When an amendment is mandatory
A work permit records specific data about the employer, the foreigner with their passport, and the position. Once any of this changes, the permit no longer matches reality. Article 42-5 of the Law "On Employment of the Population" names three situations in which the employer must apply to the центр зайнятості (employment centre).
Document checklist
0/4 doneDeadline and cost
An application to amend the permit is filed no later than 30 days after the circumstances arise. Count from the day of the change itself, for example the date the foreigner received the new passport or the date of the transfer order. The day the accounts department heard about it is irrelevant.
No fee is charged for amendments. Part five of Article 42-5 says so directly, so no payment receipt goes with the application. The employment centre also decides on an amendment within up to three working days, while for a new permit the law allows up to seven working days.
Which documents to file
What you file depends on what exactly has changed:
If the documents are incomplete, or the terms of the new contract wording contradict labour law, the employment centre suspends the review. To correct the defects, the law then gives three working days. What a first permit requires is covered in the article on documents for a work permit.
- a new company name, a reorganisation or a spin-off needs only the application, because the employment centre takes confirmation from the Unified State Register itself;
- a change of name of a sole-proprietor employer needs a copy of their passport;
- a new passport of the foreigner needs a copy of the pages with personal data and a Ukrainian translation certified in the prescribed way;
- a change of position needs the employment contract in its new wording or a supplementary agreement to it.
What an amendment cannot do
An amendment is not a way to move the permit to another employer. Permits are issued to a specific employer, and a new employer obtains its own. How the foreigner keeps their посвідка (temporary residence permit, TRP) in that situation is explained in the article on changing employer.
Nor does an amendment extend the term. A transfer to another position is possible only within the term of the permit, and to keep working after that the permit has to be renewed within the window set by law.
Other changes to working conditions, such as salary or working hours without a change of position, are not named separately in Article 42-5. Whether an application is needed in that case depends on what exactly changes in the contract. We assess such cases individually, because the answer is not always obvious.
Why amendments should not wait
Article 42-5 sets no direct sanction for a missed deadline and only refers to liability in accordance with the law. The real risk lies elsewhere. Employing a foreigner on terms other than those set in the permit is a ground for revocation under Article 42-10. After such a revocation, a new permit for the same person is blocked for one year.
On top of that, the employment law sets a separate fine for the employer when a foreigner works on terms other than those in the permit. A foreigner moved to a new position without an amendment is therefore, formally, not working under the permit.
Link with the residence permit
Not every amendment to the work permit affects the TRP, but a new passport always does. After receiving a new passport, the foreigner files documents with the ДМС (State Migration Service, DMS) to exchange the TRP within one month, as set by paragraph 18 of Procedure No. 322. The two procedures, amending the work permit and exchanging the TRP, run in parallel, and it pays to keep both in mind at once. The exchange is covered step by step in the article on exchanging a residence permit.
Lawyer's experience
Amendments are most often forgotten after a passport is replaced. The foreigner gets a new passport at the consulate, tells nobody, and a few months later the data in the work permit, the TRP and the passport no longer match. The next renewal then turns into a search for where and when something went wrong.
I advise employers to adopt one simple rule. Any change of a foreigner's passport, name or position is recorded on the day it becomes known and immediately triggers an application to the employment centre. Amendments are free, while a mismatch between documents costs far more.
If several changes happen at once, or it is unclear whether an amendment is needed at all, we prepare and file the work permit amendment for you.
Official sources
Frequently asked questions
Do we need to amend the permit if our company changes its name?+
Yes. A change of a legal entity's name, a reorganisation or a spin-off are named in the law directly. The employment centre takes confirmation from the state register itself, so the employer files only the application.
Can an amendment transfer the permit to another employer?+
No. The permit is issued to a specific employer. A new employer obtains its own permit, and for a foreigner holding a temporary residence permit this is a separate procedure of moving to the new employer.
What happens if the deadline for amendments is missed?+
The law says the employer bears liability in accordance with the law, but Article 42-5 names no specific sanction. The more serious point lies elsewhere. Working in a position other than the one in the permit is a ground for revoking the permit.
Does the permit's term change after an amendment?+
No. Amendments change the data in the permit, and the term stays the same. A transfer to another position is possible only within the term for which the permit was issued.
Does the residence permit have to be exchanged after a new passport?+
Yes. A new passport triggers two separate procedures. The employer amends the work permit, and the foreigner files documents with the State Migration Service to exchange the temporary residence permit.
This article is general guidance, not individual legal advice.