Foreigners now have to obtain registration through their landlords - without the option of registering through an employer.

The new changes to the country's immigration rules came into force today.

Expats living and working in Russia will now be able to register only at a hotel or with their landlord every time they reenter Russia. It can also be done at the post office or at the registration office.  

“A company will still be able to register an employee, but only if they have some special rental agreement with landlords or state agencies,” said Konstantin Poltoranin of the Federal Migration Service. “Firms can help their employee out this way, or the expats will have to register at the hotel which does all the paperwork, or go to live in a private home, in which case the landlord will have to do the registration job.”

This means that all responsibility for the registration can be handed over from landlord to employers.

Expats who are now working in Russia say they are confused. But Poltoranin says that they need to understand that this law is not to monitor them, but people who come illegally from neighboring CIS states.

“Eighty-five percent of foreigners coming to Russia are people from former Soviet republics with which Russia has visa-free agreements,” he said. “These people – it is about 9 million – simply vanish. It is really hard to monitor them. When they get registered with a company and then something happens, we cannot find these people because they do not live where they are registered. We think that the new amendments will help to solve the problem.”

This could lead to even higher rents than usual for expats.

The Moscow News newspaper called it “Chaos for expats.” Opponents of this policy suggest that foreign specialists could face discrimination in housing because landlords would not want to take the added responsibility that will come with having a foreigner on their premises.

Landlords will also be more likely to raise the rents for those expats they already have as tenants, because most of the landlords in Russia prefer not to disclose rental agreements, thus avoiding taxes.

The business community is already blasting this new immigration policy. No matter that companies will no longer be able to register their employees, they will still assume the penalties if an expat fails to register on time.

However, the immigration services say the change is not going to be as bad as anticipated. For instance, those foreign workers who make over $68,000 a year will be exempt from this registration policy -they will have up to 90 days to register and will receive tax benefits, too.
Another positive change is that expats’ families will be able to join their loved ones in the country on easier terms. The list of family members who can move to Russia with the foreign specialist now includes the grandparents of both the expat and his or her spouse.

Also, expats will receive a residence permit for the entire time of their working agreement, or a 3-year working visa.

Yann Sotty, director of Welcome Abroad Relocations, a company that helps expats find a place to live, says some landlords may be unwilling to register their tenants, as they often try to avoid paying taxes, but it will depend on the amount of money paid for the rent. Besides, Sotty noted, more and more Russian landlords are now beginning to pay all the taxes on their full income.

Watch full interview with Yann Sotty below