[ac2u]

There's a mixture of useful advice in this thread, but take a deep breath before you go for any of the more enthusiastic responses.

I also work for a US company, but it's done through a wholly owned UK subsidiary. It's not uncommon to start these arrangements as contracting, especially if you're their first non-US employee, while it works on company incorporation and bank and payroll to be set up.

What you should expect in terms of fairness is for them to be upfront beforehand in terms of how they propose to proceed so the paperwork wasn't a surprise when it arrived.

I wouldn't assume malice right away in this. It could be a deliberate switcheroo, but it could have been simply bad communication due to ignorance.

Have a talk with them, if they insist that the contracting arrangement is only temporary while they set up, then you can reasonably ask for some conditions to be in the contract in terms of financial penalties if they don't go through with them. If they're serious, they shouldn't mind provided it's reasonable.

I'd agree with the other comments in that you're under no obligation to accept these arrangements.

[Spooky23]

Great point.

I would only add that it may make sense to try and figure out what what additional costs it would cost you as a contractor.

The billing rate for an agency contractor is usually a multiple of salary. Assuming this a good faith thing, the parties should be able to come to an arrangement.