Special Visa Application Procedure for Medium/Low-qualified Employees from Ukraine – “Regime Ukraine”
From August 1, 2016 Czech Republic has started significant project the purpose of which is employment of Ukrainian medium and low-qualified employees in the area of public sector, industry and other services. The vacant positions in CR can be filled only if they fall into the CZ-ISCO classification (categories 4-8). The main reason to establish this project was Czech employers’ demand for acquisition of technical workforce. For the highly qualified employees from Ukraine was created a separate project, which we wrote about at: https://rutlandandpartners.com/en/special-visa-application-procedure-for-highly-qualified-employees-from-ukraine-and-india/.
The Czech Government by the Resolution from the January 31, 2018 extended the annual quota of potential employees from Ukraine to 19 600 per year. To enter into the Regime Ukraine project, an employer must request the registration with one of the business organisation (e.g. Czech Chamber of Commerce, Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Crafts CZ, The Investment and Business Development Agency CzechInvest, Federation of the Food and Drink Industries of the Czech Republic, etc.). The eligible employer must be a tax resident in the Czech Republic pursuant to Act No. 586/1992 Coll., and a payer of health and social insurance. The employer should not have any financial obligations towards the Czech Republic (e.g. tax arrears, social or health insurance arrears, etc.), his business must be in existence for at least two years before the application and he must currently employ at least 10 employees. The conditions to enter into the project mentioned above are only demonstrative. The employer can apply for registration in the program only if he has already chosen the employees from Ukraine. The application fee is CZK 2.500 per application and CZK 200 for each employee stated in the application. If the employer will be registered into the Regime Ukraine project, the Consulate of the Czech Republic in Lviv will provide the employee with a date of an appointment to submit the Employee card application. The employee can submit the Employee card application only at the VFS Global Visa Application Centre, located at Dzherelna Street 18, Lviv, Ukraine. The average waiting time between the employer’s registration into the project and the interview date provided by the embassy was 77 days in 2018.
If an employer wants to employ more than 50 Ukrainian employees, he might submit a collective application with supporting annexes which are: affidavit confirming the intention of the cooperation with the Department of Centre for the Support of the Integration of Foreigners in the certain region of the CR, affidavit of intention to inform the employees inside the employer’s enterprise, and newly, the confirmation of the Mayor of the city where accommodation for the employees will be provided. The competent Czech authority for the collective application is the Czech Embassy in Kiev.
Once the employee(s) submitted the Employee card application to the Consulate of the CR in Lviv or to the Czech Embassy in Kiev, the deadline for making a decision begins to run and decision must be made within the statutory time limit of 60 days (or 90 days in the especially complicated cases).
For more information please contact:
Monika Rutland, partner
rutland & partners, advokátní kancelář s.r.o.
tel: +420 226 226 026
email:monika.rutland@rutlands.cz
rutland & partners law office is highly specialized in the Czech work permit matters and can assist Czech employers or foreign employees with their Czech work permits, including the entry into the above described program.
