How to get a Residence Permit

Step 1 – Temporary residence permit (РВП – razreshenie na vremennoe prozhivanie).
This is the most difficult stage! Normally takes around 12 months or so. Applicants must be married to a Russian Citizen or alternatively may apply under a quota system. To complete this first step you need to fill in approximately eight application forms, followed by a trip to a specialist at three different clinics. The clinics must be in the area where you live and full medical test must be taken including HIV/Aids tests, venereal diseases, tuberculosis and drug tests – as you can imagine the queues are horrendous and the waiting may be somewhat irritating. All results are normally available from five days up to a week.

Following this, once you have received all your documents from the relevant clinics you need to take these documents to the local health board in your area and receive your full ‘medical certificate’ (these are white and blue certificates with a bar-code on printed at the bottom of the blue page). Make sure that you pay the government fees at Sberbank before you do the tests – this usually costs around two thousand Roubles maximum. You will also need two documents from your permanent place of residence back home from government authorities clarifying that you do not have a criminal record and that you have not been married previously (if you have then you need a copy of your divorce certificate) - remember these documents must be translated and notarized. Your passport needs to be translated and notarized. And you need copies of your registration and current immigration card.

Step 2 – Residence Permit (ВЖ – vid na zhitelztvo)
This step involves utility bills checks, check of home address by FMS authorities, criminal check up in Russia and other checks in Russia. Hence a wait of three years once the authorities are happy with your records here in Russia.

Step 3 – Citizenship, Legal nationality, or Permanent Residence Permit (ГР - grazhdanstvo)
After a further and final check up by the Immigration Services and others you will have your Russian Citizenship (Russian Passport) following a final year. The whole process taking approximately five years from beginning to end.

Congratulations!
Visas have become an expensive headache in recent years. The PBN is a different kind of headache but one which leads to a relatively stress-free coming and going, living and working in Russia when you receive your permanent residence permit.

Visa2day can help with this whole process from medical certificates to all documents needed by FMS.