A residence permit in the Russian Federation is an official certificate with a photograph that is issued to citizens of other countries or persons without citizenship. This document is a confirmation of the right to permanent residence in Russia, free border crossing and the right to work. If a residence permit is issued to a stateless person, then this document can also serve to prove his identity.
A residence permit in Russia is issued for a five-year term. If after this period the foreigner plans to continue living in the country, then he needs to submit an application of the appropriate content, on the basis of which the document can be extended for another period. The law does not limit the permissible number of renewal permits. It is important only in time to submit an application for its extension (no later than six months before the expiration of the residence permit).
It is also necessary to keep in mind that since 2002 it has become impossible to obtain a residence permit in the Russian Federation without a temporary residence permit. The exception is only a small group of foreigners and stateless persons who have registration at their place of residence in Russia as of May 22, 2002.
I would like to additionally note that in no case should you use the services of various intermediaries and organizations offering their services to accelerate the process of obtaining a residence permit. As a result, you can remain without the money paid and without a passport, which will be withdrawn by the relevant authorities, as well as, of course, without the necessary document.
An application for a residence permit in the Russian Federation by a foreigner or a stateless person may be filed after a year from the date of obtaining approval for temporary residence. In this case, a written application for a residence permit must be submitted to the competent authorities no later than six months prior to the expiration date of the document permitting temporary residence. In addition to the application, you will need to collect quite a lot of documents, the list of which includes a passport, which contains a note on a temporary residence permit, photographs of a standard form, a certificate of available income or disability, evidence of the birth of your children (if your child is of age from 14 to 18 years old, his consent to live in Russia will be required), documents proving that you have housing in the Russian Federation, certificates that the applicant and his family members are not infected with the HIV virus , do not have infectious and narcotic diseases, as well as other documents. If the documents are not in Russian, they must be translated and notarized.
A residence permit in the Russian Federation is issued within six months.
As a rule, a temporary residence permit, and then a residence permit, is issued by those foreign citizens who in the future plan to obtain Russian citizenship. By the way, for citizens of Kazakhstan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan there is a system of simplified citizenship, according to which they can pass the five-year period of residence in Russia by residence permit. In this case, after obtaining approval for temporary residence, they can go directly to the application for citizenship.