Case Study
Urgent deployment of a specialist team of engineers from the USA to Ireland.
Project Background
A major international engineering firm headquartered in the USA approached our team in Dublin with their immigration issue. They had just secured a large contract, part of which urgently required a specialist engineering team with boots on the ground in Ireland for their client – a global blue-chip company with a manufacturing facility in Co. Kildare, Ireland. Their team was mainly comprised of USA nationals, therefore they required immigration compliance to work in Ireland. The firm was running into brick walls; they sought to retain the team as their employees – on USA contracts and payroll – whilst delivering services via a short-term contract in ireland. The solution would’ve appeared to be ‘Contract for Services Permits’ (which normally facilitate this situation) however the team were newly recruited specialists and did not have the statutory 6 months prior employment with their company.
The client urgently required the team in Ireland and couldn’t wait for the assignees to build up their 6 months employment prior to deployment. The challenge was to get the team into Ireland on a suitable immigration status which would facilitate urgent, business critical needs. We examined in detail the needs of the client in Ireland, the contract work involved, together with the skills, qualifications, and employment history of each assignee.
Our Solution
Short term ‘Atypical Working Authorisations’ facilitating short duration contracts of up to 90 days without the 6-month prior employment requirement with the sending company. Another advantage of ‘Atypical Authorisations’ is that they can normally be processed relatively quickly. This solution allowed the assignees to build up their duration of employment whilst on contract in Ireland, with the caveat that they must return to the USA after the 90 days, but may then seek a longer duration permit type – once they have accumulated the 6 months prior employment and fit the other required criteria.
The solution afforded the USA based team legal compliance to swiftly enter and work in Ireland for the duration of the short-term contract. Further work was required for some of the team and this was facilitated by applying for longer term ‘Contract for Services Permits’ for the assignees who – at this stage – had accumulated their 6 months prior employment and met the other criteria of the ‘Contract for Services Permits’ in Ireland.
