I am planning to hire a foreigner and obtain a residence permit for him. I’ve read somewhere that as of this year the procedure for posting a vacancy on the website of the National Employment Agency has become more complicated, is this true?

Yes, it is true indeed. Until January 1 of this year, posting a vacancy on the website of the National Employment Agency (NVA) was a pure formality: the employer only had to post a vacancy and then wait 10 working days required by law, and even if a few local candidates occasionally sent their CV, there was no need to respond to them. Now the procedure is like this: the NVA sends to the employer a number of CVs from its own database – they are locals looking for work and receiving unemployment benefits, and the employer needs to respond to each such CV (whether the candidate is suitable/not suitable, and if not, then why) and post a resolution in their profile on the NVA website. I.e., if you refuse a candidate, you need to give a reasonable explanation of why specifically. The reason must be convincing enough for the NVA. After 10 working days, the NVA examines what the employer has specified in its profile, on what grounds the proposed candidates were rejected, and only if the NVA is satisfied with all the reasons, it will give its written opinion, upon receiving which the employer can move on, i.e. to formalize an electronic invitation for its foreigner.