How to Verify a Ukrainian Employer Before You Travel: A Complete Guide for Bangladeshi Workers

Why Employer Verification Is Non-Negotiable

In the pattern of Ukraine migration fraud targeting Bangladeshi nationals, the employer document is the central deception. A fraudulent agent presents a job offer letter — sometimes on genuine-looking letterhead — and uses it to extract fees for visa applications, work permit "processing," and "placement" costs. In many cases there is no employer at all. In others, the company exists but has no knowledge of the applicant and has not filed for any work permit.

Ukrainian business registration is public. The EDRPOU registry is free to search online. There is no legitimate reason to skip employer verification — and no legitimate adviser should discourage you from running these checks. If an agent asks you not to verify the employer directly, that is itself a warning sign serious enough to terminate the engagement.

Step 1: EDRPOU Lookup at data.gov.ua

Every legally registered Ukrainian company has an EDRPOU code — an 8-digit identifier in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. This code is equivalent to a company registration number. You can search the public registry at data.gov.ua (the Ukrainian government's open data portal) or via third-party Ukrainian registry search tools such as youcontrol.com.ua or opendatabot.com.

When you run the EDRPOU lookup, check the following:

• Company name: Does the full legal name match exactly what appears on your job offer? Fake employers often use names with a single letter or word changed from a real company.
• Registered address: Is it a real address? Does it match what the employer told you?
• Registration date: Very recently registered companies (within 3–6 months) that are seeking foreign workers are higher risk.
• Director name: The director name in the registry must match the person signing your job offer and employment documents.
• Status: The company status must show as active — not "in liquidation," "suspended," or "bankrupt."

If the EDRPOU code your agent provides returns no results, or returns results for a different company name, do not proceed. The employer as described does not legally exist.

Step 2: Check Company Activity Status

EDRPOU registration alone confirms existence — it does not confirm the company is actively operating. A company may be registered but inactive, dormant, or in the process of liquidation. Use the same registry tools to check for:

• Any insolvency, bankruptcy, or court proceedings against the company
• Outstanding tax debts (visible via the State Tax Service open data)
• Changes of director within the past 6 months — frequent director changes can indicate a shell company being cycled for fraudulent purposes
• Authorised capital amount — very low authorised capital (minimum UAH 1 for a TOV) is not itself suspicious, but combined with other flags it matters

Step 3: Request and Verify the Company Charter

The company charter (Статут in Ukrainian) is the foundational constitutional document of the company. It lists the company's legal name, registered address, authorised capital, the names of founders, and the scope of business activities. Ask your employer to provide a copy of their current charter in PDF format.

Verify the following against the EDRPOU registry data you retrieved in Step 1:

• The director's name in the charter matches the director in the registry and the person contacting you
• The company name in the charter matches the registry exactly
• The charter has a notary certification seal — Ukrainian company charters are notarised documents

If the employer refuses to provide the charter, treats the request as suspicious, or delays indefinitely — that is a red flag. Legitimate employers share their charter routinely in the context of work permit applications; it is a required document for the DSZ process regardless.

Step 4: Google Maps + Street View Verification

Take the registered address from the EDRPOU registry and look it up in Google Maps. Use Street View to visually check the location.

• Does the address correspond to a building that exists?
• Does the building type match the claimed business? A construction company registered at a residential apartment building warrants investigation.
• Is there any signage or web-visible evidence of business activity at that address?

Many fraudulent employers use mass-registration addresses — office service companies that provide a legal address for registration without any actual office presence. These are not automatically fraudulent (many small legitimate businesses use them), but an employer that cannot provide any physical office evidence and is using a registration address service should be verified more carefully through the subsequent steps.

Step 5: LinkedIn and Web Presence Check

Legitimate Ukrainian employers who hire foreign workers typically have some digital presence. Run the following checks:

• Company website: Does the company have a professional website with contact information, address, and description of services? Does the website show real projects or clients?
• LinkedIn company page: Does the company have a LinkedIn page with employees? Are there Ukrainian employees listed whose profiles indicate they actually work there?
• Ukrainian business directories: Companies in construction, manufacturing, and hospitality often appear in Ukrainian industry directories (prom.ua, olx.ua job listings, etc.).
• News or press coverage: For larger companies, any genuine news mention in Ukrainian business media is positive evidence.

Absence of web presence is not automatically fraudulent — small Ukrainian businesses often have minimal online footprint. But absence of web presence combined with any other flag from this checklist raises the combined risk level.

Step 6: Direct Contact Verification

This step requires that you contact the company independently — using contact information you find yourself, not information provided by the agent.

• Find the company phone number from their website or Ukrainian business directories
• Call that number and ask to speak with the HR department or the person responsible for your job offer
• Send an email to an address at the company's own domain — not a Gmail or Yahoo address. If the only contact email provided is a free email service, that is a red flag.
• Confirm: is there an open position? Has a work permit application been filed with DSZ for your name? Who is the contact person handling the permit?

A legitimate employer who has genuinely filed a work permit application will confirm this readily. If the company has no knowledge of you or your application, the "employer" your agent has presented is fabricated or does not know their identity is being used.

Step 7: Work Permit Verification via the DSZ

Once a work permit has been issued by Ukraine's State Employment Service (DSZ), you have the right to verify that it is genuine. The DSZ maintains a registry of issued permits and this verification can be performed by:

• Contacting the DSZ regional office directly with the permit number
• Using the DSZ's online permit verification portal (when available)
• Asking your legal adviser to confirm the permit number against DSZ records — a legitimate adviser should do this routinely

Do not accept a work permit scan or photo from an agent without independent verification. Forged work permits are in circulation in Bangladesh's Ukraine migration market. A document that looks authentic is not the same as a document that is registered in the DSZ system.

Red Flags: 10 Warning Signs

A single high-risk flag warrants a pause and investigation. A critical flag is sufficient on its own to consider the engagement compromised. Multiple flags together represent a pattern that is almost never resolved by further engagement with the same agent.

If you have already paid fees and have identified multiple red flags, do not pay further. Seek a second opinion from a verified immigration adviser before taking any additional steps.