Why does the employment centre refuse a work permit, and what can you do?

A suspension is not yet a refusal

Most problems with a work permit (дозвіл на застосування праці) start not with a refusal but with a decision to put the application on hold. The центр зайнятості (employment centre) checks the documents on the working day after the application is registered. A decision on issuing a permit is due within up to seven working days, and on a renewal or amendment within up to three working days. If it finds defects, it suspends the review and states what exactly is wrong.

There are five grounds for suspension, and Article 42-8 of the Law "On Employment of the Population" lists them. They are filing by a person without authority, an incomplete package, documents that do not meet legal requirements, inaccurate data, and terms in the draft employment contract that contradict labour law. The review cannot be suspended for any other reason, and technical slips that do not change the meaning are not a ground.

To fix the defects, the employer has seven working days when a permit is being issued and three working days for a renewal or amendments. If you disagree with a comment, file a reasoned letter together with the corrected documents and explain why the remaining comments have not been taken into account.

Six grounds for refusal

Article 42-9 of the law contains an exhaustive list. The employment centre refuses to issue, renew or amend a permit if:

A refusal for any other reason is not allowed. The decision must list and describe the grounds and set out the appeal procedure in line with the Law "On Administrative Procedure".

1. 1the defects found during the suspension were not fixed in time, or the reasoned letter was found unjustified;
2. 2the renewal application was filed in breach of the deadline set by part two of Article 42-6;
3. 3the employer is not in the Unified State Register, or the register shows that the legal entity has been terminated or that the business activity of the ФОП (sole proprietor, FOP) has ended;
4. 4a previous permit was revoked for work on other terms or for another employer, a guilty verdict, the student's expulsion from university, or an unused right to appeal a refusal of protection, and one year has not yet passed since the revocation;
5. 5a permit was revoked because of a forced return or forcible expulsion decision, a submission from law enforcement or non-payment of the single social contribution, and one year has not passed since then either;
6. 6the regional office of the СБУ (Security Service of Ukraine, SBU) refused to approve a permit for a citizen of Russia, Belarus or another state recognised as a threat.

The year-long bar does not apply to everyone

The fourth ground often frightens employers more than it should. For that ground the law expressly states that the bar does not apply when the employer files for a different foreigner. The fifth ground has no such clarification. After a revocation for an expulsion decision, a law enforcement submission or unpaid contributions the risk is therefore wider, and every subsequent application needs its own assessment.

Not every ground for revocation triggers the bar, either. If the permit was closed on the employer's application after the employee left, or because the contract copy was not filed on time, nothing stands in the way of a new permit. That is why an amicable exit, where the employer itself reports the end of the contract, is safer for everyone.

How to appeal a refusal

The law offers two routes. The first is a complaint to the central authority, the Державний центр зайнятості (State Employment Centre), no later than 15 calendar days from the day the decision is published and communicated to the employer. The second is a claim in the administrative court. Both routes are also open against a decision to revoke a permit.

Before appealing, count the time. It is often faster to remove the cause and file the documents again than to wait for the outcome of a complaint. An appeal makes sense when the refusal relies on a ground that is not in Article 42-9, or applies a listed ground in a purely formal way.

Refusal of a renewal for missing the deadline

In our practice the most painful refusal involves a renewal. If the application was filed outside the window set by part two of Article 42-6, meaning earlier than 50 calendar days or later than 20 calendar days before expiry, the employment centre refuses, and nothing can be corrected. An application filed too early can be repeated within the window, and the fee is refunded within 10 working days. Nothing saves a late application, and only a new permit remains. This is covered in detail in the article on renewing a work permit.

General rules for appealing migration decisions are collected in the guide to appealing DMS decisions.

Lawyer's experience

Most of the suspensions I see have nothing to do with the law and everything to do with carelessness. The passport number in the application differs from the passport by one digit. The foreigner's name in the contract is spelled differently from the translation. The amount on the receipt does not match the term stated in the application. The employment centre is entitled to treat each such discrepancy as inaccurate data.

That is why before filing we check every field against the primary source rather than against other documents in the package. The passport number is checked against the machine-readable zone, the name against the notarised translation, and the employer's details against the state register. How to assemble a package without these traps is described in the article on documents for a work permit.

Sole proprietors face a separate trap. If the FOP's business activity has been terminated or the register data is out of date, the employment centre will refuse on the third ground regardless of the quality of the package. Check the register entry before filing, and read about other specifics in the article on work permits for sole proprietor employers.

If you have received a suspension or a refusal and are not sure how to respond, we handle the work permit application, including reasoned letters and filing again.

Frequently asked questions