How to obtain Residency in Ukraine

Why seek to obtain residency in Ukraine?

At this point all I can say is adventure and favourable taxes.

1. What are the options to obtain residency in Ukraine?

1. Residency through Marriage
2. Residency through family reunification
3. Permanent Residency through investment (minimum $100,000)
4. Residency through work permit and LLC creation
5. Residency through volunteering
6. Permanent Residency for IT workers

2. What is the easiest way to obtain residency in Ukraine?

The residency by investment option, though widely promoted online, is not straightforward.

1. It takes at least a year to process as it is quite bureaucratic

2. It is promoted online as “buy $100,000 of real estate in Ukraine and get residency”. It’s not that simple, because you must hold the real estate in a Ukrainian company, which comes with some negative tax consequences. However, it is one of the best ways to obtain permanent residency. And while you wait for your permanent residency, Taras can help you obtain temporary residency through the company you created.

The simplest way to obtain residency, if you don’t care about the permanent aspect or don’t want to invest $100,000, is to either become a volunteer (valid for 1 year), or create a company and apply on the basis on being the director of that company. In this case you can obtain a 2 year visa, renewable.

If you are an IT worker, you can apply for permanent residency immediately through a special government programme to encourage innovation.

3. What documents are needed to obtain residency in Ukraine through LLC creation?

• Passport
• Marriage and birth certificates for your family members
• For residency through a local company – the company documents and proof you are registered as the director
• Medical insurance

All  documents needs to be translated into Ukrainian. The lawyer will take care of this. Documents from back home must be apostilled.

4. How my lawyer can help you obtain residency

My lawyer in Ukraine, Taras, can help you jump through all the bureaucratic hoops. He speaks English, Ukrainian and Russian fluently. He’ll help you in person at the immigration department, as opposed to just handing you over the files and leaving you on your own to go deal with the bureaucracy.

He helped me from A to Z to obtain residency in Ukraine

Taras has been helping foreigners conduct business in Ukraine for many years now. He can help in all matters related to immigration, business law, and real estate transactions.

Taras has been helping foreigners conduct business in Ukraine for many years now. He can help in all matters related to immigration, business law, and real estate transactions.

He went to law school Lviv, has been working as a lawyer for a number of years in Kyiv, and processes more than a hundred residence permits and over a dozen real estate transactions per year.

Taras can also help your apply for residency through marriage, family reunification, or apply for Ukrainian citizenship if you are entitled to it.

He personally helped me get residency in Ukraine. I was very happy with his service.

I also interviewed Taras on the special government innovation programme which gives some IT workers permanent residency, as opposed to temporary residency. It’s a truly unique and attractive programme, especially combined with a 5% tax rate when one creates a local FOP (Private Entrepreneur status) which Taras can also create for you.

Transcript of “How to obtain Residency in Ukraine”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice from thewanderinginvestor.com. So today, we’ll be discussing how to obtain residency in Ukraine with my lawyer, Taras. Taras, how are you?

TARAS: I’m fine. Hello, everyone. Thank you, Ladis, for having me.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. So first of all, let’s start with the disclaimer, this is not a recommendation to move to Ukraine. I’m not saying it’s you should move there now, it’s exceptional, etc. That’s not the case. But the point is a surprising amount of people are moving to Ukraine right now. So first, we’ll discuss who is moving to Ukraine.

Who is crazy enough to move to Ukraine during the war?

LADISLAS MAURICE: So essentially, Taras, who’s crazy enough to move to Ukraine right now? [laughs] And then, secondly, we’ll discuss how to obtain residency in Ukraine. Because there have been a few changes recently, some good, some bad, and people should be aware of that.

TARAS: Yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So Taras, tell me, because you’ve helped a lot of people obtain residency even throughout the war period, including a few of my clients. So who is moving to Ukraine right now?

TARAS: Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Ladislas, for this question. Yeah, it’s not obvious. And for sure, for some clients would be very strange to move in the country that is in the war zone, or active war activities is going on, especially these all missiles are flying through all over the country. Basically, there is only one city, by the way, in Ukraine that has no threat. It’s Uzhhorod, because it’s out down after Carpathian Mountains. But however, we are not speaking only about that specific city. My clients mostly are moving to Kyiv. Because I work here as base. And despite the fact of war, it was pretty, even for me, like, unexpected. In comparison, for example, if you take 2023, this year, current one, almost same level of amount in numbers of clients that was pre-war period.

Why? It’s different reasons, and people are a bit different profile of clients that was before war. And mostly, now what I see, there are a lot of people that are foreigners from Western countries that want to help civilians to do some activities, because they have this connection with Ukraine, Ukraine is all over the media. And they just move, for example, for visa-free, 90 days, and they realize, okay, I did a lot of stuff, I already connected with this land, or people, I want to extend my stay. And some cases, not all, but a lot of them that those organizations that invited them didn’t provide full assistance in the legal way. And this quite a big chunk of our clients that really want to be involved in some volunteer activities but don’t understand how legally they can extend this to. And we help because we also have partner organizations that do this stuff. And it’s really, really clear and straightforward.

Second most biggest part of client, I would say, is those that want to make money on work. Because as you know, there is a notion that, in war period, everything should be cheap. Then they are seeing real estate market nothing is cheap and they say, “Oh hey, even if war didn’t drop prices so much what will be after it finished? It will be like super, super great place to invest.” Or, they were before war in Ukraine, so they understand more or less how it’s going on, and they really do buy real estate not only in Kyiv but in Carpathian Mountains, in other parts of Ukraine and–

LADISLAS MAURICE: And you help people buy real estate in Ukraine?

TARAS: Yeah, yeah. For real estate, it was booming. Like before, blackouts, it was really cheap, like, during blackouts, this was 2020, end of previous year. But after we had this Patriot system after everything is fine, sellers not dropping prices. However, clients, my clients can find more or less interesting objects with still discounts and they are happy to invest, yeah, and we do even like big, big investment, I would say, for this period, which was also unexpected to me. So those are basically mostly two types. Before war, we had lots of immigrants that were like from Third, if we can call it, third world countries, from the poor, I’d say, regions like Asia, Southeast Asia. So now we don’t have those totally, because they cannot come since they need a connection. It’s, obvious, not existing. So only, I would say, Westerners that either want to invest or to do some volunteer activities.

Residency in Ukraine by company formation

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. So what are the ways to obtain residency right now in Ukraine, apart from the usual marriage, and having a kid, and stuff like that?

TARAS: Yeah. Again, before war, we had legislation was given really straightforward way based on registration of your company. And it was the most proper and transparent and even cheapest way to get three years’ residency based just formation of your company. Now what they changed, they initiated, not only registration of the company needed but also paying taxes. And not paying social contribution on your salary, since you’re employed, will lead to losing your status of work permit and eventually residency permit. That’s why, in this regard, most clients are not willing to have this carrying cost of residency, basically.

LADISLAS MAURICE: But it’s not that much. I mean you just need to pay yourself a minimum wage, right?

TARAS: Yeah, it’s $100 per month something you need to pay as tax.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay.

TARAS: Yeah. But even this was like, if it’s like Option B, that you’re not staying here, it was kind of extra cost they don’t want to take. However, for genuine employees that are employed here in Ukraine and they are foreigners, expats, for example, the law makes less minimum wage. So it was 10 minimum wages, now it can be one minimum wage, so it’s like a citizen. So it’s better for those that really want to do business, or in own company, or are hired. Only the things that they made is three years’ maximum term to two years, so you cannot get three straightforward.

However, it’s still option on the table that was mentioned about volunteer activities. If you’re involved in this, there is really good, straightforward, cheap way to get it for one-year residency based on this stuff.

Immediate permanent residency in Ukraine for IT specialists

TARAS: And also, all previous programs are still in place, especially for IT specialist that is now, I would say, one of the most favorite for my clients that are involved in IT sphere. You can get straightforward, permanent residency, which is kind of unique.

LADISLAS MAURICE: This is amazing. Can you talk a little bit more about this program? Because this is really cool. So for people who may not necessarily want to move to Ukraine right now, obviously, but who would want to have a bit of a long-term call option on whatever the situation will be, this is pretty cool. Because essentially, just by being an IT worker and having the proper documentation, you can get permanent residency immediately for life.

TARAS: Very, very true. And proper documentation in this program is really, really limited to simple, simple way. And it’s like the best program because it was designed not by immigration but our special Ministry of Digital Transformation. So what it says in a nutshell is that you just need to have three years of experience out of five previous years that is in IT. And it’s very, very broad. So you can be owner of IT own company and basically not involved directly in coding, but just have it like your business. And it also works. Or, you really is directly connected as employee, and you need to have a salary for the last 12 months that’s over $24,000, which is basically normal. Like, $2,000 per month, I think, IT guys are really having more salary.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Even in Ukraine.

TARAS: Yeah, yeah. And these two basically factors are ground of your application for permanent residency immigration. Of course, you need to do some criminal background check, we give a list. But it’s really, really easy to get. And we mentioned, in the previous video, that it works for mostly developed countries, but I already have assisted even like Asian countries, people that have genuine documents and they are also going with this program. So I would really recommend if you have this as a ground, just consider, as you said, as a call option to start. And very good news that this program is now shortened, like, trial or revision of the documents from 12 months, as it was before war, to 6.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Oh, wow.

TARAS: So basically apply, after half of the year, you get your permanent residency straightforward.

Permanent residency in Ukraine through real estate investment

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. And then real estate investors can still get permanent residency?

TARAS: Yeah. Based on real estate we also do. This requires you to move funds here to Ukraine. And now not many sellers are happy to accept, yeah, in Ukraine. But we had one client that applied based on this. However, you can do it. Only you need to know that you need to fund your company first. So not directly buying real estate but investing $100k, basically, this is the ground. But investing should be through your company.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. And I think it’s important, because we did a video in the past, before, on real estate in Ukraine. Essentially, most people right now who are selling do not want bank transfers in Ukraine, because there are very strict capital controls. So when you have dollars in your bank account, you can’t just withdraw dollars, you need to convert to the local currency first. And even then it’s hard to get money out of the country. So most sellers want physical cash. So, like, literally a bag of cash. You go to the notary public with a bag of cash, or crypto transfer. So that’s how most deals–

TARAS: Or, if they have foreign accounts, they can accept.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay.

TARAS: It’s also legal. But not many sellers have these foreign accounts.

Banking in Ukraine

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool. Permanent residency through real estate right now is that it’s hard to find sellers that actually want money in Ukrainian bank accounts. Because, again, capital controls. This is also a bit, I mean, I’ll put it out there because I know some people, for them, it’s been helpful, for people that have residency in Ukraine and that have companies in Ukraine, right now, banks don’t ask too many questions. So, let’s say, that you have a few businesses across the world, and you have like a few invoices, they’re a little sticky. Your banks don’t want to process them because they don’t like the paperwork, because the money comes from a strange jurisdiction. It comes from, like, Nicaragua, people are a little worried, or the invoice comes from some African country and your bank doesn’t want to deal with it, it’s not worth it. You can just send it to Ukraine right now and Ukrainian banks will not have too many questions because they want money. So–

TARAS: Except question about Russia.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Oh, yeah. [laughs]

TARAS: So you should clearly state that this company that is paying you is not connected with any people from Russia.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Yeah, that money will get frozen. Will get frozen and probably taken. And then you can send money to Ukrainian bank account. Again, then your money is stuck behind capital controls. But you can still pay, I think, a few thousand dollars a month with your debit card when you’re overseas. So you can just kind of wind down your money this way. So just one little advantage right now of banking in Ukraine, they’re pretty lax.

TARAS: Yeah, I confirm. And also, we need to mention that all this year, this capital control restriction is loosened because IMF asking Ukraine to do it, since they are funding mostly economy of Ukraine and monetary policy, and they want to be more market related, not as fixed and strict as it was on the beginning, because it was needed. Now they say, “Hey, it’s almost two years, you’ve already adapted, please, make it less strict.” And yeah, you can now even buy online on your card, like, 50k hryvnas per month, and 200k hryvnas for three months frozen period. And it’s like 20 banks. So like, 1 million hryvnas in equivalent you can buy online, and it gives some flexibility. And also overseas, yes, you have some limitation but they are increasing.

FOP business structure small business structure in Ukraine

LADISLAS MAURICE: And can you say two words, Taras, about the FOP business structure, which is really simple?

TARAS: Yeah, FOP business structure was, during war, even less. It’s like 5% turnover tax, but during war, it was 2% and no limits. So you can do whatever you want. And even big chains of food stores groceries use it to make this taxation lower. And some clients of mine also use it just to move funds here. Pay 2% and you have clear, declared transparent source of income is really, really low percentage. However, you need to understand how then to move them out of Ukraine, of course.

Now, it’s still back to 5% from August. However, it’s really nice. And you can use it for real estate as well. If you renting out as business, you just pay, even not 5%, there is less, like, 20% from minimal salary, which is, again, like 1,000 hryvnas [chased 14:01] rate, and you are tax-free if your tax residency is in Ukraine and you don’t have any other obligation in other countries.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. I have to say one thing about Ukrainian banking. Look, I’m not recommending anyone to put money in Ukrainian banks right now, obviously. But the interface, the apps and everything, are way more advanced than anything that I’ve come across in Western Europe, for example. Really, really impressive banking from a customer service point of view and from an interface point of view, like, the apps have, really, everything and things just work flawlessly in spite of the whole situation. But again, capital controls and banking, not a recommendation.

TARAS: Yeah. And one more thing that we didn’t mention is that now foreigners are allowed to buy treasuries that for Ukrainian citizens. Because we have bonds, European, for foreigners, but even those that are national, like, 20% in hryvnas and 5% in dollars, are now possible to buy online, with app also. You don’t need to have any residency bank account in Ukraine and even tax code in Ukraine, because it’s tax-free. So you have 20% tax-free money on hryvnas and almost 5%, 4.5% in dollars. So yeah, you can also use this option. I will share these links if needed.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Not investment advice.

TARAS: Sure, sure.

LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] I’m not recommending Ukrainian bonds.

TARAS: Or those that move money to Ukraine, it’s really helpful because you’re just not losing your money. You still have options, how to use them.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. All right, fantastic. So Taras, thank you very much. So yeah, Taras helped me obtain residency before the war started. So the process was really, really smooth. So if you’re interested in obtaining residency in Ukraine, there is a link below with more information, all the ways you can obtain residency right now in Ukraine. And you can also contact Taras using this link.

TARAS: Thank you, Ladis. It’s very cool. Have a nice day.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cheers.

Transcript of “Permanent Residency in Ukraine for IT specialists”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice from thewanderinginvestor.com. So today, I’m in Kyiv, in Ukraine, and we’re going to be discussing a special program for IT workers for them to obtain permanent residency without going through temporary residency first if they don’t want to. So it’s quite attractive. You can move to Ukraine, get permanent residency, which is something that a lot of people are looking for. And then we’ll discuss as well from a tax point of view, this can be an ideal solution for many people.

The special Ukraine permanent residency programme for IT workers and paperwork needed

So Taras here is a lawyer specializing in real estate and in immigration law. He helped me obtain my own residency here in Ukraine. So Taras, can you, please, tell us about this special IT PR program?

TARAS: Yeah, sure. Why it’s so special and unique because it’s only based on skills. Based on your skills, you can get permanent residency, which is totally different what we had before. Before, for permanent residency, you either invest, or marry, or like have some other kid, for example, in Ukraine, but having just say that, “Hi, I am IT guy and I want to live here permanently,” wasn’t the case. So now it’s, like, 2021 was the first year when it was launched. According to this program, all guys that work in IT sphere, which are software development, design, other type of technical things, even program managers, they can apply if they will confirm that they work three years in their position that is according to the list, which we help to match. Even if it’s different naming, you just put your description, what you do. And second thing you need to confirm that your salary for the 2021 was more than $24,000 per year, which is calendar year from 1st January till the 31st of December.

And what is even better that basically government does not require big super paperwork for confirming these two essential requirements. They will ask only from your employer, or if you have own company, from your company, a letter that will confirm those two things, first, salary, second, experience. Also, you can show diploma paper but if you have those two, it’s even not required.

Which jobs qualify

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. So what type of jobs exactly qualify?

TARAS: The best position is software engineer or software developer because it’s same as we have in Ukrainian register. When you have any other position, it’s a problem but, again, we just make quick call and take answers from you what you’re really doing and matching a position like data engineer or whatever, program developer, program manager.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So what about someone with an online business? Someone that has, I don’t know, like a YouTube channel, or a blog, or?

TARAS: If you just say that you’re a YouTuber, it will be not very good. [laughs]

LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]

TARAS: But if you will say that you are doing video editing, and it’s kind of connected with IT sphere, and you have entity that can confirm this, like, by invoices to a company that is paying you, then it’s okay.

Timelines

LADISLAS MAURICE: How long does it take between actually filing the documents and receiving the permanent residency? Because it also includes the family, so you can bring your own family on this.

TARAS: Is not super easy and fast as it’s on the beginning. You will get confirmation from less than one month that you are IT-skilled guy and you qualify for this program from the Ministry of Economy, and you, with this paper, are ready for applying and submitting all other papers like criminal check, or passport translation, medical check. But then, after you applied, you will need to wait for up to 12 months. Usually, it’s faster but, again, it depends from city to city. And if it’s big cities like Kyiv, or Kharkiv, or Odessa, it will usually take up to one year. So you need to expect waiting, all this, 12 months.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Which is why we were discussing offline you recommend people get a temporary residency in the meantime to make their lives easier in Ukraine and so that they can actually stay here and then, eventually–

TARAS: And travel.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And travel. And then eventually they can get the permanent residency.

TARAS: True, true. Temporary residency helps even if you will do it from the beginning before application, it helps even more.

How to pay only 5% taxes in Ukraine

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Cool. Clear. And what’s very interesting about Ukraine is that there is a special status. It’s called a FOP. So it’s a private entrepreneur status. And essentially, any income that goes through this entity gets taxed at a flat rate of 5% on gross revenue. So it makes a lot of sense for people that are developers, etc., just to pay a 5% essentially flat tax, and it’s up to approximately $250,000 a year.

TARAS: Yes, 7 million hryvnas per year. And it’s really special good when you don’t have costs to minimize your base of taxation, which is, in case of if you do consulting or IT software development, it’s perfect scenario when you have just to move your customer payments from your bank, whatever you use, to local Ukrainian bank, which are now accepting foreign transaction very easily and smoothly just based on invoice that is signed by yourself. And you will have no problems for porting, which also easy now, you can do it through even government apps, or hire very cheap accountant, which is doing one per quarter, and you are happy and living with this 5% tax. Then government will not ask you how you use all this money that was in entity account, because you have legal right to take it cash to pay whatever you want, to spend however you want.

LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s amazing. So just a 5% tax on turnover. So essentially, people can move to Ukraine. So IT professionals can move to Ukraine, get permanent residency, not temporary residency but permanent residency for themselves and their family, and then pay only a 5% turnover tax on their activities. People who want to move to Europe, who want to live in a place, like, in a developing country like Ukraine, that has a much lower cost of living, where things are a lot more traditional, where there’s a lot of opportunities from a business point of view, then this program is really ideal.

There are also some quotas that are being put in place, so not everyone will get in. So you want a good lawyer to help you through the procedure. It’s mostly, for now, we’re discussing people from Belarus, that are leaving Belarus that are applying for this program. Also, to be very clear upfront, people from Africa, South Asia, etc., who are hoping to be able to apply for this program, it’s actually not going to work for them unless they are already here in Ukraine and have built a bit of history in Ukraine.

TARAS: [Legal status 00:06:57].

LADISLAS MAURICE: The government really looks at your country of citizenship and discriminates a little bit on that basis. So you don’t want to waste your time and money hoping that that’ll work for you if you’re from Bangladesh and you’re in Bangladesh right now. But for Westerners, this is a very, very good option.

TARAS: True. I confirm.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. And Taras can help you with the process from A to Z. So if you’re interested, there’s a link below with more details on the program as well as the costs and his email if you want to get in touch with him.

TARAS: Thank you.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Great. Taras, thank you very much for your time.

TARAS: Appreciate it.