Foreign volunteers serving in the Ukrainian Defense Forces will receive temporary residency benefits and will have a series of social guarantees and expanded access to medical care. The President of Ukraine sanctioned the proposed law on February 9.

Until now, the only document a foreign volunteer in Ukraine had was a military identity card. However, some administrative companies required a residence permit. Now, foreigners who have a signed contract with the Ukrainian Defense Forces will receive a residence permit for the entire period of service and for three months after its termination or rescission of the contract. The process of issuing documents for their family members is also simplified.

With this benefit, foreigners will be covered by the same guarantees regarding medical care as Ukrainian citizens.

The law, which will come into effect in three months, is designed to ensure equal and fair conditions of service for all military personnel, regardless of citizenship. And in the future, the law is designed to better integrate those foreign volunteers who defended Ukraine from Russian aggression with weapons in their hands and decided to stay here.

Earlier, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine published an explanation of the algorithm for obtaining combatant status for foreign volunteers (UBD). https://mod.gov.ua/en/news/combatant-status-for-foreign-nationals-rights-and-granting-procedure

Foreigners who stood shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainians in the ranks of the Defense Forces have the same rights to recognition of their merits as citizens of Ukraine. If a foreigner is serving under a contract in the Defense Forces of Ukraine and took direct part in hostilities, he/she has the full right to combatant status and appropriate social guarantees.

The same procedures apply to foreign military personnel as to citizens of Ukraine. The main condition is the availability of documents confirming the fact of performing combat missions. Your service and combat experience are the only criteria for granting status.

Currently, there are two ways to register a UBD: automatically or through a special commission. In the first case, an authorized person of the military unit enters data on the performance of combat missions into the Unified State Register of War Veterans within 5 days after the start of the task. The status is granted automatically.

If it is impossible to grant status automatically, the commander of the military unit submits a package of necessary documents for consideration by the Interdepartmental Commission (through the Ministry of Veterans), which considers the documents within 30 days and makes an appropriate decision. A foreigner also has the right to independently collect documents and send them to the Interdepartmental Commission - through the Ministry of Veterans or through the Center for the Provision of Administrative Services.

If documents are submitted for consideration by the Interdepartmental Commission by a military unit, the package must include:

• a copy of the passport with a translation into Ukrainian;

• a copy of the document certifying registration in the State Register of Individuals - Taxpayers;

• certificate (original) of form No. 6 according to (document confirming stay in the combat zone).

If the documents are submitted independently, an extract from the information and analytical system “Record of information on bringing a person to criminal liability and the presence of a criminal record” is attached to the package.

If you submit documents independently and add materials in a foreign language (for example, personal documents), they must have a certified translation into Ukrainian. It is important that the transliteration of the name and surname in military documents corresponds to your passport (or its official translation).

Obtaining the status of a combat participant is a good reason for further processing a permit for immigration to Ukraine or acquiring Ukrainian citizenship under a simplified procedure after the contract is completed, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine emphasizes.