What should you do after getting a temporary residence permit in Ukraine?

Check the card before you leave the DMS

When you receive your посвідка (temporary residence permit, TRP), do not hurry off. Check your name in Latin and Cyrillic script, your date of birth, the ground and the validity period. The way your name is written on the TRP becomes the main reference for every later document in Ukraine, from contracts to bank accounts. A mistake on the card is easiest to fix straight away, because a discrepancy found in the records is a lawful ground for exchanging it.

Photograph both sides of the permit and keep the pictures somewhere they will not disappear along with your phone. You will need them if the card is lost, and for applications that ask for the permit number and the code of the issuing office. The overall process is described in the TRP guide, and here we focus on what comes next.

Register your place of residence

For a foreigner, the period for registering an address is 30 calendar days, and it starts on the day the TRP is received, not on the day of entry. Registration is done at the ЦНАП (administrative service centre, TsNAP) for your home address, and in practice the owner of the flat, or the owner's consent, is needed there. Late registration is punishable by a fine under Article 203 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences (КУпАП, KUpAP), and the ДМС (State Migration Service, DMS) later sees that report when you renew the permit. The whole procedure is explained in the article on registering your place of residence.

Get a tax number if you do not have one

A податковий номер (taxpayer identification number) is needed for official work, a bank account, a lease and most administrative services. With a TRP it is easier to obtain, because the permit serves as the foreigner's identity document and a translation of the national passport is usually not required. How to do it is explained in the article on the tax number for foreigners.

Remember that the permit does not give the right to work

Your TRP confirms the right to live in Ukraine, not the right to work. If a foreigner works officially for a Ukrainian employer, that employer holds a дозвіл на застосування праці (work permit), unless the law expressly exempts the foreigner from this requirement. Those who obtained their TRP through work already have a permit, but they may work only in the position and for the employer named in it. Details are in the article on the work-based TRP.

Tell the DMS about changes

The TRP is exchanged when the information on it or in your passport changes. The typical case is a new passport issued by your country's consulate. Documents for the exchange are filed within one month of receiving the new passport, as paragraph 18 of Procedure No. 322 requires. Clients often forget this, and a missed exchange deadline is a separate ground on which the DMS revokes the permit.

Loss or theft of the card must also be reported to the DMS in writing, as soon as possible. A new TRP is then issued to replace the lost one, and the old card is revoked.

Pay fines on time

An unenforced decision on a fine, or another debt to the state or to private persons, is a separate ground for refusing to issue or exchange a TRP. An unpaid fine moves into enforcement proceedings, and the debtor is entered in the Unified Register of Debtors. The consequences can go as far as revocation of the permit and an entry ban, so even a small fine is better paid at once.

If you want to bring your family

Holding a TRP opens the way to family reunification. The spouse and children of a foreigner with a TRP can get their own permits on this ground. For them, paragraph 33 of Procedure No. 322 requires a document confirming the family tie under the law of the country of origin, a document showing that the host party has sufficient financial means, and your own TRP, which you file in person.

Foreign marriage and birth certificates usually need an apostille or legalisation and a translation. Start this part early, because the documents have to be ordered in the country that issued them. Keep in mind too that your family members' permits depend on yours. If your ground disappears, their cards are at risk as well.

Plan the renewal in advance

A TRP lasts as long as the ground on which it was issued. Before it expires the permit is exchanged, and the documents for the exchange can be filed no later than the last day of its validity. If very little time is left before the end of the term, you will have to file directly with the territorial office of the DMS. How renewal works is described in the article on renewing a TRP.

With a work-based TRP, the work permit is renewed first and the TRP is exchanged afterwards. Put both dates in your calendar as soon as you get the card.

Lawyer's experience

Once the TRP is issued, clients often breathe out and forget about it for a year. The costliest mistakes in our cases happen precisely in this period. Someone gets a new passport back home and does not exchange the permit. Someone gets a small fine and does not pay it. Someone moves to another flat and does not register at the new address.

Each of these is minor on its own, but at the next renewal the DMS sees them all together. I advise clients to set three reminders as soon as they receive the card. The first is for address registration, the second for the expiry of the ground, and the third for checking yourself in the register of debtors before renewal.

If you would rather register your address without queues or negotiations with the landlord, we handle residence registration for you.

Frequently asked questions