SJ Mobilità – Blog

Address Proof Letter is a document which is submitted to the consulate while filing the visa application. The sole purpose of this letter is  to confirm whether the applicant resides in the city, where the application is filed. This usually happens when the passport is issued outside the city of employee’s residence or if he is new to the city (depending on the respective consulate requirement of minimum stay period in the current city).

In this letter you have to ensure to add most of the points covered in the employment letter and in addition you have to confirm the applicant’s current residential address as per company  records. It is recommended to mention his work address as well. Do keep the below pointers while preparing the same

• Employee Details (Name {As per the Passport}, Date of Joining and Current Designation)
• Local HR SPOC details (A person who can verify the details mentioned in the documents provided to the consulate)
• Work Address (Complete address)
• Current Residential Address (As per company records)

It always helps to give as much detail as possible to the consular officers and be transparent with the application details. If you need any further support in preparing the right consular documents, reach out to jani.jermans@sjmobilita.com

The Employment letter is a document which is submitted to the consulate while filing the visa application. It is a supporting letter given to the consulate in case they need a letter from the employer. The only purpose of the letter is to show the proof of employment.

Do keep the below pointers while preparing the letter:

* Details (Name {As per the Passport}, Date of Joining and Current Designation)

* Salary details (Annual salary can be mentioned)

* Local HR SPOC details (A person who can verify the details mentioned in the documents provided to the consulate)

If the employee has resigned and serving notice, ensure to mention the same in the letter as well. It always helps to give as much detail as possible to the consular officers and be transparent with the application details

If you need any further support in preparing the right consular documents, reach out to jani.jermans@sjmobilita.com

The HR letter is a document which is submitted to the consulate while filing the business application which is sponsored by the employer or personal visa application which is self-sponsored.

It is a supporting letter given to the consulate in case consulate needs a HR letter from the employer.

Do keep in mind the below pointers while preparing the HR letter:

• Employee Details (Name {As per the Passport}, Date of Joining and Designation)

• Salary details (If the Consulate asks for it)

• Local HR SPOC details (A person who can verify the details mentioned in the documents provided to the consulate)

Additional points to note, if the letter is issued for a personal visa application

o            Sponsorship details – Be very clear that the travel is sponsored by the employee and not the employer (sponsorship details are not needed in case of business visa application as this is already covered in the cover letter which I have written about in my earlier posts)

o            Leave Details – Confirm if the leaves are granted for the travel dates and the employee would report back to work after the leave if he continues to be employed.

o            If the employee has resigned and is serving notice, ensure to mention the same in the letter as well and mention the last working day.

It always helps to give as much detail as possible to the consular officers and be transparent with the application details. If you need any further support in preparing the right consular documents, reach out to jani.jermans@sjmobilita.com

The Invite letter is the most important document for the business visa application. You cannot apply for a business visa unless the destination entity (own company branch)/client invites the employee for a purpose which is mostly for a meeting/discussion or anything which doesn’t involve any productive work. This also depends on the country guidelines as some of them might allow productive work for a shorter period on a business visas well. Do check the individual country guidelines for the activities allowed before applying for the visa.

Few pointers while preparing the invite letter

1. Brief details about the destination company, it can include the latest achievements (Many of the consular officers may not know about your company)
2. Employee Details (Name {As per the Passport}, Designation, Travel Start and End Date, Location of Visit, Purpose, Sponsor details & POC (Point of Contact) details at the destination country)
   • In terms of purpose, many of the letters that are submitted to the consulate just mentions business meetings, which is incorrect. Please remember there are millions of business visa applications and no two applicants will have the same purpose. So please give at least a line or two about the actual business meeting (Eg: To attend the annual review meeting to discuss the goals for the next financial year). Be very specific and do not use the generic word which is the ultimate mistake that you can do on an invite letter.
   • POC (Point of contact) details at the destination – The contact details of the POC at the destination is who knows about the employee’s visit in the country. Do include the Name, Designation, official email address, office direct number along with personal contact number. If immigration officer at the destination airport has to verify, most of the time the flight lands at odd hours where the person may not be in the office. Hence it helps to have the direct personal number otherwise, the employee will be detained at the airport till they are able to verify through the local POC.
   • Travel Dates – Please put the exact start and end date, it cannot be approximate timelines like months or weeks, if the travel dates are not finalized please do not travel or apply for a visa.
3. Day wise itinerary – This is a good practice to include it in the invite letter, but if this is more than a week and the letter exceeds a page or two then, would recommend to add this as an addendum to the invite letter. This is another great help to the consular officers to make a quick decision
4. Giving Guarantee – (Taking responsibility) to ensure the employee is repatriated back as per the expected return date and ensuring employee doesn’t overstay in the destination country

Please note there are times employer/employee do not want to give as much details as possible as they think they are entitled to get the visa without providing any adequate details

Do remember the consular officers have a higher responsibility to ensure they allow only the genuine visitors in the country and they cannot afford anyone who tries to enter the country illegally or someone who might have a plan to harm their citizens. You might be the VVIP in your company but it doesn’t matter to them as they are just doing their job to ensure they approve the right ones. All your information provided to the consulate is confidential hence please help them to provide as much as details and in turn that will help them to make a quicker and right decision.

Best wishes for a safe and compliant business trip….

For any further advice, reach out to jani.jermans@sjmobilita.com

Cover letter is a supporting document provided to the consulate while filing the business visa application. This is slightly different from other letters like HR letter/employment letter.

When you are submitting any document to the consulate, do understand it’s purpose.

Do keep the below pointers while preparing the cover letter

• Brief details about the company, it can include the latest achievements (Many of the consular officers may not know about your company)
• Employee Details (Name {As per the Passport}, Date of Joining, Designation, Travel Start and End Date, Location of Visit, Purpose & Sponsoring Entity)
• Local HR SPOC details (A person who can verify the details mentioned in the documents provided to the consulate)
• Giving Guarantee – (Taking responsibility) which is to ensure the employee returns back as per the expected return date and ensuring employee doesn’t overstay in the destination country

Every single document submitted to the consulate should ensure it gives as much as details as possible to the consular officers which would make the officer easier, to make the right decision.

If you need any support in preparing the right consular documents, do reach out to jani.jermans@sjmobilita.com

In the current scenario, most of the corporates treat business visas like tourist visas and those requests are directly routed through travel agents without any checks or validations. There are also corporate allowing employees to travel on a business visa as a short cut. This is clearly violating the country laws and intentionally being non-compliant. Do remember this is going to hit you hard when you least expect it. The corporate that got penalized in the last few years is mostly due to misuse of business visas. Hence it’s utmost important that you do the compliance check and be compliant.

As a general thumb of rule, business visit is to attend business meetings. There are some activities some of the countries allow and some do not. For example, some countries allow hands on training, wherein others do not and might allow only class room training. For example, Countries like Russia, have post registration if the travel exceeds 7 business days and there are countries have various other restrictions.

For any traveller, the duration of stay in a country cannot exceed 180 days, which would attract tax implications.

So what should do you to make the business travel compliant

• Audit the activities as per the country guidelines, know what is allowed and what not
• Educate the employee on the allowed activities so that employee is compliant while on travel, also inform if any post formalities to be done in the country
• Keep tab of the travel of all employees to ensure they don’t cross 180 days in a year during multiple trips
• It’s recommended to restrict the business travel to a week or two

It’s very important, that you adhere to the business compliance which is very important for the global growth of the company. If you need more guidance on this, please reach out to jani.jermans@sjmobilita.com