Ukraine visa and residence guide

Nationals of countries with a visa-free regime can stay in Ukraine for up to 90 days within any 180-day period, unless an international agreement sets a different limit. The State Migration Service counts the 180 days backwards from the day of any check. Nationals of other countries need a short-term visa issued by a Ukrainian embassy or consulate, and the visa validity sets the last day of the permitted stay.

Anyone who plans to stay longer, for work, study, family reunification or investment, applies for a long-term (D) visa at a Ukrainian mission and, after arrival, for a temporary residence permit at the State Migration Service. Employment additionally requires a permit that the employer obtains from the State Employment Centre. Permanent residence starts with an immigration permit, issued within quotas or outside them to groups such as spouses of Ukrainian citizens married for more than two years.

Ukraine has been under martial law since the full-scale Russian invasion of February 2022. Ukrainian missions state that the country's airspace is closed to civil aviation, so there are no scheduled passenger flights; foreigners enter overland through crossings with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, or by sea and river crossings, and some crossings are temporarily closed by government decision. Entry to the temporarily occupied territories, including Crimea, is allowed only with special permission through designated control points.

Ukraine is a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and grants refugee status and subsidiary protection through the State Migration Service.