Overview of Changes in Сriteria for Obtaining “Critical” Status and the Procedure for Deferring Employees of Permanent Non-resident Representative Offices (Foreign Companies and Organizations)

Resolution No. 988 of August 16, 2024, introduced further amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Resolution No. 76 of January 27, 2023, "Some issues of implementation of provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On mobilization training and mobilization" regarding the deferral of military personnel during mobilization and wartime."

In particular, the pressing issue of deferring employees of permanent non-resident representative offices (foreign companies and organizations) has finally been resolved, thus harmonizing the conditions for these representative offices to obtain "critical" status. 

Currently, permanent non-resident representative offices (foreign companies and organizations) must (1) meet Criterion 4, outlined in the Criteria for obtaining "Critical" status. In essence, they must meet criteria of significant importance to sectors of the national economy, as determined by the Ministry of Economy.

General criteria such as the total amount of taxes paid during the last reporting period, for example, the appropriate level of average salary for the last quarter, or the absence of social insurance debt will not be considered. 

The updated criteria from the Ministry of Economy have not yet been developed or approved. According to verbal information, changes are expected in 2-3 weeks. Therefore, we are awaiting updated Criteria for the specified representative offices. 

It is predicted that after the Ministry of Economy publishes the updated criteria, permanent non-resident representative offices (foreign companies and organizations) will have to obtain critical status under the new order directly from the Ministry of Economy, even if they have already been classified as "critical" and have passed through the "circles of hell" in other ministries or state administrations.

With the changes, permanent non-resident representative offices (foreign companies and organizations) must also meet other criteria, including (2) having been operational for the past two years, (3) having accreditation according to the law, and (4) being registered with the controlling authorities. 

Currently, these representative offices can only obtain "Critical" status through a decision by the Ministry of Economy.

The approved changes clarify that, as with the deferral of employees for enterprises, institutions, and organizations, 50% of the total number of military personnel are subject to deferral. 

However, the deferral of employees for foreign media representative offices is placed in a separate category. The limitations on the number of people subject to deferral will be applied as follows: 

As with "economically critical" enterprises, institutions, and organizations, the quota is calculated based on the number of employees as of May 18, 2024, provided that the number has not increased since then.

Just as with the "Critical" status, the lists for deferral must be submitted to the Ministry of Economy.

It should also be noted that due to the lack of information on permanent non-resident representative offices (foreign companies and organizations) in the Unified State Register (USR), these foreign representative offices are currently bound by a "paper" deferral process.

Thus, they should be patient while other subjects successfully use the 15-minute deferral process via the Diia portal.