Translated material
Let me invite you!
Now the program of 80 megagrants of 150 million rubles is being widely discussed. for 3 years. Suppose this program is successful, and several dozen very strong scientists from abroad will come to Russian universities and organize research groups. Is it possible to scale up this program by inviting a couple of thousand lesser-known scientists—the strong middle class—using smaller grants?
Let's analyze the situation when a foreigner, a citizen of the EU or the USA, is going to a Russian university with a visa. Of course, this is impossible due to salaries in universities. But suppose the rector decided to go on an experiment, finding funds to invite qualified teachers.
In the summer of 2010, amendments were adopted to the law “On the legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation”, which introduced the concept of “highly qualified specialist”. This is considered an employee with a salary of 2 million rubles. and more per year. A highly qualified foreign specialist is given significant benefits: the employer does not need a quota to attract such a worker, and it is easier for him to obtain a work permit [1]. It is obvious that these amendments were adopted in the interests of big business, possibly with an eye on mega-grants.
Now let’s look at the process of registering a foreign teacher from a visa country, to whom the university is not willing to pay 2 million rubles. per year: it is divided into four stages [2, 3].
1. Applying for a quota to attract foreign labor
For the next year, this must be done before May 1 of the current year. There are “quota-free” positions, but teachers, and even deans and rectors, are not included there - they are mainly general and simple directors, as well as chairmen of the board. If an employee is needed urgently, but there is no quota, you must contact the interdepartmental commission with a request to allocate a quota for the current year.
2. Contacting the Employment Center
You need to submit a package of documents, including a list of vacancies, and within a month the Employment Center will be looking for Russian workers.
3. Contact the FMS
At this stage, you need to apply for a permit to attract foreign labor (RPIRS) and an individual work permit for a foreigner. The period for reviewing documents is up to 60 days. RPIRS is an A4 document that contains the employer’s details, a list of professions and countries from which it is planned to attract specialists. This document is key in the entire registration process. It is on this basis that individual work permits are issued, without which a foreigner cannot be hired, an employment contract cannot be concluded with him, and even less a salary cannot be paid. The card contains the foreigner’s data, the profession in which he can work, the region of validity and the period of validity. The FMS requires a fairly large package of documents. In addition to filling out papers (application form, draft employment contract, letter of guarantee from the employer), notarized copies of the employer’s constituent documents, paying fees of 6,000 rubles. for RPIRS and 2000 - for a work permit, notarized translations of a diploma and a passport, a foreigner will have to visit Russian tuberculosis, skin and venereal disease and drug addiction clinics (you must provide certificates of the absence of HIV, leprosy, syphilis, chlamydial granuloma, chancroid, tuberculosis and drug addiction).
4. Conclusion of an employment contract
After concluding an employment contract, the employer is obliged to notify the territorial employment center and the tax service about hiring foreigners within ten days. Failure to comply with this requirement is punishable by fines from 60 thousand to 800 thousand rubles. for one foreigner. All this - not counting the issuance of a visa for a foreigner, registration of the place of stay, a temporary residence permit and a residence permit (if the work is long-term, and this is precisely the work of a teacher).
Employment of teachers from the CIS countries is no less difficult. According to the law, only the employment of Belarusians, who, by virtue of interstate agreements, are not considered foreign labor, should be problem-free, and their registration should take place in the same way as Russians.
However, in practice this is not the case. Recently, before my eyes, the HR department of the Russian Chemical Technical University named after. DI. Mendeleev successfully repulsed an attempt to employ another Belarusian, this time a graduate of Moscow State University (according to rumors, this is the fourth case). Argument: “law is law, and life is life.” Leading universities reject foreigners either through the security service (military or secret work at the university), or through the personnel and accounting departments (too lazy to understand the laws, too much responsibility). Standard requirements: “citizenship of the Russian Federation, registration of M/M.O.” Thus, in fact, the decision to hire any foreigner at a university is made not according to professional criteria, but by representatives of the human resources and accounting departments. In some ways they can be understood: legislation is sometimes confusing, and regulation is excessive. The law is like a minefield - one wrong step is disastrous. Indeed, hiring citizens without a work permit (and these are all foreigners, with the exception of Belarusians) faces a fine of 200 thousand to 800 thousand rubles. Therefore, it is easier when all employees are registered in the same way.
It turns out that our corps of teachers is reliably protected from any competition (and, therefore, development and improvement) by three walls: firstly, there is no culture of holding competitions and an understanding that they are needed (the competitions held are usually formal); secondly, this an economic barrier (a foreigner simply will not understand how to survive on the salary of a Russian university; not all natives have these skills), thirdly, an administrative and legislative one: the registration is so complicated that simply no one will undertake it.
Due to the difficulties with registering foreigners with recruitment agencies, the popularity of leasing is growing - when all the registration of an employee is carried out by a recruitment agency, and according to all documents the person works in it, but in fact works for a specific employer - is leased to him. Leasing a car is understandable, but a person is already absurd. Naturally, this expensive mechanism only works for a small number of business positions and is not suitable for the field of education and science.
On November 1, the results of the mega-grant competition should be announced. I sympathize with those who will have to run around and fill out documents for foreigners. Register them as highly qualified, then the RPIRS is not needed, but bringing in some support employees will not be so easy.
Sergey Naumenko,
IITP RAS
1. www.audit-it.ru/news/personnel/224572.html