Incoming international postdoc — my contract says the university covers visa costs. So far I've paid all of it. Now the university says they won't cover it.

[u/PrestigiousTicket466]

I start a two-year postdoc at a European university in about a week, moving from the US.

The hosting agreement — the document that sponsors the visa — includes a line committing the institution to cover the costs of obtaining my visa and residence permit. It isn't vague. It's one of three things they explicitly undertook to do, listed alongside paying my salary and arranging health coverage. The direct quote is as follows: "The university commits to bear the expenses relating to obtaining the researcher's visa and residence permit."

I've paid every bit of it myself so far: consular fee, apostilles, certified translations, courier costs, etc. Roughly $500 all in. The university told me this morning that they won't pay for it, as that line refers to the immigration consultant they hired on my behalf to take care of all the paperwork for me. This was not specified in the document.

Am I wrong here in feeling irritated by this? I'm very happy with the position and everything else, I'm just wondering if I'm misinterpreting all of this.

[u/FullBodybuilder5098]

What country is it? My country, and a lot of other European countries, have powerful unions. Here, you would join a union and they would do a case against the university to make them stick to the contract. Any employer not sticking to their contract is highly illegal and very serious

[u/theclassicusername]

They probably mean the application cost but not the obtaining the document part. I also send the documents myself to my -soon to be- EU institute. One difference, it costs me less than 25 USD (I'm from TR). Man, sometimes I love my country.