Who collects the documents and where they are filed
The package for a work permit (дозвіл на застосування праці) is put together and filed by the employer, not by the foreigner. The employer may be a company or a ФОП (sole proprietor, FOP), and the requirements for a FOP are the same, as explained separately in the article on work permits when the employer is a sole proprietor. Documents go to the local центр зайнятості (employment centre) in person or through an authorised person, on paper or electronically. The employment centre decides on issuing the permit within up to seven working days.
Article 42-2 of the Law "On Employment of the Population" sets the list of documents, and the list is exhaustive. The law expressly prohibits demanding anything that is not on it. That is good news, because the list is short. The bad news is that every document on the short list is checked meticulously.
Document checklist
0/6 doneBasic package for an employee
For an ordinary employee, which is the most common case, the employer files five items. The first is an application on the form approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. In it the employer confirms that the position is not tied to Ukrainian citizenship and does not require access to state secrets.
Next comes a copy of the passport pages with the foreigner's personal data, together with a Ukrainian translation. The translation is certified in the prescribed manner, which in practice means by a notary. The third item is a colour photo measuring 3.5 × 4.5 centimetres. The fourth is a draft employment contract or gig contract certified by the employer. The fifth is proof of payment of the permit fee.
If the documents are filed by someone other than the director or the sole proprietor in person, a power of attorney for the representative is added. And if the foreigner has a patronymic that the documents do not show, in our practice the package includes a short cover letter asking that the patronymic not be stated. That way every document in the package looks the same.
Additional documents by category
Other categories of workers add their own documents under the law. The table below shows which ones.
Requirements for the employment contract
The employment centre reads the draft contract more closely than any other document. Its terms must comply with labour law, and non-compliance is expressly listed among the grounds for suspending the review. The main things checked are the position and the salary. Pay for a full month's working time may not be lower than the minimum wage set for the year of filing. In 2026 that is UAH 8,647.
Back in 2022 the former requirement to pay a foreigner several minimum wages was abolished. Some websites and guides still repeat it, and as a result employers inflate the salary in the contract for no reason. The date in the draft contract is left blank, because the day of signing is not yet known, and the contract itself is signed after the permit is issued.
Where packages get stuck
The review is suspended when documents are missing, when they do not meet legal requirements, when they contain inaccurate data, or when the application was filed by a person without authority. Spelling and typing errors that do not change the meaning are not a ground. A passport number or the spelling of a name, though, is not a minor detail.
We check every field against the primary source, not "between documents". The passport number is checked against the machine-readable zone of the passport, the Ukrainian spelling of the name is taken from the notarised translation, and the country of citizenship from the short form in the official country classifier. If all documents were filled in from one wrong source, they match each other and are all wrong at the same time. Cross-checking them against each other will not catch that kind of error.
Lawyer's experience
The most insidious mistake in my practice concerned a passport number. Text recognition software read one digit too many, and the error quietly made its way into every document in the package. They matched each other perfectly. It was caught only when the number was checked against the passport's machine-readable zone. Since then we check every number against that zone, not against earlier documents.
A second typical problem is the photo. People say "a three by four photo", but the requirement is exactly 3.5 × 4.5 centimetres. A photo stretched across the whole page will not do either. A third problem concerns citizens of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, whose names have several transliteration variants. We choose one variant at the start and keep it in every document, from the translation to the contract. This saves weeks later, when the person applies for a TRP.
Getting the permit does not close the file. The employer must sign the employment contract within 90 calendar days of the issue date and file a certified copy within ten days. For a renewal the set of documents is different and shorter, as described in the article on renewing a work permit. A later residence permit needs a separate package, covered in the article on documents for a residence permit.
If you want to hand the package over to professionals, we handle the work permit application from collecting the data in the register to the issue of the permit.
Official sources
Frequently asked questions
Does the foreigner's passport need an apostille?+
No. For a work permit you file a copy of the passport pages with a Ukrainian translation certified in the prescribed manner. In practice a notary certifies the translation. An apostille or legalisation is needed for other foreign documents, for example a student's diploma.
Who should pay the work permit fee?+
The employer attaches proof of payment to the application. In our practice the payer is the employer itself or its authorised representative. If someone else paid, a separate letter recognising the payment is added to the package.
Can the documents be filed electronically?+
The law allows the employer or an authorised person to file in person, on paper or in electronic form. Which route works depends on whether the employer has a qualified electronic signature and access to the relevant services.
Can the employment centre ask for documents that are not in the law?+
No. The list in Article 42-2 is exhaustive, and the employment centre has no right to demand anything else. If you are asked for something beyond the list, ask which legal provision the request is based on.
What happens if there is a typo in the documents?+
Technical errors that do not distort the meaning are not a ground for suspending the review. A discrepancy in the passport number or in the spelling of a name, however, is not treated as a technical error, and the review is suspended because of it.
This article is general guidance, not individual legal advice.