- Vyacheslav Alexandrovich, what is the current flow of labor immigrants to Russia?
- About 20 million people enter legally every year. Of these, about 10 million foreign citizens come specifically to work. At the same time, only about 700,000 of these immigrants work legally throughout Russia - all the rest are illegal.
- What is the reason for such a number of illegal migrant workers?
- One of the reasons, of course, is the rather lengthy step-by-step procedure for processing documents for labor immigrants that exists today. By law, the employer must process all papers for such a labor migrant. So first he applies to the employment authorities, namely to Rostrud, for the first necessary document - a conclusion on the advisability of attracting foreign labor. If Rostrud gives the go-ahead, then the employer comes to our agency - the Federal Migration Service - this time for permission to attract and use a foreign worker. After that, our agency also issues a work permit for the future employee, then an entry invitation (for immigrants from far abroad), and then there is also registration. And obtaining each document takes about a month, which in total results in unbearably long periods - up to 8 months.
- And the Federal Migration Service decided to simplify this process?
- Our agency was simply flooded with letters of complaint from various companies, including very well-known and large ones. It was impossible to delay simplifying this regime, and on October 1, 2005, a decision was made to launch an experiment to introduce the 'one-stop shop' principle. Its essence is that the employer does not have to run around various authorities. In the near future, the employer will submit all documents at once to the FMS Office of External Migration, figuratively speaking, to a 'single window,' and then the service itself will send these papers to all interested departments. This way, the processing time can be reduced to a month. Currently, the receipt of three documents has already been combined - permission to attract foreigners, a work permit, and an entry invitation - and work in this direction continues.
- In which regions of the country can one already 'register' under this simplified scheme?
- The experiment is already being conducted in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Primorsky Krai. In the capital, for example, 1,000 people have been processed this way since October last year. And on May 1 the experiment will end, the results will be analyzed, and, I hope, the 'one-stop shop' principle will begin to be introduced in all regions and will actually work this year.
- Should we expect further relaxations in the registration regime for labor activity in Russia?
- Yes, for example, our agency has written a program on so-called remote access - providing the FMS with the necessary information in electronic form. In this case, employers simply log into our system through a special entrance and upload the necessary documents over the network, and we begin processing the worker. And the employer comes with paper originals only once - to pick up the finished permits. And we are absolutely ready to start such an experiment. However, this approach will only be practiced for large firms that regularly attract foreign specialists.
- Will preference be given to Russian-speaking labor immigrants from CIS countries?
- The 'one-stop shop' principle is equally accessible to all foreign specialists. However, of course, if we say that Russia needs qualified personnel, it would be logical to start by attracting Russian-speaking former compatriots. The issue of employment of these people will be addressed within the framework of the state repatriation program, which is currently being developed.
- Is liberalization of registration for labor activity planned at the legislative level?
- Yes, at the moment a draft law on amendments to the law 'On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation' is close to completion. In particular, this draft proposes to completely remove from the law some currently required permit documents. For example, according to the draft, CIS citizens will not need to obtain a permit for attraction and a conclusion on its advisability, which is already two documents less.
- What other changes are planned to be introduced into Russian legislation concerning immigrants?
- Currently, the FMS is preparing a draft of a completely new law 'On Migration Registration.' This document will combine all stages of processing foreign citizens and simplify the registration procedure. For example, it is planned to introduce registration in a notification procedure, when an immigrant who comes to the nearest police station is registered immediately, without lengthy permitting and verification measures. In other words, with the introduction of such a notification principle in registration, no one will refuse an immigrant. However, work on this draft is still far from complete.
- What necessitates changing the existing immigration registration regime?
- The current procedure for registering foreign citizens is quite complex and overly bureaucratized. That is why it is a very corruption-prone process. 'Rubber houses' appear, in which 40-50 people are registered at one address. This situation breeds the number of illegal migrants, because most visitors do not register out of unwillingness to obey the law, but because they fail to pass the registration procedure, which imposes high requirements. For example, registration may be refused because the housing does not meet certain square footage and sanitary-hygienic standards.
It even gets ridiculous. I myself observed in Yakutsk: Chinese workers are building a modern high-rise building, and next to the construction site stands a wooden village house, where our citizens lived for many years, and were relocated only just before the start of construction. But as soon as immigrant construction workers moved into this house, a commission immediately came and determined that it was impossible to live here and refused registration to a considerable number of migrant workers. This is how a huge number of illegal migrants are born, who are not registered anywhere.