Page 91 of Paradigm

“Just here for some coffee?”

“I needed to get out of my apartment for a little while,” she replied. “How are you?”

“Good. I was grabbing coffee for Stella and me, but can I talk to you, actually?”

Then, Violet sat down across from her without waiting for a reply.

“Yes, of course,” she said and pulled her coffee closer to her, wondering what Violet would need to talk to her about.

“So, Arlowe might be mad at me for telling you this first, but you’re here, and it’s your visa, so I think it makes more sense for me to tell you, and then you can tell her.”

“Right,” she said.

“I talked to our attorney, who has some experience in this stuff, and he said that we’re doing all the right things so far, but he’s a little concerned about us having you in mind to begin with. In other words, there are some ethics issues here.”

“Oh,” she said as she looked down at her coffee cup. “Yes, of course. I understand.”

“Understand what?”

“That you can’t go through with it. I don’t want any of you or the company to get into trouble because of me.”

“No, sorry. I should’ve said this differently. There are some ethical things to consider, yes, but he also said that he’s worked with other companies that have done the same thing. They have a candidate in mind first, and they have to work their way around the rules in order to hire them. So, he’s good with it. He just suggested that we not file the application until we’ve conducted several interviews. That way, the timeline tracks.”

“So, you’re still going to do it?”

“Yeah, we’re doing it. It’s a pretty good market for employers right now, so we’ve gotten over fifty applicants. We also have the fact that we moved up the role because we were going to hire it in the next quarter, but we need it sooner.”

“Except that you don’t.”

“Technically, we do,” Violet stated. “I’m sure you know how many hours Arlowe still puts in, which is way more than she should, and we also lost a junior engineer recently, so that has us understaffed. Really, we have been perpetually understaffed since we started the company.” Violet let out a little laugh. “We’ve actually been talking about outsourcing some of the work and still plan to do that, so I think we can start interviewing on Monday. We’ll have you interview after the first few candidates and go from there.”

“How long?” she asked, picking up her coffee to take a sip.

“Well, that’s the thing – it can take two to six months to hear back about the visa.”

“I thought so,” Eline said.

“But there is a chance that we can apply for premium processing, which is actually only fifteen business days.”

“What?”

“The basic fee for the application is almost three grand, but if you pay them almost another three grand, I guess they actually care enough to review it much faster and either deny or approve the petition within fifteen business days.”

“Violet, that’s amazing. I know it’s a lot of money, but I would pay the company back. You could take it out of my paycheck until it’s all paid for, along with any of the attorney fees that are because of me.”

“I asked him about this premium thing, and he said we could do it, but that it could also flag it and make them look harder. He’s worked with several companies that have done it a few times, and he said he’d had a higher success rate when the application followed the normal process because USCIS wants to know why you need to hire someone so quickly who can’t be a US citizen. They sometimes tell you to wait longer before reapplying, so in his eyes, the regular process is best and more likely to be approved.”

“And if it only took two months, that would be amazing. Three would be cutting it close, but four or more, and I’ll have to go home anyway.”

“I know,” Violet said, nodding compassionately. “We can still try the premium processing, if you want. It’s just less likely to be successful out of the gate. Apparently, he only recommends doing that for highly specialized fields, like medical experts in something that no one else studies and a bunch of people are sick or something, and being understaffed in engineering management isn’t good enough.”

“Well, I suppose the full process will be fine.”

“I’ll have the interviews start next week. He suggested leaving the role open for at least a month and interviewing at least a third of the applicants over the phone or on video. In his estimation, that’s a healthy attempt. He said if we could interview fifty percent of those who are qualified, to be extra thorough, and then bring at least a few people back for a second round or have them complete the assignment and all that, we’ll be in good shape.”

“So, interviews start next week, but you have to keep it open for a month?”

“Another three or so weeks at least, yes. We can keep it open for longer just to look good, but stop bringing in candidates.”