The Russian-speaking diaspora in the world is huge. Many of its representatives decide to return to their historical homeland. Some directions of the migration policy of the Russian state can contribute to this. Such as, for example, the publication of laws that simplify the acquisition of people who have significant ties with Russia, the citizenship of our country. How are these opportunities used in practice?
Is it easier to get citizenship?
In the spring of 2014, the President of the Russian Federation signed a law, which, as experts and lawyers note, greatly facilitates the procedure for obtaining certain categories of citizens of Russian citizenship. Which ones? First of all, Russian -speaking residents of other countries can count on a simplified acquisition of Russian citizenship , provided that their relatives lived in the Russian Empire, in the USSR or in the modern Russian Federation.
How is this procedure supposed to be implemented? Consider its key aspects.
Features of the new simplified procedure
The approximate period during which all the necessary steps must be carried out, according to innovations in the law - 3 months. For comparison, if a person wants to become a subject of Russia, but does not speak Russian and has no family ties with our country, then he will have to wait for a chance to obtain citizenship of about 5 years (if we talk about the general procedure for the corresponding procedure). You can speed up the process somewhat - as an option, through marriage with a Russian citizen. But the terms are obviously not comparable for the “preferential” candidates for Russian citizens and people who can count on receiving the corresponding status on a common basis.
Timing is a clear relief, but before acquiring a Russian passport, a person will have to go through several important stages of communication with competent state authorities. To obtain citizenship of the Russian Federation in a simplified manner, a resident of another state falling under the above criteria will have, in particular, to undergo an interview procedure. It is anticipated that commissions will be set up to take the appropriate language "exam". In their composition, as noted in a number of sources, philologists will be present. There is evidence that the interview, which is one of the stages of obtaining Russian citizenship in a simplified manner, will be conducted only orally. Writing any elements of the "exam" is not supposed to be taken.
New Citizenship Law: Nuances
What is the specificity of the criteria for candidates for registration of Russian citizenship, which established the law on obtaining citizenship of the Russian Federation? It can be noted, for example, that the applicants who use it on a regular basis in everyday life and in family life are recognized as native speakers of the Russian language. Actually, the circumstances of a person’s communication in their native dialect are to be clarified by experts at the interview.
Visa - extended
Amendments to the new Federal Law on the Citizenship of the Russian Federation also include provisions reflecting the facilitated entry conditions for candidates to obtain Russian citizenship in our country and their presence here. In particular, this legal act introduced a new type of visa - especially for those foreigners who came to Russia to receive new citizenship. And if citizens of other states are already in the Russian Federation at the time of signing the law, then they will be extended the period of legal stay in the country. Unless, of course, they submit a corresponding application to the FMS of Russia. If not, they will be able to stay in the Russian Federation within the terms prescribed in the migration documents. At the same time, when applying for citizenship in a simplified manner, it does not matter in what legal status a foreigner who falls under the main "preferential" criteria is in the territory of the Russian Federation. That is, it can be a visa or, for example, a residence permit.
Is a renunciation of previous citizenship necessary?
An interesting fact is that the simplified form of obtaining citizenship of the Russian Federation within the framework of the scheme under consideration by default implies a mandatory refusal of a person from citizenship in relation to other countries. At the same time, if you follow the letter of the wording of the law, as noted by lawyers, this requirement can be circumvented on the basis of the wording of the “impossibility” of refusing foreign citizenship for reasons that are “independent of the person” present in the legal act adopted in the spring.
Some lawyers consider this wording in the law not quite consistent with a number of other legal norms in force in the Russian Federation. The fact is that dual citizenship, as you know, is legally allowed in Russia. And therefore, the relevant situation in the Federal Law under consideration, experts believe, may be related to the psychological component of the process of obtaining Russian citizenship. A person, on the basis of the legislator’s ideas, thus makes a conscious refusal to communicate with the state where he lived before becoming a citizen of the Russian Federation.
Among other notable requirements of the law is that a citizen has the means of subsistence in Russia upon the acceptance of citizenship of our state. Different lawyers interpret this requirement differently. Some believe that this refers to a certain bank account available for use in the Russian Federation, on which there is a significant amount of cash. Others believe that a person, preferably, should have an apartment or a house in which he will live. Another interesting opinion on this matter is that a candidate for citizenship should, if he does not present financial or immovable assets, show the FMS that he has, say, a specialty that is in demand on the Russian labor market.
The next noteworthy point that some experts talk about: the law on simplified citizenship states that a person who claims to be a citizen must prove kinship with Russia. But it is not said how. There are no specific criteria in this regard. Lawyers believe that a lot will in this aspect depend on law enforcement practice.
Linguistic aspect
Another interesting aspect is the same language exam. An applicant for citizenship needs, as we noted above, to prove that he uses the Russian language in everyday life, in the mode of everyday communication. But this, as some lawyers have noted, is not the only, and, moreover, not the most important criterion. The fact is that the degree of knowledge of the Russian language will, according to experts, be assessed not so much by the level of conversation at the interview, but also by the frequency of a person's stay in the Russian-speaking environment - in the Russian Federation or abroad. And if, in this sense, for example, Ukrainians will be simplified to obtain Russian citizenship without asking special questions about the language environment - in a neighboring country a significant part of the population speaks Russian, then what about, relatively speaking, descendants of emigrants who live in France, not quite understandable. At the same time, as some experts believe, it is highly probable that the FMS employees will prefer not to go deep into the analysis of the public environment of the candidate for citizenship. Seeing that he speaks excellent Russian, it is unlikely that anyone will question the person’s ability to adapt to communication in Russia upon the fact of obtaining citizenship.
Citizenship for Entrepreneurs
Note that the Federal Law on Citizenship of the Russian Federation discussed above is not the only legal act aimed at facilitating the conditions of immigration to the Russian Federation among those that were adopted in 2014. In particular, in the fall of 2014, another law was adopted in Russia - on the adoption of Russian citizenship of foreigners engaged in business in our country. According to this legal act, citizens of other states that have been engaged in entrepreneurship or investment activities in the Russian Federation for 3 years or more, can count on a simplified procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship.
True, the law includes a number of significant, as some experts believe, industry restrictions. In particular, the preferential procedure for obtaining citizenship will not apply to entrepreneurs engaged in trade, accounting, advertising, car repair, catering, real estate work, employment and selection services, legal advice, as well as the hotel business. In some sources, you can find explanations about the large number of industry exceptions regarding benefits in obtaining citizenship. So, for example, there is information reflecting the thesis that Russia does not experience a deficit in entrepreneurs engaged specifically in these areas.
Simplified procedure in standard format
It is worth noting that even before the adoption of the relevant amendments to the Federal Law on Citizenship of the Russian Federation, there was a procedure that allowed foreigners to receive Russian citizenship in a simplified manner. Consider the features of the rules that existed before the innovations (and at the same time, still valid - for people who do not have the opportunity to get a Russian passport in preferential order).
The mechanism within which the adoption of Russian citizenship took place before the recent reforms (and, in fact, with respect to non-Russian-speaking citizens and those who have no ties with the Russian Federation), provides for the following criteria.
A candidate for Russian citizenship can be an adult who is a foreigner or has the status of a person without a passport of any country and belongs to the following categories:
- persons with disabled parents who are citizens of the Russian Federation;
- Persons holding a USSR passport and living in the former Soviet republics without obtaining citizenship.
In the latter case, we are talking about, as some lawyers say, as a rule, about persons who, as a result of the difficulties of immigration processes, were left without any citizenship in principle - the USSR ceased to exist, and a new passport was not received for an independent republic.
Simplified acquisition of citizenship of the Russian Federation within the framework of standard procedures that do not provide for recently introduced benefits is possible if the applicant for Russian citizenship is a child with one of the parents holding a Russian passport, or a person over whom a Russian citizen has taken custody. If there are two parents, then the second, provided that he is not a subject of Russia, must give consent to the child to receive a Russian passport.
Simplified acquisition of Russian citizenship in the standard manner is possible for people who have a passport of states that were formerly part of the USSR, if they have a diploma of graduation from a Russian university or secondary vocational education institution. The key criterion is the training, according to the documents, should be completed no earlier than July 1, 2002.
A simplified procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship is possible for people who have passports of the former Soviet republics or who do not have citizenship of any other states and are classified as disabled. The key criterion is that a person must have a registration in Russia issued before July 1, 2002.
A simplified version of obtaining Russian citizenship is guaranteed by law for foreigners living in Russia, as well as meeting the following criteria:
- Born in the RSFSR, were citizens of the USSR;
- are married for 3 years or more with a citizen of the Russian Federation;
- belong to the category of disabled people and have children who have a Russian passport;
- who have minors with Russian citizenship recognized by the court as legally incompetent.
Foreigners and persons who do not have a passport of any country, subject to the citizenship of the USSR, who came to the Russian Federation from the former Soviet republics and have registration in the Russian Federation, registered before July 1, 2002, can also become Russian citizens. Another possible criterion for such persons is the presence of a residence permit in Russia.
A simplified system for obtaining Russian citizenship is guaranteed by law for veterans of the Great Patriotic War living in Russia who had a USSR passport.
Another possible scenario for registering Russian citizenship in a facilitated mode is a person’s participation in the state program to provide assistance in the voluntary resettlement of persons living abroad and their families to Russia.
Simplified citizenship: formalities
How is the procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship in a simplified manner? The scenario that we will now consider is generally relevant for cases of requests for citizenship on the grounds that were in the laws before innovations, and for people who fall under new criteria. That is, from the point of view of the applicant’s sequence of actions on the citizenship of the Russian Federation in a simplified manner, it does not matter whether he applies using the wording reflected in the version of the law before the reform, or as a person who has the corresponding benefit. But we will note the facts of differences.
What is the algorithm for registering Russian citizenship as part of the mechanisms in question? In principle, there is nothing complicated here. A person must contact the territorial body of the FMS and fill out the application form in the prescribed form. This document sets out the essence of issues that reveal aspects of the personality of an applicant for citizenship. The application must be executed in duplicate, the language of writing is necessarily Russian.
Other sources must be attached to this document, confirming the right to obtain Russian citizenship in a simplified manner in accordance with the above grounds. It is also necessary to pay the state duty - 2 thousand rubles. Those who have a USSR passport live in the former Soviet republics, but do not have the citizenship of these countries, there is no need to pay the corresponding fee. It is possible to give out an application and related documents for obtaining Russian citizenship not on the territory of Russia. To do this, the applicant must contact the nearest consulate of our country in a particular state.
After the documents for obtaining citizenship of the Russian Federation are received by the FMS, the applicant receives a certificate stating that all sources have been accepted, as well as an inventory in support. After that, within 6 months - on the grounds that were in force before the reform, and 3 months - on a preferential basis, the agency will make a decision regarding the issuance of a Russian passport to a person.
The nuances of the interview
In the second case, within 5 days after the documents were submitted to the FMS, the department should schedule an interview for knowledge of the Russian language. The commission that will take the "exam" will probably include a certified expert in Russian from the nearest educational institution of the desired profile. The interview is free. In time, it takes about half an hour. As we noted at the beginning of the article, communication takes place verbally.
If the commission decides that a person speaks good Russian, then he will be issued a document confirming this.
If a person cannot circumvent the requirement to renounce citizenship of the country where he lived before deciding to move to the Russian Federation, he will also have to devote time to appropriate interaction with the migration departments of the previous state, as well as informing the Russian Federal Migration Service about this process.
Information about the result of the work of the FMS is transmitted to the applicant, as a rule, by mail - but the specific territorial structures of the FMS in different regions can determine their channels of communication with citizens. With a positive decision, a person is invited to obtain a passport of the Russian Federation.