According to the effective law of Ukraine, an employer may hire foreigner without work permit only in case if such foreigner is a permanent resident of Ukraine, in other words has a permanent residency permit, or if such foreigner’s employment is expressly provided for by the effective international treaties Ukraine is the party to.
In all other cases a Ukrainian employer needs a work permit in order to hire a foreigner.
A foreigner who has a valid work permit and, if necessary, a special labor IM-1 visa (it can be issued on the basis of the work permit) after arriving into Ukraine may apply for getting a temporary residence permit in Ukraine for the whole term of his/her work permit validity. The temporary residence permit allows the foreigner to stay permanently and legally in Ukraine during its validity term. In other words, the foreigner who has the work permit and the temporary residence permit may stay in Ukraine with no limits set by the law (90 days within 180 days starting from the day of the first arrival) and freely travel into / beyond Ukraine within the validity term set in the temporary residence permit.
The work permit can be provided for one year maximum but after its expiry term it can be – upon condition that both employer and foreigner employee duly observed the law – prolonged for another year maximum.
According to the Ukrainian law, the work permit is de jure issued to employer and not to a foreigner individual. Thus the employer who intends to hire a foreigner should be registered at the employment center as a payer of all required contributions to the Social Security Fund against unemployment and duly pay all those contributions.
Official employment of a foreigner entails an employer’s obligation to pay official salary to the said foreigner in the amount not less than the average salary of a Ukrainian employee holding a similar position.
There is no possibility under Ukrainian law for one foreigner to get a work permit for more than one position in the same company, nor to get more than one work permit in different companies.
The procedure of getting a new work permit or its prolongation will be considerably complicated if the employer failed to observe the rules of foreigners’ employment in the past (e.g. failed to pay the correspondent salary, or failed to notify the employment center that a foreigner who had received the work permit did not start to work with no good reason etc.)
The Ukrainian law provides no limitation on the employer’s legal form in case of foreigner’s employment – it may be a limited liability company, joint-stock company, private enterprise, other legal entity or private entrepreneur. However, certain gap in law allows the employment centers to reject the private entrepreneurs’ applications for getting a work permit.
In order to get a work permit the employer of a foreign individual should submit the below documents to the special commission created at the respective employment center:
1. Application;
2. Two color photos 3,5 x 4,5;
3. Declaration describing the grounds of appropriateness to hire the foreigner and the possibilities to create correspondent condition for his/her stay and work;
4. Document certifying the right to represent the employer’s interests at the employment center;
5. Certificate from the tax authority that the employer has fully complied with its obligations concerning payment of taxes and duties;
6. Certificate from the employment center that the employer has no indebtedness to the Social Security Fund against unemployment;
7. Receipt confirming payment of the duty established for consideration of the application;
8. A copy of a draft labor agreement (contract) certified by the employer;
9. Reference stamped and signed by the employer (if there is a department in the company which is competent in issues of secret and classified documents, the reference should also be signed by the head of such department) that the position in subject does not require the Ukrainian citizenship and has nothing to do with the state secret of Ukraine;
10. The blank criminal record issued by the competent migration authority with respect to the foreigner who stays in Ukraine during the procedure of getting a work permit;
11. The blank criminal record issued by the competent authority of the country of origin (stay) of the foreigner with respect to the foreigner who stays beyond Ukraine during the procedure of getting a work permit;
12. Copies of employer’s Articles and Certificate of state registration duly certified;
13. Copies of the foreigner’s diplomas and other documents proving his/her professional qualifications;
14. Copies of foreigner’s passport pages containing the basic personal data.
The procedure of getting a work permit should not exceed 30 days. However, in Kyiv in practice this period may be less because sittings of the employment center commission on the work permits issue actually take place every two weeks.
The official duty for a work permit amounts to 4 (four) minimal salaries under the law. This duty is not stable and depends on regular changes of the minimal salary. As for April 2010, the said duty amounts to UAH 3 536,00 (three thousand five hundred and thirty-six Ukrainian hryvnyas).