How can a foreigner change employers in Ukraine without losing the residence permit?

Can you change employers without losing the residence permit?

Yes, and it is a routine procedure rather than an exception. A посвідка на тимчасове проживання (temporary residence permit, TRP) obtained through employment rests on the work permit held by one specific employer. That same employer is the foreigner's приймаюча сторона (host party) for the ДМС (State Migration Service, DMS). A change of job therefore means two parallel changes, and both have to happen in the right order.

The дозвіл на застосування праці (work permit) is tied to the employer and the position. It cannot be moved to another company, so the new employer obtains its own. The DMS, for its part, does not revoke a TRP automatically. It does so by a separate decision, based either on a reasoned request from the host party (including when the employee is dismissed) or on the grounds for stay ceasing to exist, under subparagraphs 1 and 6 of paragraph 63 of the Procedure approved by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 322. There is a window between the dismissal and that decision, and the transfer procedure is designed to use it.

How exactly the TRP depends on the job is explained in the article on the residence permit based on a work permit.

Why the order of steps matters more than speed

The most dangerous scenario is when the old employer acts first. It closes its permit, the DMS receives the request, and the foreigner loses the ground for staying in Ukraine. A new permit obtained a week later saves nothing, because the TRP has already been revoked. To prevent this, the steps go in this order:

If the old employer closes its permit properly, on its own application after the dismissal, this creates no year-long "quarantine" on a new permit for that person. The law links that barrier to other grounds for revocation, such as working on terms different from those set in the permit.

1. 1The foreigner agrees with the old employer on a dismissal date and on the old employer signing a letter to the DMS. This is easiest while relations are still good.
2. 2The new employer applies to the центр зайнятості (employment centre) for a new permit with a full package, the same as for a first permit. What goes into it is set out in the article on [documents for a work permit](/knowledge/work-permit/documents-for-work-permit).
3. 3The employment centre makes its decision, and the new employer receives the permit.
4. 4Both employers file their notices with the DMS together with a copy of the new permit.
5. 5Only after that does the old employer apply to the employment centre to revoke its own permit. The law obliges it to do so once the employment contract has ended (Article 42-10 of the Law "On Employment of the Population").
6. 6The new employer signs the employment contract within 90 calendar days of the permit's issue date and files a certified copy with the employment centre within ten days.

What goes into the notices to the DMS

Two documents are filed with the DMS, one from each side. In form they are notices (повідомлення), not applications, and in our practice the name matters, because the inspector reads the document precisely as a notice of a change of host party.

What if the old employer will not cooperate?

The law does not require the old employer's consent to the transfer. In DMS practice, however, the procedure for keeping the TRP rests on that employer's letter, and without it the procedure effectively does not start. So the conversation about the letter should take place before the resignation, not after it.

If no agreement is reached, the situation needs its own assessment. Sometimes there is enough time to obtain the new permit before the DMS revokes the TRP. Sometimes it is simpler to apply for a new TRP on the basis of the new permit. There is no universal answer here, and it is more honest to say so plainly than to promise a result.

A second job instead of a transfer

Moving from one employer to another is not always necessary. The law allows a foreigner to hold different positions with two or more employers, provided each of them has obtained its own permit. Such concurrent employment does not breach the permit's terms and does not lead to its revocation.

Within one employer, a second position is possible without a separate permit, as long as the contract for that position does not run longer than the permit for the main job. A foreigner may also stand in for a temporarily absent colleague for up to 60 calendar days a year, again without a new permit.

Lawyer's experience

Most transfers break down not at the DMS but in the old employer's HR or accounts department. The employee resigns, and on the same day the HR officer applies to revoke the permit and sends the request to the DMS, which leaves the foreigner only a few days. That is why I advise clients to agree on the date first, obtain the new permit, and only then hand in their resignation.

A second typical trap is a change of employer after the package has already been prepared. In that case we redo everything, not just the application, which means the documents, the payment details, the names and the codes. Any leftover data of the previous employer in the package gives the employment centre grounds to suspend the review. One more point. If the "new" employer is in fact the same one that obtained the previous permit, this is most likely a renewal, not a transfer. We clarify this in the first conversation, because both the package and the fee depend on the answer.

Common mistakes

If you want a lawyer to control the order and the deadlines, we handle the work permit application for the new employer and see the case through to issue. A transfer takes several precise actions on the right day, and this is exactly where residence permits most often get lost.

• The old permit is revoked before the new employer has received its own.
• Notices go to the DMS without a copy of the new permit or without the new employer's undertaking.
• The copy marked by the DMS is not kept, and the filing date later cannot be proved.
• The foreigner starts working at the new company before the permit is issued, and both employers risk a fine.
• The new employer misses the deadline for signing the employment contract after the permit is issued.

Frequently asked questions