Migration deadline extension and hiring of foreign nationals without work permit and patent
On April 18, 2020, the President signed decree No. 274 which suspends the deadlines for temporary stay, temporary and permanent residence from March 15 to June 15, as well as the deadlines for registration at the place of residence if these deadlines expire in this period.
Decree No. 274 sets out that if the validity of a visa, work permit, patent, temporary residence permit, residence permit, migration card or registration expires during the aforementioned period, foreign nationals will not have to apply to migration authorities to renew them before June 15, 2020. The period from March 15 to June 15 is excluded from the validity terms of the abovementioned documents so that the validity of those documents that expire from March 15 to June 15, 2020 will in fact be prolonged 93 days from the expiration date of the visa. It will be possible to apply for an extension of document validity after June 15, 2020 with no sanctions.
Employers may hire visa-exempt foreigners from March 15 to June 15, 2020 without appropriate patents. They may also hire foreign nationals who need a visa even if they do not have a valid work permit. However, in this case, employers must have a valid authorization to hire foreign nationals. Such authorization should supposedly have been issued for the position for which the employer has hired the foreign national, and the citizenship of the hired foreign national must coincide with the citizenship specified in the authorization to hire foreign nationals. However, such requirement is not expressly set out in the decree which also does not directly prohibit hiring foreign nationals who came to Russia with a visa other than a work visa (e.g. business or tourist visa). It should, however, be noted that working in Russia with a business or tourist visa violates the visa purpose of entry and is likely become a ground to bring foreign nationals to liability in the future. The Ministry of Internal Affairs failed to give us any clear advice on these debatable issues, but official clarifications of these and other matters related to the decree could come up later.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs specifically points out in the explanations of the presidential decree published earlier that it continues operating normally and that all documents submitted in the abovementioned period will be considered as prescribed by law.
We are monitoring the situation very closely and will provide further updates as soon as we are aware of any clarifications and new developments.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss the current situation, please write to Julia Talagaeva.
Truly yours,