New procedure of work permit obtainment by IT specialists in Ukraine

In its Resolution “On some issues of deregulation of commercial activities” (number 42 dated the 28th of January 2015) the government of Ukraine, among other things, made an attempt to simplify obtainment of all the required permitting documents by foreign individuals who specialize in the field of IT and came to work in Ukraine. And the document does simplify the procedures.

The mentioned document somewhat amends another Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (number 437 dated the 27th of May 2013) which as of now regulates obtainment, prolongation and cancellation of work permit in Ukraine for foreigners and stateless persons.

The Resolution stipulates that one of the grounds for issuance of work permit is employment of foreigners as well as stateless persons, when use of their labor has sufficient grounds, unless international treaties of Ukraine that the Parliament gave consent to provide otherwise. Previously “sufficient grounds” meant that a foreign applicant had to meet one of the following criteria:

• be a candidate to the position of Chief Executive Officer or other managing position on the condition that he is a founder or co-founder of the company at the same time;

• be holder of copyright or related rights and receive an invitation to Ukraine to exercise these IP rights.

In the new version of the document, the Cabinet of Ministers added one more ground:

• be a candidate for the position of Chief Executive Officer of a software company or position of software developer as well as many other similar positions in the field of IT.

Additionally, such employees of IT companies must have a diploma from a higher educational institution ranked among the top 100 in the world.

Another important feature of the new Resolution that concerns foreign IT specialists is that it is no longer required to confirm the absence of unemployed Ukrainian specialists that are suitable for the position and wait an extra 15 days for such confirmation.

The amendments influenced the procedure of permit issuance overall. From now on, in order to prolong the permit, employers submit the required documents 20 days in advance of the expiration date instead of the previous 30.

Also, as of now the Employment Center has only 7 days for making a decision in regard to issuance of the employment authorization document instead of 15.

The amendments now provide that the employer has 10 days for payment of official state fees compared to 30 days in the previous version.

And finally the term for submission of a copy of employment contract between employer and foreign employee was extended from 3 to 7 business days.

As one may know, Information Technology is one of the most rapidly developing areas in Ukraine so by adopting the amendments, the Ukrainian government wants to make our country more attractive for foreign specialists and investors.

Learn more about obtainment of work permit in Ukraine.