upon doing smth.

21:25 Feb 7, 2014 

Technically speaking, you first have to decide whether you want to hire someone for a certain position and then you look at his/her records. If you didn't want to hire him/her, you would have no need to look at the records. Upon' is quite appropriate here but in real life the two events can happen so closely together, that it hardly matters whether you use 'upon' or 'when'.

17:30 Feb 7, 2014 

It seems to me the translator is putting in "upon" as a catch-all, to stand in for "during" , "while", "when(ever)", "where / in case(s) of" etc., based on your examples. This can be slightly misleading, rather than being outright wrong, since "upon" is more "as soon as" or "once having met the condition that". If you back-substitute the alternatives I mention, you will get a clearer meaning with one of them than with upon.

17:30 Feb 7, 2014 

To Callagy: No no no :). You got it wrong :). I find it really hard to explain the meaning of the sentence without being able to show you the Estonian original.
There is the thing.
There is a “punishment register” in Estonia. All your offences and misdemeanours are entered there by state officials. After a certain period of time this data is deleted from the register (and you are "clean" again). This deleted information is not actually deleted, but archived. I.e. you can still find it in the state archives. This deleted/expired criminal information does not have any legal consequences for you. BUT when somebody wants to hire you, they legally use this information as a pretext not to hire you.

So, the sentence “The information deleted from the register has legal effect upon (=when/once/immediately following) a decision on employment of a person"
in the original text means the following:
The information deleted from the register has legal consequences for a person (can be held against him/her) when a decision about hiring him/her is made by a prospective employer. (for instance, when the work involves contact with children)- well, something like that :)

17:13 Feb 7, 2014 

Here is another example:
"Persons shall be exempt from payment of the electronic inquiry fee upon inquiry concerning the persons themselves." (i.e. when they make an inquiry about themselves).

17:10 Feb 7, 2014 

Well, should I mark this use of UPON as a mistake then? "Upon" sounds definitely wrong to me here, and I would never use it in this context myself. But I am not a native speaker and I am not sure. And I don't want to correct anything in another person's text unless I am 100% sure...

17:04 Feb 7, 2014 

Upon in the temporal sense expresses a cutoff starting point and change of state, affecting the following phase. "As of (some moment), and thenceforth." In the context you cite, you could paraphrase "upon" with "no sooner than". So you are correct.

17:03 Feb 7, 2014 

I have found two conflicting explanations in the dictionaries:
1. Oxford Learner's Dictionary [http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/on]
on/upon - immediately after something
On arriving home I discovered they had gone.
Please report to reception on arrival.
There was a letter waiting for him on his return.
2. Merriam-Webster [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/on]
on/upon - —used as a function word to indicate a time frame during which something takes place a /parade on Sunday/ or an instant, action, or occurrence when something begins or is done /on cue/ /on arriving home, I found your letter/ /news on the hour/ /cash on delivery
----
Both dictionaries give the same example: “upon arriving home” :)
In the first case it is understood as “immediately after” in the other “during” :)))

16:49 Feb 7, 2014 

The discussion is getting slightly in the wrong direction here. :) This was just an example sentence in the translation which I am editing now. The translation is from Estonian into English. So there is no use for me to cite the original. No one knows Estonian anyway .
The problem for me is that the translator tends to use the construction "upon doing smth." as a synonym for "at the time of doing smth / when doing smth/during something" in various contexts/sentences. Here is an example:
“”“The following persons have the right to obtain data specified in subsection XXXX:
…..
x) an employer for the purposes of verification of the conformity of a person with the requirements provided by law UPON hiring the person”””

(“UPON hiring the person” in the translator’s view means “WHEN hiring a person/DURING the hiring process” - ПРИ ПРИЕМЕ НА РАБОТУ in Russian. In the original it is basically said that the employer checks the person's criminal record before/when hiring him/her.) Is UPON correct in this context? I have always thought that it means “after”.

16:32 Feb 7, 2014 

is certainly not normal phrasing - should be "on the employment of ..." or "on a person's employment". Allowing for the non-native English authorship, I conclude what I wrote below. At least it makes logical sense that missing information (e.g. confirmation of having no unpaid taxes, or no criminal record") will impact a hiring decision.

16:24 Feb 7, 2014 

"unusual" - and seem to have posted at the same time as Vaclav.

16:23 Feb 7, 2014 

"on" and "upon" are pretty much interchangeable, with the latter being more formal and also meaning "after" - and there is the famous "once upon a time..." "Having an effect upon" sounds somewhat usual for "on" in the case in question, in my opinion.

16:19 Feb 7, 2014 

The construction is indeed slightly odd. So, "has legal effect upon making a decision" could be meant as a fancy way of saying "on", meaning the decisionmaking will be affected by the information not being available, having been deleted. This is IMHO the more likely meaning here.

16:13 Feb 7, 2014 

doing something means when something is done, at the same time or as a direct result.

15:57 Feb 7, 2014 

Thanks for feed back. By odd you mean this sentence: The information deleted from the register has legal effect upon making a decision on employment of a person. ?

15:55 Feb 7, 2014 

The sentence is odd, and I struggle to make sense of it. I'd flag it as incorrect and ask the client for clarification. The 'upon' there looks like just a formal way of saying that the information has some legal consequences in the decision-making process.

I'm not posting an answer below because you asked native speakers only.