Liberalization of the migration legislation for migrants

According to a report posted on the official website of the Cabinet, the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered to introduce to the State Duma a bill liberalizing the migration legislation for foreign nationals holding a residence permit for Russia who did not notify the authorities on the place of their residence in the country.

This bill provides for the abolition of such form of administrative punishment as the expulsion from the country applied to foreign holders of a residence permit for Russia who have not notified the authorities on their place of residence at least once.

The obligation of foreign citizens to notify the appropriate authorities on the place of their residence in the country is mentioned in the law “On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation”. The rule on compulsory expulsion from the country of migrants violated this obligation is set in the Code of Administrative Offences and has been applied from 2013 to foreign nationals living in the cities of federal importance – Moscow, St. Petersburg, Moscow and Leningrad regions. The expulsion invokes an automatic ban on entry into Russia for the next five years.

Under the proposed bill, while making a decision on the migrant's expulsion from the country the court will take into account the duration of his stay in Russia, his family status, tax payment history, income and housing as well as profession and career, law-abiding behavior, access to citizenship and other circumstances. After analyzing these facts, the judges will be able to decide whether the penalty of expulsion from the country is excessive for a migrant or not. However, the migration legislation won’t be liberalized for foreign citizens who have been twice caught out on failing to notify the authorities on their place of residence or violated the rules of entry or the regime of stay in the country, the rules of movement or the procedure for choosing the place of residence. For this category of migrants the mandatory expulsion from the country will be applied.