What Does It Actually Cost to Hire a Worker From India?

Why there's no single number

Every company asking about hiring from India wants one figure they can put in a budget line. There isn't one — not because pricing is deliberately vague, but because the total depends on headcount, the role, the industry, the length of the assignment, and how much of the process your own team handles versus how much you hand off. What's actually useful is knowing every line item that goes into the total, and which of them tend to be the biggest.

The one fixed cost: the work permit fee

This is the only line item set by law rather than by market conditions. The state fee for issuing or renewing a work permit is UAH 3,328 per person (as of 2026). It's the same fee whether your own team files the paperwork or a contractor does it on your behalf, and it doesn't change by role or industry.

Consular and visa costs

Getting a work visa D means paying a consular fee, and the amount depends on which consulate the application goes through — it isn't standardized across countries. On top of that, expect translation costs and, in some cases, apostille certification for the candidate's education and qualification documents. Without them, both the consulate and the State Employment Service can reject the application outright.

Getting the worker into the country

This is the cost line companies most often miss when building a budget. Ukrainian civil airspace has been closed since 2022, so there's no direct flight — candidates travel overland, most commonly via Moldova, sometimes requiring a transit e-visa. That means tickets to the transit country, ground transport to the border, and, where needed, an escort for the trip.

Sourcing and screening the candidate

If your company doesn't already have a vetted candidate pool in India, Bangladesh, or Pakistan, sourcing, interviewing, and screening is its own line item. It scales with headcount and how specialized the role is — filling a crew of general laborers is a different job, in time and cost, from finding a qualified welder.

Getting the worker settled

Once someone arrives, there's housing, residence registration, and basic setup at the job site. Some companies fold this into the compensation package; others deduct it from the worker's first paycheck. Either way, it's worth agreeing on before the candidate arrives, not after.

Ongoing compliance and renewals

Work permits and temporary residence permits both have expiry dates and need renewing. Migration and HR support isn't a one-time cost — it's a recurring one: tracking deadlines, preparing renewal paperwork, and adjusting for legislative changes as they happen.

Why a turnkey quote is often cheaper than it looks

When a company tallies each line item on its own, it's easy to underestimate the internal HR time spent juggling the consulate, translators, transport, and the State Employment Service at once. A turnkey foreign staffing service folds all of that into one managed process with a price agreed upfront. That doesn't always mean a smaller number — but it almost always means fewer hidden hours and less exposure to a mistake that costs more than anything you'd have saved doing it piecemeal.

We calculate exact costs for a specific headcount, industry, and set of roles during a consultation — that's the only way to give you a real number instead of a rough estimate.