Can a foreigner do business in Ukraine without setting up a company here?

If a person wants to do business in Ukraine, then for this purpose he/she can either register a company or get registered as a private individual entrepreneur.

The procedure of registering private individual entrepreneurs, also known in Ukraine as FOP (hereinafter “the FOP”) is provided in the Law of Ukraine “On State Registration of Legal Entities and Private Individuals Entrepreneurs” (hereinafter “the Law”). According to this Law, a person is registered as FOP by his/her place of residence.

Information about the foreigner’s place of residence in Ukraine is inputted to his/her temporary/permanent residency certificate or some other documents which are not so widespread.

A place of residence is defined as an administrative territory the person lives in over 6 months a year (Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Movement and Free Choice of Residence Place in Ukraine”).

Most of foreigners (e.g. the US and EU citizens) do not need any visa to come to Ukraine and to stay here for 90 days within 180 day.

To be able to live in Ukraine for more than 6 months a foreigner, in most cases, should get a temporary or permanent residency certificate. These documents are issued to foreigners who got a special Ukrainian visa, i.e. the visa D.

So a foreigner can do business in Ukraine without having a company here. Business can also be carried out by a FOP. In order to get registered as a FOP a foreigner should register his/her place of residence. To do so he/she has to live at the address for over 6 months that requires, usually, obtaining the visa D and, after that, obtaining a temporary or permanent residency certificate.