Philippina Overseas worker in HK, When did you tell your employer and how?

[Roger & Grace 198]

My K-1 fiance' Grace (She)  is worried about telling her employer too soon, and when she does, he then might fire her.  Then what are her options? 

 

If she then has to go back to the Philippines, we will have to start over, and it will be a mess. 

 

She has raised her bosses kids as a nanny for 8 years now in Hong Kong. It has been a good relationship, but lately a little rough as the boys get older and more demands are on her, especially from the wife. (It's never good enough!)  The boss, husband, is happy.  Anyhow, what is your story?     

 

Our Background is we filed in Dec 22 2016 our receipt NOA was Jan 6th 2017. We are waiting for the real NOA 1 with either approved or RFE to move forward. 
 

I wanted to hear your thoughts and how you told your boss and when?  

 

I know this K-1 material at some point will be mailed to her and he will figure out something is up?!  

[f f 725]

look at her employment contract and see what the requirments for notifying them are. then go for the minimum time required but only tell them after she has the visa in hand.

 

good luck

[rasaco 39]

The ideal situation would be that she could tell her boss as soon as possible and ask for his understanding.  He should appreciate the advance notice that he is getting so he has plenty of time to pick out a new nanny, and she wouldn't have to worry about all of the "what if's" any more once she has told him.  It really seems to me like any decent person should at least be considerate enough to not destroy the future plans of someone who dedicated 8 years of hard work to their family... I guess I don't understand why she is so afraid to tell him, "I am planning to quit in about 6 months and want to give you plenty of advance notice, so that you can find an excellent new nanny for your family. I also want to ask for your understanding when, in a few months, I need to take a day or two off to go for my medical and visa interview."

 

Of course, she isn't obligated to tell him any earlier than whatever her contract with him specifies about giving notice--though as you mentioned, there will be a packet that will be mailed to her after your case is sent to the consulate, so it would be pretty awkward for him to find out that way (sounds like she is a live-in nanny), and in that case he might have a bit more cause to be upset than if she tells him her plan politely in person and far in advance.

 

From my personal experience, going through this process while hiding it from an employer is awful.  My husband (who came on K1) was a Chinese police officer.  Chinese police officers are not allowed to marry foreigners, but we couldn't afford to have him quit months in advance (or worst of all risk him quitting and then being denied a visa in the end), so we had to hide our intentions from his employers all the way to the very end.  It was incredibly stressful and caused a bit of a mess when he finally had the visa and then didn't have time to properly quit before the visa would expire.  The more honest you can be up front, the better!  I sure wish we had had the option to just tell his employer up front.  Would have saved us a lot of stress, but alas, we felt we had absolutely no other choice.

[John & Ana Marie 1]

Our case was much the same. She had worked for the same employer who could be difficult at times especially about time off. Trying to get all the stuff done while hiding from the employer seemed too much especially since embassy is not open on Sundays. Probably not fair to the employer either. Thought about her going back home before filing but she really preferred to stay in HK. So she waited till contract had one month left and gave notice with the intention of finding an employer who would work with the situation. As it turned out, her current employer wanted to know why she was leaving them and once it was explained, the employer agreed to help her if she would stay a month after approval to help find a new care giver. Definitely makes it easier if the employer knows and you can work through the medical and interview. The real problem is that without a contract a worker visa expires and she must exit or be illegal so it's hard for a OFW to do a visa in HK without employer knowledge.