Job Discussion Forums

[melissadawn]

Hi everyone, at last I'm signed up! I hope this board is active. Please allow me to introduce myself... I'm an American teacher of English living in London, married to a Russian man. I'm trying to get the skinny on moving to Moscow. So many questions... we've been living in London for six years and as our visas are about to expire and can't be renewed, it looks like our only option to stay together is to pack our bags for Russia. A green card would take ages, and there are other issues. I have no paperwork for Russia yet. I also speak about two words of Russian. Wonderful! Husband is interviewing for some fancy research jobs in Moscow, but as I am not to sit around eating bonbons and I rather conveniently happen to be an English teacher and have had this glorious profession for about twelve years I need to research jobs, visas, what the hell I'll do in Russia, and so on. Husband had thought that getting me a visa to live in Russia would take about five minutes, hence the utter lack of discussion about moving to America, which would be my first choice, but some new research on the subject shows that getting a temporary residence permit will not be a walk in the park.

So... apart from the usual sort of moving to Russia questions, which I think I'll leave for the moment, does anyone have advice about the following things. I am surely entitled to some sort of residence permit which takes a few months, an apostille, a bit of blood and probably a lot more commitment to living in Russia than I am feeling at the moment. I don't even know if this permit would entitle me to work- apparently the work permit is separate! I'm thinking I should enter initially on a tourist or business visa and look for work there. Maybe a school would sponsor me for a visa. The advantage I see of using my marriage for a visa is that I could freelance- but there is some weird thing about paying higher taxes, the exit visa... it looks like a bit of a nightmare! Should I just try and work for one of the mcschools, get sponsored for a visa and apartment, and let my husband actually support us since I'll be making too little money?

[yakov1]

hi there!

it would take almost a novel to respond to your posts-it seems there is a lot you don't know and are misinformed about.

i can answer some of it for you.

easiest way in is for guest visa(no work), tourist visa(no work) or business visa sponsored by a school(can work)...the most guaranteed way is through , what they call the Mcschools like Language Link that i work for. no visa drama there. of course pay isn't so high and if you are a qualified teacher i would look at the governess sites like bonne international and others which hire female teachers for kindergartens and primary schools and 1-1 lessons with rich children...the pay is significantly better!

you only need this for a short time as you can apply for a temporary residence permit.....this takes a few months but is like gold in your hand...once you get this you can go freelance with an International Entrepeneur Visa and are no longer at the whim of the school. tax is on two scales you can select from which i think is 6% or 13% (13% is minus expenses so if you rent an office you can deduct that from your tax). so tax is minimal.

Your TRP leads later to permanent residency(which actually is 5 years not permanent at all) but this is a few years down the track. TRP you do need an exit visa, permanent you don't...permanent you are basically like a russian..TRP is also only for the region you are in and cant be transferred.

1 year after permanent residency(if you are still here) you CAN apply for citizenship but this is not at all required and most expats don't do it. you can stay in russia the rest of your life, renewing your 5 year permanent residency, without ever having citizenship.

other things you might consider...since this is somewhat a forced move...is to look at alternatives....new zealand and australia are fairly welcoming and VERY different from America. Canada also isn't so hard to get into. All three are closer in culture and way of life to England than America. just a thought.

[yakov1]

do NOT enter russia under tourist visa if you want to work...you can't change visa type within russia.

also you can't extend a tourist visa indefinitely.

guest or business visas are the go....but yes you need a work permit separately but if you want to work on the sly from home etc this is quite easy to do. alternatively, since you don't speak russian you can apply for a student visa and do a 1 year prep course for uni in russian language...this is infinitely cheaper than learning through a teacher/language school and fills in the days nicely( 3-5 hours a day)...you can then moonlight with the odd private student for some pocket money and your own satisfaction and still be home in time for hubby etc or whatever. just because you do the prep course doesnt mean you have to attend the uni later on.

[expatella_girl]

There is a wealth of information about foreigners being issued temporary residency in Russia in this forum: http://www.expat.ru/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=102

However I think you will find your supposition "I am surely entitled to some sort of residence permit which takes a few months" to be an erroneous expectation. As a Russian spouse the only TRP "entitlement" you will get is to be exempt from the TRP quota. The Temporary Residence Permit process is usually fairly harrowing. (you'll see)

And you will also discover that once you have achieved temporary residence status, you will not be able to leave Russia without an exit permit.

It is fair to say that the Russian government does everything in its means to discourage foreigners (spouse or not) from residing in their country.

[melissadawn]

Interesting, thanks for the replies. Actually, my husband went to speak to a consul at the Russian consulate in London. He was told that he should apply for a kind of private invitation to me which would last for four months and he'd need to get some sort of stamp in his hometown (he isn't from Moscow but a small city near Rostov). This would get me into Russia, whereby I'd then apply for the TRP. My husband thinks I'd be entitled to work from the initial entry, and these are some new laws instituted in March. On the other hand my husband suggested I go home (I mean to the USA) and wait until he gets the visa, which he thought would take a while. The TRP cannot be comparable in difficulty to getting a green card, can it?

[Sashadroogie]

I wish you both good luck in your endeavours. Some solid advice offered here. I'm sure something will work out for you, though whatever process you use is usually longer and more annoying than you'd expect. The only, small, detail I'll add is that in Russia nobody seems to be 'entitled' to anything really, so it might be helpful to be aware of that.

Re Green Card Vs. TRP, I and colleagues have often said that for Russians going to the EU or the US the visa process is tough - very. But once they are granted a visa, there are few restrictions on them, i.e. they can move around as they please. For foreigners coming to Russia, the reverse seems to be the case: it is not so hard to enter the country on some type of visa, but that is only the first of many, many hurdles to be cleared. Once in Russia, there are many other documents needed i.e. registration etc.

All the best!

[kazachka]

Just to 'buy' a spot on the QUOTA in the Oblast(Moscow) is running 5k euro and again that's just a quota spot. This is where I gave up. At the end of the day, if you can't do your own visa/support and work for yourself-it's not worth it. Money talks and we all know what else walks. Without going into detail, I could get a Ukrainian passport(totally legal and legit), but it's not going to help me in Moscow.