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Civilian immigration to wartime Ukraine

  • 3 hours ago
  • 8 min read

By Matthew Parish

Partner, Intermarium Legal and Vertex Immigration, Kyiv

+380 98 467 4579 (WhatsApp)


Wednesday 18 February 2026


  1. Immigration to Ukraine during wartime is possible but investment and professional opportunities are few and the best way to move to the country is as a volunteer employee of a Ukrainian non-governmental organisation. This provides you with the opportunity to become a temporary resident, leading after five years to permanent residency and the possibility of citizenship.


  1. Here we set out exactly what you must and must not do in order to become a resident of Ukraine, and our fees for our services in assisting you, as well as additional costs you will bear (called “disbursements”).


  1. None of the following rules apply to members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The general rule for serving members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is that they are lawful residents of Ukraine for so long as they remain in service; once they are discharged they are free to stay in the country for 60 days. If members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine seek legal advice about becoming civilian residents of Ukraine, they should contact us.


The 90 / 180 Day Rule, Overstaying et al


  1. Many foreign nationals, particularly from Europe, can enter Ukraine for 90 days in any 180 day period visa-free. You should never overstay this period, even for one day. Pleading that you have been working as a volunteer to assist the country during wartime is no longer an excuse. You will be fined, even for the shortest of overstays, and the process of prosecuting you and fining you at the border will take several hours. You will then need to pay the fine (which in the event of a significant overstay could be thousands of dollars) at a Ukrainian consulate before being allowed to re-enter the country. For a long overstay, you may be banned from re-entry for a period of several years in addition to a fine.


  1. Also, if you have overstayed and you are subject to a police check (most common when driving, particularly in the east) then you may be arrested and detained pending deportation.


  1. If you have more than one passport, even in different nationalities, you should not try “passport flipping” (i.e. entering and leaving the country every 90 days on different passports) as the SBU (the State Security Service of Ukraine) has a register of all people doing this and you will be in legal jeopardy.


The D-10 Visa


  1. If you want to apply for residency as a volunteer you cannot apply from within Ukraine if you have entered the country during the 90-day visa-free entry period. Instead you must leave the country and apply for a so-called “D-10” visa at a Ukrainian consulate. This requires a complex series of paperwork that we provide in its entirety, and we can send it to you either in Ukraine via Nova Poshta (arrives 2-3 days after we have been instructed) or abroad (but it will take much longer to arrive). The only pieces of paper you need to provide are recent bank statements and passport photographs.


  1. Although in theory you can apply at any Ukrainian consulate, in practice when working with us we recommend that you apply at the Ukrainian consulate in Lublin, Poland. This is because it is a small and friendly consulate that tends to process D-10 visas quickly. With the right papers and paying the “express” fee (see below), the visa can be issued within as little as a couple of hours. In using our services we will make an appointment for you, which we recommend be at 9am on any working day. You can travel by bus from Lviv to Lublin every day by bus in a few hours (about US$25) and stay in a hotel in Lublin, costing about US$40, that is five minutes’ walk from the Consulate. There is a bar / restaurant obliquely opposite the Consulate that we can recommend for dinner.


  1. Some people try to prepare the necessary paperwork themselves and then attend the Consulate without an appointment made by us but we warn that a single mistake in the paperwork will likely render the paperwork void.


  1. Our fee for preparing the paperwork for the D10 visa and making the appointment is US$600. This does not include travel expenses to and from Lublin or the consular fee.


  1. The consular fee varies by nationality and for all options except US citizens an express fee can be paid which is double the regular fee. A schedule of the regular fees issued by the Ukrainian government is available here but it is incomplete and in some cases inaccurate. In practice the fee can vary to anything from zero to US$333 (British citizens, the maximum). So the very highest consular fee is US$666 (British citizens, express service). US citizens pay slightly less than US$200 and for them the express service is automatic. As far as we are aware US citizens are the only nationality who in effect are obliged to pay for an express service.


  1. Using the express service, the visa will be issued in a few hours. Using the normal service, you can expect to wait a week or more. The difference between the two will surely exceed your living expenses in Poland for a week or more so we strongly recommend the express service in all cases.


Obtaining residence


  1. To obtain residence, you then return to Ukraine on your D-10 visa (which will typically be issued for a period of 90 days) and you apply, during the validity of the visa, for a so-called “temporary residence permit”. This requires the preparation of another complex series of documents and you must present yourself at the immigration office to apply for the permit. If you are applying in Lviv, a representative of our firm will come with you to the appointment. Navigating the appointment can be complex without speaking Ukrainian, which is why we offer the services of a representative to come with you. Again, one small mistake in the paperwork will render your application void, so the papers must be prepared with impeccable care. Our fees for preparing the paperwork are an additional US$600, including the attendance of the representative at the immigration office with you.


  1. You must pay the application fee at the immigration office in cash. It helps to have the right change, as you must pay the fee into a machine that does not give change. The fee varies but in Lviv at the current time it is slightly less than 1,200 Hryvnias.


  1. Then, within seven days, the Police are theoretically obliged to attend the residential address you have provided on the application papers, to check that you are present there. If they do this, they usually telephone you in advance to tell you that they are coming but they are not obliged to do so. In our experience, in Lviv, in more than one in two cases, they do not come and instead the immigration office calls you and asks you to go to the immigration office to sign some papers instead. We are not responsible for the actions of the Police and we cannot predict whether, or when, they will attend your place of residence. It is unacceptable to provide a hotel as an address; you need to provide a genuine place of residence. AirBnB apartments, rented over the long term, are acceptable.


  1. Then, when this procedure is completed (either by way of the Police attending your address or your going into the immigration office to sign paperwork), you must wait another 7-10 days while an office in Kyiv prints your residence permit. Then it will be sent to your local immigration office, and we will notify you when it is ready to collect.


  1. The permit will be valid for one year. If you leave Ukraine after the permit has expired, you will be fined / banned from the country. If you leave Ukraine before the permit has expired and then it expires, you will need a new D-10 visa and hence you will need to start the entire process again.


Procedures after obtaining residence


  1. Within 30 days of the date of issuance of your residence permit (which may not be the date you receive it), you are obliged to attend the Administrative Services Centre of the City Hall with either (a) your landlord (in person); or (b) your ownership documents (if you are living in property you own in Ukraine), to register your residence.


  1. If you do not do this within 30 days,  the residence permit remains valid but you are subject to a fine when you apply to renew your residence permit. The size of the fine can be about 2,000 Hryvnias if you register a little late, but is more likely to be in the region of 3,500 Hryvnias if you register very late or you do not register at all. The process for receiving and paying the fine is complex and unpleasant. We can help you if this happens to you but we will ask for an additional fee to do so.


  1. Many landlords will be unable or unwilling to attend the Administrative Services Centre with you, particularly if they are AirBnB landlords, because they may be present abroad. In such circumstances, paying the fine may be inevitable. To avoid this, check with your landlord first that they are prepared to do this, ideally before reaching any financial agreement with them.


  1. We cannot help with registration at the Administrative Services Centre, although we can tell you where it is in any particular city. Your landlord needs to guide you through that process. There may be a fee for registration but it may be nominal (for example about 50 Hryvnias). You may be registered in the system within 2-3 days and you can return to the office for a paper confirmation of this later. It should also be registered in your Diia App (the Ukrainian digital identity database, which is now available for use by foreigners although not compulsory).


  1. Once you have your temporary residence permit you should apply for your tax identification number (TIN). This is necessary for extending a residence permit; buying property; paying any taxes that may be due; and being able to use features such as reserving train tickets in advance on the Ukrainian Railways App. This requires attendance at the local tax office and although we cannot go with you we can tell you where it is and what papers you need to present.


Renewal of a residence permit


  1. To continue residence past one year you should apply for renewal before the expiry of the current permit; with your address registered (or evidence of the fine for not doing so paid); and your Tax Identification Number. Our fees for renewal are subject to change but expect them to be in the order of US$600 for again preparing the paperwork (which must all be done afresh) and attending the office with you (if you are in Lviv). The fee (which may have changed) must be paid again and the process of checking your address via the Police (or not) must be undertaken again. A new permit will be issued within a couple of weeks of application and your prior residence permit will be retained by the authorities.


  1. You must also register (or re-register) your address within 30 days of the date of the new residence permit. If you have a new address you must take your new landlord with you. If you have the same address then you can the attend the office alone, just to confirm that you have not changed address.


  1. There is information circulating that the Ukrainian President has issued a decree stating that Ukrainian resident permits do not expire and remain valid until after the expiry of martial law. This decree is not applied in practice by Ukrainian border guards or police. If you are found present in Ukraine with an expired residence permit, you can expect law enforcement action to be taken against you.


  1. After five years of one-year residence permits you can apply for permanent residence, which is a separate procedure upon which we can advise you as and when necessary.


  1. We are pleased to assist with any further enquiries.


 
 

Note from Matthew Parish, Editor-in-Chief. The Lviv Herald is a unique and independent source of analytical journalism about the war in Ukraine and its aftermath, and all the geopolitical and diplomatic consequences of the war as well as the tremendous advances in military technology the war has yielded. To achieve this independence, we rely exclusively on donations. Please donate if you can, either with the buttons at the top of this page or become a subscriber via www.patreon.com/lvivherald.

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