New state program to simplify migration in Russia

Vitaly Yakovlev, head of the Directorate for Organization of Work with Compatriots of the Russian FMS, said that the new state program allows people willing to migrate to file no forms and fill only the application, RIA Novosti reports.

Applications for temporary residence will be filed at consulate offices together with applications to take part in the state program.

Compatriots may move to Russia and becomes students, businessmen and employees.

The categories of A, Б and B were adjusted. The categories determined social support. Now, they determined the priority territories of settlement. The first category includes the fullest support and highest financing. Benefits for priority settlement were doubled. The priority territories include the Far East and the Baikal Region. People taking part in the program will receive 240,000 rubles and 120,000 per every family members. Payments will be made in two stages: instantly and after 1.5 years of residence. Residence in other territories will be rewarded with 20,000 and 10,000 rubles respectively.

The government will compensate expenses for movement, luggage and grant unemployment benefits. Consulate fees will be paid back for compatriots from Georgia, Turkmenistan and European states.

Old documents of people taking part in the program will be legit until January 1, 2015. New documents will be legit for 3 years.

Each region must pass own regional program and includes procedures for employment, housing and medical aid. About 50 such programs have been sent for approval. Moscow and Saint-Petersburg will probably abstain from the program due to high migration flows.

About 890 million rubles were granted for federal authorities and about 200 million rubles to regions to fulfill the program. The same volumes were spent in 2012. Financing of the program will increase to 2.7 billion rubles in 2014.

About 120,000 applications for 275,000 people have been filed since 2007. Over 135,000 people have migrated in Russia. 66% of them are men. About 40% of the migrants have higher or undergraduate degrees. About 36% got degrees of medium education. 55% of them are aged 18-39, 21% aged 40-59 and 21% are under 18.