Whether you just google this particular question, make inquiry at State migration service or ask some “immigration specialists” be ready to hear pretty different answers. The reason for that to happen is the changes to the laws regulating immigration to Ukraine that took place in Ukraine long ago at the end of 2013. Sadly those new regulations were simply missed by many of those who are somehow involved in immigration law practice, so now we have old State migration service officers and “immigration agents” that after 4 years of new regulation keep insisting that Ukrainian state migration service can decide upon your immigration case up to one year, which is not entirely true.
Before 2014 the situation with time limits for State migration service was rather clear, as Ukraine had so-called “Administrative services standard: immigration permit to Ukraine” the 5th paragraph of which said Ukrainian State migration service had 12 months term to proceed with any immigration case. So everybody took it for granted to wait around 1 year to get a positive or negative decision of Ukrainian immigration authorities, and these authorities could easily refuse all your complaints concerning long 12 months waiting term.
Reforms of administrative services sphere that took place in Ukraine at the end of 2013 beginning of 2014 couldn’t avoid the problem ruining immigration seekers life’s, as many thought 12 months term long and unfair.
The Standard mentioned above was canceled at the end of 2013, but the new one hasn’t been accepted until this moment. So now the only one legal regulation containing any information about how long State migration service may proceed on immigration cases is relatively out-dated “Procedural act from 2002”, where you won’t find any 12-month term limit. On the contrary, it contains provisions stipulating that even after all possible delays from the side of Ukrainian state migration service, the last one has only up to 6 months to make a decision. However the Procedure act did not become popular amongst immigration officers and “immigration specialists” as for the firsts it limits terms to postpone decisions, and for the seconds it is too hard to read and understand it, as the language of the law is quite complicated, and you won’t meet any precise terms in one article, as terms in the Procedure act are built depending on immigration basis and some other indicators.
Despite everything said above, we still have some real practice of how long Ukrainian State migration service makes a decision in 2018, and that is up to 12 months in most of the immigration cases. 12 months is the term a person should be ready to wait unless he or she is ready to get into unequal legal battle against Ukrainian immigration system and minimize the decision term to a period from 1 to 6 months depending on your immigration case.
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