Migration Quotas for IT

Read the second part of the article.

The crisis in Belarus has created an inquiry for the option to relocate the IT business to safer jurisdictions.
One of the options that Ukraine may offer is the obtainment of the permanent residence permits. This year the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the quota for IT specialists in Ukraine – 5000 permits should be issued in 2020.

This number of immigration permits is allocated to the following Ukrainian regions/cities:

Dnipropetrovsk region – 600 permits;
Lviv region – 600 permits;
Odesa region – 600 permits;
Kharkiv region – 700 permits;
Kyiv – 2500 permits.

However, there are limits to the number of positions available in the IT sector the applicant can hold, and the requirements to them.
Please take a note to the following limits:

Information Security System Manager – 100 applicants;
Information Security Specialist – 100 applicants;
Restricted Data Protection Officer – 100 applicants;
Information Security Professional – 100 applicants;
Restricted Data Protection Professional – 100 applicants;
Senior Software Engineer – 500 applicants;
Consolidated Data Analyst – 500 applicants;
Chief Technical Officer – 500 applicants;
Design Engineer (in Electronics) – 1000 applicants;
Software Engineer – 2000 applicants.

The requirements for the documents to prove the qualification, please check here.

The immigration clearance process for IT specialists consists of the following stages:

1) submission of the application file with the respective documents to the State Migration Service of Ukraine or filing the documents through a consulate or embassy of Ukraine (in the second case, they are obliged to send the documents to the State Migration Service of Ukraine within 1 month). The decisive authority has 1 month to check whether the papers comply with a procedure and whether the file is complete. As a result, the applicant either gets a refusal or the decisive authority sends the requests to other state bodies for verification;
2) The Security Service of Ukraine, Ministry of Internal Affairs, National Police, State Border Service of Ukraine, Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine shall, within 30 days, provide the State Migration Service of Ukraine on whether they support the application upon the request of the State Migration Service of Ukraine. The aforementioned authorities may extend the response period for another 30 days.
3) Upon receival of the replies from the other state authorities, the State Migration Service of Ukraine analyses the information provided and takes a decision within 1 month.

Thus, the whole process will take at least 3 months, and, during this period, the applicant should take care of other grounds for a legal stay within the territory of Ukraine, if necessary.
The stages are clear in general, but the devil is in the details.
The main problem expected to be faced by job seekers and the decision-making authority is how the work experience shall be confirmed properly: the references from employers, customers. Since the practice is deplorable in such a process, all the documents are accepted. But the more, the better.
The second tricky moment is related to legal issues and the competence of the authorities. According to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Immigration’, the qualification requirements for the categories of professionals and specialists limited by quota, should be approved by the Ministry, which is responsible for the employment policy, which is the Ministry of Social Policy. At the moment, we have the List of specialties and requirements to the specialists and employees approved by the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine.
Obtainment of an immigration permit gives the right to get a permanent residence permit in Ukraine with no validity limit.
Check if this option can be used by you, or find out info on other options.

Tetiana Yashchenko

CONTACT INFORMATION
ty@expatpro.co
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