Employed with a US Firm, moving to GEO (DEEL) Query

4 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

   —

   **Employed with a US Firm, moving to GEO (DEEL) Query**

   I’m employed “internally” for a medium-sized US Finance Firm. I’ve asked HR 3 months ago if they were able to move me to the DEEL so that I could get a Visa and relocate while staying employed with them. They were happy to do so.

   This was 3 months ago, and I’ve enquired at the end of every month regarding progress – they’ve said each time, that they’ll contact DEEL on their part to see what’s happening. After receiving the same excuse at the end of the third month, I contacted DEEL directly and queried if they received anything regarding contract/visa application – to my surprise they received none of this.

   I felt that giving them a 3 month head start would help them to prepare early and get this stuff done and out of the way but to hear that nothing was being sent/done to them baffles me.

   I just wanted to know how long does it usually take to move an employment to a contract via DEEL? I don’t think it should take 3+ months… but I’ve never used DEEL in such a capacity. It’s starting to annoy me quite a bit as I was hoping to give HR a head start on this process since I understand how long onboarding & visa applications can take, but to hear of no progress being made in 3 months is frustrating and I just needed to check if things usually take this long or if HR has no intention of doing anything.

   *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*

2. Rather than asking for progress reports, ask HR for a tentative schedule so that you can begin planning your life accordingly. It will help them to calendarize the process and move it from the vague “we need to do this” area into a more specific “we need to do this *now*” area.

   I’ve no experience with any EoR firm, but I’d imagine there is a bit of a negotiation phase where the terms of your contract are agreed upon. Once that’s done the EoR would apply for your CoE, which can take a few months.

   So if the process hasn’t started yet I wouldn’t expect you to be in Japan this year, but odds are good you could make it in 2024Q1. Talk to your HR to get a more informed tentative schedule, and escalate with your management as needed.

3. So is Deel planning to sponsor a work visa for you? You’re a step ahead of me, since I’ve only had initial conversations with Deel & Oyster, who claim to have this ability. My employer is willing to work with me for relocation using one of these companies, but I’m not quite there yet.

   I’m curious and a bit skeptical about if a PEO/EOR can sponsor visas; I haven’t really seen client stories about this happening.

4. >or if HR has no intention of doing anything

   Being 100% honest here: This is the answer.

   Even before I got to the end and saw this, I was pretty sure that your HR was just giving you the brush off.

   “Sure! We’ll absolutely do that!” is ***not*** the answer you’re going to get from HR when you ask to move to a GEO. There’s a lot of costs and complexities involved. Any HR office that actually plans to follow through is going to say “We’ll look into it and see if it will work” or something similarly middle-of-the-road.

   Plus they would need information from you in rather short order.

   So… Yeah: Your company is blowing you off. It’s not going to happen.