Foreigners and stateless persons need to take care of the regulation of their legal status on the territory of Ukraine in a timely manner
Migration rules are almost the same in all democratic countries of the world, including Ukraine. Foreigners and stateless persons staying in our country should respect and comply with the migration legislation of Ukraine, apply to state authorities in advance and submit documents either to extend the period of stay or to issue documents for residence.
First of all, in order to freely stay on the territory of Ukraine, foreigners and stateless persons must have the grounds defined by legislation. In Ukraine, an exhaustive list of such grounds is provided in Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Status of Foreigners and Stateless Persons”. They are described in more details on the official website of the SMS of Ukraine in the section “Documentation of foreigners and stateless persons”:
https://dmsu.gov.ua/poslugi/dokumentuvannya-inozemcziv.html.
It is important to understand that foreigners and stateless persons, who stay in Ukraine on legal grounds, have the same rights and freedoms, as well as responsibilities and obligations, as citizens of Ukraine, with exceptions established by the Constitution, laws or international agreements of Ukraine. Therefore, these persons are obliged to strictly adhere to the Constitution and laws of Ukraine and other normative legal acts, not to encroach on the rights and freedoms, honor and dignity of other people, the interests of society and the state.
In this context, especially during the imposed martial law in Ukraine, it is important to focus separately on certain categories of foreigners and stateless persons, in particular:
Foreigners on military service
According to Part 18 of Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Status of Foreigners and Stateless Persons”, foreigners and stateless persons who have concluded a contract for military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine in accordance with the established procedure are considered to be temporarily residing on legal grounds on the territory of Ukraine for the period of validity of the contract for military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The temporary residence on the territory of Ukraine of such foreigners and stateless persons is confirmed by a military ticket of a private, sergeant and senior officer ranks. In this case, it is not necessary to contact the migration service for the registration of any additional documents for temporary residence in Ukraine.
Foreigners – volunteers
According to Part 10 of Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Status of Foreigners and Stateless Persons”, foreigners and stateless persons who arrived in Ukraine for the purpose of participating in international and regional volunteer programs or participating in the activities of organizations and institutions involving volunteers in their activities in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Volunteer Activities”, information about which is posted on the official website of the central executive authorities that implement the state policy in the field of volunteering, received a temporary residence permit and perform volunteering on the basis of the specified organizations and institutions, are considered to be legally present in the territory of Ukraine for the period of such activities.
Therefore, it is obligatory to obtain a temporary residence permit and register a place of residence in Ukraine for this category of foreigners.
In general, we note that no country in the world is interested in the spread of irregular migration, that is, a situation where a foreigner is on the territory of the state without legal grounds and documents that give the right to such a stay. The legislation of Ukraine does not contain any exceptions regarding bringing violators of migration legislation to administrative responsibility.
We remind you that in order to correctly calculate the permitted period of stay in Ukraine, the online service “Migration calculator” is available for foreigners and stateless persons in the “Electronic services” section on the official website of the SMS: https://dmsu.gov.ua/services/migcalculator.html. In particular, it allows calculating the 90-day period of stay of a foreigner in Ukraine during a 180-day period based on the dates of entry/exit.