Visa Checks and Reporting

Running visa checks from your foundU platform

When employees complete their Right to Work information through their onboarding process, you'll be able to run a visa check from your foundU platform. This process is done through the inbuilt integration with the Department of Home Affairs (DOHA), Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) function.

Once you trigger the first Visa Check, you can also automate future visa checks and customise the visa notifications received when an employee approaches their visa expiry. 

In this article, we will cover:

• How to run a visa check
• Understanding visa errors
• Updating visa check information
• Enabling visa notifications and customising content
• Visa reports

  Hot tip: Please direct all employees needing to update their passport or visa information to this page on the DOHA website, where they can find a comprehensive list of required actions. 

Running a Visa Check

If your business hires employees on visas, you can use our direct link with VEVO to run a Visa Check on their details. Using the Visa Check function will help you determine if your employee or candidate is eligible to work. The below image will help you understand how Visas are checked and mointored in foundU.

This eligibility status is determined by the details entered in the 'Right to Work' section during your employee's onboarding. If they select 'No' to the question 'Are you an Australian Citizen?', they will be required to upload their passport details. These details should relate to their visa and will be reported to the Department of Home Affairs.

To run a visa check:

1. Navigate to People > Pending People (or Approved People, depending on their status, i.e. applicant or new employee).
2. On the Overview page, select 'Eligible for Visa Check'.
   • You may also see 'Not Eligible for Visa Check'. This is typically the result of incomplete visa information. Select 'More Info' for further details.
     
     

     

3. Then review the details and select 'Confirm Details and Run Visa Check'.
   
     Hot tip: Ensure you review the linked supporting document before performing the check. If the details in that document do not match those displayed on your screen, your check will likely return an error.
   
   

   

4. If the check is successful without errors, the candidate's visa type will now display on the overview page.
   
   

   

After the initial check, the platform will run the Visa Check periodically and send status updates to the assigned manager via email. You can also update and add recipients of these communications in the platform's Communication Content.

Understanding Visa Check errors

When running the Visa Check, you may encounter a Visa Check Error. This error commonly appears if the results from the check are rejected. However, it can sometimes occur if the connection between VEVO and the platform has gone offline. In such cases, the system is set to reconnect in six hours.

  Hot tip: If your Vevo connection is offline, we recommend postponing non-urgent checks until the next day. For any urgent checks, you can do them directly on the DOHA website. 

Common causes for a Visa Check Error are:

• • The personal details the employee has uploaded to their profile don't match those in their supporting document.
    • If this is the case, the employee will need to update their details, which can be done via their Employee App.
  • The employee recently obtained a new passport and did not update it with DOHA.
    
    • If you need to run the check right away, contact the employee to update their Right to Work details with their old passport information.
    • Once they have updated their passport details with the Department, they will also need to update those details in their app. 

To review the Visa Check Error, you will need to:

1. Navigate to the employee's profile and select the highlighted Visa Check Error.
   
   
2. This will display the error details and tell you what you need to do to correct the error.
   
   

   

3. Update the visa details accordingly and re-run the Visa Check. You may need to clarify these details with the employee before re-running the Visa Check. 

  Contact us: If you continue to receive this error, please get in touch with our Support Team for further assistance. 

Updating the Visa Check information

Depending on where your employee or candidate is in their lifecycle with your business, there may come a time when the details they have added for the Visa Check need to be updated. For example, if the employee is:

• • Still in onboarding, but they have completed all steps, and their profile is still in 'Pending People'. An admin user will need to update the details on their behalf. 
  • Still in onboarding, but they haven't completed all steps. They can update the details themselves by navigating back to the step where they uploaded their Right to Work information. 
  • An active employee, and their profile is in 'Approved People'. The employee can update these details themselves, from their Employee App. 

 

Updating right to work information on behalf of the employee

We generally recommend that employees update this information; however, in some scenarios, an admin may need to do so. Before making any changes, always confirm with the employee that the details you are updating are correct. 

To update this information on behalf of an employee:

1. Navigate to the employee's profile by using the search function or by selecting "Approved People" or "Pending People".
2. In the employee's profile, navigate to the onboarding icon and open the Right to Work & References tab.
3. Select (Edit) and fix or update the required information. and save and close.
   
   

   

4. Save and close to lock in those changes, and navigate back to the employee Overview tab to re-run the Visa Check.
   

   

How employees can update their information

For employees to update their Right to Work information, they must either still be in the incomplete onboarding process or approved to work on the platform.

How employees can update their Right to Work information while still onboarding:

1. In the Employee App, employees can navigate to the relevant step (your business has customised onboarding, so it may vary) that contains the Right to Work information.
2. The employee will then update the relevant information and move on to the next step to save.
   
   

   

  Please note: If your employee has already completed the section on the onboarder that contains the Right to Work information, they may not be able to revisit the steps they have already completed. In such a scenario, you will need to enable a specific setting in your platform to allow the employee to revisit previous sections. For more information, please refer to our guide on the Back button for application and onboarding steps.

  For active employees, they can update their Right to Work information directly from their Employee App. Please take a look at our detailed guide on how to do this in the Employee Help Centre.

Visa notifications

On your platform, ensure that both your admins and employees are aware of their visa expiration status by activating expiration notifications. While doing this, you can also manage and customise the messages your employees or admins receive. 

Key use cases for doing this include: 

• • Sending communications to individuals whose visas and passports are expiring before expiration. 
  • Assisting with visa and passport compliance to ensure employees do not need to stop working for your business. 
  • Creating destination-specific messaging for multiple recipients using a single email template.

  Permission Reminder: You will need to have  'Access Expiry Notifications' and 'Manage Communication Content' enabled in your User Permissions to action these steps. 

Enabling Expiry Notifications

To ensure your visa expiry notifications are turned on:

1. From the main menu, navigate to Platform Settings > Expiry Notifications.
2. Find and select 'Working Visa Documentation'. In here, you can update the following items:
   • Expiry Type - You have the choice of either 'Expiry Date' or 'Assessment Date', depending on what you collect. 
   • Notify Rep - Enable or disable notifications to admin users. 
   • Notify Candidate - Enable or disable notifications to employees.
3. Select Save to update. 

Customising Visa Notification Content

You can customise the content that goes out to your admins and employees when changes are made to the visa's status or the expiration date is approaching. 

To do this, navigate from your main menu to Communication > Communication Content, and search for the following templates.

• Employee Visa & Passport expiring template

Recipient	Default content
Employee	Send the employee's visa or passport expiration dates based on the reminder settings. It includes options to add a countdown, allowing customisation of how many days from expiry before the email sends. Can have multiple days and times.

• Visa & Passport expiring template (Dynamic)

Recipient	Default content
Dynamic	Sends the assigned admin user/s a summary of employee visa or passport expiration dates based on the reminder settings. It includes options to add a countdown, allowing customisation of how many days from expiry before the email sends. Can have multiple days and times.

• Visa Check Changes Template

Recipient	Default content
Dynamic	Sent to the assigned admin user/s when an employee's Visa details or conditions have changed since the last VEVO check. Has a direct link to view the employee's profile.

• Visa Check Error Template

Recipient	Default content
Dynamic	Sent to the assigned admin user/s when a Visa check fails, or an error is received from VEVO. Has a direct link to view the employee's profile.

  For more information on customising this content, please have a look at our complete guide on Personalising your Email & SMS templates.

Visa reports

In some cases, you may want or need to view your employee's visa status or upcoming expirations on a single page or file.

There are 2 places you can do this on your platform.

• • From either the Pending or Approved People page. 
  • From the Visa Check List report. 

The method you choose will depend on a few key factors, which will be outlined below. 

 

Exporting from the People page

If you need to review the visa types and current expiration dates for any of your employees, and most importantly, your pending employees or candidates. The best option for this would be from your Pending People page, as pending employees do not appear in the Visa Checklist report. 

To export visa details for your pending employees:

1. Navigate to People > Pending People.
2. From Bulk Actions, select Export All Filtered
3. Find the Job section heading and from it, select 'Visa Type' and 'Visa Expiry'.
4. Export CSV to download these details for all employees into a CSV file to review. 

  Hot tip: Save this as a template to easily use again for all future pending employees!

Using the Visa Check List report

The Visa Check List report, is a great tool, for viewing the visa status for all active employees in your platform. 

With this report, you can filter to view employees with specific conditions or those with errors. 

To run the Visa Check List report:

1. Navigate to Reports > Workforce > Visa Check List.
2. Apply any filters as needed or leave them blank to view all employees.
3. Select the check box for 'Has Conditions' or 'Has Errors', to view only employees with either of those. 
4. Select Submit to view the report on your page.
5. To view any conditions further, select the highlighted blue condition number. To view any errors further, select the red Error button. 
6. Export CSV to download this into a file to review externally.