Most victims of Ukraine migration fraud made the same mistake: they trusted the employment offer at face value and spent money on documents before anyone checked whether the employer was real. By the time the fraud becomes apparent — usually at the ДСЗ submission stage or, in worse cases, at the Ukrainian border — the applicant has already paid for apostilles, translations, medical checks, and broker fees. The money is gone and the employer was never real.
Verification takes 24–48 hours. It costs almost nothing if you do it yourself, using public registries that anyone can access. There is no reason to proceed to a signed contract, paid documents, or any fee payment before this is done.
The EDRPOU Registry: Your Primary Tool
Every legal entity operating in Ukraine — companies, partnerships, NGOs, individual entrepreneurs — has a unique 8-digit registration code called the EDRPOU (Єдиний державний реєстр підприємств та організацій України — Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organisations of Ukraine). The EDRPOU is the equivalent of a company registration number and is the anchor of all public registry checks.
The primary lookup tool is the Ministry of Justice registry at usr.minjust.gov.ua. This is a free, public database. You search by company name or EDRPOU number and receive the official registration extract showing: the company's full legal name, the EDRPOU code, the registered address, the director's name, the registration date, and the current legal status.
If a Ukrainian employer cannot provide their EDRPOU, or if the EDRPOU they provide does not return a result in the Ministry of Justice registry, the company does not exist in a legally operative form. Stop there.
The 5-Point Verification Checklist
Check 1 — Is the company active?
In the Ministry of Justice registry, the status field must read "зареєстровано" (registered) or an equivalent active status. Companies in liquidation ("в стані припинення"), dissolution ("припинено"), or bankruptcy proceedings will show different status codes. An employer in any of these states cannot lawfully sponsor a work permit. Cross-reference the registration date — a company registered within the last 3 months with no trading history is a significant red flag.
Check 2 — Does the industry match the job offer?
The Ministry of Justice extract includes the company's economic activity codes (КВЕД — Ukrainian equivalent of NACE codes). A company registered as a retail grocery trader offering you a software engineering position is a red flag. The primary activity code should be consistent with the role being offered. A staffing or outsourcing company may legitimately employ workers across industries — but this should be stated explicitly and verifiable against their actual operating history.
Check 3 — Is the registered address real?
A large number of fraudulent and shell companies in Ukraine are registered at mass-registration addresses — office buildings in major cities that serve as nominal addresses for hundreds or thousands of companies. Cross-reference the registered address against Google Maps, and search the address string in the Ministry of Justice registry to see how many companies share it. A legitimate employer operating a real business will have a physical office at or near their registered address. An address with 200 registered companies is a mass-registration address and should be treated with significant scepticism.
Check 4 — Is the company in bankruptcy?
The Ukrainian Bankruptcy Register (Єдиний реєстр боржників) and the State Tax Service debtor register (tax.gov.ua) should be checked separately. A company may appear "active" in the Ministry of Justice registry while carrying unresolved tax debts or being in early bankruptcy proceedings. These databases are free and public. A company with significant outstanding tax liabilities cannot reliably maintain a work permit for the duration of an employment contract.
Check 5 — Is the director on a sanctions list?
The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NABC) maintains a public registry of sanctions against individuals and entities (sanctions.nazk.gov.ua). The company director named in the employment contract should be checked against this registry, as well as against the EU and UN consolidated sanctions lists. A director on any sanctions list creates legal exposure for the employer's ability to operate and for the legitimacy of the employment relationship.
How Fake Employers Operate
Fraudulent Ukrainian employers used in visa and work permit scams are not always entirely fabricated. Some of the most effective frauds use real — but dormant, unrelated, or misdirected — company registrations. Common patterns include:
| Dormant company reactivation | A company that was registered years ago, had real activity, but is now dormant is acquired cheaply and used to generate fraudulent offer letters. The EDRPOU check returns a real result — but the company has no current operations, no employees, and no ability to file a genuine work permit. |
|---|---|
| Name substitution | A fraudulent broker takes the name of a real, active Ukrainian company and uses it on offer letters and contracts without any connection to that company. The EDRPOU on the offer letter may not match the company name — a discrepancy that is only caught if you actually run the lookup. |
| Legitimate company, no actual job | A real, operating company's details are used — sometimes with the knowledge of a corrupt insider, sometimes without — to generate offer letters for positions that do not exist. The company will deny any knowledge of the offer letter if contacted directly. |
| Fabricated documents only | Entirely invented companies with plausible-sounding Ukrainian names, fake EDRPOU codes, and professionally designed letterheads. These fail immediately on a Ministry of Justice lookup — which is why fraudulent brokers strongly discourage clients from running independent checks. |
What a Real Verified Employer Letter Looks Like
A genuine employer verification letter — the type produced by a professional migration firm for use in a ДСЗ work permit application — contains the following elements. Use this as a checklist against any document an agent gives you:
- The company's full legal name as it appears in the Ministry of Justice registry — not a trading name, not an abbreviation
- The 8-digit EDRPOU code, which you have independently verified against the Ministry of Justice lookup
- The registered address matching the Ministry of Justice registry
- The director's full name and signature, matching the registry record
- The company seal (round seal with the company name in Ukrainian)
- A statement of the company's active status and registration date
- The specific position being offered and the salary expressed in UAH
- A reference to the employment contract (date, number)
- No promises, guarantees, or language about "guaranteeing" visa issuance — a legitimate employer cannot and does not guarantee visa decisions
A fake employer letter commonly: uses an English translation as the primary document (Ukrainian authorities require Ukrainian-language originals); omits the company seal; lists a salary in USD or BDT instead of UAH; contains inflated salary figures far above market rate for the role; and includes phrases like "guaranteed work permit" or "immediate visa".
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I run the Ministry of Justice registry lookup myself, or do I need a Ukrainian speaker?
You can run the lookup yourself at usr.minjust.gov.ua. The interface is in Ukrainian, but the search field accepts company names in Latin script or the 8-digit EDRPOU code directly. The result page is also in Ukrainian, but the key fields — status, EDRPOU, address, director — are clearly labelled and can be cross-referenced with the offer letter with basic pattern matching. Google Translate works adequately for reading the status codes. A Ukrainian-speaking advisor can do this more efficiently, but you can do a first-pass check yourself in under 10 minutes.
What if the employer refuses to provide their EDRPOU?
A legitimate employer has no reason to withhold their EDRPOU. It is a public registration number, equivalent to a company registration number in any country. An employer who refuses to provide it, or who provides it and then asks you not to "look it up yourself" is providing you with very clear information about their legitimacy. Do not proceed.
My employer checks out on all 5 points. Is that enough?
Five-point registry verification is the minimum necessary before signing anything. It is not the complete picture. A company can pass all five checks and still be a poor choice of sponsor — for example, a company that is registered and active but has never employed anyone, has no verifiable clients, and has a website created last month. Professional employer verification includes deeper due diligence: checking employment and tax history, verifying that the company has actually sponsored foreign workers before, and contacting the company directly to confirm the job offer.
How long does a professional employer verification take and what does it cost?
Our employer verification service produces a written report covering all five registry checks plus extended due diligence — website and trading history, employment track record, and direct employer contact confirmation — within 48 hours. The fee is $40. This is the most cost-effective money spent in a Ukraine migration case: it either confirms you have a viable path forward, or it saves you from spending several hundred dollars more on a process built on a fraudulent employer.