Migration Lawyer

A foreign citizen may need a legal advice on migration law in the following cases:

• obtaining a tourist / business visa;
• employment;
• obtaining a temporary or permanent residence permit;
• obtaining citizenship of the Russian Federation.

If the procedure for obtaining a tourist or business visa is pretty much simple, then start employment relations with a foreigner is more time-consuming process. In addition to a work visa, a future foreign employee needs to obtain a work permit.

Without help of a migration lawyer understanding the procedure will not be easy. First of all, you need to understand in what status a foreigner will be hired – as an ordinary employee or as a highly qualified specialist. In each case, the package of documents and the procedure for registration will differ. The specialist will help to correctly fill out all the necessary notifications and applications for which the migration authorities have a lot of requirements, as well as submit a package of documents on time.

Foreigners who plan to obtain a temporary residence permit often approach a migration lawyer in Moscow.

Having temporary permit, a foreigner can permanently live in Russia, start a business, work without a work permit or patent, and also receive the right to social support, including free medical care in state clinics.

However, such a temporary permit is issued for a period of 3 years and is valid only in the issuing region. That is, if the permit was issued in Moscow, a foreigner will not be able to reside and carry out labor / entrepreneurial activities in the Moscow region.

Temporary permit can be issued by obtaining a quota, or without the quota if there are grounds specified in law. For example, citizens of the former USSR countries who obtained a degree in a Russian university under the programs that have state accreditation, or foreigners who are married to Russian citizens and have a residence in Russia, can receive permit without obtaining the quota.

Having lived in Russia for 8 months on a temporary residence permit, foreign citizens can apply for a permanent residence permit. Unlike temporary permit, this document gives the right to a foreigner to legally reside in Russia without limitation of period and place of stay, including the right to engage in entrepreneurial / labor activity in any Russian region. In fact, a permanent permit grants a foreign citizen the same rights as citizenship, except for the right to take part in elections and referenda.

It is also possible to obtain a permanent residence permit in a simplified manner, bypassing the stage of obtaining temporary permit: for example, if a foreigner carries out labor activity in a profession approved by the Russian Ministry of Labor for at least 6 months.

A migration lawyer will help to determine the basis for obtaining a temporary or permanent residence permit in both the general and simplified manners, tell all the pros and cons and correctly draw up the documents.

Migration laws also apply to Russian employers hiring foreign employees. In particular, the migration rules cover the procedure for admission and dismissal of foreign citizens, which is accompanied by the obligation of the employer to file notifications with the migration authorities.

For violation of migration laws, the employer may receive an administrative fine of up to 1 million rubles, administrative suspension of activity for up to 90 days or a ban on hiring foreign employees for up to 2 years.

Employers who hire highly qualified foreign specialists may also need help of migration lawyer. In addition to observing the procedure for hiring such citizens, the employer must quarterly notify the migration authority of the fulfillment of the obligation to pay wages to the employee. The peculiarity of hiring highly qualified specialists is that their salary cannot be lower than 167,000 rubles per month.

However, the employer does not need to get special permission to hire foreign employees. It will be enough to register with the migration authority at the same time as applying for a work permit for an employee.