Forum Ukraine

[EasyExpat]

Hi,

You are living in Ukraine, or you used to live in Ukraine. How did you decide to move to Ukraine?

Help the community and share your experience as an expatriate in Ukraine.

Was it a difficult move? Was it complicated to find a job in Ukraine? To find an accommodation in Ukraine?

Did you have some visa/immigration issue to go to Ukraine? Or maybe everything was organised by your company for professional move?

You can share here the different steps of your move in Ukraine. What would you recommend to people who would like to live in Ukraine?

Thanks in advance for sharing and giving advice.

[caissa]

I spent some time on several different trips of various duration to Ukraine from 2003-2005 and finally lived there for a year from June 2005-June 2006. I met a Russian woman living in Poltava and subsequently married her, but it didn't work out.

I'm still very ambivalent about the place. If you aren't rich, you must learn to speak some Ukrainian or Russian or you will never get anywhere. Unless you are in a large urban center like Kiev -- and even there I say good luck! -- and don't speak one of the local languages, life will be very difficult. It's as simple as that. I lived in a city of over 300,000 for a year and never met a single native Ukrainian who spoke English. Ok, I taught English part time for a few months and met a couple of instructors. They were the only ones! I ended up taking Russian for six months so that I could navigate daily life at a survival level. But be warned, Ukraine is very insulated from the West. It is no accident that it's one of the very few countries in eastern Europe (along with Belarus and Albania) which is not in the EU!

But I love this dark, soulful place, its frustrations notwithstanding. I will comment more if I receive questions or comments.

[EasyExpat]

How do you see the huge difference between high earners and most of the population? That was something that stroke me.

Along with the feeling that all taxi drivers were trying to trick me

[caissa]

It's a very corrupt, oligarchal society, so the huge disparity of income is normal. If you don't have your own good business, you will never make any money in Ukraine. Well, if you're a customs guy at the airport or some police positions you can get good bribes. But if you just work for someone (and you're Ukrainian), you are never going to get past the just eking by stage. Never.

Of course the cab drivers are scammers. It's one of the few jobs where you can exploit foreigners!