# EU citizen moving to US



## carlo74 (Sep 6, 2008)

All...
need urgent information
I'm currently an ITALIAN General Electric Employee working in Italy and I have received an offer to work in US for another General Electric business. 
Everything in the offer was fine, job was fine, benefit fine, salary fine... everything fine until the discussion moved to the contract...
The Hiring manager after talking with the US Human resources manager told me that I'm too expensive since they need to give me an Expat Contract that is something like 200K USD! (they cannot give me a local package), this is because some existing rules between EU and US.
He also told me that I can have local package if
- I married a US citizenship
- I'm living abroad and I do not pay local Italian taxes since 5 years

I need to know the followin- if someone knows in which document I can find the above information
If someone had the same problem... if there is a way to get around it

Thanks 
Carlo


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

It sounds like you are caught between the company policies and the US immigration policies and laws. 

The HR manager is right - a proper expat contract is extremely expensive for the company. It normally includes paying for a place to stay (or paying to maintain your home in your home country), various expat "bonuses" like an extra month's salary on each end for transition costs, tax equalization and an annual trip back home. Much of this (I suspect) is to maintain your links to the company back home, so that if anything doesn't work out about the new job, it's clear (to the US Immigration people at least) that your company will move you back home.

On a "local contract" you would actually be working without a contract as if you'd been hired from outside the company - it's called "employment at will." You would have much less support for the move over to the US and no guarantees of returning home should your job not work out for any reason. The US company would have to justify hiring a foreigner over a local person and you'd probably wind up trying your luck in the H1B lottery. For obvious reasons, it makes getting a visa that much more difficult.

Cheers,
Bev


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## carlo74 (Sep 6, 2008)

What about if I just leave the company and ask to be hired directly from the US branch of the company?
Would this make everything easier?


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

You would loose seniority and still need a visa.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

As twostep said, you'd still need a visa - which means you would have to convince your "new" employer to petition for you, presumably on an H1B basis, which carries its own risks. (Not to mention that your US employer would have to justify the hiring of a non-US national over an American with similar background and experience.)
Cheers,
Bev


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## Fatbrit (May 8, 2008)

carlo74 said:


> What about if I just leave the company and ask to be hired directly from the US branch of the company?
> Would this make everything easier?


I think your problem lies with your companies internal policies rather than immigration law. I won't repeat my opinion about folks who work in US HR departments since I've posted them before. Enough to say, they'll tell you anything but at least half the time they are making it all up as they go along. Personally, I have no idea what they're going on about with the five-year thing.

Resigning from the Italian company and then joining the US branch is perfectly possible with the L1b since the conditions are that you must have worked for a branch full-time for at least 1 of the previous 3 years. However, I should point out by doing this you are losing most of your excellent European worker rights and trading them for non-existent US ones. Caveat emptor!

My final suggestion to you is make sure you get everything to do with this endeavor written on paper. Ensure you negotiate the full deal (pay, bonuses, benefits, application for permanent residency, repatriation, redundancy, etc) before you commit. If it's not on paper, it won't happen -- there is no benevolence from US corporations.


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## YaGatDatRite (Aug 7, 2008)

Another option may be to forgo the US offer and negotiate a local raise instead.

Talk to your Italian HR rep and explain that you think this isn't a great deal, without an expat package you feel you're getting shafted, etc...see if they turn around.

And if they don't offer a raise, ask for a lateral posting with added seniority maybe in another EU country or a different GE business in Italy.

GE's a good paymaster but is known for shoving people around. this could be your chance to stick it to the big guy


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## synthia (Apr 18, 2007)

Maybe I misread it, but I thought the offer was being withdrawn because with the requirements for a full expat package, it wouldn't fit into the hiring manager's budget.

The thing I find hard to understand is the $200,000 as an EU rule. General Electric transfers people all over the world, so surely they have this all down to a science. It almost sounds as if the entire package, airfare and all, is being charged to the budget of a small unit, when normally only the salary would be charged. 

Do you know anybody else in the EU that has made the transfer?


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