Oksana Shakhlai, Associate

GRATA International

Employment of foreign citizens in Belarus has its own specifics. Before hiring, the employer and foreign employee shall comply with a number of requirements of the legislation on labor migration and on the procedure for the stay of foreign citizens in the Republic of Belarus. Otherwise, both the employer and the foreign employee  may be brought to responsibility.

The legislation distinguishes 3 regimes of stay of foreign citizens on the territory of Belarus: permanent residence, temporary residence and sojourn.

To enter Belarus, a foreigner shall obtain a national visa. One of the grounds for obtaining a visa for entry is the fact that a foreigner is engaged in performing labor activity in Belarus. Thus, a foreigner can apply for a multiple entry visa of type C (short-term, up to 90 days) or D (long-term, over 90 days up to 5 years), the purpose of the trip is work.

At the same time, in certain cases, a "visa-free regime" is possible under the terms of the corresponding international agreement. In particular, for a period of up to 90 days for citizens of the EEU member states, up to 30 days for citizens of more than 70 states upon arrival through the Minsk airport, and others.

The specific feature of the employment of foreigners in Belarus is that they can work only if the employer has:

  • permits to engage foreign labor. This permit shall be obtained if the employer employs more than 10 foreigners or as a result, more than 10 foreigners will work in the aggregate. The calculation does not take into account highly qualified employees, foreigners involved as the head of a commercial organization in the creation of which they participated, persons who are not covered by the Law on External Labor Migration, for example, those who were educated in the territory of the republic and are employed within 1 year after obtaining a specialty and assigning qualifications. Also, obtaining a permit to attract foreign labor is not required if the employer is a resident of the High Tech Park (hereinafter – HTP).
  • a special permit to engage in labor activity. It should be obtained by the employer for each foreigner, except in cases where the employer is a resident of the HTP; the foreigner is a citizen of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic; the foreigner is a person who is not covered by the Law on External Labor Migration.

The citizenship and migration authorities can refuse to issue the above-mentioned permits.

For example, application for a special permit may be refused if the information about a vacant position in the AIS "Republic-wide Bank of Vacancies" has been available for less than fifteen working days.

A fee is paid for issuing permits.

It is possible to extend the permits once for 1 year.

The employment of a foreigner is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Labor Code of the Republic of Belarus. To do this, a foreign employee shall present the documents provided for by the legislation, in particular, documents on education, documents confirming work experience (employment record). At the same time, it is necessary to take into account some features. Thus, education documents obtained in a foreign country require legalization. No need to legalize a document of education if an international agreement on mutual recognition and equivalence of documents of education, academic degrees and titles issued on the territory of Belarus and foreign countries has been concluded between the Republic of Belarus and the state in which such a document was issued. Education documents issued in Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, etc. are recognized without legalization. In such case a translation into Russian or Belarusian is sufficient. Such a transfer is certified in accordance with the procedure established in the territory of the state of departure of the foreigner.

When a foreigner presents a work record book of the state of his / her citizenship, the employer can use it to obtain information about the seniority or work experience of the foreigner, but in order to make a record of employment to the employer of Belarus, as well as other records, the employer shall issue a work record book of the Belarusian model for him / her.

For temporarily staying and temporarily residing foreigners, it is mandatory to have a compulsory medical insurance contract or a medical insurance contract concluded with a foreign insurance organization in case of emergency medical care provided to them by medical institutions. At the same time, certain categories of foreigners may be exempted from performing this obligation by international law. For example, citizens of the CIS countries receive emergency medical care free of charge on the territory of the Republic of Belarus.

A distinctive feature of an employment agreement with a foreigner is that the employment agreement must include regulations on the procedure for changing and terminating the employment agreement in the event of cancellation of a special permit, the conditions for moving a remote employee to Belarus, insurance, and residence on the territory of Belarus. The term of the employment agreement must not exceed the term of validity of the special permit, if such is required, i.e. such an employment agreement cannot be indefinite. The employment agreement must be drawn up in Russian or Belarusian, as well as in a language that is understandable to the employee.

The employment agreement shall be registered after conclusion. Registration is carried out by the employer in the citizenship and migration authorities within a month from the date of its conclusion. For this purpose, the employer provides two copies of the employment contract - of the employer and the employee.

HTP residents do not have to register an employment contract, but shall notify the governmental division within three working days that such a contract has been concluded and attach a corresponding copy.

It should be noted that the Belarusian employer, as a tax agent, calculates, withholds from the salary of a foreign employee and transfers income tax to the budget (13% of income), as well as pays mandatory insurance premiums to the Social Protection Fund (1% of income is paid by the employee, 34% by the employer).