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My boyfriend (citizen of a non-EU country) has finished his studies in an EU country and has begun looking for a job in that EU country.

Usually, the main reason for the many rejections he received is the lack of a suitable work permit (he is legally here using his student permit). Just to be clear, a company has to do the work permit, but many SMEs just prefer to hire EU citizens or someone who already has it, so they avoid the paperwork (and maybe additional costs, I am not sure).

Now, a big company has made him an offer. The work permit issue wasn't addressed during the hiring process, although they are aware he is a student. Considering it is a big company, their HR department is probably used to deal with this situation, but we are worried they may withdraw the offer once they realize my boyfriend has no permit, arguing he hid that information.

The question: once he signs the offer, can the company withdraw from it arguing they were not aware of the work status of the employee?

Edit: maybe this seems naive, but we are not trying to trick anyone here. He is a data scientist (a highly demanded profile) and when he did the interview we were not aware of the huge barrier that this visa permit seems to be for so many companies.

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    FWIW - your post doesn't come across as you attempting to deceive anyone. It's well written in my opinion.
    – Neo
    Sep 11, 2018 at 16:00
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    You may want to review the fine print on the original job posting. Quite often postings for technical jobs include language like "Must be legally able to work in country x" or "Company will not support work permit applications"
    – cdkMoose
    Sep 11, 2018 at 16:18
  • "many SMEs just prefer to hire EU citizens or someone who already has it" While this is often true it's not the only reason - depending on your exact jurisdiction it's not uncommon for there to be a legal requirement for the company to show that they were unable to recruit a suitable candidate from within the EU. Also you are correct in that sponsoring a work permit is a non-trivial cost.
    – motosubatsu ♦
    Sep 12, 2018 at 9:48

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can the company withdraw from it arguing they were not aware of the work status of the employee?

Yes, they most likely can. (IANAL)

Your best bet here to make sure both parties are on the same page and proceed from a completely transparent position. ( make sure the company knows he will/may need a work permit )

Most likely they are aware of this need, but better to be honest and transparent.

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