The material was published in the Detector Media

After the outbreak of the full-scale war, volunteers came to the aid of numerous civil society organizations and non-profit state-financed institutions. Behind the daily work of helping the military and civilians, few people pay attention to the citizenship of the volunteers they engage. However, if an organization plans to officially recruit foreign volunteers, it should take into account some legal requirements.

1. ENSURE THAT INFORMATION ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION IS AVAILABLE ON THE NATIONAL SOCIAL SERVICE WEBSITE

In accordance with paragraph 7 of Part 3 of Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine “On Volunteering” (hereinafter referred to as the Law), the central executive authority implementing the state policy in the field of volunteer activity (National Social Service; hereinafter referred to as the NSS), publishes on its website available information about organizations and institutions that engage volunteers in their work. In particular, information on organizations and institutions that engage foreigners and stateless persons to carry out volunteer activities on the territory of Ukraine.

In practice, this means that an organization will not be able to engage a foreign volunteer if the information about it is not on the NSS website.  Fortunately, the procedure for entering such information is not complicated.

FIRST OF ALL, PREPARE A SET OF DOCUMENTS, NAMELY: 

• Copy of the document confirming state registration (certificate of state registration (excerpt, extract from the register) 
• Copy of the certificate from the territorial body of the State Tax Service on granting the organization the non-profit status (extract from the register of non-profit organizations) 
• Copy of the organization’s articles of association
• Application for disclosure of information about the organization.

The application should specify: location, postal address, numbers of means of communication, as well as, if available, the address of the official website and e-mail of the organization (Part 1 of Article 4 of the Law), as well as the name and EDRPOU (Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organizations of Ukraine) code of the organization and the full name of its head.

To prepare an application for disclosure of information about the organization, use the template here.

When filling out the template, you should be guided by the requirements of DSTU (State Standards of Ukraine) 4163:2020 “Unified System of Organizational and Administrative Documentation”. Among the points that are important to pay attention to are the presence of the full name, reference (contact) data and code of the legal entity in the details of the document.

Copies of documents are submitted as appendices to the application, in which the total number of sheets of appendices is indicated.

COMPLETED APPLICATION WITH APPENDICES SHOULD BE SUBMITTED TO THE NATIONAL SOCIAL SERVICE IN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING WAYS:

• Bring or send as hard copy to the National Social Service (Kyiv, 8/10, Esplanadna Street)
• Submit through the government contact center https://www.ukc.gov.ua/(this is a format in which you can track the progress of your application, and the documents will definitely not be lost)
• By sending an e-mail to osn@nssu.gov.uaand info@nssu.gov.ua, specified on the page https://nssu.gov.ua/volonterstvo/informatsiia-dlia-ustanov-ta-orhanizatsii. In this case, duplicate the first part of your application and the name of your organization in the text of the e-mail. However, there is a risk that your set of documents may end up in spam.

According to paragraph 7 of Part 3 of Article 3 of the Law, the NSS shall publicize the information on its website within three business days from the date of receipt of the relevant set of documents. The data is published in a tabular format, with new organizations placed at the end of the sheet. 

After the information about your organization is published, you can involve foreigners and stateless persons in your activities as volunteers. 

2. INFORM THE NSS ABOUT THE START OF COOPERATION WITH EACH FOREIGN VOLUNTEER

According to Part 6 of Article 5 of the Law, if you engage a foreigner as a volunteer, you must inform the NSS in writing within five business days. 

Such involvement should be reported in the same way as reporting on the organization described above. 

To submit the information, you can use the form here.

It is important that the legislation does not specify the concept of the moment when a volunteer is engaged. Therefore, if you engage a volunteer without concluding a volunteer agreement, the moment of engagement can be considered the day when he or she directly started volunteering for your organization.

However, a written volunteer agreement has advantages for both the organization and the volunteer (read more about it in our material). Therefore, if you have signed a contract and it does not specify when the volunteer was engaged, it should be assumed that it took place on the day of signing the contract. 

At the same time, the expiration of the 5-day period for reporting to the NSS begins on the day following the day of engagement of such a foreign volunteer.

3. TAKE CARE OF A VISA FOR A FOREIGN VOLUNTEER AND, IF NECESSARY, A TEMPORARY RESIDENCE PERMIT

In order to obtain a visa to carry out volunteer activities, it is necessary to determine the duration of the projected stay of the volunteer in Ukraine.

If the stay of a foreigner or stateless person does not exceed 90 days within 180 days per year, such person can stay in Ukraine on the conditions of visa-free entry.

However, if it is necessary to stay in the territory of Ukraine for a longer period of time, the volunteer must take care of obtaining a D10 visa for cultural, educational, scientific, sports and volunteer activities. 

It is important that information about your organization be made publicly available on the NSS website for your volunteer to obtain the appropriate visa. In addition, the volunteer must have a valid passport and be insured for a minimum of three months (life and health insurance).

VISAS ARE ISSUED BY UKRAINIAN CONSULAR OFFICES AT THE PLACE OF FOREIGNER’S STAY. TO OBTAIN A VISA, IT IS NECESSARY TO SUBMIT A SET OF ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS:

• Submission of the organization that engages the volunteer
• A letter of guarantee confirming the commitment to cover the foreigner’s expenses for staying in Ukraine and leaving the territory of Ukraine;
• Extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Organizations, which is certified by the signature of the head of the organization and its seal.

It is important that citizens of the Russian Federation cannot obtain a visa or any other services of the State Migration Service of Ukraine.

If necessary, a volunteer can obtain a temporary residence permit in Ukraine. 

As a general rule, you need to have previously obtained a D10 visa for this. Citizens of the Republic of Belarus can apply for such a permit immediately upon entering the territory of Ukraine. 

It is necessary to submit the documents not later than 15 days before the end of the period of stay in Ukraine (i.e. it is necessary to submit the documents in advance, because it will be impossible to do it 15 days or less before the visa expires). To do this, a foreign volunteer should come in person to the office of the territorial subdivision of the State Migration Service, which deals with the issuance of documents to foreigners and stateless persons. You can find out about such a department on the State Migration Service website or by calling the territorial subdivision of the State Migration Service (SMS) in your region.

It is important that the volunteer foreigner or stateless person be insured for more than one year (life and health insurance) at the time of filing the documents.

A SET OF DOCUMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED BY THE VOLUNTEER ON BEHALF OF HIMSELF/HERSELF AND THE ORGANIZATION (ALL DOCUMENTS ARE STAMPED AND SIGNED BY THE HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION):

• Submission of the host organization
• A letter of guarantee confirming the commitment to cover the foreigner’s expenses for staying in Ukraine and leaving the territory of Ukraine;
• Extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Organizations
• A printed table with information about your organization from the NSS website.

It should also be remembered that a foreign volunteer must have a registered place of residence in Ukraine (this is necessary, in particular, for notification of the NSS; in accordance with clause 59-1 of the Procedure for registering, issuing, exchanging, canceling, sending, withdrawing, returning to the state, invalidating and destroying a permanent residence permit, approved by the CMU Resolution No. 321 dd. 04/25/2018).

4. AFTER THE END OF COOPERATION WITH A FOREIGN VOLUNTEER, INFORM THE STATE MIGRATION SERVICE OF UKRAINE THEREOF

According to Part 7 of Article 5 of the Law, organizations shall notify the SMS within five business days of the termination of volunteer activities by a foreigner or stateless person.

Such a notification can be submitted in any form to the territorial subdivision of the SMS in your region.

For convenience, you can use the template we have prepared. 

Important! Please specify YOUR territorial subdivision of the SMS and its address as the addressee. You can find them on the official SMS website.

The generated message should be sent to the appropriate subdivision of the SMS in a way convenient for you: either by dropping it off in person or sending it by mail (find out in advance the conditions of receipt and the address of the department that should receive the message from you), or by sending it to the e-mail of the territorial subdivision posted on the SMS website (check within a few days whether the subdivision has received your message by calling the phone number listed on the website).

If your organization and the volunteer have an agreement on volunteer activities with an indication of the last day of cooperation, the five-day period for sending a notice of termination should be counted from the day following the day of termination of cooperation in accordance with the agreement. 

If the agreement does not specify when the cooperation is terminated, or no agreement is in place, the time period should be counted from the day following the actual time the volunteer ceases volunteering.

The material was created by CEDEM as part of the Project Ukraine Civil Society Sectoral Support Activity implemented by the Initiative Center to Support Social Action “Ednannia” in partnership with the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research and Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) with the sincere support of the American people through United States Agency for International Development USAID Ukraine.