Well, the immigration rules, despite how varied they may seem around the world, usually differ between "tourist", "student" and "work permit" visa/permanent residency, and they all have in common that there's tons of forms to fill in. Syed Latif had a student visa, and thus residency, but failed to secure his post graduation job in the EU via the EU approved job search sites, Arbetsförmedligen & EURES. Both his employer, and Syed fill in forms to apply for the work permit.

When I hire people from outside of the EU, I have to advertise this job on EURES so that people in the EU and Switzerland see it, as part of the process to apply for a work permit for someone. On the actual form that an employer has to file in order to hire a non-EU citizen, there's a box to check regarding asking: "Has the job been advertised in EU/EES and Switzerland?" where you can check "yes" and then specify the ads ID number, a number it would have if it was advertised on arbetsförmedlingen's & EURES website. I'm guessing this is where the Linkedin connection was first seen.

> but if you have a friend and you are getting hired without an add does not matter

Well, if you are already a citizen of the country where your friend is giving you a job... or already have a work permit, then it would not matter obviously. In the EU there is a vast pool of potential employees to choose from as it encompasses 28 member countries + Switzerland!

My interest in this story lies more in the tarnished brand of Linkedin than the minutia of work and residency permits. I've also lived and worked in too many countries (pre-EU as well) to be naive about the filings of permits to get the correct visas.

The world isn't black and white.

The man with the bear, the soldier and the bulging muscle guy seem to already be projecting a very specific image of themselves online, as does every woman who are a prettier version of themselves in every shot. That is very interesting. I also like that the artist simply chooses to photograph whomever sits across from him, so we get this nice random selection of people.