New regulation of employment of foreigners in Ukraine and other amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Employment of Population"

October has been marked by another important legislative development. In particular, on 15 October 2022, the Law of Ukraine On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding Employment of Foreigners and Stateless Persons in Ukraine and Provision of Intermediary Services in Employment Abroad №2623-IX dated 21 September 2022 (the "Law") entered into force.

The Law introduced a number of important legal developments, inter alia, to the rules of employment of foreigners and stateless persons (the "Foreigners") in Ukraine, including the following important changes to the Law of Ukraine On Employment of Population №5067-VI dated 5 July 2012:

Minimum salary for Foreigners

• The minimum salary level that employers had to pay to Foreigners was cancelled. From now on, a unified statutory amount of the minimum salary applies to both foreigners and citizens of Ukraine.

Work permits for Foreigners

• It is allowed to employ Foreigners to two positions on the basis of combination of jobs within one employer without a need to obtain a separate work permit (the "Work Permit"), provided a secondary job does not exceed the validity term of the Work Permit for the primary job. Previously, it was possible to apply only in relation to highly paid foreign professionals.
• Work Permits for Foreigners who work in Ukraine based on employment agreements (contracts) or gig-contracts are issued for the duration period of such contracts, but for no more than two years.
• The list of documents for obtaining/extending a Work Permit has been changed. In particular, the list of documents was supplemented by a document confirming the payment of the fee for issuing or extending the Work Permit. This means that the employer will have to pay the fee for the issuance or extension of the Work Permit before submitting the documents, and not after receiving the decision to issue the Work Permit, as was the case before. The fee would be returned to an employer in case of refusal to issue or renew the Work Permit.
• It is possible now to submit documents for obtaining or extending the Work Permit in electronic form, for example, through the employer's electronic cabinet on the official website of the relevant employment centre or through the Unified State Web Portal of Electronic Services.
• The fee for issuing new Work Permits has been increased and the list of Foreigners for whom the employer can obtain a Work Permit or extend its validity free of charge has been expanded. At the same time, the fee for extending the validity period of the Work Permit has been reduced.
• The possibility to obtain a Work Permit duplicate free of charge from the respective employment centre in case of its loss or damage has been introduced.

Services on provision of personnel

• In cases where Foreigners are seconded to work in Ukraine based on the foreign economic agreements on provision of personnel/secondment agreements, in order to obtain a Work Permit for such Foreigners, it is necessary to submit, inter alia, a document confirming the employment relations between a foreign employee and a foreign employer.
• The requirement to obtain a special permit for business entities that hire employees for their further provision to perform work for another employer in Ukraine has been cancelled. We would like to remind you that the procedure for issuing the said permit was never approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which in practice made impossible the fulfilment of this legal requirement, as well as caused additional difficulties in the interactions of such business entities with other companies in the context of services on provision of personnel.

We are ready to share further detailed comments on these developments upon your request and provide relevant consulting support to you.