CHANGES IN THE LAW OF UKRAINE "ON IMMIGRATION"

On 07/20/2023, the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Immigration", which was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 06/29/2023, was published.
We decided to make an overview of the main innovations and changes that await immigrants from October 20, 2023.

The most important positive change that awaits us is the shortening of the period for considering documents and making a decision on issuing an immigration permit to 6 months. We remind you that today this term is twice as long.

Another positive point - from now on, certain categories of foreigners who lived in Ukraine on the basis of temporary residence permits received the right to submit documents for an immigration permit after 5 years of continuous residence in Ukraine. These are the categories of foreigners provided for in parts 4 - 12 of Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Legal Status of Foreigners and Stateless Persons" (for example, these are beneficial owners of legal entities in Ukraine, employees, seconded workers, cultural figures, correspondents, etc.). This is a positive change, since employees or company owners, having a center of vital interests in Ukraine, living here permanently, were not able to apply for a permanent permit over time, only to extend the validity of a temporary one.

The rest of the changes are focused mainly on preventing illegal migration and obtaining permanent residence permits in Ukraine based on fictitious documents.

The immigration quota, which currently exists for some categories of foreigners, will be applied only in case of mass migration of foreigners, that is, when the share of foreigners in the total population will be more than 10%.

The criteria for such categories of foreigners as spouse/husband of an immigrant and parents of an immigrant have been slightly changed. In particular, the immigrant's parents can apply for an immigration permit only if they are recognized by the law of the country of citizenship as a member of the immigrant's family, that is, they are unable to work. It is mandatory to provide a document from the country of citizenship, which confirms the fact of belonging to a member of the immigrant's family. It is not yet completely clear to us here how this norm should work and what documents will be needed by the State Internal Revenue Service to confirm these facts. In fact, these can be pension documents, documents confirming disability, for example, but which document should establish that under the laws of a particular country a pensioner is considered a member of the family of his able-bodied son/daughter is not yet clear.

An immigrant's wife/husband will be able to apply for an immigration permit only after 2 years of official marriage (that is, the same criteria apply as for a marriage with a citizen of Ukraine). Also, a new article was introduced into the law, which refers to the criteria of fictitiousness of a marriage concluded between foreigners or between a citizen of Ukraine and a foreigner. When submitting documents for an immigration permit, the DMS will carry out a number of measures (interviews, testing) to check the applicant's marriage for signs of fictitiousness. This is a new norm in the legislation of Ukraine, which has been discussed for a long time and was waiting for its implementation. The law provides for the development of a regulatory act that will regulate the verification of the fictitiousness of a marriage, so we believe that a detailed analysis of this norm should be done in a separate study.

We are also facing an increase in the state duty for obtaining an immigration permit to 0.5 of the subsistence minimum (1,295 UAH) against about 300 UAH now.

You can find out more detailed information at the link Permit for permanent residence in Ukraine.