Residency in Russia

I’ve been here in Russia for three years already, and now what? Well, here’s what I’ve gained so far:

1. Experience teaching English to foreigners, which lets me live anywhere in Russia (and, practically anywhere in the world) and make a good living. It’s fun work, and I can do it.
2. Many contacts and friends here in Russia, thanks to teaching and tutoring work
3. Knowledge of Russian to a high-intermediate level
4. Knowledge of where to find information and make life work in Russia, thanks to my own experience, my contacts, and simple curiosity
5. Plenty of general knowledge about Russia, what people do here, and how they view the world

These factors, combined with my existing background in human geography research, seem to suggest that opening a consulting business could be profitable. However, finding a specific informational niche for consulting, something that is both interesting and profitable for me and useful for the rest of the world, still awaits in the future. In the meantime I have English teaching and tutoring work, and the possibilities for this kind of work can be maximized while being self-employed.

Before I can do that, I need to get residency in Russia, so as not to be dependent on work visa prolongations. This is not exactly an easy and clear process, and the stereotype of bureaucratic difficulties in Russia unfortunately is true with getting residency. In order to help out people who might be in a similar situation as me, I’ll write out the process here and update it as I find out new details or reach dead ends.

Before applying for temporary residency in Russia (РВП), it’s necessary to have lived here for at least two years. Then you’ll need to collect the following:

1. Your passport
2. Your migration card and registration card
3. Your current visa
   1. You must apply for residency a minimum of 6 months before the end of your current visa!!!
4. A criminal record check from your home country
   1. This should be an interesting one to get: I need to be fingerprinted at a Russian police station, then deal with the “Commissionaires” organization in Canada to get these fingerprints digitized, and then they deal with the Canadian RCMP to issue the results of the criminal record check
   2. This document might also need to be translated into Russian, and certified and notarized
5. Documents relating to the migration quota, or a marriage certificate
   1. Getting married in Russia to a Russian citizen means that you’re exempted from the quota system, and this makes the whole process a bit easier
6. Two application forms for temporary residency
7. A certificate proving that you’ve passed the knowledge exam (for temporary residency, this is the РВП exam)
8. A certificate proving that you’re healthy and don’t have HIV/AIDS
   1. You need to get this done at certain medical clinics in Russia
   2. It’s not cheap, at about 10,000 roubles

The total cost for the whole procedure is about 25,000 roubles, and maybe more with translating certain documents into Russian. Certain documents also are only valid for a short period of time (3 months for the criminal record check, and for the medical check), and other documents (migration card and registration card) might make my life difficult if I’d like to travel outside of Russia during the application process.

Also, there’s only one Federal Migration Services office in central St. Petersburg that deals with residency applications (don’t go to the offices in Peterhof and Lomonosov like I did, it’s just a waste of time). It’s possible to hire a law firm for private help in dealing with the whole process, but if you’re like me you probably don’t want to spend the extra money.

More information and updates to this post to come, as I find out new details.