A draft law on cancellation of visa requirements for foreign volunteers registered in the Ukrainian parliament

According to the current legislation, foreign volunteers and humanitarian workers must obtain a visa-D to stay in Ukraine for more than 90 calendar days. To complete this, a foreigner must leave Ukraine before the end of 90-day visa-free period and apply in the Ukrainian consulate abroad. Only after obtaining a visa-D, foreigners can come to Ukraine and apply for a temporary residence permit.

Therefore, the authors of the draft law aim to ease the conditions for the activities of foreign volunteers and humanitarian workers in Ukraine.

The draft law №13071, which is currently undergoing the stage of approval by the Verkhovna Rada committees, states the following:

• for the period of martial law and within 1 year from the date of its cancellation, volunteers and humanitarian workers* will be able to obtain a temporary residence permit without a visa-D.
• volunteers and humanitarian workers* who arrived in Ukraine after February 24, 2022 and applied for a temporary residence permit within 60 days of the adoption of this law are considered legally staying in Ukraine.

*Humanitarian workers are defined as foreigners who arrived in Ukraine to work in separate subdivisions of foreign legal entities registered as recipients of humanitarian aid in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “About Humanitarian Aid”.