State Duma will let guest workers into Russia above quota
It is assumed that the patent will be issued by territorial bodies of the FMS monthly for a fee - the current version of the bill states that the cost of the patent will be 1,000 rubles. Moreover, as explained by State Secretary of the FMS Yekaterina Yegorova, the patent will be renewed in a notification procedure. 'You just need to pay for the next month - 1,000 rubles,' the migration service official clarified. 'The money must be taken to the bank, and the receipt sent by mail. Thus, the patent will be automatically renewed.'
Separately, the procedure for issuing work permits to qualified specialists of foreign origin is also stipulated - migration documents will be issued to them for the entire duration of the contract with employers. Moreover, on the basis of this permit, a residence permit will be issued to the specialist and his immediate family (again for the entire duration of the employment contract). If the contract is for more than 183 calendar days, the valuable migrant is granted the tax regime of a Russian resident, which includes, among other things, the collection of personal income tax at a rate of 13%.
According to the developers, the bill is 'aimed at improving the mechanisms for regulating external labor migration, protecting the national labor market from excessive attraction of foreign labor.' However, it is noteworthy that 'patented' guest workers (and not only highly qualified specialists, but also the aforementioned guards, gardeners, and nannies) can be attracted above the quotas annually set by the government based on applications from each region of Russia.
'This category of migrants will not be included in the official quota,' confirmed State Secretary of the Migration Service Yekaterina Yegorova. And in reality, the current quota (for 2010, 1.9 million work permits were allocated, of which almost a third is a reserve) could be exceeded several times. As Konstantin Poltoranin, deputy head of the international and public relations department of the FMS, told Vremya Novostei, according to the agency, 'there are approximately 4 million migrants employed in the private sector in Russia.' 'This can be tracked by the entry of foreign citizens, by the time of their stay in the Russian Federation,' Poltoranin explained.
Trade union representatives fear that the introduction of patents will not protect the Russian labor market from an excessive influx of foreign labor. 'Quite the opposite. If the bill is passed in its current form, it will harm the interests of Russian workers,' stressed Alexander Shershukov, secretary of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia, in an interview with a Vremya Novostei correspondent. The FNPR proposes issuing patents within quotas. 'The logic of the FMS is simply incomprehensible,' Shershukov emphasizes. 'It's one thing if it were only about attracting highly qualified specialists, but the bill also concerns low-skilled workers. Thus, specialists of all ranks fall under the bill.'
The bill is being passed at a time when all services are recording rising unemployment in Russia, the FNPR secretary emphasizes. According to trade union monitoring, by the end of the first half of the year, the number of officially registered unemployed could reach 3 million people, and the overall unemployment rate could rise to 8-9 million. According to official data from Rostrud, currently more than 2.2 million Russians are registered with employment services alone.
'At the moment, attracting foreign workers outside quotas would be at least a strange decision,' notes Shershukov. 'Moreover, it remains unclear how this law will work and how many migrants will fall under it.' According to the FNPR secretary, there is a possibility that large employers, wanting to exceed the upper limit set by quotas, will look for loopholes - for example, registering guest workers as 'patented' migrants working for private individuals.
'It is not yet known how the law will work in practice after its adoption,' notes Alexander Shershukov. 'It remains to be hoped that clarifying points will be added to the bill in subsequent readings.'