Our lawyers helped a US citizen with his family to settle in Ukraine for conducting charitable activities

In March 2018, a U.S. citizen approached our company for legal support and assistance to all members of his family (a husband, a wife and four children) during obtaining a residence permit in Ukraine. Since our specialists had already repeatedly provided this kind of legal services to citizens of the United States, as well as other European and Asian countries, that was their area of expertise and experience.

There are several ways to make foreigners’ relocation to Ukraine legal. Our lawyers always pay due regard to the purpose of moving to the country and the family composition that help to choose the most appropriate and practically implementable option. This particular case required the following legal services:

• Obtaining a Tax Identification Number for the Client and his wife;
• Registration of a charitable foundation with a nominee director and legal address;
• Obtaining a work permit for the Client as a CEO of the charitable foundation registered for him;
• Ensuring changes at a charitable foundation related to replacement of the nominee director with the Client;
• Providing legal assistance in obtaining a visa (D type) for all members of the Client’s family and moving to Ukraine;
• Providing legal and accounting services for the charitable foundation in the first months of its operation;
• Obtaining a temporary residence permit for the Client and his family members;
• Registering a residence of all foreigners after receiving a residence permit.

During the work, our lawyers tend to focus not only on standard procedures for obtaining necessary documents, but they also try to thoroughly explain the essence of these procedures to the Client. Based on our experience, foreigners strive not only for comprehensive planning of their travels to and from Ukraine in accordance with the required procedures, but also to receive full coverage of certain documents, sequence of documents receipt, and the obligations arising in this regard. This gives the Client sense of security and control over the situation. We make it possible due to our lawyers’ excellent knowledge of English and experience of living in English-speaking countries. This helps us not only to overcome language barriers, but also to be culturally sensitive while doing our work

We also pay considerable attention to providing appropriate services to the newly created legal entity of the Client. There is a number of mandatory procedures to be followed within the first days after the company/foundation establishment - opening a bank account, integrating the Client-Bank system, preparing keys for electronic submission of reports, setting a payroll process, ensuring the submission of reports that are deemed to be reasonably submitted by the company which assists in the legal entity registration. Over time, the charity foundation  will hit its stride and the Client will be able to hire a full-time accountant. Since then, our company will act as a legal adviser on certain, complex legal issues.

Thanks to the efforts of our lawyers, the Client has obtained a temporary residence permit for three years. This is a rather long period and our experience shows that in case of failure to comply with a number of terms and conditions  related to the residence registration, employment of a foreigner and so on, the permit can be cancelled before time.  This is a very unpleasant prospect, which is still quite real, if you do not follow the minimum requirements of state authorities. Therefore, being well aware of the permits cancellation practices, we perform not only a minimum set of actions required to obtain permits during the registration of documents, but also do our utmost at each stage of the process to prevent negative consequences in the future.

As usual, the project was successfully completed, despite the fact that the obtainment of temporary residence permits coincided with the entry into force of the new rules for the documents release (introduction of biometric residence permits), and a ban on the inclusion of information about minor children to such documents. We’re always  aware of the latest changes and our specialists are constantly looking for ways to respond to emerging challenges, pursuant to the current laws and regulations, as well as to our Clients’ need goes without saying that all the documents were received in accordance with the agreed deadlines and price. However it’s worth noting that the Client highly appreciated our approach to providing legal services, emphasizing that he felt comforted during that four-month legal process, as if he spent all that period in his native country.