Job Discussion Forums

[gonzoteacher]

What type of visa invitation should a teacher expect to receive from the inviting school? I have looked at the Russian embassy web site in Washington and it states that a tourist visa is only good for 28 days and you should present a ticket with departure date. Does this mean that the only kind of visa I should expect is a business visa?

any thoughts appreciated.

[Nexus]

They should send you an invitation letter to get a 1 year multiple entry business visa.

There's a lot of discussion about visas here

http://www.expat.ru/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=82

[BELS]

I can confirm this, just got one. I am surprised the website you checked did not give you more information than just a tourist visa. This site site should explain about Multi entry visa.

Try this one http://www.rusemblon.org/
an official site of the russian embassy, its easy to make a search and find an agency by mistake.

But first you will need an invitation from a school. this is limited unfortunately. There are only two EF schools that I am aware of. The invitation must have the schools name on it. If it doesn,t you will be working illegally.

[steven_gerrard]

Often schools invite you on a three month single entry business visa which can then be changed into a 12 month multi in country -you don't have to leave Russia. In fact, one of the largest schools in Moscow does this right now, as well as several smaller ones. If you're working for a Russian-owned school then it's unlikely you'll be invited on a 12 month multi, simply because these are the most expensive.

[BELS]

Most of my information comes verbally from my Russian wife who is a Tour operator, and with her investigations with authorities in working legally in Moscow privately or employed. Unfortunately I dont speak much Russian, although I am learning. I take the information from her translations. Also expat.ru forum covers this subject a lot in general.

Schools need the permission from the proper immigration authorities to invite. Some don't take this trouble. If you receive an invitation from some unknown company, then you don't have the right to work as a teacher.

My wife is weary of some three month visa, if the purpose of work is for one year, also if you plan to stay more than six months, you will need an HIV test certificate.

[BELS]

I have checked some sites to refresh my memory,including the Russian Embassy and confirms my suspicions. My conclusion is that I cannot find information on how to extend a three month visa into a one year Multi entry visa without leaving the country. The Russian Embassy does not know of this info

But I am curious in more detail of how this three month visa is changed to an ME without leaving the country.

[steven_gerrard]

That's all true.

However, all but the largest schools have this "right to invite". I'd say most teachers working in Moscow don't have the legal right to work here. Even schools that can invite generally don't invite teachers on 12 month multiple entry visas unless the teacher pays for the whole thing themselves.

[BELS]

Just small peices of info here, once receiving the original invitation and cover letter from the school, and got your HIV test. It will cost for example �150 for application at the Russian Embassy in London. agencies will do it for between �175 and �225 and you will receive your ME visa and passport within a few days.

[Wonderwall]

Unfortunately most schools in Moscow, including the British Council, try to circumnavigate Russian Tax Laws by applying for One Year Multiple Entry Business Visas on your behalf, which are as BELS pointed out very expensive. GBP 150 for a visa on the same day.

Three points however regarding the Russian Consulate in London:
1. Since March 2005, you cannot just turn up and apply in person without making an appointment over the phone.
2. Phone calls cost GBP 1 per minute.
3. AIDS tests are not needed for Business Visas issued in London.

The main problem of this Visa is twofold: Firstly you technically do not work for any Russian School or Organisation whilst you are here - which is a great way for the Schools to not pay any tax on your behalf. Technically they are only inviting you here on 'business'. This 'business' means that you are supposed to actually be working in your own country and just travelling back and forth to Russia. However, this in itself means that you cannot be protected by Russian Law, if the School wants to terminate your contract.

Secondly, you must leave Russia within six months. Not a problem if you are using the visa for its intended purpose, but fairly bizarre if you would like to travel around Russia rather than using up your holiday allowance or weekend to 'run across the border' whilst the school is making money out of you. This additional expenditure is not paid for by the school as far as I know. The only exception I am aware of is the British Council which, although they don't pay for your expenses, do give you 'TOIL' (Time Off In Lieu) for it.

For this reason most teachers tend to wait until the end of their contracts (after the six-month 'border hop') to travel around before they depart Russia.

The alternative is the Teachers' Visa. This is a single entry visa which is valid for three months. This is immediately extended and transferred into a yearly 'Teachers Permit'. With this they staple a green paper into your passport, with another photo of you on it, and then you can leave Russia as often as you like; but, and here's the most important aspect - you do not have to leave within six months or ever really, as this can be extended indefinitely within the country. This cannot be extended outside the country and is only available to teachers who have entered Russia stating their purpose of entry on the visa application form as 'Teaching' and must be accompanied by an invitation letter that actually states this. It is not a work permit and therefore does not require an AIDS test. Why no work permit you ask? Because under Russian Law bona fide teachers do not need work permits to teach here!

Forget the letter that says 'XXX will take care of all your expenses whilst you are in Russia' - what that means is that you are a guest of the company and that they are NOT actually employing you in Russia - merely covering your expenses, etc.

Why don't schools invite people on Real Teaching Visas? Simple. Firstly, they would have to state to the government how many teachers they actually employ (see 'tax scam' above); and, secondly, most teachers leave after 9 months anyway; as you've probably gathered from this forum already.

Some schools will invite you as a 'real' teacher, but only if they think that you are likely to go the distance and perhaps stay indefinitely. Also most teachers are fairly naive about Russia and therefore the Recruitment Departments (who will remain nameless - 'VKS' ring a bell?) play on this and tell you that you have to leave after six months as it's the Law. Well, yes it is, but only if you don't work here!

So be advised and help to stamp out the scam of the Business Visas which in the long run mean that you don't get much time to explore other parts of Russia, as whenever you have a holiday you have to leave the country. I read on another string that Egypt is popular with teachers??? Just about sums it up, doesn't it? Come to Russia to experience the culture by spending it in Egypt, Turkey et al as you are required to leave Russia as you don't really work here !

Remember that on a Business Visa you don't work here and therefore do not have any rights, which is the way that certain schools would like it to remain...

[steven_gerrard]

Wonderwall- just a comment on a few of your points:


1) Are you sure your information regarding The British Council is correct? You give the impression that you know all of their policies regarding tax and visas but I can tell you that you are wrong on all counts. I don't know where you get your gen from but you need to update your source as they are giving you duff information.

2) It may surprise you to learn that most teachers actually prefer to have a multi entry visa so they can leave the country at short notice if needed. Having had a friend whose mother died on a Friday who could not get back to the UK until the following Wednesday (because OVIR need 3 working days to process an exit visa) I can clearly understand why. I wouldn't enter the country on any other sort of visa. The teachers' visas you talk about are only converted after 3 months- that's a quarter of the year when you have to stay in the country. Not a problem for most, thank goodness, but if something did happen, you'd be stuck. Wait until it happens to you and see how you feel about not being able to control your movement.

3) Very few schools have the ability to issue visa invitations themselves (even though some of them would like to- the Russian authorities just won't let them) It is not just a case of admitting how many teachers they actually employ. Registration as a school is a long, complicated process which also requires the Language School to adhere to certain aspects of the Russian National Curriculum, which many schools are unable to do. A school I used to work for had to use a significant proportion of it's teaching hours teaching in Russian schools (for next to nothing) to comply with this rule but as they employed hundreds of teachers, it saved them money on visa and invitation costs in the long run so it was worth it for them. For smaller schools it just isn't.
What do you suggest they do? Close down? Moscow would be left with three or four schools then. Not feasible. No laws are being broken by teachers working on multi-entry business visas and in fact many who do so pay tax in Russia, regardless of their visa. The two are not connected.

4) What do you mean "you have no rights" if you are not here on a Teachers' visa/permit? Exactly what rights do you have if you ARE on one? None, if the school choses not to give you any. Perhaps you are protected by Russian law in theory but in practice this means nothing. In fact, you're probably better off on a multi-entry business visa as the place you work for can't cancel it and make you leave the country within three days (happens all the time when teachers fall foul of the schools they work for or simply the school has no more work for them).

5) I don't see what's wrong with a teacher who works in Russia going to Turkey or Egypt on holiday. Believe me, when you've been here a few years, you've exhausted all the in-country options (not that there are many to start with) and considering the complete absence of any decent weather for seven months of the year, going abroad can be a godsend. People who live in Britain don't exclusively holiday in Britain, do they?
Also what could be nicer than a quick trip across the border to The Baltic States or down south to Georgia to get your stamp- hardly a waste of your leave, is it?

[Wonderwall]

Steven_Gerrard,

1. The information regarding the British Council, I received in their own information about teaching positions in Moscow. Although I must admit this was dated last November. I presume that as BC teahers were paid via London into a UK bank account (then) and that they could only access their salary via a UK ATM Card in Moscow, something strange was certainly going on.

I'm very glad to hear that the BC has come into line after last year's shut down by the police for tax evasion.

2. I fully understand your point of making a quick exit, if there are serious circumstances. However, people that I have met with these visas usually have them converted immediately upon arrival and have their passports back within 10 days or so of arrival (including their registration). From then on, other than a sheet being torn off at the airport the first time they leave, they have no restriction regarding how often they can come and go or when, as far as I know.

3. I am not suggesting that they issue the invites themselves. However certain schools have teachers working side by side on different visas for no 'apparent' reason.

4. Regarding rights. A Russian lawyer friend of mine pointed out to me that if teachers were paying tax then they would be able to threaten to take schools to court for wrongful dismissal; or for dismissing people out of hand. I presume that as a teachers' visa indicates that you are indeed 'working' here then this would add more weight and perhaps make the employer reconsider their action given the potential threat of legal action.

5. I fully understand people wanting to escape the winter (as most Russians do) or just have a change of environment. However, I am thinking of teachers who haven't been here yet and want to come and 'experience' Russia for 9 months, rather than teachers who want to get away for a break after having been here for a number of years.

6. What made you decide to stay with Liverpool in the end? We all thought you were going to 'Chelski'

[steven_gerrard]

Sorry but you have your facts wrong there as well- the British Council was never closed by the police or anyone else. In addition, the issue was not tax on salaries but tax on their operations in Russia, of which the teaching centres are just a small part. Without going into the ins and outs of everything it has never been a question of "coming into line" with anything. And as you were so clear to point out, there doesn't seem to be any "line" to come in with in Russia. Just how does a non-profit making organisation pay tax when they are the only example of their type in the whole country? They don't know, the Russian tax department don't know, nobody knows and they still don't after over a year of investigations.
As for salaries and ATMs, this was set up to protect the teacher from currency devaluation and an unstable banking system (or at least it was when the Council first opened its teaching centres way back in the mid-90's). Not many companies can say the welfare of the teacher is their first consideration when setting up a payroll so they should be applauded rather than berated for it.

Regarding rights- as I said before, what kind of visa you are on and whether you pay tax here are not connected. Also how much of a case of unfair dismissal do you think a teacher would have in Russia against a Russian-owned school? Next to none? Less than that? I'm not saying it's right but it's the way it is and really is stretching your argument a bit.

At the end of the day, teachers would do better to concentrate on their terms and conditions which they CAN do something about- split shifts, leave, pay, proper breaks, health and safety issues etc etc instead of fannying on about how "outraged" the are about being here on a non-teaching visa and not being "legal" (although they are not illegal either). At the end of the day, so what? As long as they are free to leave the country whenever they want, what diference does it make? If all schools did everything by the book, they'd never be able to operate. That's the way Russia works and you don't have to be here very long to work that one out. If anyone is really opposed to it, they should leave. Some teachers do exactly that but most don't.

What I find really laughable are the ones who have left BKC, Language Link etc to go their own way, claiming they don't like the way they were employed and how it's all such a scandal that teachers there are on different visas, some are teachers', some are not, some have work permits and how it's a tax scam etc etc Then what do they do? Re-enter the country on a 12 month mulit-entry business visa they arranged for themselves and proceed to work freelance with no intention of paying tax or registering themselves in the required way in order to undertake such work. Brilliant! If you leave coz you can earn tons more money freelance, then fine but don't pretend you're doing it out of some anti-corporate protest.

[Wonderwall]

I'm not going to get into an 'argument' regarding the BC other than to post the following from the Financial Times of last year.

[Wonderwall]

Apologies for the typos. Should have been:

...the beginning of the 1990s the FCO told the Council that they had to be 'self-sufficient' and that their operations were to be split...

and:

...its courses, which are usually 'cut-and-pasted'...

[steven_gerrard]

Cambridge Exams have always had "BRITISH EMBASSY MOSCOW" as the designated centre, never British Council.

The British Council was never CLOSED by any authority, tax or otherwise, at any point last year (or ever).

Rumours abound of non BC-contracted examiners not being able to examine in the next academic year but those rumours are exactly that- just gossip. Not a single non-BC teacher has been told by the Exams department they can't examine. You're right- it would be terrible if Cambridge exams were mainly carried out by non- native speakers but there's a fair few of them who do it now (how some of them got past the interview I will never know) and the exams department don't seem too bothered. It may be that in the future the BC won't be the major provider of Cambridge exams in Russia. BKC already have plans afoot to become a CESOL examinations centre, though what a balls-up they'll make of that remains to be seen.

Of course the Teaching Centre in Moscow makes a profit but this is offset by the millions the BC invests in Russia through other projects. I also think its very difficult to comment on the quality of the teaching or courses from outside an organisation, so why do it? Rather odd that you (claim to) know so much about the place, it's teaching methods and course materials (which, at least as far as Moscow TC is concerned, you are off-the-mark with)

Alas my knowledge of the BC worldwide is not as comprehensive as yours seems to be so I can't comment (or be bothered to comment) on anything else. You certainly have more than a hint of bile evident when speaking about them- what happened? Turn you down for a job, did they?