Failing that, here are a few options -

1. Marry her.
2. Get her to come here for a few weeks on a trial basis.
3. Move to Germany. It's easy - just remember to put the verbs at the end of subordinate clauses!

P.S. A few days??? Something tells me that you need to know this girl just a little better!

P.P.S. Is she working for her accredited German 'Gestalter, Bild und Ton'? These people are much sought after!

 

[Gyumri]

Does the worker have a current passport endorsed to show they’re allowed to stay indefinitely in the UK?

Does the worker have a current biometric residence permit (BRP)?

https://www.gov.uk/view-prove-immigration-status

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

This reminds of Faulty Towers

Someone should write a blog
"Hiring A German"

 

[CompassImmi]

It all depends on her status in the UK, did you do a right to work check when you first hired her?

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

This reminds of Faulty Towers

Someone should write a blog
"Hiring A German"

Don't mention...

 

[MarkOnline]

If the worst comes to the worst, you could always marry her. I imagine you should talk to your wife about it first though.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

It all depends on her status in the UK, did you do a right to work check when you first hired her?

Doesn't it depend on who or where she's contracted from?

 

[CompassImmi]

Doesn't it depend on who or where she's contracted from?

If she’s a non-British national working in the UK, then the first thing to check is whether she has a right to work in the UK.

Either she will be permitted with her current status (if she is on the EU settlement scheme, has a visa that allows unrestricted employment or has indefinite leave to remain for example), or she will need a work visa.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

If she’s a non-British national working in the UK, then the first thing to check is whether she has a right to work in the UK.

Either she will be permitted with her current status (if she is on the EU settlement scheme, has a visa that allows unrestricted employment or has indefinite leave to remain for example), or she will need a work visa.

Yes but the OP says she's a contractor which may mean she's come from an agency who would have done the necessary checks?

 

[FreddyG]

If she has settled status, there is no difference to employing a Brit - other than her work ethic of course!

 

[Porky]

@Paul FilmMaker
You beat me to it....

You started it... no You started it when....

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

If she has settled status, there is no difference to employing a Brit - other than her work ethic of course!

A great worker, incredibly detail oriented and multilingual! And has an EU passport so can do stuff us Brits can't do!

 

[Newchodge]

A great worker, incredibly detail oriented and multilingual! And has an EU passport so can do stuff us Brits can't do!

But can they work in the UK?

 

[FreddyG]

A great worker, incredibly detail oriented and multilingual! And has an EU passport so can do stuff us Brits can't do!

So a perfectly normal German then!

But can they work in the UK?

My experience of UK government bureaucracy is that one arm of the government has absolutely no idea what any other part of the government is doing! Even within the same branch of the government - for example, there are soldiers who go AWOL from one regiment and are able to vanish totally by joining the army again, but with a different regiment. (Usually because of domestic or criminal reasons.)

We are talking about Britain here - a country where thousands of people have more than one identity and more than one social security number. If an EU citizen already had a SS number, but did not bother to get settled status, would anyone pick up on that person just staying and working here?

 

[Newchodge]

So a perfectly normal German then!


My experience of UK government bureaucracy is that one arm of the government has absolutely no idea what any other part of the government is doing! Even within the same branch of the government - for example, there are soldiers who go AWOL from one regiment and are able to vanish totally by joining the army again, but with a different regiment. (Usually because of domestic or criminal reasons.)

We are talking about Britain here - a country where thousands of people have more than one identity and more than one social security number. If an EU citizen already had a SS number, but did not bother to get settled status, would anyone pick up on that person just staying and working here?

The cost to the employer of employing someone without the Right to Work is crippling. And it is easy to check.

 

[FreddyG]

The cost to the employer of employing someone without the Right to Work is crippling. And it is easy to check.

How?

 

[Newchodge]

How?

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67ab80271a116437c7ed8921/WORKING_COPY_-_Post_23_09_2024_Guidance_Right_to_work_checks_-_an_employer_s_guide.pdf

 

[FreddyG]

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67ab80271a116437c7ed8921/WORKING_COPY_-_Post_23_09_2024_Guidance_Right_to_work_checks_-_an_employer_s_guide.pdf

• That is 70 pages of impenetrable gobbledygook and bureaucratic jargon!
• So someone has an old NI number - that seems to prove very little, but is enough!
• Our resident delinquent Rumanian has no intention of working! What then?
• The rules surrounding "Frontier Workers" are as loose as a monkey swing!
• No employer can read the dozens of guidance documents that are linked from that 70-page diatribe of rubbish! I very much doubt that the person(s) who wrote that nonsense actually understood the rules themselves!

 

[Newchodge]

• That is 70 pages of impenetrable gobbledygook and bureaucratic jargon!
• So someone has an old NI number - that seems to prove very little, but is enough!
• Our resident delinquent Rumanian has no intention of working! What then?
• The rules surrounding "Frontier Workers" are as loose as a monkey swing!
• No employer can read the dozens of guidance documents that are linked from that 70-page diatribe of rubbish! I very much doubt that the person(s) who wrote that nonsense actually understood the rules themselves!

An NI number alone is not proof of RTW.

If you start with an applicant for a job you can easily use the index to find the appropriate section. But if you cannot use that document you have no chance of being a legally compliant employer as employment law is a lot more complex than that!

 

[FreddyG]

An NI number alone is not proof of RTW.

True, but it is enough to get "Settled Status".

employment law is a lot more complex than that!

And who exactly enforces E. law? It seems that, because the UK has no central register of all people living within its borders, all manner of silly laws are passed that are completely unenforceable!

One can pass various bureaucratic laws until one is blue in the face, but without a central bureaucracy, none of those laws are watertight and the whole system can be easily circumvented. The UK does not even have a register of all UK citizens living outside the UK. It has no way of tracing someone who is living in two or more places.

I do not have to carry any ID. If I want to buy a house, all I need is a cheque that clears. I can change my name simply by writing a deed-poll - so I can put on a floral dress, call myself Fifi Lamoure and marry a gate-post.

I sometimes get the impression that living in the UK means one is taking part in some utterly mad sketch from Mony Python! (It's a good job that I know how to use a chainsaw!)

 

[MikeJ]

I do not have to carry any ID. If I want to buy a house, all I need is a cheque that clears.

Written by somebody that's not bought a house in the UK recently. We needed to show two proofs of ID and explain where the funds had come from.

 

[FreddyG]

Written by somebody that's not bought a house in the UK recently. We needed to show two proofs of ID and explain where the funds had come from.

Perhaps that was related to credit or banks - I wouldn't know. I just called my lawyer and he sorted the whole thing out. And I certainly didn't need to identify myself to the lawyer after he had got into my ribs for about 12k in legal fees! It was one of those lawyer-2-lawyer deals apparently!

 

[MOIC]

Don't mention...

The . . .

 

[Mark T Jones]

Perhaps that was related to credit or banks - I wouldn't know. I just called my lawyer and he sorted the whole thing out. And I certainly didn't need to identify myself to the lawyer after he had got into my ribs for about 12k in legal fees! It was one of those lawyer-2-lawyer deals apparently!

Either a long time ago or a particularly incompetent/ dodgy lawyer

AML is huge now - even estate agents have to get off their arses and do some of the work.

If you're not borrowing, then the source of funds becomes more suspicious

 

[FreddyG]

It was 25 and 24 years ago - so maybe you're right! We had problems (well, a 3-week delay at least) to just get 3k into the country a couple of years ago to pay for some minor building work. I just assumed that it was the RBS playing silly games, as per usual!

Time to introduce Jim Hacker's 'Euro-Pass' - along with the Euro-Sausage. Preferable to the British emulsified, high-fat offal-tube!

 

[MikeJ]

Not sure if it's the same everywhere. I sent €10k to Ireland a few weeks ago, and it was there within a day or so.

 

[Paul Norman]

Just give her regular work and then see how that pans out.

Failing that, here are a few options -

1. Marry her.
2. Get her to come here for a few weeks on a trial basis.
3. Move to Germany. It's easy - just remember to put the verbs at the end of subordinate clauses!

P.S. A few days??? Something tells me that you need to know this girl just a little better!

P.P.S. Is she working for her accredited German 'Gestalter, Bild und Ton'? These people are much sought after!

The knowing her a little better applies especially if you choose option 1, I believe.

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Written by somebody that's not bought a house in the UK recently. We needed to show two proofs of ID and explain where the funds had come from.

I get really triggered by this stuff. I hate the fact we have to show proof of funds etc...

The reason is my business got caught up in an anti-money laundering sweep over a decade ago when this was at peak insanity and had nearly £60 grand confiscated. Everything was returned minus our lawyers fees but it just took time.

My customers were really well-known businesses with finance functions on offshore, tax dodging islands. So while the money came from a place terrorists launder their money through, our customers were huge, legit firms. But we were treated like criminals.

We're video production, not a terrorist organisation. Sorry, just venting...

 

[Newchodge]

I

We're video production, not a terrorist organisation. Sorry, just venting...

And the authorities should have known that how, exactly?

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

And the authorities should have known that how, exactly?

An 8 year old could see that. We have a website full of video production examples, a list of customers including 6 on the website saying we are fantastic.

In addition, all our payments come from hugely successful companies. For example, the two companies in question are two of the world's largest tech companies and their payments are easily traceable as such.

Anyone who'd done 5 minutes of due dil would've seen that.

 

[Newchodge]

An 8 year old could see that. We have a website full of video production examples, a list of customers including 6 on the website saying we are fantastic.

In addition, all our payments come from hugely successful companies. For example, the two companies in question are two of the world's largest tech companies and their payments are easily traceable as such.

Anyone who'd done 5 minutes of due dil would've seen that.

And anyone could have manufactured that site in no time.

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

And anyone could have manufactured that site in no time.

The judge ruled otherwise.