How to Know When You Arrive in Us

You must be married to immigrate

 Every region of Russia has a tiny immigration quota. Last fourth dimension I checked, the titanic 16 meg-strong Moscow allows 5,000 people per year to immigrate without being married to a Russian citizen. Besides making a massive contribution to the Russian economy or existence a close friend of the President in that location is no way you are getting around this quota, which gets instantly filled in simply a few days after new years (when the quota is renewed).

Marriage to a Russian denizen guarantees you the opportunity (note I said opportunity, as in the chance) to utilize for a Temporary Residency Permit. The government wants people who immigrate here to start families and have children - which I agree with, but if you are already married to a native of your land or happy beingness single, then, well… no immigration for you lot!

Russians always tell me that yous can pay 5000 euros to a hot shot lawyer to buy your way into the immigration quotas. Maybe that is true, merely I have never seen it work for anyone that I know.

One time you are here and married, you've got to act rapidly

You need a residency let to live in Russian federation This means that you lot are probably going to go married hither while on a tourist visa that doesn't last long, and then instead of going on your honeymoon, you should immediately take a romantic getaway to the immigration center(s) in your region to start the bureaucracy, because fourth dimension is burning apace and the clearing process could (and probably volition) take months.

You cannot live on tourist visas in Russia

Existence on a tourist visa forbids you from working in Russia even if people tell you otherwise. Also they exercise non last very long, at which time yous must leave the country for a while before being able to come dorsum. When I moved to Russian federation you lot could constantly renew tourist visas, hop the edge and return with no problem. Those days are long gone.

You cannot work in Russia without a residency permit

 Hiring a foreign employee is very hard and very expensive. Arriving in Moscow you may find someone who would beloved to rent you lot, but they just cannot practise so because information technology is too bureaucratically hard. In one case you get residency, and so you can start looking for a job. Certain you can work illegally teaching English or something, only that risk is on you.

Russian federation is non Europe

Moving to Russia will not get you whatsoever free money or the power to live off of welfare. The government won't aid you immigrate either. If you come here you accept to work and think for yourself. There is no nanny-state, you're on your ain cowboy.

Also the migration services are on the hunt for illegal immigrants, so have your passport, registration and migration card on yous at all times.

Virtually landlords will not annals y'all.

Aleksandr Kryazhev/Sputnik

To emigrate you need to be registered at a place of residence, i.due east. y'all need to found a permanent address, merely due to the fact that this registration gives the registered person some rights over the holding, few landlords will practise this. Would you rent your house to someone who could so say they take squatter'south rights over it?

Besides near landlords practice not pay taxes, and so they will not annals yous to contrivance the tax authorities. For me personally, establishing a permanent address was the hardest box to cheque. Non having registration is a criminal offence, which, if repeated plenty times, is cause for deportation.

Visiting Russia is easy, immigrating is not!

 There is an former Russian expression, that says "you were born where yous're in need" (Где родился, там и пригодился) which basically means that you were born in Cathay, Africa, Canada or wherever for a reason, and you should stay there. Once you start the immigration process you will run across that the spirit of the law reflects the spirit of this expression.

Russia gives out tourist visas like candy. All y'all take to practice is fill out some forms sloppily, pay a fee, become a picture taken, and you lot are off to visit the country for roughly a month. The process for filing for anything related to immigration is zippo like this.

Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

In order to immigrate yous must provide the authorities the post-obit…

• An officially notarized translation of every strange certificate… and yes you lot demand to pay for all this… and yes the quotes by famous Americans in a US passport must be translated! (I recommend these people, they work inexpensive and the authorities accepts their translations, tell them Tim sent y'all).
  • Note, very ofttimes y'all have to submit a total translation of your passport to different departments meaning you are going to be ownership passport translations in bulk because they do non return them. Promise you accept deep pockets!
    
• Proof of a clean criminal background in your habitation country.
  
• Proof of residence in Russian federation, which tin can be really tricky (or incommunicable) if your spouse does not ain an apartment where you file.
  
• Knowledge of the Russian language and laws (you have to pass diverse tests).
  
• Proof that yous do non carry whatsoever sexually transmitted or other dangerous diseases like HIV/AIDS. When I did this information technology required urine, claret from vein, blood from fingertip, flourographs, an inspection of your trunk for needle punctures and a psychological bank check which I was shockingly able to pass. The military psychological test is different, and that one I failed hardcore.
  
• Proof that you lot take enough coin to alive off of, which pretty much ways that they want proof that your spouse has a job, because until you lot become permits to live in Russia, you are not immune to work in Russia. What a lovely Catch 22!
  
• And by far the hardest thing… the application.

And best of all no one volition instruct or help y'all do this, yous are totally on your own to navigate this mysterious bureaucratic journey, which needs to exist done to the tolerance of a nanometer.

You will lose weeks worth of piece of work days and countless thousands of rubles

Does the higher up listing sound like a lot to yous? Well it should considering information technology takes a ton of time, yous will lose a big amount of money and weeks of your life every fourth dimension y'all take to go through this process when your residency let runs out. For those in Moscow the immigration eye where everyone has to go to, lies 40km outside the MKAD highway on the edge of Moscow proper. Meaning with traffic it is xc minutes one-mode merely for the clearing service workers to run across that y'all put a comma in the wrong place, rip up your documents and send you lot back domicile.

Going to the migration service basically requires an unabridged work twenty-four hours of your life, and information technology is going to have a lot of piece of work days to get this thing washed.

That damn application will destroy your soul

Dissimilar say the European union, Russian federation takes its borders and clearing very brutally seriously. They are not playing effectually. The migration service will care for yous like a new recruit trying to join the Navy Seals - they will put you through hell to weed out the weak.

Every document you submit must be submitted exactly the way the government workers want information technology, and if worker A told you to write something one way, there is a good adventure worker B will tell y'all to write it another way, and if worker C tells you to practice it a third manner - that is your problem!

One time I got caught in a cycle of having to alter comma positions, and so I brought a laptop with me, got in line, got rejected, fabricated the changes, went and printed out a new application, got back in line, and so repeated this process a few more times.

The woman at the window was surprised to see me for the fourth (fifth?) fourth dimension. When I gave her notwithstanding another application I showed her that I had a k ruble bill with me. Since copies and so only toll ten rubles I had enough of ammo left in the mag. Showing her the bill I said in a grim tone  "I've got all day to make changes", to which she scoffed and accustomed my documents not even looking to see if I had made the last circular of changes.

In short, all applications MUST Exist FLAWLESS or they will be rejected. One spelling or punctuation fault and it goes in the garbage. You will begin to react to the Russian words for awarding - ankyeta (анкета) and zayavleniye (заявление) - like a Vietnam war veteran when he hears a sudden loud popping racket.

I have aught regrets

I dearest my life in Russia and take no regrets, but immigrating was a nightmare. Perhaps, there is a method to this madness, because any person from outside the erstwhile USSR tin only move to Russian federation if they actually Desire to be hither. And perhaps that is the way it should be.

Expert luck future immigrants, you'll need it.

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Tim Kirby is an American who has been living and working in Russia since 2006. Tim has worked in various fields including media production, political analysis and video game evolution, and correct now you volition see him as the host of many of our YouTube videos as he travels the land to prove you what Russia is actually like. Tim has two Russian children of his own.

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Source: https://www.rbth.com/travel/330996-moving-russia-immigration-living-kirby

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