The Russian-speaking diaspora in the world is huge. Many of its representatives decide to return to their historical homeland. Some directions of the Russian state can contribute to this. Such as, for example, the issuance of laws that make it easier for people with significant ties to Russia to obtain citizenship of our country. How are these opportunities being used in practice?
Is it easier to get citizenship?
In the spring of 2014, the President of the Russian Federation signed a law that, according to experts and lawyers, greatly facilitates the procedure for certain categories of citizens to obtain Russian citizenship. What exactly? First of all, Russian-speaking residents of other countries will be able to count on a simplified acquisition, provided that their relatives lived in the Russian Empire, the USSR or the modern Russian Federation.
How is this procedure supposed to be carried out? Let's consider its key aspects.
Features of the new simplified procedure
The approximate period during which all the necessary stages must be carried out, according to the innovations in the law, is 3 months. For comparison, if a person wants to become a citizen 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 for about 5 years (if we are talking about the general order of the corresponding procedure). You can speed up the process somewhat - as an option, by marrying a citizen of the Russian Federation. But the terms are obviously incomparable for "preferential" candidates for Russian citizenship and people who can expect to receive the appropriate status on a general basis.
The deadlines are a clear relief, but before obtaining a Russian passport, a person will have to go through several important stages of communication with the competent state authorities. In order to obtain citizenship of the Russian Federation in a simplified manner, a resident of another state that falls under the above criteria will, in particular, have to go through an interview procedure. It is assumed that commissions will be set up to take an appropriate language "exam". In their composition, as noted in a number of sources, there will be philologists. 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. Written any elements of the "exam" are not supposed to be taken.
The new law on obtaining citizenship: the nuances
What are the specific criteria for candidates for registration of Russian citizenship, which were established by the law on obtaining citizenship of the Russian Federation? It can be noted, for example, that applicants who use it on a regular basis in everyday life, in family life are recognized as native speakers of the Russian language. Actually, the circumstances of a person’s communication in their native dialect will be clarified by the experts at the interview.
Visa - extended
Amendments to the new Federal Law on Citizenship of the Russian Federation also include provisions reflecting the facilitated conditions for the entry of candidates for registration of citizenship of the Russian Federation to our country and their stay here. In particular, this legal act introduced a new type of visa - especially for those foreigners who came to Russia to obtain a 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 an appropriate application to the FMS of Russia. If not, they will be allowed to stay in the Russian Federation within the time limits specified 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 it necessary to renounce previous citizenship?
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 the obligatory renunciation 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 lawyers note, this requirement can be circumvented, based on the wording "impossibility" of renunciation of foreign citizenship due to reasons that "do not depend on the person", present in the legal act adopted in the spring.
Some lawyers consider this wording in the law to be inconsistent with a number of other legal norms in force in the Russian Federation. The fact is that, as you know, in Russia it is legally allowed. And therefore, the corresponding provision in the considered Federal Law, experts believe, may be associated with the psychological component of the process of obtaining Russian citizenship. A person, proceeding from the idea of the legislator, thus goes to a conscious refusal to communicate with the state where he lived before becoming a citizen of the Russian Federation.
Among other noteworthy requirements of the law is the fact that a citizen has the means of subsistence in Russia upon the fact of accepting citizenship of our state. Different lawyers interpret this requirement in different ways. 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 money. 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 not present financial or immovable assets, then show the Federal Migration Service that he has, say, a specialty that is in demand on the labor market of the Russian Federation.
The next noteworthy point that some experts talk about is that the law on simplified citizenship acquisition states that a person applying for citizenship must prove kinship with Russia. But it doesn't say how. There are no specific criteria for this. Lawyers believe that much in this aspect will depend on law enforcement practice.
Language aspect
Another interesting aspect is the same language exam. An applicant for citizenship must, as we noted above, prove that he uses Russian in everyday life, in everyday communication. But this, as noted by some lawyers, 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 only by the level of conversation at the interview, but also in relation to the frequency of a person's stay in a Russian-speaking environment - on the territory of the Russian Federation or abroad. And if, in this sense, for example, it will be easier for Ukrainians to obtain citizenship of the Russian Federation, 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, the descendants of emigrants who live in France, do not quite understandable. At the same time, according to some experts, it is highly likely that FMS employees will still prefer not to delve too deeply into the analysis of the social environment of a candidate for citizenship. Seeing that he speaks excellent Russian, it is unlikely that anyone will question the ability of a person to adapt to communication in Russia upon registration of citizenship.
Citizenship for entrepreneurs
It should be noted that the Federal Law on citizenship of the Russian Federation discussed above is not the only legal act aimed at facilitating the conditions for 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 granting of Russian citizenship to foreigners doing business in our country. According to this legal act, citizens of other states who have been engaged in business 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, sectoral restrictions. In particular, the preferential procedure for obtaining citizenship will not apply to entrepreneurs engaged in trade, accounting, advertising, car repair, catering, real estate, employment and recruitment services, legal advice, as well as the hotel business. In some sources, you can find explanations about the large number of industry exceptions regarding the benefits in obtaining citizenship. So, for example, there is information that reflects the thesis that Russia does not experience a shortage of entrepreneurs employed specifically in these areas.
Simplified procedure in a 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 obtain Russian citizenship in a simplified manner. Consider the features of the norms that existed before the innovations (and at the same time, are still in force - for people who do not have the opportunity to acquire a Russian passport on a preferential basis).
The mechanism under which the acquisition of Russian citizenship took place before the recent reforms (and, in fact, in relation to non-Russian-speaking citizens and those who have no ties with the Russian Federation), provides for the following criteria.
An adult person who is a foreigner or has the status of a person without a passport of any country and belongs to the following categories can become a candidate for Russian citizenship:
Persons with disabled parents who are citizens of the Russian Federation;
Persons who had a USSR passport and lived in the former Soviet republics without registration of citizenship.
In the latter case, as some lawyers note, as a rule, we are talking about people who, as a result of the complexities of immigration processes, remained in principle without any citizenship - the USSR ceased to exist, and a new passport of an independent republic has not been received.
Simplified acquisition of Russian citizenship 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 whose one of the parents has 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 citizen of Russia, must agree that the child receives a Russian passport.
Simplified acquisition of Russian citizenship in the standard procedure is possible for persons who have a passport of states that were previously part of the USSR, if they have a diploma of graduation from a Russian university or institution of secondary vocational education. The key criterion is that training, according to the documents, must be completed no earlier than July 1, 2002.
A simplified procedure for obtaining citizenship of the Russian Federation is possible for persons who have passports of the former Soviet republics or who do not have the citizenship of any other states and are classified as disabled. The key criterion is that a person must be registered in Russia before July 1, 2002.
A simplified option for 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;
Who have minor children who have citizenship of the Russian Federation and are recognized by the court as incompetent.
Foreigners and persons who do not have a passport of any country, subject to the citizenship of the USSR, who arrived in the Russian Federation from the former Soviet republics and have registration in the Russian Federation issued before July 1, 2002, can also become citizens of Russia. 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 WWII veterans living in Russia who had a USSR passport.
Another possible scenario for obtaining Russian citizenship in a simplified regime is the participation of a person in a state program to provide assistance in the voluntary resettlement to Russia of persons living abroad and their families.
Simplified citizenship: formalities
How is the procedure for obtaining citizenship of the Russian Federation carried out in a simplified manner? The scenario that we will now consider, in general, is relevant both for cases of requests for citizenship on the grounds that were in the laws before the innovations, and for persons falling under the new criteria. That is, from the point of view of the sequence of actions of the applicant for 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 appropriate benefit. But we will note the facts of differences.
What is the algorithm for obtaining Russian citizenship within the framework of the mechanisms in question? In principle, there is nothing complicated here. A person must apply to the territorial body of the FMS and fill out an application form there in the prescribed form. This document sets out the essence of the questions that reveal aspects of the identity of the applicant for citizenship. The application must be drawn up in two copies, the language of preparation must be Russian.
This document must be accompanied by other sources confirming the citizenship of the Russian Federation in a simplified manner in accordance with the above grounds. It is also necessary to pay a state duty - 2 thousand rubles. Those persons who used to live in the former Soviet republics, but do not have the citizenship of these countries, do not need to pay the corresponding fee. You can also submit an application and accompanying documents for obtaining Russian citizenship outside 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 to accompany. After that, within 6 months - on the grounds that were in force before the reform, and 3 months - on a preferential basis, the department 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 submission of documents to the FMS, the department must schedule an interview for knowledge of the Russian language. The commission that will take the "exam" will probably include a certified expert in the Russian language from the nearest educational institution of the required profile. The interview is free. It takes approximately half an hour in time. As we noted at the beginning of the article, communication takes place orally.
If the commission decides that a person speaks Russian well, then he is issued a document confirming this.
If a person cannot bypass the requirement to renounce the citizenship of the country where he lived before the decision to move to the Russian Federation, then 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 specific territorial structures of the FMS in different regions can determine their channels of communication with citizens. With a positive decision, the person is invited to receive a Russian passport.
