Putin signs law on residence permits for repatriates

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law simplifying the issuance of residence permits to participants in the repatriation program. They will now be able to obtain a residence permit without first obtaining a temporary residence permit. The same benefits will apply to their family members.

This provision will apply to compatriots who have been granted participant status in the state program to facilitate voluntary resettlement to the Russian Federation as repatriates, and to their family members who have the corresponding status.

An application for a residence permit may be submitted to a Russian embassy or consulate in the country where the application to participate in the repatriation program was previously submitted. The residence permit will be issued by a territorial office of Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs in the region selected for resettlement, after the applicant has undergone mandatory state fingerprinting and photographing and submitted a medical examination certificate. As noted in the explanatory note, these are certificates confirming the absence of traces of drug or psychotropic substance use without a doctor’s prescription, infectious diseases that pose a danger to others, and HIV infection.

It is clarified that the residence permit may be revoked if the person loses participant status in the program.

During the law’s consideration in the Federation Council, its Chair Valentina Matviyenko asked the relevant committees of the chamber to carefully monitor how the document is implemented. There are many cases in which our compatriots, Russian speakers seeking to return to Russia, spend six months or a year trying to obtain the citizenship to which they are entitled, she noted.

Original article at vezdenashi.ru