How to get a Ukrainian temporary residence permit from Pakistan: the procedure, step by step

The residence permit is the last document on a Ukrainian route and the first one you apply for inside Ukraine. Everything before it, the work permit, the university order or the company, decides whether the State Migration Service (DMSU) can issue it. This guide walks the procedure in the order a Pakistani applicant meets it, with the fees, the deadline, the term of the card and what keeps it valid. The full document list by ground is in residence permit documents; the dates alone in the residence permit timeline.

Step 1. The ground comes first

Ukrainian law issues a temporary residence permit only on a ground listed in Article 4 of Law No. 3773-VI, and the DMSU service page lists each one with its own documents. This guide covers four: employment on a work permit obtained by the Ukrainian employer, study on the university's order, a founder's stake of at least EUR 100,000 in a Ukrainian company, and family. Each starts outside DMSU: the work permit procedure, admission to a Ukrainian university, or the company and investment described in business immigration to Ukraine.

Step 2. Enter on a Type D visa

The DMSU list begins with a passport carrying a Type D visa. A Pakistani citizen applies for it through VFS Global, and the Embassy of Ukraine in Islamabad decides within up to 10 working days, extendable to 30 (Resolution No. 118, para. 19). The visa is issued for the purpose of the stay, so it has to match the ground you will file on. Fees and centres are in Embassy of Ukraine in Pakistan.

Step 3. Prepare the file

Every file carries the passport with the visa and copies, a Ukrainian translation of the passport pages with personal data, certified by a notary, a valid medical insurance policy, and the payment slip. Then the ground: for work, the work permit and the employer's written undertaking to notify DMSU and the employment service if the contract ends early; for study, the university's order setting your study period and its undertaking to report an expulsion. The official study portal also mentions housing documents, such as a lease or title, among the papers you may add. Keep the spelling of your name identical in the passport, visa, permit and translation.

Step 4. File in person, on time

Applicants aged 16 and over file in person, at a DMSU territorial office, a DMSU state enterprise or an administrative service centre for their place of residence. The filing is due no later than 15 working days before your permitted stay ends (Resolution No. 322, para. 17). The fees on the DMSU page are UAH 34 government charge, UAH 452 administrative fee and UAH 654 for the blank card. A late filing or an incomplete package is a refusal ground on its own, so the file has to be complete on the day.

Step 5. Decision and collection

The permit is issued within 15 working days after you file (Resolution No. 322, para. 5). DMSU's document status service shows when the card is ready. How long it is issued for depends on the ground:

Source: DMSU, issuance of temporary residence permit, checked 31 October 2026.

Step 6. Register your address

After the first permit, and after every change of residence, you register at the address in Ukraine given in your documents, yourself or through a representative. Legal guidance on legalaid.ua sets the period at 30 days from the issue of the permit and notes that a late registration can bring a fine.

Keeping the permit: exchange, changes, the end of the ground

The procedure has no extension; DMSU states this on its service page. An expiring card is exchanged with your ground still in force: the file can go in up to the card’s last day, and with fewer than 15 working days left only at a DMSU territorial office (Resolution No. 322, para. 19). A work-based permit lasts as long as the job: when the contract ends, the work permit is revoked and the residence permit ends with it (Resolution No. 322, para. 63). A stay beyond the permitted term is an offence under Article 203 of the Code of Administrative Offences, and DMSU lists forced return, which may come with a 3-year entry ban, and expulsion, which carries a 5-year ban, as the consequences. The limits on changing status once in Ukraine are in why you cannot fix your status inside Ukraine.

Why DMSU refuses a residence permit

• An incomplete package, or a filing later than the deadline
• A stay already over its permitted term, or an unexecuted order to leave or an entry ban
• Register data that does not confirm what you declared
• A passport that is forged, damaged, belongs to someone else or has expired
• Knowingly false information or forged documents
• Information from the police, SBU or another authority about a threat to national security or public order

These are among the refusal grounds DMSU publishes. Family members follow their own lists: a spouse of a Ukrainian citizen brings the marriage document and the spouse's passport in person; the family of a foreign permit holder shows the family link, the host's means to support them and the host's own permit. Pakistani civil documents, such as a Nikah Nama, take the MoFA apostille and a translation first.

Questions about the residence permit procedure

Read next

• Ukraine residence permit for Pakistani citizensWe check the ground, prepare the pack and accompany the filing
• Residence permit documentsThe checklist for each ground
• Temporary residence permit, explainedWhat a TRP is and who gets one
• State Migration Service of UkraineServices, online checks and overstay rules

Sources

Last reviewed: 31 October 2026. Procedure, fees, terms and refusal grounds as published by the State Migration Service of Ukraine and set by Resolution No. 322; DMSU decides every file. General information, not legal advice.