Working abroad through an agent: check before you pay anyone

Your situation

You’ve been offered a job abroad, often in the Gulf, through a recruiting agent. You’d like to believe it. Here is how to check it first.

Two things to know

• If your passport has the ECR stamp and you are going to one of the listed countries for work, you need emigration clearance through eMigrate. Passports without the ECR stamp don’t need it. The Ministry of External Affairs lists the countries, so check its page for your passport.
• There is a legal limit on what a registered agent may charge, and the figure has changed over time. Check the current one with the Ministry of External Affairs before you pay, and ask for a receipt for every payment.

Questions to ask the agent

• What is your registration number? You can look agents up on the eMigrate portal.
• Who is the employer, and can I speak to them?
• What does the contract say about pay, hours, housing and the return ticket? Can I read it before I pay anything?
• Who pays for the visa and the ticket? In many cases the employer does.

Walk away if

• The agent asks for cash with no receipt.
• The contract is in a language you can’t read, or arrives only after you pay.
• They tell you to say something different at the airport.
• They won’t give the employer’s name.

Where Knock fits

Knock has a check for recruiting agents, and shows only jobs from employers’ own career sites. It can’t verify an agent for you. The official sites below are the place to do that.