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Marriage will need to stand the test of time
The State Duma has adopted a law tightening the procedure for obtaining a temporary residence permit (TRP). With the entry into force of this document, foreigners married to Russian citizens will be able to apply for a temporary residence permit only three years after registering their relationship at the Civil Registry Office. Applications for this procedure can now be submitted the day after the official registration of the marriage.
Amendments to the laws "On the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation" and "On the legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation" were submitted to the State Duma by a group of senators and deputies headed by the Chairman. Andrey Klishas, Federal Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Legislation for November 2023. The document initially proposed issuing temporary residence permits to foreigners who married a citizen of the Russian Federation for two years from the date of registration of the relationship at the registry office. The representative wanted to issue a residence permit with important conditions to parents (adoptive parents, guardians, trustees) of citizens of the Russian Federation. Children must be born from a valid marriage with a Russian citizen. It was also proposed to cancel the temporary residence permit and residence permit if the marriage of the applicant for citizenship was declared invalid by the court or the adoption (or the act of establishing paternity) of a child who was a citizen of the Russian Federation occurred. The court annulled the federation.
According to the description, the purpose of the scheme is to combat sham marriages and fictitious paternity in order to obtain immigration status.
This amendment was adopted by the State Duma in the first reading in April 2024. However, in the second reading, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Vyacheslav Volodin (United Russia) said that the waiting period for a temporary residence permit had increased even more significantly. That is, three years from the date of marriage of a foreigner with a citizen of the Russian Federation in the registry. office. Now, according to the law, foreigners can apply for a temporary residence permit the next day after marriage and eight months after receiving a temporary residence permit (according to Order No. 417). Data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation dated June 11, 2020). Mr. Volodin previously cited statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which show that since 2021, 43 thousand virtual marriages have been concluded "for the purpose of obtaining migration status." According to the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs Irina Volk, 107 temporary residence permits and 75 permanent residence permits were cancelled in the first seven months of 2024 (see Kommersant, September 28, 2024). On October 15, the law was adopted in its final third reading.
To obtain Russian citizenship in the general manner, a foreigner must first obtain a residence permit, then a residence permit (RP), after which he must live and work in Russia continuously for five years and speak Russian. A residence permit can be issued to foreigners who have lived in a country with a temporary residence permit for more than one year. Amendments adopted in 2019 allowed various categories of applicants to apply for a residence permit without a temporary residence permit. Among them were, among others, Soviet citizens born in Russia, their children and qualified specialists.
"Virtual marriages will not benefit foreigners," Anna Minushkina, chair of the Minushkina and Partners Bar Association, explained after the law came into force. "Do I need to wait three years to get married and apply for a license? A lot can happen in three years. As a rule, if the marriage is fictitious, Russian citizens are determined to dissolve it as soon as possible," she says. According to her, fictitious marriages are often concluded when a foreigner begins the deportation procedure from the Russian Federation in the hope of returning to Russia.
Nina Ostanina (CPRF), head of the Duma Committee for the Protection of the Family, said that with the help of the law "we really want to put an end to the abuse of the hospitality that we provide to visiting citizens."
According to her, virtual marriages are generally “humiliating for the institution of the family itself,” since they are based on “rather selfish interests.” Prime Minister Volodin promised to continue work on “improving migration policy,” reminding the state parliament that he is considering six more bills on this topic.