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.