During a round table conference on the theme "Migration processes in Russia in the first half of 2015," chairman of the Public Council under the Federal Migration Service of Russia Vladimir Volokh, professor at the State University of Management, spoke about changes to the migration legislation of Russia.
Vladimir Volokh notes that since the 1st of January 2015 new legislation in the field of international labor migration has come into force. “The Russian Federation has visa-free relations with some countries from which migrants arrive in Russia. The new system of receiving documents was worked out for those migrant workers who arrive in Russia. Now they should buy a patent. It is quite a serious change for the whole system of receiving permits for foreign citizens,” Volokh said.
According to Vladimir Volokh, after receiving a patent, the main work is focused not in the federal center, but in regions of the Russian Federation. “The introduction of the patent system was made in order to regulate labor migration processes, fewer with the help of administrative and more with the help of economic measures. The regions of the Federation have the right to set an appropriate value, if they need foreign labor. The cost of the patent is less if foreign labor is required in the region. If foreign labor is not required in the region, in this way the patent will be more expensive.”
The head of the Public Council under the Federal Migration Service of Russia admitted that the beginning of the year was difficult: “Not all employers were ready for such changes. I participated in several events organized by the Moscow Chamber of Commerce Moscow at the federal level. In my opinion, the complex of events carried out allowed the system to be normalized. The number of patents received in four months this year is a bit less than it was during the same period last year, but the figure is quite impressive.”
Another main goal of the current policy is that on the 1st of January this year a comprehensive exam was implemented, which includes the Russian language, history and the basic laws of the Russian Federation. “All migrants, except for highly qualified professionals who need to receive permission allowing them to work on the territory of the Russian Federation, must pass this comprehensive exam. This patent should buy those foreign citizens who need to receive temporary residence permission, citizenship, and so on. In general, the number of migrants is about four million people . It is a colossal amount of work,” the expert said.
The Ministry of Education and Science has chosen five basic universities. Three of them are from Moscow: Moscow State University, the Pushkin State Russian Language University and the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. Angela V. Dolzhikova. One university is from Saint Petersburg and one from the Far East. Probably you have the following question : "How can five universities test four million migrants?" In my opinion this mechanism is right, as these five universities create local centers. These local centers have very strict requirements. As a rule, they are formed mainly on the basis of educational institutions. And those who work in local centers and test migrants are required to complete special training courses in these universities. Only after training courses can foreign citizens be tested. After testing, the documents are sent to the basic universities. The tests are checked there once again, and only then can foreign citizens receive a certificate confirming that he has passed a comprehensive exam,” Vladimir Volokh explained.
