In 2025, Ukraine issued nearly 5 thousand temporary residence permits to foreign nationals arriving for employment. The primary source country for labor migrants was not India or Bangladesh, but Turkey. This was reported by the State Migration Service of Ukraine, reports Dengi.ua .
The head of the agency, Natalia Naumenko, noted that in 2025, Ukrainian employment centers issued 9,574 work permits for foreign nationals. However, only 4,975 individuals ultimately received temporary residence permits based on those documents.
"As for labor migration, in 2025 residence permits were issued to about 4,900 foreigners. And the leader among labor donor countries is not Bangladesh but Turkey. Also on the list are the UK, the US, India, and Uzbekistan," Naumenko said.
According to her, holding a work permit does not automatically mean a foreign citizen has actually arrived in Ukraine and commenced work.
For lawful employment, individuals must complete several mandatory steps: secure a work permit, obtain a visa, enter the country, and subsequently secure a temporary residence permit.
The State Migration Service specified that during the first four months of 2026, a total of 1,733 temporary residence permits were issued to foreigners. This volume aligns closely with the average monthly levels recorded last year.
At the same time, current figures remain significantly below pre-war levels. For comparison, in 2021, Ukraine issued 12,883 temporary residence permits for foreign nationals arriving for employment.
Naumenko emphasized that the total population of foreign nationals temporarily residing in Ukraine has plummeted since the outbreak of the full-scale war.
"If in 2021 we had 189 thousand foreigners who temporarily resided in Ukraine, now they are only 48 thousand - that is, the difference is more than four times," said the head of the SMS.
The agency also noted that despite intensive public discussions regarding migration on social media platforms, official statistics do not support the narrative of a massive influx of foreign labor into Ukraine.
According to experts, even prior to the full-scale invasion, the share of foreign nationals within the country's total population stood at approximately 0.75%, and this metric has not changed significantly since 2022.