Do not treat a fee payment as proof of the replacement employee’s immigration status or permission to begin work.
Plan staffing around confirmed authority
The official transfer concept includes review of the new person. Ask counsel what documents and immigration outcome are needed for the intended start, and what the current process requires from the original holder. This guide does not offer a transfer turnaround or a bridge-work arrangement.
Make the start date depend on a document rather than on a payment. Identify with counsel what evidence would show that the replacement person holds the immigration position the role requires, then treat the existence of that evidence as the gate. A receipt for a fee is evidence that a fee was paid, and the official transfer concept includes review of the new person, so payment sits early in a sequence rather than at its end.
Plan staffing accordingly: assume the role remains covered by existing arrangements until the confirming document exists, and identify what the business will do if it is delayed or never obtained. Ask counsel what outcome is needed for the intended activity and how it would be recorded. Where the answer cannot yet be given from official materials, note the uncertainty in the staffing plan rather than resolving it with an assumed date.