"The mess has become larger"

On June 7, Russia has amended the federal law on leaving the country , it applies to foreigners who have a temporary residence permit (RVP) and stateless persons. In 2017, Russia intends to provide 110,880 permits, in total over the past three years (RVP issued for this period), about 350 thousand people received them. Now, along with receiving RVP, a visa will be put in the passport, explains the Ministry of Internal Affairs , which will allow you to leave Russia without problems and return to it.

The fact that for foreigners traveling outside the Russian Federation, visiting visas are needed and no one knows about them was written by Anna Mongite, journalist, rain. She flew out with her family and a nanny, a citizen of Georgia, from Moscow to rest in Spain. But the nanny was not allowed on the flight and fined 2 thousand rubles "for the fact that it appeared without a visiting visa for passport control" not informed ".

- Outbound visas were supposedly introduced 10 days ago (in the comments they write that almost 15 years ago). Nobody knows about them. But you can already take a fine. They make them for 20 days, you need to collect a complex "package of documents". As in England, - writes Mongite.

Under her post, more than 11 thousand “likes” and a thousand outraged comments. However, as Radio Liberty found out, the adopted changes were made in connection with the February decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (COP) and they are just in the “benefit” of foreigners.

Svetlana Gannushkina from the Committee "Civil Assistance" says that in fact this amendment is good and it will make life easier for foreigners if Russia has a visa regime with Russia.

If he has already been allowed to live in Russia for three years and gave RVP, why another visas? Now this idiocy has been eliminated

- There are no output visas for foreign citizens. For citizens of the countries with whom the visa regime has been established, as a general rule, it is necessary to have a valid passport and an unimportant visa, ”explains Gannushkina. - That is, a foreigner with a RVP, and before without problems he could leave Russia, but in order to return here again, he needed a new visa. This, of course, is an excessive requirement, because if he was already allowed to live in Russia for three years and gave RVP, why else visas? Now this idiocy has been eliminated - simultaneously with the RVP, the state bodies are now issued a visa for the entire duration of the RVP, that is, for three years. And this new rule has been operating since February, since the decision of the Constitutional Court has the power of the law. Now, it’s just that all this has been regulated in the framework of federal law.

Elena - a citizen of Ukraine, studied in Moscow at the university, now works. Russia has a visa -free regime with Ukraine, but in order to be legally working here and work, the girl received RVP in February this year.

I already went abroad with this document, and they did not ask for any visiting visas

- In the passport, where they usually glue the visa, they put this RVP. I already went abroad with this document, and I was not asked for any visiting visas, I also drove back without any problems, ”she explains.

Thus, for foreigners, with whose countries Russia has a visa -free regime, nothing has changed at all. But since Russia has a visa regime with Georgia, in order to be legally located in the territory of the Russian Federation, the nanny of Mongite needs a visa, which, apparently, at the time of its departure from Russia was expired.

Actually, with the exactly the same problem - there is a RVP, but the visa is expired and not released from the country - a citizen of Nigeria Hudson Uvangue collided. He was also fined 2 thousand rubles, later this decision was recognized as illegal by the court. And the very provision of the federal law "On the procedure for departure from the Russian Federation ..." The lawyer of the Nigerian Viktor Mikhailov appealed to the Constitutional Court .

“Uvangue came to Russia from Nigeria, issued a RVP, married a citizen of Russia, they had a child, he lived here on an ongoing basis,” says Viktor Mikhailov , representative of Uvangue in the Constitutional Court, K.Yu.N., Associate Professor of the Department of Judicial Authority to the Higher School of Economics. - He received a letter that his brother died, and on an emergency bought a ticket to Nigeria, to his homeland. When leaving the Russian Federation, the border service checked his documents and, firstly, brought him to administrative responsibility due to the lack of a valid visa ( between Nigeria and Russia, the visa regime is valid.-RS ). And his visa was expired because he issued RVP. And at the same time, he was actually banned from departure from the Russian Federation. We challenged this bringing to administrative responsibility in the Domodedovo City Court, since he was detained in Domodedovo, and then appealed to the Constitutional Court in connection with a ban on departure, that is, in fact, to prevent a citizen of another country to leave Russia to their homeland.

A citizen of the foreign state in fact cannot leave Russia and remains, in fact, arrested in the country due to the lack of valid visa

According to Mikhailov, the COP was challenged by the fact that, firstly, the presence of a visa was not required simultaneously with a residence permit, and secondly, that the Nigerian was banned. That is, a citizen of a foreign state in fact cannot leave Russia and remains, in fact, arrested in the country due to the lack of a valid visa.

- The Constitutional Court issued a decision and confirmed the fact of preventing the ban on travel under any circumstances. At the same time, the Constitutional Court in his resolution stipulated the right of the Russian Federation to verify the availability of the necessary permits from the person who came to Russia. This law, which was signed and published on June 7, was actually adopted precisely in connection with the resolution of the Constitutional Court, in which they provided for the presence of a valid visa. But, in my opinion, the interpretation of this norm suggests, in connection with the decision of the Constitutional Court, that the body drawing up the RVP must by default extend the current visa for the deadline for issuing the RVP, ”says Mikhailov.

However, in practice, that, together with RVP, you can now get a visa for the entire period, it seems that there are really few people know. And the law enforcement officers, as the case of the nanny Mongite in Sheremetyeva showed, still bring to administrative responsibility for the lack of visa.

Irina Biryukova , lawyer of the Public Verdict Foundation, believes that the actions of the border guards Nanny Mongite must be appealed in court.

Foreign citizens who have RVP cannot violate the legislation of the Russian Federation precisely in terms of stay more than twice during the year, otherwise this permit will be canceled

- It is necessary to challenge this decision not only in order to compensate for your costs for tickets and a spoiled tour, but also because the administrative punishment that is superimposed has far -reaching consequences. The fact is that foreign citizens who have RVP cannot violate the legislation of the Russian Federation precisely in terms of stay more than twice during the year, otherwise this permission will be canceled, ”explains Biryukova. - It’s just that we don’t explain anything to us, respectively, a foreign citizen may not know that they made changes to the law. In addition, there is a very incomprehensible situation with those citizens who already have a temporary residence permit. In general, according to the law that does not have retroactive force, it should apply to them, but, as yesterday’s case showed in Sheremetyevo, the border guards apply it to those who already have RVP, but there is no visa. That is, from June 7, they began to apply this law to all, no matter when the RVP was received.

According to lawyers, all foreigners who have RVP and visa regime with Russia, so that such cases should not arise, must go to the territorial units of the bodies exercising migration control to extend overdue visas, which should be made without delay and obstacles.

In the coming months, there will probably be a Czech with the application of a new law

- Foreign citizens and stateless persons who will receive temporary residence permit must take care of being given this visa. This is done by territorial bodies that regulate the procedure for issuing the temporary residence permit itself, ”says Biryukova. - Since the migration service did not give official explanations about the adoption of new amendments, in the coming months there will probably be a Czech with its use. I do not exclude that the border guards will apply this law to persons who have a residence permit.

After the disbandment of the FMS and the transfer of its functions in the Bardak Ministry of Internal Affairs, it became many times more

Until April 2016, a special department, the Federal Migration Service (FMS) dealt with migration issues. After its disbandment, the FMS function went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. About 10 thousand employees resigned from the service. And the mess in connection with the transfer of the functions of the FMS to the police has become many times more than before, Svetlana Gannushkina from "civil assistance" notes.

- Experienced specialists left the service, and they trained them for years, trained in the courses, conducted trainings, carried them abroad at the invitation of the UN Supreme Commissioner for Refugees. And now there is none of this, the full collapse of the system, ”Gannushkina states. -In reality, those who are in the topic practically did not have left, investigators were typed in their places, who initially had a repressive mood, which was still not in the FMS.