A season that fits the documents: a calendar for a road crew from Kyrgyzstan

01 / The season

Work until the first frost, documents until a fixed date

The road company won a contract to repair sixty kilometres of regional roads and several streets in district towns. Asphalt is laid only in warm weather, so its season starts in mid-April and runs as long as temperatures allow: usually until mid-November, and longer in a warm autumn. The crews were twenty-eight people short for manual work.

We recruited in Kyrgyzstan: there are many people there with road and construction experience, and citizens of that country enter Ukraine without a visa. Azamat, our manager for workers from Kyrgyzstan, held interviews in Bishkek and Osh with our partner and selected twenty-eight experienced people plus six in reserve. He selected not only for experience but for readiness for a season: work from April until the cold, housing in a village, going home in December. Candidates saw all this in the information sheet before signing, and two honestly declined because they wanted year-round work. We kept them in our database for other projects.

The company's main question wasn't about people but about dates. The season depends on the weather; documents depend on the calendar. The company wanted the crews to work until the last warm day without any permit, contract or period of stay running out first.

People

28 road workers for manual work, 6 in reserve

First day of work

15 April

End of season

Weather-dependent, roughly mid-November

Route

Visa-free entry from Kyrgyzstan

We don't plan the weather. We plan the documents so it doesn't matter when the frost comes.

02 / The calendar

Counting back from 15 April

We built the season calendar back from the first day of work. A worker has to be on site with a contract the day before. Before that comes entry; before entry, the work permit; before the permit, a complete document file and the company's fee payment. A permit decision is made within seven working days, but we always build in a margin in case an application is left without motion. We sent the company the list of documents it prepares for filing back in February, following our company checklist.

We counted the days after entry separately. Visa-free stay lasts no more than 90 days within 180, counted from the day the border is crossed. So we scheduled residence permit filings not for the end of that period but for the first three weeks, so that any delay at the migration service doesn't bring anyone close to the limit.

1. Late February

   Interviews, selection, information sheets, passport copies and translations.

2. 10 March

   Permit applications, fee paid from the company's account.

3. By 25 March

   Permits issued, with a margin for corrections if an application is left without motion.

4. 8-10 April

   Entry in three groups, contracts in the first days, copies within 10 days.

5. 15 April

   First day of work on the road.

6. By 1 May

   All 28 have filed for residence permits; registration of residence done.

03 / Permit term

A margin for a warm autumn that cost nothing extra

The company first wanted contracts and permits until 15 November, as with local workers the year before. We suggested looking at the permit term together with the fee. The fee depends on the term: up to and including six months is one rate, from six months to a year another. April to mid-November is already longer than six months, so a permit to 15 November and a permit to 20 December cost the same.

So five weeks of margin for a warm autumn cost the company nothing. We agreed contracts for the same term, and every worker's information sheet stated: the season ends when the cold sets in, no later than 20 December, and the company will announce the departure date in advance. If the season ends earlier, the contract is terminated and the company applies to cancel the permit, as the law requires.

We also showed a third option, a permit to 15 November with an extension if autumn is warm, but didn't recommend it. An extension must be filed no later than 20 days before the term ends, meaning in October, when nobody knows November's weather. And the company would pay separately for the extension. How a permit extension works is described on a separate page.

04 / Ninety days

Passport stamps from the past six months

The 90 visa-free days are counted within any 180 days, so before booking tickets we checked the border stamps in all twenty-eight passports. Most had never been to Ukraine. But two candidates had visited relatives in Kyiv the previous autumn and stayed more than a month.

For those two, the visa-free period after entry was shorter than for the others. We put them in the first group filing for a temporary residence permit, on the second day after arrival, and tracked them separately in the register. Both filed with plenty of time to spare.

Another candidate's passport expired in January. It was enough for a season ending in December, but a residence permit on such a passport is awkward, and he would have come back next season with a new one anyway. He got a new passport before the permit application, so the documents were filed on it.

• entry and exit stamps for Ukraine over the past 180 days;
• passport validity with a margin for the whole season;
• passport details match the copy sent for translation;
• candidates with fewer visa-free days go in the first filing group;
• each person's entry date goes into the register the same day.

05 / Filing

Twenty-eight in-person filings in four days

Everyone files residence permit documents in person. Twenty-eight people on one day means a full day of queuing and crews without workers in the first week of the season. So we split the filings into four groups of seven and agreed with the company on days when road work was only just getting going.

Azamat went with every group: he checked documents on the bus, explained in Kyrgyz and Russian what would happen during filing, and made sure nobody forgot a passport. We only brought the next group once the previous one had fully filed, so two groups never queued at once. Each person's filing date went into the register, and the card issue date as soon as it was set.

1. 01

   Group 1

   The two candidates with a shorter visa-free period and five from the first flight.

2. 02

   Group 2

   Seven people from the first and second flights, filing on the third day after arrival.

3. 03

   Group 3

   Seven people from the second flight, filing at the end of the first week.

4. 04

   Group 4

   Seven people from the third flight, filing by the end of the third week.

06 / Addresses

Four village houses and documents for each

The company rented housing for the crews in a village near the asphalt plant: four private houses with seven people each. For residence permits and registration of residence we needed documents for each house separately, not one lease for everyone.

We checked each house as we check any address: who owns it, whether the owner agrees to register seven people, and whether the lease covers the whole season to 20 December. One house was leased only until the end of October. The company extended it with the owner before filing, so the address on the residence permits wouldn't have to change mid-season.

Every worker knew his address by heart before leaving home: it was in the information sheet and the guide. On visa-free entry it's one of the first questions at the border, and 'I don't know where I'm going' can cost an hour of conversation.

07 / End of season

Closing the season so the next one starts smoothly

That autumn did turn out warm, and the company laid its last asphalt on 28 November. For the documents it changed nothing: permits and contracts ran until 20 December. There wasn't a single day of work outside the document terms. Two weeks before work ended the company told us the date, and we drew up a closing plan.

Contracts ended after the last working day, the company applied to cancel the permits, and Azamat booked tickets home for three groups. Everyone left with a passport and residence card, and the register kept contacts for everyone who wanted to return next season. How to bring seasonal workers back for a new season with new permits is covered in the scenario about a sugar plant season.

1. 14 November

   The company gives an approximate end date for the work.

2. 28 November

   Last day of work. Contracts end.

3. 1-3 December

   Permit cancellation applications, tickets, departure guide.

4. 4-6 December

   Departure in three groups. Contacts for next season kept in the register.

08 / Outcome

A season to the last warm day with no document expiring early

Calendar

Built back from the first day of work, permits by late March

Visa-free stay

Stamps checked, the two with shorter periods filed first

Permit term

To 20 December at no extra fee, warm autumn within the documents

Residence permits

28 filings in four days within the first three weeks

Season close

Contracts ended, cancellation applications filed, departure arranged

There's nothing in seasonal projects that WORKIN can't solve: we don't control the weather, but we plan documents so it doesn't affect them. From here we handle seasonal crews' documents through migration support, and the company's obligations are described on the employer duties page. The WORKIN replacement guarantee lasts at least 6 months from the worker's first shift, provided the agreed working, pay and housing conditions are kept. How to keep permit deadlines when people stay longer is covered in the scenario about a deadline register, and you can estimate a season's costs in the calculator. More on our pages about visa-free entry, workers for construction and builders from abroad.

09 / FAQ

Questions and answers