Dear CERBA Members and Partners,

According to the information kindly provided by CERBA Corporate Member – Intermark Relocation, please be informed that changes to the legislation, which amend the rules of extending or reducing the allowed period of stay in Russia, took force on December 29, 2021.

Which law introduces the changes?

• Federal Law No. 274-FZ of 01.07.2021
• Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia of 11.22.2021 No. 926 "On approval of the Procedure for making a Decision on Extending or Reducing the Period of Temporary stay of a foreign Citizen or a Stateless Person in the Russian Federation"

What are the changes?

1. Visa-free nationals, who are family members of a Russian national or a foreign national who has a permanent residence permit and permanent address registration in Russia, may extend the period of stay in Russia for up to 1 year from the date of arrival with possibility of multiple extensions for another year.

Spouses, children, parents, grandparents and grandchildren are considered family members.

2. The allowed period of stay of foreign employees from EAEU countries is extended upon a written request submitted by the host party or such foreign national. Previously the rules stated that the term of stay was to be extended based on the notification of labour contact conclusion submitted to migration authorities by an employer.

NB! In practice, the extension of stay of visa-free foreign nationals is usually done together with their migration registration for the relevant period.

The period of stay may be extended for the period of validity of a labour contract. In case the labour contract is open-ended, the period of stay may be extended for 1 year from the date of arrival with possibility of multiple extensions for another year.

3. The extension of stay of family members of EAEU employees may be performed based on a request submitted by the principal EAEU employee in person.

Intermark comment: Based on this we cannot rule out that district migration offices may start requesting personal presence of an EAEU employee for performing migration registration of their family members in cases when the validity period of such registration exceeds 90 days from arrival.

4. The new rules establish the procedure of reducing the period of stay of foreign nationals in case they evade the obligatory fingerprinting and medical checkup procedures as per the requirements of the law dated 01.07.2021 No. 274-FZ or in case a disease has been diagnosed during such checkup:

• In case a migration authority reveals such a fact, it will issue a decision to reduce the allowed period of stay within next 3 business days
• The migration authority informs the foreign national of obligation to visit the migration office and collect the official notification
• The foreign national must exit Russia within 3 days from the date when the decision was made

Who is affected?

Foreign nationals arriving in Russia for the purpose of work or for the period above 90 days.

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