RUSSIA: MIA TO ALLOW EXTENSION OF PERMITS AND DURATION OF STAY

Dear Clients and Partners!

According to information obtained from sources close to the Moscow migration department of MIA, a meeting of the Working Group of the Russian State Council on countering the spread of COVID-19 was held on March 17. During the discussion, a number of decisions were preliminary made regarding the extension of permits for foreign citizens residing in the territory of the Russian Federation.

Specifically Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia was instructed to organize the following actions:

to allow applying for and issuing of Permission to engage foreign workers and Work permits for foreign citizens legally located in the Russian Federation;
to allow applying for extension and amending of Work permits, as well as obtaining a ready-made document;
to allow applying for a new Work patent without the need to travel outside Russia after the previous one is expired (after maximum of 2 years duration).

Also for foreign citizens who have their period of stay in Russia expired (or have will have it expire soon) the following options will be provided:

for foreign citizens staying under a visa, regardless of the purpose of entry: the validity of current visa will be extended up to 90 days
for foreign citizens with an expired visa, regardless of the purpose of entry: by applying with a motivated request they can extend their stay up to 90 days. A transit visa will be issued for these citizens to leave the Russian Federation.
Foreign citizens arriving on the territory of the Russian Federation under a visa-free regime (including on the basis of international treaties): by applying with a motivated request they can extend their stay up to 90 days. A transit visa will be issued for these citizens to leave the Russian Federation (if necessary).

Intermark comments: earlier we reported that the issuance of work permits, as well as the receipt of documents for the extension/correction of permits in Moscow migration department were suspended. Today we received comments from the inspectors of the Moscow migration department, as well as the Moscow region migration department, that the issuance and receipt of the above documents will resume as usual as soon as the relevant order is officially communicated to the department employees. Presumably this decision will come into force in the next 1-2 business days.

We will continue to keep you updated on further developments.

Sincerely yours,

INTERMARK IMMIGRATION TEAM

Tel.: +7 495 502 95 53

e-mail: [email protected]