Verifying who's actually on the call
Start by asking her to hold her passport's photo page steady to the camera and compare the face against the one on the call yourself, rather than taking an agency representative's introduction at face value. If someone else is present in the room or clearly coaching her responses off-screen, ask directly who else is there. This isn't about distrust of any one candidate; it's a basic step that a video format makes necessary and an in-person meeting makes unnecessary.
Ask to see any permit-related or medical paperwork already on file for her, held up to the camera long enough to read the key details rather than summarized verbally. If a document isn't ready yet at this stage, that's normal this early in the process, note it as outstanding rather than treating its absence as a problem.
- Passport photo page shown on camera, matched to her face
- Ask directly who else is in the room
- Existing permit or medical documents shown, not just described
- Note any document still outstanding rather than assuming it exists
What's harder to read through a screen
A camera flattens a lot of the cues an in-person meeting gives you for free, how someone carries themselves during a demonstrated task, whether they seem at ease or tense in an unscripted moment, small interactions with anyone else in the room. None of that disappears because it's a video call, but you have to ask for it more deliberately: request she demonstrate a task on camera (folding a cloth, describing how she'd handle a specific household scenario) rather than only answering questions verbally.
Silence and lag read differently on a call than in a room; a pause while she's translating or thinking can look like hesitation over a perfectly simple question. Give a beat before reading too much into a delay, and where the connection is patchy, ask her to repeat rather than guess at what you missed.
Setting up the call itself
Agree on the platform and a backup in advance rather than discovering mid-call that one side can't join it, and confirm whether an interpreter or agency staff member will be present and in what role (interpreting only, versus answering on her behalf). If interpretation is involved, ask questions in shorter segments so the translation stays accurate rather than compressed.
Set the time by both time zones explicitly rather than assuming the agency has converted it correctly, and build in a few minutes of buffer for a dropped call. None of this replaces judging her answers on their substance, it just removes the avoidable friction that gets in the way of judging them fairly.