Registered address in Ukraine (“Propiska”)

Ukraine as many other countries of the world has its own regulations concerning the obligation of citizens and, in some cases, foreigners and stateless persons to have a registered place of living in a country. Registered address in Ukraine, also known as Propiska, is obligatory for all Ukrainian citizens bearing internal passport, and those foreigners and stateless persons claiming citizenship of Ukraine, permanent or temporary residence permit in Ukraine.

So basically you don’t need to have a registered place of residence in Ukraine if:

• You visit and stay in Ukraine with visa or without one during terms stipulated by visa or law regulating visa-free regime visits;
• You are going to start a business in Ukraine by registering an appropriate company formation, and you do not intend to become a director of such company;
• You have the desire to register a marriage in Ukraine, proceed with a divorce, receive birth or death certificate, join the inheritance process in Ukraine;
• You want to receive Ukrainian taxpayer id number.

It’s not a random list of cases, as those are, according to what we noticed, the most popular misleads used by “specialists” in Ukraine to upsell additional Propiska services.

Again, if you are going to start Ukrainian citizenship, temporary or permanent residence in Ukraine process then in 100% cases you are going to face legal requirement to have a registered place of residence in Ukraine.

Before 2018 registered address in Ukraine used to be in the form of a special stamp in Ukrainian internal passport, Ukrainian permanent or temporary residence permit which contained full address and information about State migration service unit responsible for stamping of the document. Starting from 2018 production of passports and residence permits in the form of plastic ID cards is established and called upon to replace paper form documents in Ukraine. So now the information about the registered address in Ukraine is going to be stored in electronic chips and additional papers provided with a plastic document.

Only residential property (houses, apartments, dormitories) can be used as a registered address. In order to proceed with address registration, it is required to have corresponding permission given by owner/owners (their representatives) of the property. So if you don’t have any residential property on the territory of Ukraine you are going to need assistance of those people who does: in case you plan to be registered in student hostel you need to ask your school to provide such permission or in case you wish to be registered in some private apartment you need to get permission of all owners of such apartment.

At this moment, the registration of an address in Ukraine is carried on by special departments of Ukrainian state executive authorities in each regional city and its districts, regional centers and districts of Ukraine. Above mentioned special departments are also known as Centers for providing administrative services (CNAP). Before 2016 State Migration service of Ukraine was responsible for address registration, but after changes to the procedure, CNAPs took that responsibility what caused a very positive effect on time expenses required to perform address registration: 1 hour at CNAP against up to 7 working days at Migration service unit.

So how does the choice of your registered address can influence your day-to-day life in Ukraine:

• your registered address defines Ukrainian State migration service unit you may apply for various documents arising from your foreign status;
• your registered address will be used by state and municipal authorities to send your correspondence and important notices;
• court and police summons in Ukraine will be sent to your registered address;
• your registered address will be taken into consideration when you apply for medical assistance at Ukrainian general practice hospitals;
• other cases.

These and many other factors may influence ones intention to choose some place as a registered address in Ukraine. Although “chaining” of a person to a specific address is some kind of past relic, it is still applied in many countries including Ukraine. In case you plan a long term staying in Ukraine, we strongly recommend you to get to know with the laws regulating address registration of foreigners in Ukraine, as failure to follow this kind of rule by foreigners and stateless persons is considered to be a violation of Ukrainian immigration laws leading to fines and potential bans to visit Ukraine in future.