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But the new rules are proving to be a colossal
headache for freelancers, entrepreneurs and people who work at
smaller companies. Among the hardest-hit individuals are English
teachers, who often meet their students through agencies that
never previously bothered to get them work visas.
Anya Soroka, a Canadian citizen, does not know
whether she will stay in Russia after March. It depends on
whether her English-teaching agency will come through with a
work visa.
"I'm not going to be devastated if I can't
come back to Russia," said Soroka, an actress who supplements
her income by teaching English lessons. "Obviously, I'd rather
have a choice."
Most of the English teachers interviewed for
this report said they expected to stay in Russia in 2008 because
their schools were promising to sponsor work visas for them. But
the process is fraught with uncertainty, said Kira Hagen, an
American who has taught English and worked as a nanny for
well-off Russian families. Hagen said she was hoping to return
to Russia as a dependent of her husband, if his company gets him
a work visa. If not, they might leave the country.
"We could probably make an emergency move to
Poland right now, if we needed to," Hagen mused in her blog. "Or
even Korea, if the ticket and housing were paid for."
Legal experts stress that coming to Russia on
any document other than a work visa and earning income -- even
as an independent contractor -- is illegal.
But that law has never been seriously
enforced, and Zubkov's decree was an attempt to close the
loophole, said Peter Reinhardt, a partner at Ernst & Young.
"The underlying presumption behind this rule
change is that if someone is having to spend more than half
their time here, then it can no longer conceivably be a business
trip," Reinhardt said.
Government officials say the rule changes were
based on the principle of reciprocity. Russians face the same
restrictions when traveling to Europe on multiple-entry visas,
Alexander Aksyonov, director of the Federal Migration Service's
visa and registration department, said last month at an event
organized by the American Chamber of Commerce. "If you take a
look at the European Union countries, you will see that they
have exactly the same system."
Changes were introduced after a Russia-EU
agreement to simplify visa procedures went into effect in June.
In some respects, the agreement did make things easier,
especially for short-term business travelers. For instance,
companies that want to bring a foreigner to Russia can now issue
their own invitations, whereas before they had to get the
invitations through the Federal Migration Service. But some
expatriates find it absurd that an agreement intended to
simplify visa procedures has actually made their lives more
complicated.
The EU "caused more harm than good to European
businessmen" with the agreement, Jon Hellevig, a managing
partner at the law firm Hellevig, Klein & Usov, said in a news
bulletin last month.
The fallout from the agreement might damage
the Russian economy by scaring away foreign investors and
entrepreneurs, Hellevig said by telephone. "I think perhaps it
would be better if Russia did not insist on full reciprocity."
A EU diplomat said the visa agreement only
covered short-terms visits and that Russia, not the EU, was
responsible for imposing the 90-day limit. "Russia introduced
the rule mainly on grounds of its policies toward foreigners
living and working in the country," said Taneli Lahti, head of
the political section of the EU's delegation to Russia.
Now, the two options that most foreigners have
if they want to stay in Russia -- a work visa or residency --
both have their own difficulties.
Experts say it currently takes about three
months to get a work visa. Most of that time is taken up by the
process of getting a work permit, which a company needs to
obtain before its employee can get the visa.
Not surprisingly, Russians applying for work
permits in Europe face difficulties too. Unlike Russia, many EU
countries require personal interviews at embassies for
foreigners seeking work permits, and the rejection rate is
higher, Hellevig said. The difference, he said, is navigating
the Russian bureaucracy, which makes it more cumbersome to
provide all the supporting documents needed for an application.
About 25 separate documents are needed, and
"each one may have its own difficulties," Hellevig said. Among
those documents are medical certificates proving that the
foreigner in question does not have tuberculosis or leprosy.
Those diseases are rare in Europe and North
America -- especially among wealthy businessmen -- but that
didn't stop the head of the Federal Migration Service from
defending the rule Wednesday. "The law sets out a list of
diseases that foreigners must prove they do not have,"
Konstantin Romodanovsky said at a news conference in response to
a reporter's question. "Explain to me, please, how can we give
one list of required documents to citizens of Tajikistan and a
different one to citizens of the EU? Surely, our laws must be
objective."
The other legal way to remain in Russia --
obtaining residency -- is a multiyear process that comes with a
number of stringent requirements. For instance, after they
achieve temporary residency -- an intermediate stage on the road
to becoming full-fledged residents -- foreigners cannot leave
Russia without first getting an exit visa. Also, foreigners with
this status do not automatically get the right to work: They
still have to apply for work permits.
Many EU countries offer a more liberal
approach. In Britain, for example, foreigners qualify for
residency if they have been in the country with work permits or
business visas for five years. In Russia, expatriates who have
been here for 10 years or more face the same obstacles to
residency as anyone else.
Still, residency is the best option for people
like Balgera, the Italian getting married to a Russian woman
next week.
Balgera sounded frustrated as he described his
plans to apply for a series of separate three-month visas until
he could get temporary residency and live full-time with his
future wife. What was especially galling to him was that he got
his multiple-entry business visa on Oct. 19 -- just days after
the 90-day rule went into effect. "I had no idea whatsoever," he
said. "If I had gone two days earlier, I would have won six
months. ... But for one day, I lost everything."
Staff Writer Nikolaus von Twickel
contributed to this report. |