Employment of foreigners in Ukraine has always been an important topic, as it deals with the issue of obtaining a temporary residence permit.

According to the Ukrainian law, foreigners can officially work in Ukraine only if the employing company gets permission in the local employment center (section 42 of the Employment Law of Ukraine).

For obtaining such a permission the employing company, no later than 2 weeks before the submission of documents for the issue of such a permit, must request for the labor demand at the employment center.

After that the following package of documents is submitted to the employment center:

• Application of a standard-issue permit;
• copies of the degree certificate and qualifications certificate of the employee;
• Copies of the passport pages of the employee with personal data together with translation into the Ukrainian language, certified as required by law;
• two color photographs of the employee in the size of 3,5 x 4,5 cm
• a document issued by the medical institution that the worker does not have chronic alcoholism, substance abuse, drug addiction, or other infectious diseases, the list of which is determined by the Ministry of Health;
• a certificate, sealed, certified and signed by the employer that the position of the foreigner or stateless persons, is not associated with belonging to the citizenship of Ukraine and does not require the provision of access to state secret;
• MIA certificate stating that the foreigner or stateless person is not serving a sentence for commission of crime;
• certificate of the authority of the country of origin that the foreigner or stateless person, who is not in Ukraine during the time of making permission, is not serving a sentence for committing offense.

Within 7 working days, Employment Centre makes a decision to grant or refuse to issue the permit.

If the employment center decides to issue a work permit to the foreigner, the employer company within 10 working days from the date of issuance of such a decision is obliged to pay a state fee in the amount of four times of the minimum wage

The permit is issued for a period of 1 year. If the employing company decides to break the employment relationship with the foreigner, not later than 30 days before the expiration of the permit, the employer submits a re-package of documents to the employment center (not re-paying the state fees).

We can summarize that the process of obtaining a permit includes the following stages:
– request for the labor demand;
– preparation and submission of documents to the employment center;
– obtaining permission for employment of the foreigner;
– payment of state fees;
– extension of the permit (if necessary).

If a foreigner intends to conduct business in Ukraine, he can register a legal entity and obtain a work permit himself as director of the company, and as a consequence, a temporary residence permit.