Ukraine simplifies immigration requirements for IT professionals

In July 2020, quotas for foreign IT professionals were introduced in Ukraine. They allow Ukrainian companies to register such employees (including individual entrepreneurs) under a simplified procedure. On September 21, the Ministry of Economy published amendments that slightly simplifies this process, BRDO reports.

The amendment made by the Ministry on September 21, 2020, are the following:

  • Expanded the list of professions. The previous list included 10 IT professions, and the updated one has 23. The new ones are managers of quality systems, information security systems, application and system programmers, etc. The complete list of the professions that are now available for this procedure, you can see in the ministerial decree.
  • Reduced the work experience requirement. Previously, for many professions, confirmed work experience should have been seven years. In Ukrainian companies, there is a great demand for professionals with experience of 3 years. Therefore, in the current classifier for the professions, the work experience has been reduced to 3 years.
  • Established mandatory and additional requirements for the qualification. According to the previous version of the decree of the Ministry of Economy, foreigners who wanted to come under the quota had to have higher vocational education and confirmed work experience. In this wording, work experience is a mandatory requirement, while education is an additional one.
  • Specified a list of documents that confirm work experience. Previously, a foreigner was required to provide proof of work experience in the industry but did not have requirements for the execution of such documents. Now they have been established. The following documents can prove work experience:
  • employment record book or equivalent document;
  • reference letters;
  • services supply agreements and certificates of services rendered (relevant for self-employed specialists);
  • other documents confirming the work experience.

BRDO also says that the next step is to reduce the time required to check the documents of foreigners by the State Migration Service. Such term should not exceed ten calendar weeks, and now this process may take up to a year.

Search