As previously reported, foreigners who get paid more than two million RUB by their Russian employers are entitled to apply for three-year work permits and visas. The new regulation was introduced in July this year and is one of President Dmitry Medvedev’s measures on how to attract high-qualified foreigners to the country.
Since September, the number of foreigners who have obtained the special permits have boomed. While only 83 foreigners – most of them Europeans and Chinese – had obtained the new visa and work permits by early September, the number by December had increased to more than 2000.
“We receive almost 50 applications for this type of migrant every day,” Federal Migration Service Director Konstantin Romodanovsky said, the Moscow Times reports.
It takes only 14 days for Russian consular and employment authorities to handle the applications.
Romodanovsky maintained that his department is now considering to further widen the category of foreign specialists that the new law encompasses and increase the preferential nature of their immigration status.
“We are moving in a direction where we can widen the circle of possible participants — companies working in Russia — to attract intelligent, talented and willing people,” he said to the newspaper.
The number of foreign specialists is expected to increase strongly as Russia develops President Medvedev’s plans for economic modernization. According to Romodanovsky, about 20,000 foreign specialists currently arrive annually. However, that number is expected to increase to up to 50,000 as the modernization drive proceeds, he said.
