NEW ADDRESS REGISTRATION RULES: SUMMARY & SOLUTIONS

• July 11, 2018
• Immigration

Please be informed that the federal law on amendments to the procedure of foreign nationals’ registration at the place of stay was signed by the President of Russia and promulgated on June 27, 2018.

The amendments take effect on July 8, 2018.

Which law introduces the changes?

Federal law No. 163-FZ dated 27.06.2018 "On Amendments to the Federal Law on Migration Registration of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in the Russian Federation"

What are the changes?

1. The law redefines the concepts of “place of stay” and “host party”:

v Place of stay denotes a living premise or other accommodation, where a foreign national actually dwells (that is, uses it for sleep and rest on regular basis).

v Host party denotes a Russian national, a permanently residing foreign national, a legal entity, a branch or representative office of a legal entity that have provided a foreign national with accommodation where he actually dwells.

Exception: An organization is considered to be the host party and the place of stay for a foreign employee in case this foreign employee actually dwells at the address of the organization or its premise that has no address.

2. It is established that a foreign national is “subject to registration” at the address of stay (previously – “obliged to register” at the address of stay).

What does this mean in practice?

ü Foreign nationals must be registered at the place of their actual dwelling (house, apartment, non-living premise and other)

ü Employer companies no longer enjoy the right to register foreign employees at the company’s address with the exception to those employees who actually dwell at the company’s address.

ü Depending on the type of the accommodation lease contract, a company or a landlord that have provided accommodation directly to a foreign national will be his host party and will be responsible for carrying out registration:

ü In case no lease agreement is concluded the landlord will be the host party.

Intermark comments

1. Compliance with the new regulations may be complicated in case if a landlord (a private individual) is the host party:

v According to the existing enforcement practice the landlord must apply for migration registration of foreign nationals in person (representation on the basis of a POA is not allowed);

v Many landlords stay outside Russia and are physically unable to carry out their obligation to register foreign nationals within the provided deadline.

v Some landlords prefer to ignore this obligation and accept the risk of being penalized due to minor fines established for individuals.

2. Administrative responsibility for violation of the rules of migration registration remains unchanged:

Host party (clause 4, article 18.9 of the Russian Code of Administrative offences)

Ø legal entities – administrative fine from 400 000 to 500 000 rubles

Ø company officials – administrative fine from 40 000 to 50 000 rubles

Ø individuals – administrative fine from 2 000 to 4 000 rubles

Foreign national (clause 1 and 3, article 18.8 of the Russian Code of Administrative offences)

Ø administrative fine from 2 000 to 7 000 rubles with or without administrative expulsion from Russia

We would like to point out that despite the fact that the foreign national is now subject to registration (that is, the obligation to carry out registration is fully imposed on the host party), he or she is still obliged to provide his host party with the documents required for registration (passport, migration card, previous registration) as well as to collect the registration from the host party once issued.

3. Please pay attention that the new law does not provide for re-registration at the place of actual dwelling of foreign employees who were previously registered at the company’s address.

However in our estimation the state authorities may conclude that after July 8 the employer company no longer remains the place of stay of such employees. Therefore these foreign employees would need to re-register at the new place of stay within the deadline provided by applicable legislation (in cities hosting the World Cup – 3 days, in other locations – within 7 business days or, for HQS, within 30 days).

Intermark has submitted an official request to the responsible authorities asking them to clarify their stance in this matter. We will inform you of any received comments.

Intermark solutions

Intermark offers qualified support to our clients in the process of performing migration registration of foreign nationals, their family members and guests at the address of their actual dwelling.

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