Providing Visa and Relocation Assistance

5 – The Award Stage

This is likely more of a consideration for employment applicants, but it may be worth highlighting these issues to successful funding applicants as it is likely relevant to team members they may plan to recruit.

Your successful applicant may be relocating for the role, so you should offer this assistance to all since it is easier and more inclusive to offer this to everyone than to try to figure out who ‘needs’ it, which could result in some new starters missing the information.

Communicate the assistance that is available when you make the award offer so that this information is available to your successful applicant whilst they make their decision. Assistance should ideally come in both administrative and financial forms, however if financial assistance is not available, then administrative assistance will still be useful.

Your institution might already have a contact who provides visa and relocation assistance, in which case direct your applicant to them. If not, you may want to consider using your named contact, or putting together some guidance yourself. You can also:

recommend estate agents,
provide advice about which areas are best served by public transport,
make recommendations about the residential areas which are popular amongst other employees

Moreover, advice on considerations of living arrangements may be required if certain areas are inaccessible to those in wheelchairs, or inadvisable locations for those with certain characteristics (e.g. ethnic minorities). Additionally, providing links to relevant government pages (e.g. for the UK) concerning visa applications can make your successful applicant feel more welcomed and included, and help streamline their application process.

SECTION 5: The Award Stage

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NEXT: Agreeing a Start Date

Ensure clear communication about the extent of flexibility in the start date.