Many foreigners who have never visited Ukraine consider Ukrainian immigration policies rather simple, so many people outside Ukraine start to believe that Ukraine is some kind of poor and undeveloped country, where anyone with even small money can buy himself permanent residence permit, in other words, to immigrate to Ukraine, without any trouble. So according to statements mentioned above soon Ukraine will be full of foreigners from poor countries, and there will be no place to hide from immigrants.

We want to ask many of those “speculators” to calm down as Ukrainian immigration policies are rather strict and are regulated directly by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, so Ukrainian State Migration service has its own methods of influencing immigration process around Ukrainian land. One of such methods is so-called “immigration quota,” so let’s try to understand how it can influence the potential immigrants to Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian legislature, an immigrant in Ukraine is an individual who has been granted the permanent residence permit in Ukraine. In its turn system of organs of Ukrainian state Migration service is called upon to be responsible for all questions involving immigration issues. In order to resist uncontrollable immigration to Ukraine, Ukrainian State Migration service each year defines a certain limited amount of immigration permits, which can be granted to foreigners on a specific basis. Such limitations work in every region of Ukraine, and if the amount of immigration permits for this year is depleted, there will be no way except to wait next year when new immigration quota is applied, or some other immigrant refuses to accept his immigration permit.

In other words, immigration quota in Ukraine is the maximum amount of people who can receive Ukrainian permanent residence permit during a particular calendar year.

We suggest taking a look at the immigration quota 2018 indicators to find out when such quota is applied and how much people can get a permanent residence permit in Ukraine during January-December 2018:

Permanent residence permit basis Immigration quota Total amount
Permanent residence permit for scientists and artists 690 4388
Permanent residence permit for skilled specialists and workers 1
Permanent residence permit for a person who is brother or sister, grandmother or grandfather, grandson or granddaughter of Ukrainian citizen 1020
Permanent residence permit for a person who used to be Ukrainian citizen before 530
Permanent residence for a family member (parent or child) of a foreigner, who already has a permanent residence permit in Ukraine 2147
Permanent residence for a person who continuously lived on the territory of Ukraine for three years from date such person has been granted a status of human trafficking victim 0

Of course, there are some specific grounds to get permanent residence in Ukraine when quota system is not applied, but comparing to the grounds listed above, they are pretty hard to achieve. Even so now you are aware of the fact, that the amount of immigration permits in Ukraine is limited for every year, and the next time when you apply for residence permit you can ask about current quota status to know for sure how much time it will take to get positive decision on your immigration to Ukraine case.The table above clearly shows the maximum of possible immigration permits and their total amount depending on different immigration basis that can be issued in Ukraine in 2018. The quota which hasn’t been used during a particular year cannot be transferred to another year, so before the new quota is accepted no new immigration permit can be issued.