Step-by-Step Ukraine Work Permit and Visa Process

Confirm employer eligibility

Before any document preparation begins, verify that your Ukrainian employer is a real, registered legal entity. The employer must appear in Ukraine's Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Sole Proprietors with an active status and a valid EDRPOU code — verifiable free of charge at data.gov.ua. The employer must not be subject to international sanctions, must have no record of systematic tax non-compliance, and must not have previously had work permits revoked by the DSZ.

Ghost companies — entities that exist on paper but have no real operations or staff — are a common element of work permit fraud in the Bangladesh-Ukraine corridor. Verifying the employer before you invest time or money in document preparation is not optional.

Use our Employer Verification service if you cannot do this check yourself. Timeline: 24–48 hours.

Employer applies for your work permit

The Ukrainian employer — not you, not an agent in Bangladesh — files the work permit application with the State Employment Service (Державна служба зайнятості — DSZ). This is a legal requirement under Ukrainian labour law and cannot be delegated to an intermediary outside Ukraine.

The employer's DSZ application package is set by Art. 42-2 of Law No. 5067-VI: the application form, copies of your passport data pages with a certified Ukrainian translation, a 3.5 × 4.5 cm photo, the draft employment contract certified by the employer, and proof of fee payment. The law sets no vacancy-publication period. If documents are missing, review is suspended and the employer has 7 working days to correct them (Art. 42-8).

DSZ decision: up to 7 working days from registration of the application (Art. 42-6).

Receive and verify the work permit

When the DSZ approves the application, the original work permit is issued to the employer in Ukraine. It is a paper A5 security form with your photo, a two-letter series and a six-digit number (Cabinet Resolution No. 68 of 24.01.2023), and the employment centre publishes its decision on its website (Law No. 5067-VI, Art. 42-7, part 3). Your employer sends you a certified copy for the visa file (Resolution No. 118, para. 8) and keeps the original, which you show at the migration service when you apply for the TRP (Resolution No. 322, para. 33).

Before you take any further steps, verify the serial number. Contact the DSZ directly, or use our document verification service. A permit that cannot be verified against the DSZ database is fraudulent regardless of how convincing it looks. Do not proceed to document preparation in Bangladesh until you have a verified permit in hand.

The permit specifies your name, employer, position, and validity period. Any discrepancy with your passport details must be corrected before proceeding.

Bangladesh document preparation

While or after the work permit is being processed, prepare your Bangladesh-side documents. This is the most time-consuming stage for applicants in Bangladesh and should begin as early as possible. The key documents and their authentication requirements are:

• BMET Smart Card clearance — mandatory for all Bangladeshi nationals departing for overseas employment. Apply at BMET headquarters in Dhaka or a divisional BMET office. You will need the work permit and visa before BMET will issue the Smart Card.
• Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) — only if the consul requests it (Resolution No. 118, para. 10). Apply online at pcc.police.gov.bd; Bangladesh Police issues it through the district Superintendent of Police or the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. If requested, it needs an apostille from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh.
• Educational certificates — if your employer asks for them: original certificate → apostille from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh → certified Ukrainian translation.
• Passport validity check — for the visa the passport must be valid at least 3 months after your planned departure from Ukraine, with two blank pages, issued within the last 10 years (Resolution No. 118, para. 5). If your passport is approaching expiry, renew it before starting any visa process.

Allow time for the MFA Bangladesh apostille on any document that needs it and for the certified Ukrainian translation; check the current MFA apostille processing time on its portal.

VFS Global Ukraine appointment in Dhaka

Complete the visa application on visa.mfa.gov.ua, then book an appointment at the Ukraine Visa Application Centre run by VFS Global in Dhaka. Ukraine has no embassy in Bangladesh; the Embassy of Ukraine in New Delhi decides the file.

Bring to the appointment: the Type D visa form registered on visa.mfa.gov.ua, your passport, one colour photo 35 × 45 mm, a certified copy of the work permit, proof of sufficient funds calculated under Cabinet Resolution No. 884 or proof of lawful income in Ukraine such as the employment contract, medical insurance with at least €30,000 cover (for a multiple-entry visa, valid for at least your first trip), and the consular fee (Resolution No. 118, paras. 5, 8). The BMET Smart Card comes after the visa. The embassy may request additional documents — respond promptly to any such request.

Legal time limit: up to 10 working days from the embassy's receipt of the documents, up to 30 with additional checks (Resolution No. 118, para. 19). No agent can influence or override the embassy decision. If the visa is refused, you yourself can send an appeal letter to the same mission within 60 working days and get a second review within 10 working days (Resolution No. 118, para. 30), or file a new application.

Travel and arrival in Ukraine

Before booking flights, confirm BMET Smart Card clearance is in hand and your visa is affixed in your passport. On arrival in Ukraine, prepare a lease or the owner's title document for the address you will state in the TRP application; without one, DMSU checks the address with a home visit (Resolution No. 322, paras. 32 and 36-1).

Residence registration follows the TRP: declare or register your address within 30 calendar days of receiving the TRP (Law No. 1871-IX, Art. 5(5)). These registration rules do not cover a stay on a visa (Art. 4(3)).

File the TRP documents no later than 15 working days before your permitted stay ends (Resolution No. 322, para. 17). Starting in the first two weeks after arrival leaves room for the appointment.

Apply for Temporary Residence Permit (TRP)

If you intend to remain in Ukraine beyond your visa duration — which you will, as a working resident — you must apply for a Temporary Residence Permit (TRP) at the State Migration Service of Ukraine (ДМСУ — DMSU). Submit before your visa expires. Applying after expiry constitutes an overstay offence.

The TRP application requires (Resolution No. 322, paras. 32–33): the passport with the D visa, a certified Ukrainian translation of its data page, medical insurance for the whole TRP period, proof of the administrative fee, the tax number document if you have one, the work permit and the employer's undertaking to notify DMSU and the employment service if the contract ends early. A lease or title document for your address is optional (para. 32). The officer prepares the form and takes biometrics (para. 22). By law the TRP is issued within 15 working days of the documents being accepted (Resolution No. 322, para. 5), and the card must be collected in person.

The TRP is issued for the work period stated in the work permit (Resolution No. 322, para. 4) and is exchanged before it expires (para. 19). Your employer initiates the work permit renewal; the TRP renewal follows once the renewed permit is in hand.

TRP card: within 15 working days of document acceptance. The employer files the work permit extension 20 to 50 calendar days before expiry (Law No. 5067-VI, Art. 42-6); exchange documents for the TRP can be filed up to the last day of the current TRP (Resolution No. 322, para. 19).