Can a foreigner open a company for employment in Ukraine?

We were approached by a Client from England, who wanted to hire Ukrainian citizens for seasonal work in his country. For this purpose, he wanted to open a company with a license to mediate employment abroad in Ukraine. He wanted his English company to be the founder of the company in Ukraine.

Today we will tell you about the process of registration of a company for employment in Ukraine in detail.

Related article: Outstaffing: our experience and alternatives in Ukraine

Registration of the company for employment abroad in Ukraine

The company registration will consist of two stages:

• registering a legal entity;
• obtaining a license for employment abroad to operate in Ukraine.

The main problem of the first stage is that the Client wanted to make a foreign legal entity as a founder in a newly created company. 

In order to register a company in Ukraine with a foreign company as its founder, you will need to:

• obtain an apostilled document of incorporation of an English company. How long this stage will take depends on how quickly the Client will submit such a registration document. We know from practice that, on average, it takes 1-2 weeks;
• set up the head of a Ukrainian company.

Important! 

• if the head is a citizen of Ukraine, no questions will arise in any state body;
• if you want to set a foreigner as a CEO of the Ukrainian company, you need to obtain an identification number and a work permit for him.

Unfortunately, according to the law of Ukraine, to obtain a work permit for a foreigner you need to submit an agreement between him and an existing company. And here you can get into a vicious circle: a foreigner should not be appointed as a manager without a work permit, as in the future it is possible to have questions from the regulatory authorities, and it is impossible to obtain a work permit for him in Ukraine before the registration of the company.

A way out that our lawyers offer. As soon as a company is registered, we offer the services of our reliable person as a CEO. He may remain in office until the company is incorporated and a work permit is obtained for your CEO. In practice it is 1-2 weeks. Then there is a change of manager.

As for obtaining a license for mediation in employment, it will be necessary to sign a foreign economic contract between the newly created Ukrainian and English companies. On average, the procedure for obtaining a license lasts a month and a half.

Do you want to register an employment company in Ukraine or open any other business in Ukraine? Apply to us! Our lawyers can help you with company registration and obtaining any permits in Ukraine.