There are about 200 states in the world. The laws of many countries allow citizens to have foreign passports (or residence permits). Russia is one of them. Until recently, the bureaucracy in relation to citizens of the Russian Federation with a foreign passport or residence permit was practically absent.
Many citizens have heard about dual citizenship in Russia. Some willingly took the opportunity to become subjects of a foreign power. It was not necessary to inform that you have the citizenship of another country. But now the situation has changed. The fact that there is dual citizenship, now we must notify the FMS of Russia. Otherwise, a large fine or correctional work is threatened. How to report dual citizenship? In what cases are exemptions provided by law?
What kind of law is this?
In the summer of 2014, the President of the Russian Federation signed the law, according to which the Russians who concealed the fact of dual citizenship can be prosecuted. In order not to fall under this criterion, residents of the Russian Federation, if they have a passport (or residence permit) of another country, must inform the Federal Migration Service about this before October 4, 2014.
If this requirement is not met, then the authorities will impose a fine, the maximum amount of which can reach 200 thousand rubles. (or prescribe correctional labor, up to 400 hours). This is Russia's new dual citizenship law.
Presidential initiative
Consider the most important nuance associated with the authorship of the initiative by which the FMS tightened immigration policy. Who invented such a strict law of the Russian Federation on dual citizenship? According to experts, the initiator of the act was personally the president of Russia. He voiced the idea: Russian citizens are obliged to let the authorities know about the existence of citizenship in relation to other countries at one of the meetings with senators in the Federation Council.
Nuances
The law of the Russian Federation on dual citizenship contains a rule: if a resident of Russia does not yet have a passport of another state, but he is going to get it, the FMS will need to be notified within 60 days after the foreign document is issued.
Similarly, the FMS must be notified if the children (whose parents are citizens of Russia) have a passport (or residence permit) of another country. There is a special form for minors.
Responsibility
The act, signed by the President of Russia, said that a fine of 200 thousand rubles. - this is the maximum that threatens a citizen who has not completed the necessary procedures regarding interaction with the FMS. What are the levels of liability prescribed by law? What happens if the FMS dual citizenship notification is not sent?
Experts assure that such a fine will be issued only if the Federal Migration Service proves the intentional evasion of a citizen from notification of a passport of another country. If a person, for example, does not meet the legal time limit (until October 4), then all that threatens him is an administrative fine of 500 or 1000 rubles. In the same way, a pecuniary penalty will be imposed if a citizen provides the FMS with an incomplete set of documents, or there are significant errors in the application, or incorrect information is found.
Concessions
The new law allows for a number of fairly reasonable exemptions. For example, Russians who will be abroad before October 4 (or reside there permanently) may not inform the FMS about the fact of having a passport of another country before arriving at their homeland. This is logical, because foreign document delivery services are not empowered to accept a dual citizenship application in the way that the Russian Post can do.
Some experts assure that the law does not apply to Russians who have citizenship of countries with which the Russian Federation has entered into special international treaties. In particular, such states include Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The law contains some concessions in relation to the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol; for these regions of the country, the norms will come into force in 2016.
Report FMS Citizenship
How to report dual citizenship so that the Federal Migration Service does not have doubts about law-abiding? You can notify the FMS of a second citizenship through one of two methods. The fastest is a personal appearance in the territorial structure of the department at the place of registration or actual residence. The address of the desired unit can be found on the website of the department. Having arrived at the office of the Federal Migration Service, the Russian must leave a written statement (or, if officially, a notification of dual citizenship, the form of which will be issued by employees). By the way, there are two such papers: the first for adults, the second for those who are not yet 18. A photocopy of the Russian passport and a similar document issued by another state must be attached to the application. Translation into Russian (and notarization thereof) is not necessary.
Report citizenship via Russian Post
How to report dual citizenship if you cannot visit the representative office of the Federal Migration Service? The second way is to send a similar package of documents through the Russian Post. The department began work in this direction a few days after the entry into force of the new law.
You can send documents to the FMS at any post office. As in the case of the first method of sending information, a notice of dual citizenship is included in the package of papers (form can be downloaded from the website of the Federal Migration Service). Employees of this organization are required to check whether the application is filled out correctly, whether all necessary documents are attached to it. After verification, a citizen's notification of the fact of dual citizenship is sent to the FMS in a letter. In many post offices, applicants are given a special “track number” by which they can track how a dual citizenship notification is delivered.
Important nuance
In both cases, it is important to obtain confirmation that the papers have been accepted. In the case of applying for a personal appearance at the FMS, an employee of the department must certify the citizen’s documents with his signature and give him the “spine” of the form. If the application is submitted by mail, a similar procedure is performed by the employee who receives the letter, but does not put a signature, but a seal or a print.
Law enforcement in South Ossetia
The question is becoming relevant: "Should residents of countries whose diplomatic status is recognized only by Russia should send a notification of dual citizenship to the FMS?" For example, South Ossetia?
Experts assure that even if the sovereign status of a state is recognized by the Russian Federation and no one else, Russians holding a passport of that country are required to report to the FMS, as if this citizenship was French or, for example, American. The Law on Dual Citizenship does not contain any explanations regarding the diplomatic recognition of foreign states. Thus, residents of South Ossetia who have an internal passport and at the same time a Russian one must, in case of permanent residence in the Russian Federation, duly notify the Federal Migration Service of dual citizenship.
A case is possible when a resident of the Republic of South Ossetia owns only a Russian passport, but not an internal one. Then there is no need to submit any notifications to the FMS. The question of how to report dual citizenship will not be faced by the inhabitants of this young state.
The issue of dual citizenship: foreign experience
Migration laws are different for all states. Attitude to dual citizenship too. Even in European countries, where, it would seem, many laws are uniform, there is no general approach to this issue. Some countries have dual citizenship positively, others are neutral or even sharply negative. Of course, depending on the political situation in the regulation of migration processes, accents may change. European governments have the right to issue new laws, including dual citizenship, to solve specific problems.
Experts note that harsh punishment for hiding foreign citizenship abroad is a rare phenomenon in the world. This is explained, in particular, by the fact that modern technologies used by migration authorities make it easy to identify citizens who have a passport of another country. An example of a state where regulation is quite stringent is India. Dual citizenship is prohibited in this country. And if a person who has a national passport crosses the border according to the document of another country, then he will face a large fine, and with the systematic manifestation of such actions - a prison term. Similar stringent rules apply, for example, in Singapore.
And what is “dual citizenship”?
The legislation of the Russian Federation defines dual citizenship as a fact of Russian citizenship in relation to at least one foreign state. The Constitution of the country explicitly states the right to have such a status.
It says that Russians can be citizens of foreign states on the grounds set forth in federal laws or international acts signed by the Russian Federation.
What are the features of this status? The laws of Russia say that the presence of citizenship of another country does not in any way detract from those rights and freedoms (and at the same time duties) that arise on the basis of Russian citizenship. Exceptions should be spelled out in federal and international acts.
In Russia, there are two main statuses that legally reflect dual citizenship.
- A situation in which a residence permit or passport of another country is issued in accordance with a special international agreement (above we gave an example of two states with which Russia has signed a similar type of agreement - Turkmenistan and Tajikistan).
- The situation in which a Russian received citizenship of another country (one or more), when the Russian Federation did not participate in this process.
Lawyers note that in practice, the procedure for registration by citizens of Russia of citizenship in relation to other states can occur in the framework of other statuses.
Federal Migration Law
A number of language for specific legislation should also be taken into account. A lot of interesting things are contained in the Federal Law “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation”. It says, for example, that Russians who have a passport or residence permit in another country are considered exclusively as citizens of the Russian Federation (again, unless otherwise provided by international agreements). The Federal Law contains the most important wording. Its essence is that the acquisition by a citizen of the Russian Federation of a passport of another country does not invalidate Russian citizenship. There is no law in this law that would imply the need for residents of the Russian Federation to renounce their native citizenship.
How to legally enter and leave with two passports?
A reasonable question: "How is the procedure for crossing the border of the Russian Federation regulated in relation to persons with dual citizenship?" To answer this question, we turn to the Federal Law “On the Procedure for Departure from the Russian Federation”. It says that Russian citizens move to their homeland according to documents issued by the authorities of the Russian Federation (according to a regular or foreign passport).
In addition, the law provides for an option in which it is possible to enter the territory of the Russian Federation according to a certificate issued by foreign diplomatic departments. This most often happens if a person loses his passport.
In turn, the order of entry into the territory of countries whose subjects the Russian is in dual citizenship is determined by local laws. In general, they contain norms similar or identical to Russian ones. Meanwhile, when registering passengers for a flight to a foreign country, airlines may ask for a document according to which a Russian citizen can guaranteedly enter the territory of another country. And this is highly likely to be not a Russian passport. Therefore, when passing through the procedures associated with check-in for a flight and passing customs at home and abroad, it is better for a Russian citizen to have both passports with him.
Constitutional freedom
Thus, in the Constitution of the Russian Federation there are no clauses expressly prohibiting residents of the country from being subjects of other states, there are no laws that would somehow restrict the right of Russians to have dual citizenship. There are special agreements regulating migration processes (as is the case with Tajikistan and Turkmenistan). And this rather liberal regime from the point of view of legislation, experts believe, predetermined the appearance in Russia of a large number of citizens whose status in the aspect of dual citizenship is not recorded in the registers of government departments. The fact that the FMS does not know exactly how many Russians have overseas citizenship can be connected with this. It is likely that this state of affairs was the reason that the law on dual citizenship appeared.