Finding a job for a well qualified non-EU national

A good friend of mine is having difficulty finding a job at the moment.
He is a Chinese national who completed his Leaving Cert in Ireland, has a good Degree in Computer Engineering and is currently writing his thesis for a Masters.

He has been in the country 6-7 years and his visa is up in August.
Despite the supposed lack of skills in this country, this guy is finding it difficult to get a job. The obvious issue is a visa.

I know the government is supposed to be introducing a visa system for non_EU nationals whereby they can stay for up to 2 years if they are suitably qualified, but it doesn't appear to be coming through anytime soon.

I find it hard to believe that this guy, who has obtained his entire adult education in Ireland is not automatically granted a 1 year visa upon completion of a degree.

Has anyone any advice in how I can help this chap get a job?

ixus said:

A good friend of mine is having difficulty finding a job at the moment.

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Is he working at the moment or has he ever worked here? What sort of visa is he here on at the moment? Was naturalisation not an option during his stay here to date?

Thanks for the reply.

The visa is a student only one.

Entitles him to work during the Summer, go on work experience ( which he has done) and to work part-time during college.

Naturalisation was not an option.

As an aside: I really think the government should look at this further. Anyone who obtains an honours standard degree of a "high skill requirement" should automatically be given a 1-2 year work visa.

ixus said:

I really think the government should look at this further. Anyone who obtains an honours standard degree of a "high skill requirement" should automatically be given a 1-2 year work visa.

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The Government have looked at this issue - this is why the work authorisation scheme was introduced. The purpose of this scheme is to ensure those in high skill areas may be recruited from outside the EEA. To my knowledge, IT is one of the areas included.

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By the way, you say naturalisation was not an option. Why was this - was it because time spent on a student visa is not counted for naturalisation purposes or was there another reason?

CMCR said:

The Government have looked at this issue

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That doesn't seem to cover China unfortunately.
I do remember there being a piece on the news around Christmas time about introducing something like this but nothing has been mentioned since and I figured it would not be put into operation until after elections.

CMCR said:

was it because time spent on a student visa is not counted for naturalisation purposes ?

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That's the reason.

Hi ixus

I was in a similar situation - needed to get a working visa as I'm a non-EEA national. I got lucky in that I found a job fairly easily and my employer was willing to pay the 500 euro work visa application fee for me. All I can suggest is that your friend approach employers with a look at getting a 3-month "internship" or sorts. This gives employers a chance to find out how good your friend is. He might also arrange with the employer to split the Visa fee down the middle, or maybe if he provides the cost of it, they'll be more likely to employ him.