Starting a business

How does a foreigner register a company in Ukraine?

Published 13 August 2026 · facts checked against the primary sources on 2026-08-08 · Ukraine For ALL, Kyiv

That 24-hour figure is real, and it is why people misjudge this process. Article 26(1)(1) of Law of Ukraine No. 755-IV of 15 May 2003 gives the registrar 24 hours from receipt of the documents, excluding weekends and public holidays, to complete the registration action. What takes months is everything on either side of it: apostilles abroad, a tax number, a work permit, a bank account.

Two figures run through the whole page. The subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons as at 1 January 2026 is UAH 3,328 and the minimum wage is UAH 8,647 (Law of Ukraine No. 4695-IX of 3 December 2025, Arts. 7 and 8). Almost every state charge below is a multiple of one or the other.

Which company form does a foreigner actually use?

Almost always a TOV, a limited liability company. It is governed by Law of Ukraine No. 2275-VIII of 6 February 2018, which covers both the TOV and the rarer additional-liability company (Art. 1(1)). The number of participants is not limited (Art. 4(1)), so a single foreign founder is fine.

Three features matter for a non-resident:

A company is not the only vehicle. Ukraine also has an e-Residency status that gives a foreigner a Ukrainian sole proprietorship taxed at 5%, without a trip to Ukraine — restricted to four nationalities and closed to new applicants since September 2025, as set out in Ukraine e-Residency: status, rules and who it is for.

The other alternative is a branch or representative office of your existing foreign company, and that is a different track: five working days rather than 24 hours (Law No. 755-IV, Art. 26(1)(9)), against an administrative fee of one subsistence minimum, UAH 3,330 in 2026. Watch the arithmetic on every fee on this page. Charges are set as fractions of the subsistence minimum and then rounded to the nearest UAH 10 (Art. 36(5)), so the payable amount is never the raw multiplication.

What documents does the registrar require?

The core file is three documents: the application, the founders' decision, and the charter. A non-resident adds proof of the foreign founder's registration, an ownership-structure schematic and a copy of the beneficial owner's identity document.

For registration of the creation of a legal entity, Article 17(1) of Law No. 755-IV lists the application (para 1), the original or a notarised copy of the founders' decision (para 2-1), and the charter (para 5), unless the company adopts a model charter, which is declared in the application itself.

Non-resident founders add three more items:

• Proof of the foreign founder's registration in its home jurisdiction, meaning an extract from a commercial, banking or court register (Art. 17(1)(10) and (18)). Only if the founder is a company.
• An ownership structure in the prescribed form (Art. 17(1)(17)), approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance No. 163 of 19 March 2021, registered with the Ministry of Justice on 8 June 2021 under No. 768/3639.
• A copy of the identity and citizenship document of the ultimate beneficial owner (Art. 17(1)(19)).

Note what Article 36 does not list: any administrative fee for registering the creation of a legal entity. There is no administrative fee for that step. Apostille, translation, notarial and banking costs are separate, and they are where the money actually goes. Later changes to the register do carry a fee of 0.3 of a subsistence minimum, which after rounding is UAH 1,000 in 2026, or 75 per cent of the charge for documents filed electronically, UAH 750 after rounding (Art. 36(1) and (5)).

How do apostille and translation work here?

Foreign documents need legalisation, by consular legalisation or apostille, and then a Ukrainian translation whose accuracy or translator's signature is certified. One extra rule catches non-residents: the foreign register extract expires one month after issue.

Every document issued under foreign law must be legalised, by consular legalisation or an apostille, unless an international treaty provides otherwise (Law No. 755-IV, Art. 15(1)(13)). Ukraine acceded to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention on 2 April 2003, and the Convention entered into force for Ukraine on 22 December 2003.

Then the translation. Documents are filed in the state language (Art. 15(1)(1)), and a foreign-language document must be translated into Ukrainian with either the accuracy of the translation or the translator's signature certified in the manner prescribed by law (Art. 15(1)(14)).

One clause catches almost everyone. Under Article 15(1)(13-1), the register extract confirming a non-resident founder's registration must be issued no earlier than one month before the date it is submitted. Apostille it in March, file it in May, and the registrar will reject it.

Must the founder come to Ukraine?

No. Documents may be filed on paper or electronically, and on paper either in person or by post (Art. 14(1)). A representative may file instead, on a notarised power of attorney or on a power of attorney issued under the law of a foreign state (Art. 14(2), paras 2 and 3). Registration actions are performed by state registrars, who are people in an employment relationship with a designated state registration body, and by notaries (Art. 6(1)).

A foreign individual founder without permanent residence in Ukraine still needs a Ukrainian tax number. Section IV(2) of the Regulation approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance No. 822 of 29 September 2017 places foreigners who found legal entities in Ukraine into the State Register of Individual Taxpayers. Registration takes three working days from filing Form No. 1DR (Section VII(6)).

Can a foreigner be the director?

Yes. At that point the question stops being corporate and becomes employment law. The executive body of a TOV is sole by default and is called "director" unless the charter provides another name (Law No. 2275-VIII, Art. 39(4)). It may act for the company without a power of attorney (Art. 39(10)), and a civil-law or employment contract is concluded with it (Art. 39(12)).

Employing a foreigner normally requires a permit issued by a territorial body of the state employment and labour-migration authority (Law of Ukraine No. 5067-VI of 5 July 2012, Art. 42(1)). For ordinary foreign hired workers and gig workers it runs for the term of the contract but no more than two years (Art. 42-3(1)(5)). A decision is due within seven working days (Art. 42-6(1)), and renewal must be requested no later than 20 and no earlier than 50 calendar days before expiry (Art. 42-6(2)). For citizens of the Russian Federation and Belarus the seven days do not apply: the file waits for clearance from a regional body of the Security Service of Ukraine (Arts. 42(1) and 42-6(1)).

The fee is set in subsistence minimums for able-bodied persons, fixed at the figure in force on 1 January of the year the employer files (Art. 42-4(1)). At the 2026 figure of UAH 3,328:

Renewal costs one subsistence minimum less than the corresponding issue fee (Art. 42-4(1)). A fourth band of ten subsistence minimums exists for permits of two to three years, but a company director hired on an ordinary employment contract cannot reach it, since that category is capped at two years.

Not every foreigner needs a permit at all. Article 42(6) lists twelve exempt categories, and four of them come up constantly in this context: foreigners permanently residing in Ukraine (para 1), those who have refugee status or an immigration permit (para 2), those recognised as needing complementary protection or granted temporary protection (para 3), and employees of branches and representative offices of a foreign legal entity (para 8). The last one pairs directly with the branch route described above.

There is also the investment door. A person who has made a foreign investment in Ukraine's economy in convertible foreign currency of not less than USD 100,000 is one of the categories eligible for an immigration permit, within the immigration quota set by the Cabinet of Ministers (Law of Ukraine No. 2491-III of 7 June 2001, Art. 4, part 2, para 3). An immigration permit takes the work-permit question off the table entirely (Law No. 5067-VI, Art. 42(6)(2)).

Where a permit is needed, it then feeds the residence permit, and that chain is set out in full in how a foreigner gets a residence permit in Ukraine. The State Migration Service issues a temporary residence permit within 15 working days of accepting the documents, among them the work permit, medical insurance valid for the whole term, and a certified Ukrainian translation of the passport data page. The charges are UAH 34 state duty, UAH 452 for the administrative service and UAH 654 for the physical permit card, UAH 1,140 in total.

Where people get stuck

The director starts working before the permit exists. The company is registered in a day, the founder signs himself in as director, and work begins. Under Article 53(5) of Law No. 5067-VI, employing a foreigner under a labour or other contract without a work permit draws a fine of twenty minimum wages per person, measured by the minimum wage in force when the violation is detected. At the 2026 figure of UAH 8,647 that is UAH 172,940.

The foreign register extract goes stale. One month from issue to filing (Art. 15(1)(13-1)). Apostille queues in some jurisdictions run longer than that, so the sequence has to be planned backwards from the filing date.

The ownership structure is treated as a formality. Paragraph 4 of the Regulation approved by Order No. 163 requires that where the structure contains foreign legal entities, foreign nationals, trusts or similar arrangements, official documents confirming their corporate rights be attached to the schematic, unless the data is already in the state register.

Not every registrar or notary can act. Martial law narrowed the field, along with much else described in is it realistic to run a business in Ukraine in 2026? Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 209 of 6 March 2022, as amended, prohibits registration actions by state registrars whose employing body sits in an area of active hostilities or temporary occupation, and by notaries whose office sits there. Separately, a registrar's access to the Unified State Register is granted only after a Ministry of Justice check that runs up to 15 working days. The 24-hour rule assumes you found someone who is allowed to press the button.

The bank says no after the company already exists. Registration and banking are separate gates, and the second one is described in bank account in Ukraine for a foreign-owned company. Under Article 15(1) of Law of Ukraine No. 361-IX of 6 December 2019, a bank is obliged to refuse an account where identification or verification is impossible, where the ultimate beneficial owners cannot be established, where the client is assigned an unacceptably high risk, or where the client does not supply the documents due diligence requires.

How does profit reach a foreign owner?

Dividends leave Ukraine under a narrow carve-out from martial-law currency restrictions. NBU Board Resolution No. 18 of 24 February 2022 permits the transfer for dividends accrued on results for periods starting 1 January 2023, capped at EUR 1 million per calendar month per issuer.

The conditions in subparagraph 46 of paragraph 14 of that Resolution apply together. The dividends must be accrued on results for a period beginning 1 January 2023, which excludes retained earnings of earlier periods and reserve capital. The transfer is made by the issuer itself, either directly to the foreign investor's account abroad or through Ukraine's depository system. The issuer must have been registered for at least 12 months before the operation, and the foreign investor must have held the corporate rights for at least six months.

A second regime sits on top of that one. Subparagraph 57 of the same paragraph, added by NBU Board Resolution No. 53 of 9 May 2025, lets a Ukrainian company carry out currency operations up to the total amount that foreign investors have transferred from abroad into its charter capital since 12 May 2025, and paying dividends to the foreign investor is one of the permitted purposes. Both regimes are amended several times a year. Only the text in force on your payment date counts.

FAQ

Do I need a Ukrainian co-founder or a Ukrainian director? Law No. 2275-VIII imposes no citizenship or residence requirement on participants or on the executive body. The constraint sits in employment law, and it is the work permit described above.

Do I have to register separately with the tax authority? No. Under Section III, paragraphs 3.1 and 3.2 of the Procedure approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance No. 1588 of 9 December 2011, a company is taken onto the tax register on the basis of data arriving from the Unified State Register. No separate application.

How much capital must I transfer, and when? The law names no minimum. Charter capital equals the nominal value of the participants' shares in hryvnia (Art. 12(1)), and each participant pays in full within six months of state registration unless the charter sets another period (Art. 14(1)).

Can I sign the charter abroad? The first version of the charter is signed by all participants with signatures notarially certified (Law No. 2275-VIII, Art. 11(2)). Law No. 755-IV, Art. 15(1)(9), disapplies the notarisation-of-signature requirement to the state registration of the creation of a legal entity; in practice registrars and notaries still ask for it, so confirm with the registrar before paying for notarisation and apostille abroad.

Which is faster, a TOV or a representative office? The TOV. Registering the creation of a legal entity is a 24-hour action with no administrative fee, while a separate subdivision of a foreign company takes five working days and costs one subsistence minimum (Arts. 26(1)(1), 26(1)(9) and 36(1)). The representative office wins on a different axis: its staff are exempt from work permits (Law No. 5067-VI, Art. 42(6)(8)).

So what is the real elapsed time? The registration action is 24 hours. Apostille, translation, the tax number, the work permit (seven working days) and the residence permit (15 working days) run in sequence, and the bank sits outside all of them.