I am a permanent resident of Ukraine, finally!

I’m shocked and horrified to realize that it was almost FIVE long years ago that I celebrated the receipt of my Ukraine temporary residence permit! When I think back to that time, I can scarcely recognize the life I lived back then. I haven’t blogged much about the intervening five years, but a quick summary of events includes:

• Bought an apartment in Kyiv
• Lived through the pandemic and lockdowns (thankfully the ungovernable Ukrainian people largely ignored the strict lockdown rules so this was not nearly as bad for me as it was for many in the world)
• Survived a health crisis (and no, it was not due to aforementioned flouting of lockdown rules!)
• Co-founded Elastio, and subsequently raised seed and Series A funding rounds
• Got married
• 1.5 years (and counting) of full-scale war with Russia (most of which I spent outside of Ukraine, although I write these words from Kyiv)

During almost all of this, my application for permanent residency on the basis of investment in Ukraine (to wit: aforementioned apartment purchase) has been in some way or another in progress. If I had competent legal representation from the start, and there had not been a global pandemic, and a hoard of fascist Orcs had not invaded Ukraine, perhaps this would not have taken so long. Nonetheless, the wait is finally over: I am officially a permanent resident of Ukraine: