Legal
Permits for foreign workers
Documents that belong to the person and not the company, with their own dates, and that stop the work if they lapse.
For a company employing foreign staff — or for the firm advising it — this is one of the few expiry dates with no slack: when a permit lapses, the person cannot keep working, and that is not a paperwork problem, it is a staffing problem on Monday morning.
What makes it different from other expiries
| Aspect | A company certificate | A person's permit |
|---|---|---|
| Whose it is | The company's | The person's: they carry it |
| Who can renew it | You | Only that person, with their own papers |
| How long it takes | Days or weeks | However long the authority takes |
| What happens if it lapses | A finding | They cannot work |
Important
The second row forces a different way of organising: **you cannot renew it, so the warning has to reach them and you at the same time**. An internal reminder achieves nothing if the person does not gather their papers in time; and warning with a month to go is late for many procedures. This is one of the few dates where a sensible margin is counted in months, and where it is worth asking how it is going rather than assuming it is under way.
How to manage it without overreaching
- 1
Store the validity date, not a copy of everything
What you need to track is until when, not the personal detail.
- 2
A double warning, months ahead
To the person and to whoever handles staffing.
- 3
And a clear contact point for questions
Many will not ask so as not to expose themselves; make it clear who.
Watch out
On what to keep: **this documentation contains sensitive personal data, and not everything the person shows you has to stay in your archive**. Checking and noting validity is not the same as keeping a full copy of everything. Keeping more here does not protect you more: it obliges you to safeguard information you do not need, and that is what gets asked about in a review. **What may be kept, and for how long, is for your adviser to settle.**
What is worth planning for
Worth knowing
Which permit types exist, what each requires, what deadlines apply and what duties you carry as an employer is determined by immigration and employment law in your country. **Your adviser or a specialist firm handles that**; here it is only about the date not arriving as a surprise.
›Can I ask for a copy of the permit?
Checking it, yes; which copy you may keep, ask before filing.
›What if the person does not renew in time?
That is an employment situation, not a documentary one: take advice before it happens.
›Does the same control work for postings abroad?
No: that is a different matter on a different track.
A real case
The situation
A company finds three weeks out that a technician's permit expires and the process takes months.
What you do
- Warns the person and HR months ahead and follows up on progress
What you get
The process starts in time and the role is not left uncovered overnight.
The situation
A permit expires and the person keeps working.
What you do
- Records expiries per person
What you get
The warning arrives with room to renew.
The situation
Renewal is requested with two weeks to spare.
What you do
- Warns with the lead time the process actually needs
What you get
The real timeline is respected.
The situation
The documentation sits in the HR file and somewhere else.
What you do
- Gathers everything in the person's file
What you get
There is one place to check.
The situation
A client asks you to evidence a service's personnel.
What you do
- Checks each person's file
What you get
It is handed over without reassembling anything.
The situation
Somebody new joins and their documentation is missing.
What you do
- Checks what is missing before assigning them
What you get
Onboarding is resolved before day one.
This article answers
- tracking employees work permits
- an employee's permit is expiring
- immigration paperwork at the company
- renewing a permit in time