The State Duma has tightened the rules for the legalization of foreigners by marriage. Now you have to live in it for at least two years

The State Duma adopted in the first reading amendments to the laws on the stay of foreigners in Russia. Now they will be able to obtain a temporary residence permit in the country (TRP) only after two years of marriage to a Russian citizen.

Amendments have been made to the texts of two laws - on entry and exit from Russia and on the legal status of foreign citizens in the country. If previously a foreigner could obtain a temporary residence permit upon marriage to a Russian citizen living in Russia, now to do this they will need to live together for at least two years.

In addition, as stated in the State Duma press release, the amendments are aimed at “combatting cases of issuing fictitious documents on the adoption of children by foreigners” who want to obtain a temporary residence permit in Russia. The previous version of the law stated that a foreign citizen who has a child with Russian citizenship can obtain a residence permit. Now such a child must be born or adopted in marriage with a citizen of the Russian Federation.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin called the conclusion of a fictitious marriage, as well as fictitious adoption, “one of the loopholes for illegal migration” and said that this “must be stopped.” He added that if foreigners want to live in Russia, they must “know the Russian language, laws, respect culture and traditions, and marry solely for the sake of creating a family.”

The bill was submitted to the State Duma on November 1, 2023, but remained without movement until March. Among its authors are senators Andrei Klishas, ​​Irina Rukavishnikova, Yuri Valyaev, as well as State Duma deputy Viktor Vodolatsky.

• After the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall, the perpetrators of which, according to law enforcement agencies, have Tajik citizenship, Russia began to tighten the rules of stay for foreigners. The Ministry of Internal Affairs proposed to reduce the period of their stay in the country to 90 days during the year, rather than six months, as it was before, and to collect biometric data from them immediately upon entry.
• For several days after the terrorist attack, police carried out raids in different cities, during which they identified foreign citizens who did not have the right to stay in Russia, and St. Petersburg courts issued several hundred decisions on the forced expulsion of foreigners in cases of non-compliance with migration laws.