New Bill Could Improve Foreigners’ Family Lives in Russia

According to Vladimir Pligin, head of the Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Construction and the bill’s author, the document is intended to simplify and liberalize legal regulations on receiving work permits for foreign citizens who are legally recognized as highly-qualified specialists, as well as for members of their family.

The procedures currently in place for foreign citizens who are highly-qualified specialists to get a work permit provides for processing entry invitations only for their initial entry into Russia and does not extend to foreign specialists who are already legally in Russia for a time period that has not yet lapsed. The proposed bill would allow the foreigner to extend the time limit on their temporary stay (or residence) at the same time that they receive their work permit.

In view of the specific capabilities of highly-qualified specialists, their high income, and employers’ interest in getting maximum payoff from their work, the bill proposes offering more advantageous conditions for such employees to create a family life in Russia by offering invitations to specialists’ family members that are not limited by government quotas.