LIBERALISATION OF EMPLOYMENT OF FOREIGNERS

Avellum Partners, Kyiv, Ukraine
Mon, Feb 24, 2015

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine by its Resolution No.42 “On Certain Matters of Deregulation of Business Activities” dated 28January 2015 (“Resolution”), which entered into effect on 11 February2015, introduced a simplified procedure for obtaining work permit fornon-residents in Ukraine (“Permit”).

Resolution introduces three important changes: (i)simplifies procedure for employment of foreign IT specialists and graduates ofleading foreign universities, (ii) shortens the term for issue of the Permitand (iii) improves regulation of prolongation of the Permit.

Simplified procedure for employment of certaincategories of foreigners

The Resolution establishes that employment of ITspecialists and graduates of leading foreign universities (top-100 of TimesHigher Education, etc.) is deemed automatically “justified andsufficiently substantiated”. This should relieve the employer from the duty tojustify employment of such foreigners by submitting the report on availablevacancies to the employment centres, but unfortunately such obligation of theemployer was not removed from other legislative acts.

As a result, currently the employer must provide the reportregarding available vacancies to the employment centre even in case ofemployment of a foreign IT specialist or graduate of leading university, but,unlike in case of other foreign specialists, will not be obliged to wait for 15calendar days, to confirm that there are no unemployed Ukrainians suitable forthe vacancy.

Therefore, the introduced amendment shortens the period forobtaining work permit for IT specialists and graduates of leading foreignuniversities by at least 15 calendar days.

Shorter terms for issue of Permit

Pursuant to the Resolution, the following changes wereintroduced to the time schedule of issuance of the Permit:

• the employment centre has 7 business days instead of 15 calendar days to grant or deny granting of the Permit
• the employer must pay the fee for issue of the Permit within 10 business days (instead of 30 calendar days) after the employment centre decides to issue such permit. If the employer fails to pay, the decision to issue the Permit is automatically cancelled
• the timeframe for submission of the labour contract executed with the foreign employee was extended to 7 business days, while earlier it was 3 business days

Improved regulation of prolongation of Permit

The Resolution clarified many uncertainties of legalframework for issue of the Permit and clearly provides that the Permit may beprolonged unlimited number of times within the term of validity of the labourcontract.

In addition, terms for submission for prolongation ofpermit were changed in favour of the employer. Currently in order to prolongthe Permit the employer must refer to the employment centre no later than 20calendar days (instead of 30 calendar days) prior to the expiry of the Permit.

Some progressive changes were made inrespect of communication between the employer and the employment centre. Theemployment centre may notify the employer on the result of the applicationreview via email in addition to the ordinary postal delivery.

For further information on the topic pleasecontact us by telephone +380 44 220-0335 or via e-mail.