Things might have gotten easier for some employees coming to work in Ukraine, but long-term stay for others could become bureaucratically cumbersome.
Things might have gotten easier for some employees coming to work in Ukraine, but long-term stay for others could become bureaucratically cumbersome.
A Cabinet of Ministers resolution is coming into force on Sept. 10. It will allow employees of foreign company representative offices or foreign bank branches in Ukraine to remain in-country uninterrupted without having to leave for at least one year.
Passed in June, the resolution allows foreign employees to obtain temporary residency permits that will allow them to stay more than 90 days over a 180-day period.
Moreover, the measure casts a wider net for categories of people who can apply to stay in Ukraine longer than 90 days.
They include students, foreign journalists and their families and immigrants to Ukraine or those who are reuniting with family members who obtained refugee status. Also included are workers of religious organizations, foreign non-government organizations and international technical assistance projects.
Currently, foreign employees of representative offices and foreign-owned bank branches cannot apply for residency permits.
The measure also reclassified visas Ukraine issues to foreigners from 22 visa types to three: transit, short-term and long-term.
The number of countries whose citizens don’t require visas to enter Ukraine hasn’t changed, according to the government measure.
Scott E. Brown of Frishberg & Partners (Kyiv Post file photo)
“This is good news for foreign employees of representative offices and banks, as there will presumably be a new procedure put into place for registering such persons with OVIR [citizenship, immigration and registration department of the interior minister] for temporary residency,” said Scott Brown of Frishberg & Partners law firm. “The procedures look a lot like what other countries do around the world.”
However, it remains largely unclear how the resolution will be implemented and whether the procedures outlined will be practiced consistently by all the involved government agencies, including customs, Ukrainian embassies abroad, and the border guard.
“As usual in Ukraine, the practical mechanism of implementation of the new rules is not yet unknown by the relevant officials and, therefore, requires additional clarification,” said Brown.
The uncertainty extends to Ukraine’s foreign technical assistance community whose countries have bilateral agreements with Ukraine that prevail over local laws.
“We don’t know at this point what is going to happen,” said Chrystia Pendzola-Vitovych, country director of American Councils for International Education, an international technical assistance project. “Nobody knows for sure, we just don’t know yet.”
At present, Americans employed in technical assistance projects such as, the International Republican Institute, National Democratic Institute, the U.S. Peace Corps, as well as others, register through the foreign ministry and the process is facilitated by the U.S. Embassy.
It now appears they will have to register with OVIR and may entail providing the government agency with a background check, proof of health insurance, and domicile information each time a new long-term visa is issued and with each re-entry into Ukraine.
“We’re looking for clarification and expect to know how this will work in the near future,” said James Wolfe, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson.
The procedure envisions employers in Ukraine obtaining work permits from the state employment center for future employees. The work permits are then sent to the Ukrainian Embassy where the employee will apply for the long-term visa.
The long-term visa will be valid for 45 days, presumably the period for which the employee can enter Ukraine and apply for the residency permit with OVIR, according to Tetyana Rabczak of CMS Cameron McKenna law firm.
Residency permits are usually valid as long as work permits, usually one year, after which the procedure has to be repeated if the foreign employee plans on staying longer.
Although work permits can be issued for three years, the lawyers with whom the Kyiv Post spoke said they’ve never seen them issued beyond a year.
Rabczak said that first-time long-term visa applicants will have to interview in person at the embassy, otherwise mailed applications will suffice.
The government also set new consular fees for processing visas. A single-entry visa will cost $85, a double-entry visa $130 and a multi-entry visa will run at $200.
Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
