Lottie

Just wondered if anyone knows what an Employer's obligations are to you if you are working on a L-1 visa?

Specifically:

i) Do they have to guarantee you a job with your UK company when your VISA expires?

ii) Do they have any obligation to pay repatriation costs when your VISA expires? - I've already seen that if you are made redundant on a L-1 VISA the company don't appear to have a legal obligation to pay your return air fare home.

Thanks for any advice

Englishmum

Before agreeing to take up an expat posting make sure that anything you negotiate with your company is confirmed in your contract *in writing*.

One of the 'pitfalls' of taking an expat post is that although you may take advantage of any perks you are not necessarily going to have a job in the UK to return to. My husband's employer will
always repatriate their expats to the home base - although most countries impose this condition when they grant visas anyway. My husband's employer also will *not* guarantee that he will have a job to return to in England - just that they will try to find him a suitable job in the company and if not they will give him a
redundancy package. About a year before my husband's contract was due to expire in the Far East he was sending out notes to various country managers saying that he would be available and asking if they had any jobs coming up; he was offered jobs in Tokyo and New York....normally it's up to *you* to find yourself another job within the company, you're up the creek if you don't do any forward planning - my husband has seen this happen to a number of his colleagues.

Terms and conditions are different according to which country the company sends their employees to. For example, when we were in the Far East, the company paid for all of our housing rental costs, school fees (local expat private school or boarding school in the UK), company car, annual flight home to the UK, country club membership. The company also pays for shipping costs of personal effects - there are limits according to the size of the family and how many years you have been living overseas - the longer you are away the bigger the shipping allowance.

In the US my husband gets far fewer perks; just the annual flights home for the family (we can use the money instead though to fly anywhere else we choose if we desire) and a housing allowance - which we put towards our mortgage. No company car, school fees or club membership. On the other hand, he gets a bigger salary.

The company will however pay for flights home if there is a death or serious illness of a close relative; I had to fly back to England once when my father died suddenly. It's a good idea to definitely get this written into your contract.

Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate and *get everything in writing*.

Gross50

1. yes and no. yes, if you are on definite assignment, no if you are on indefinite assignment and get green card to stay in the US. yes, if they dont apply for GC. endless possibilities. all depends on company policies.

2. yes

Ingo Pakleppa - see web site for email

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 10:55:06 +0000, Lottie wrote:


    > Just wondered if anyone knows what an Employer's obligations are to you
    > if you are working on a L-1 visa?
    >
    > Specifically:
    >
    > i) Do they have to
    > guarantee you a job with your UK company when your VISA expires?

US immigration law does not require this. It's up to you to negotiate
that.

    > ii) Do
    > they have any obligation to pay repatriation costs when your VISA
    > expires? - I've already seen that if you are made redundant on a L-1
    > VISA the company don't appear to have a legal obligation to pay your
    > return air fare home.

Same thing; US immigration law does not require this.

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