Work Permit Formalization

Many of them are regular clients of ours and thanks to such a cooperation experience, we have accumulated substantial experience in the field of resolving migration issues for Italian citizens.

All foreign citizens arriving in the Russian Federation for the purpose of engaging in entrepreneurial, investment, and employment activities encounter migration issues from migration registration all the way to formalizing permanent residence permits.

Currently, the investment climate, the developing market, and opportunities for advantageous monetary investment in Russia are drawing interest among foreign investors, in part from Italy.

Today, hundreds of Italian companies engage in entrepreneurship in the Russian Federation, such as consumer goods, footwear, clothing, furniture manufacturing, construction, and groceries.

Many of them are regular clients of ours and thanks to such a cooperation experience, we have accumulated substantial experience in the field of resolving migration issues for Italian citizens.

To engage in entrepreneurship in Russia, a foreign citizen may act as a company founder and in that case all a foreign citizen has to do is undergo migration registration (register their place of stay) within the course of 7 business days following their arrival in the Russian Federation. That can be done right inside the building of the migration service closest to the apartment where the foreigner will reside, or at the postal communications department of the district, upon sending the corresponding notification to the indicated migration office.

BUT! In the event that the foreigner doesn’t have a work permit, they can only register for a maximum of a 3-month period, even if the foreigner holds a three-year, multiple-entry visa for Russia.

Another detail is that registration of one's place of stay is automatically annulled every time the foreigner departs from Russia. That means that even if you registered for three months for instance, left Russia before that time period ran out, reentered the country, and you still have the same registration address (you still live in the same apartment or are registered at the address of your office, if you have a work permit), you will have to reregister OVER AGAIN every time you reenter the Russian Federation.

If a foreign citizen wants to manage the day-to-day operations of a company and, say, hold the position of company president (in Rusia, this position, is called the “General Director” or just “Director”) or any other position in the organization, in the indicated sequence, he or she will have to:

• obtain an invitation from the organization;
• obtain an entry work visa at a Consulate of the Russian Federation in his or her country (the visa is issued for a period of 3 months and then after entering Russia, their visa will need to be extended up to the period of the validity of the work permit);
• arrive in Russia and obtain a work permit;
• extend the work visa up to the period of the validity of their work permit.

The indicated procedure concerns visa countries, in other words countries with which Russia has visa-based entry requirement status (one of them being Italy).

Work permits are issued for a period of one year at the Employment Migration Affairs Department of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation.

But there is one inconvenient thing about that. Formalizing a Work Permit, obtaining a work visa invitation, and subsequent extension of the visa takes up to 3-4 months. Essentially, the obtained permit only remains valid for 8 months and when those 8 months run out, the entire procedure has to be repeated over again.

That is exactly how it goes for one of our clients from Italy every year. His company is an official distributor of a famous Italian clothing brand in Russia and he has held the position of CEO of a Russian LLC for going on three years. Every year he has to keep track of when his Work Permit is going to run out to begin the Work Permit procedure 5-6 months ahead of time for the next year.

The need to do this in advance has to do with having to prepare the necessary documents for submission to the necessary organs, monthly processing of the documents submitted at the Employment Center, then two-month processing at the Employment Migration Affairs Department of the Department of the Federal Migration Service, preparation and submission of the necessary documents at the Visa Affairs Department at the Department of the Federal Migration Service, and obtaining an invitation for a work visa. And every year this entire procedure has to be done over again. There are no privileges for foreigners who have already formalized their work permits previously.

As you can see, handling matters in advance and prudent planning of the upcoming migration procedures ensures successful and OFFICIAL operations on the territory of the Russian Federation.

However, if a foreigner is to arrive whose citizenship does not require that he or she obtain a visa, the procedure is somewhat different and more relaxed as a whole. The foreign citizen enters Russia and registers within 7 business days at a migration office (this detail is exactly the same as people who have to obtain visas to enter the country). In the event that the foreigner does not have a work permit, they can only get registered for up to a 3-month period. Then the foreigner applies to obtain a work permit. After obtaining a work permit, the time of their stay can be extended to last for the duration of their work permit, in other words to a year.

If the foreign citizen plans to live and work in Russia for a lengthy amount of time (over 5 years), it would be more practical for them to formalize a temporary residence permit and then a permanent residence permit rather than having to go and obtain a work visa every year.