Any employer who decides to accept foreign citizens or stateless persons into his staff should know that in the Republic of Belarus there are special rules and laws, without which the implementation of work will be illegal.
The basic rule is that the work of foreigners in Belarus is excluded without an employment contract and special permission, with the exception of certain categories of citizens.
A special permit to attract foreign workers is a document that allows the employer to legally attract foreign citizens to work. Such permission is obtained for each employee from abroad, however, to attract such workers in an amount of 10 people or more, the employer also needs to obtain the so-called permission to attract foreign labor.
A foreigner can be hired by a legal entity (legal entity) or an individual entrepreneur (IP), the organizational form in this case does not matter, it can also be a foreign company if their representative office is established in the Republic of Belarus.
The number of people entering into foreign labor does not include certain categories of citizens, such as:
Highly skilled workers (there must be documents confirming this fact: about education, at least 5 years of work experience, and about 15 times the average monthly wage in the country);
Owners, founders or participants of a commercial organization in which they are hired.
For some categories of citizens, a work permit is not required, for example, for citizens of countries that are part of the EAEU, foreigners who graduate from Belarusian universities and work in their specialty or who have received and work within 1 year after graduation and others.
To begin with, it should be understood that hiring foreigners is possible in the absence of suitable candidates among citizens of the Republic of Belarus for a vacant post. In this regard, the first step that the employer must take will be to submit information on the availability of vacancies to the labor and social protection committee of the relevant executive committee.
If the choice nevertheless fell on foreign citizens, the next step of the employer is to apply to the Department of Citizenship and Migration of the Republic of Belarus for a permit to attract foreign labor if there are more than 10 potential employees.
It is also necessary to apply to the department of citizenship and migration of the executive committee at the place of registration of the legal entity or, in the case of an individual entrepreneur, at the place of registration of the entrepreneur, a foreign company at the place of stay, in order to obtain special permission for each employee to work.
Such permits will be issued only after processing the submitted documents, the absence of grounds for refusal and the adoption of a positive decision that foreign citizens or stateless persons can work under an employment contract in our country.
After obtaining permission, the tenant is given the right to extend it for 1 term. To do this, you must also contact the Department of Citizenship and Migration.
In order for workers to be able to start fulfilling their labor duties, the employer must, no later than 1 month from the date of receiving permission, register labor contracts with foreign workers with the citizenship and migration authorities, as well as additional agreements, if any. An agreement with a foreigner must be brought into line with the legislation on labor migration of the Republic of Belarus.
The employee must issue a copy of the special permit to the employee, and upon the termination of the permit - return within 5 days to return to the place of issue.
If a foreigner does not know one of the state languages of the Republic of Belarus, then an employment contract with him is concluded in 2 languages: understandable to him and Russian or Belarusian.
The validity of the employment contract is established for a period not exceeding the duration of the permit.
To obtain special permission to attract foreign labor, it is necessary to submit a package of documents to the Department of Citizenship and Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. The list of documents submitted includes:
Statement;
Copies of documents confirming the state registration of legal entities or individual entrepreneurs;
Draft employment contract to be concluded with foreigners;
Confirmation of the existence of conditions for the life of foreign citizens in the form of a letter of guarantee;
A document confirming the payment of state duty.
With regard to obtaining a special work permit, the employer must submit to the migration department of the relevant executive committee a statement, a copy of the alien's passport, a document confirming the payment of the duty, and for highly qualified specialists - documents confirming this fact.
To extend the validity of permits, you only need to submit an application and provide a document confirming the payment of the fee.
To make changes to a permit, the following documents are required:
Statement;
Copies of documents confirming the need for changes;
Permission that directly requires changes.
If the permits are canceled, then the validity of employment contracts with foreigners and stateless persons is terminated.
As a rule, permits are issued for a period of 1 or 2 years.
From year to year, the number of refusals to issue permits to attract foreign force and special permits to carry out labor activities increases so as not to be left without a work permit, we will consider what state authorities pay attention to when issuing such a permit.
The first is to check whether the employer really wondered about finding workers among the citizens of Belarus, namely, whether information was submitted to the labor committee about the vacancies claimed by foreign citizens.
The second is whether there are Belarusian specialists who would like to take the corresponding vacancy.
These measures are due to increased unemployment in the Republic of Belarus and an attempt to solve this problem in the country.
Also, getting a permit is little chance for the employer who submitted inaccurate data or documents to the Department of Citizenship and Migration or violated the legislation on labor migration.
The identity of a foreign worker also plays an important role, so if a foreigner applying for a position is on the list of persons whose entry is prohibited or undesirable into the territory of the Republic of Belarus, then he will not receive a work permit here.
There is no chance for an employee convicted in the Republic of Belarus and deprived of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in activities that the employer offers him.
Among the reasons why the employer may be refused permission will be the alien’s citizenship in a country that is not migratory-friendly, or if the alien has been administratively liable more than 5 times during the year.
Based on this article, we can conclude that the legislation strictly approaches issues of labor migration, before planning joint work with a particular foreigner, it is better to make sure that it is possible to obtain all the necessary permits for it.
Allford Group Law Office, TAX № 805090430 All advocates of Allford Group Law Office carry out their activity within the Law Office which is a part of Minsk regional bar association.
