jamikins

Sorry, thats obviously for EU states. And meant to add that the first thing a recruter asks is to see evidence of a passport or valid work visa to prove you can work in the country.

flanneruk

"must (by law I believe) give preference to their local citizens,"

No.

1. It is illegal in the EU to discriminate between EU citizens.

2. Businesses may offer jobs to anyone they like. But, unless their organisation has an exemption, they will not get a work permit for a non-EU citizen unless they can demonstrate that they have seriously sought candidates THROUGHOUT the EEA (EU plus the other Western countries). That means showing the local immigration dept the ad for the job in the Lithuanian Bee-Keepers' Weekly. "Speaking English" cannot be a reason for hiring a foreigner: there are tens of millons of native English speakers - including the millions of non-Europeans with British, Irish, Cypriot or Maltese passports.

3. A non-European cannot enter Schengen for more than 3 months without a visa. That visa - which is cumbersome to get under any circumstances - requires in the poster's case a job, and is usually contingent on a specific job

4. The rules are now virtually identical in the EFTA countries.

All of which said: there are finance managers in CERN, at the JET, in the WTO and in FIFA from non-European countries.

jamikins

Thanks flanneruk - well explained, I knew someone would now the nitty gritty better than me!

Aussiekate - if you have a british relative (parent for example) you can apply to get a UK passport, that is what I have as my father was born in Britain but migrated to Canada when he was a child. That would be the easiest...

travelgourmet

<i>2. Businesses may offer jobs to anyone they like. But, unless their organisation has an exemption, they will not get a work permit for a non-EU citizen unless they can demonstrate that they have seriously sought candidates THROUGHOUT the EEA (EU plus the other Western countries).</i>

The requirements are not nearly as strict as you want to make them out to be. Sweden, for example, only requires that you advertise within the EU for 10 days. You are otherwise free to hire an American or Zimbabwean over an EU citizen for whatever reason you choose. The only further restriction is that wages must be at or above market and must be enough to support the employee.

Denmark, as noted above, works largely the same way, though I am not certain they even have the advertising rule. They also replace the 'market wages' requirements with a positive list of professions and a fixed salary floor. Getting a work permit in Denmark can be done in 10 minutes, with nothing required from the employer beyond the offer letter. Heck, when I went in to get mine, they gave me a second permit, without even asking. They said that, this way, if I got sick of my job, I could stick around and find another one.

Norway is similar to Denmark, but the minimum earnings is higher.

Your claims may be valid for France or the UK, but your extension to the entirety of the EU, much less the EEA, is simply incorrect.

travelgourmet

<i>Recruiters and (legit) companies will not set up interviews with people that are not legal to work, especially given the field she works in. </i>

It depends how good she is at her job. My company has certainly interviewed people without work permits, at least in those countries where work permits are easy to get with a job offer. And I know multiple non-EEA citizens that have obtained jobs with other companies in Denmark or Switzerland prior to holding a work permit.

jamikins

Fair enough - like I said, there are instances if you are a specialist or hold specialist knowledge. It may be my mistake in taking her role as someone that has worked in finance in a big company to mean that she is a financial reporting, or finance professional.

I may have wrongly assumed, but if she has specialist knowledge that would give her a preference about other financial reporting, or finance professionals already legal to work in Europe that would be helpful to know as we may be able to point her to some companies etc. The expat community can be quite small so we may know of companies that do this...

travelgourmet

<i>Fair enough - like I said, there are instances if you are a specialist or hold specialist knowledge. It may be my mistake in taking her role as someone that has worked in finance in a big company to mean that she is a financial reporting, or finance professional.</i>

I don't think she would make it under a specialization exemption. I think her best shot is to make it under an income exemption. To qualify under an income criteria, the key is getting the offer. Some companies are not overly concerned with the nationality of their employees, and the OP will simply need to find one of those companies, in a location (such as Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, etc) that does not place overly onerous burdens on getting a work permit, and dazzle them with her cv and interview.

annhig

I think we've put her off.