What should you do if a foreigner's work permit in Ukraine is lost or damaged?

Losing the form does not end the permit

A lost or spoiled form does not mean the work permit is gone. The permit is a decision of the центр зайнятості (employment centre), and that decision is published on the centre's official website. The paper form only records the decision. Losing it therefore does not stop the foreigner's work and does not affect their посвідка (temporary residence permit, TRP). There is no reason to panic, but the application should not be put off either, because the form may be needed when you least expect it.

Without the form, however, other procedures become harder, such as showing the permit during an inspection or putting together a package for the ДМС (State Migration Service, DMS). For this situation the law provides a duplicate. The procedure for issuing it is set by part four of Article 42-5 of the Law "On Employment of the Population".

Getting a duplicate when the permit is lost

The procedure is simple and has two steps.

Put into the application the employer's details, the number and date of the permit, the foreigner's name and the circumstances of the loss. The law requires no other documents for a duplicate. If a representative files the application, a power of attorney is needed.

1. 1The employer notifies the employment centre that issued the permit of the loss.
2. 2The employer files an application for a duplicate. The law sets no form for it, so it is written in free form.

Getting a duplicate when the permit is damaged

When the form has been damaged rather than lost, the logic is the same, but the damaged permit is attached to the application. A form counts as damaged when its data can no longer be read reliably, for example when it is torn or something has been spilled on it. The employment centre keeps the damaged form.

Who keeps the original

The permit is issued to the employer, so the form normally stays with the employer, in the employee's personnel file. Give the foreigner a copy. They will need it when applying for a TRP and during any inspection, and the original will not have to travel between the office and the DMS. The less the original moves, the less likely it is that a duplicate will ever be needed.

Timing and cost

Within seven working days of receiving the employer's documents, the employment centre makes its decision and issues the duplicate. After the decision it notifies, on its own, the State Border Guard Service and the DMS office that issued the foreigner's TRP.

No fee is charged for a duplicate. Part five of Article 42-5 says so directly, and no payment receipt is attached to the application.

How to check that the permit is valid

Until the duplicate arrives, the validity of the permit can be confirmed without the form. The employment centre publishes its decisions on issuing, renewing and amending permits on its official website within a few working days of adopting them. Decisions to revoke a permit are published in the same way.

In practice this is a convenient way to make sure everything is in order with the permit. A decision can be found by the number of the document list (опис документів) the employment centre gave at filing, or by the permit number. If the permit number appears among the revocation decisions, the problem is no longer the form, and a duplicate will not help.

A scan of the permit made right after it was received also works as interim evidence for the employer's internal purposes. Officially, though, other authorities need the form or a duplicate.

Duplicate or amendment

Sometimes clients ask for a duplicate when they actually need something else. If data has changed, for example the foreigner has a new passport or the company has a new name, a duplicate of the old permit will not fix it. What is needed is an application for amendments to the permit, filed no later than 30 days after the change.

Nor will a duplicate help if the permit has already expired. Duplicates are issued for a valid permit, and a permit that has expired should have been renewed in advance.

If the residence permit is lost, not the work permit

The work permit and the temporary residence permit are often confused, because both are needed for legal work. Losing a TRP has entirely different consequences. A lost TRP is subject to revocation, and the foreigner obtains a new one through the DMS, not through the employment centre. What to do in that case is explained in the article on a lost residence permit.

Lawyer's experience

In our cases the permit is most often lost not by the foreigner but by the employer, during an office move or a change of accountant. So I advise scanning the permit straight after receiving it and keeping the scan in the employee's file. A scan does not replace the form, but it lets you fill in the duplicate application quickly with the exact number and date. It takes a minute and later saves several days of searching.

One more piece of advice. Before filing the application, check whether the data in the permit is still current. If something has changed in the meantime, it is better to apply for amendments straight away than to receive a duplicate with outdated data.

If you would rather not deal with this yourself, we handle the work permit duplicate from the application to collecting the document.

Frequently asked questions