Russia to Grant Residence Permits Without Preliminary Quota for Certain Migrants

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The Russian State Duma has passed in the first reading a bill that envisages transferring some powers in the field of labor migration from the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

According to the document, it will be the MIA that will form and approve the list of professions that give foreign citizens and stateless persons the right to obtain a residence permit in a simplified manner - without prior issuance of a temporary residence permit.

In addition, the ministry is proposed to be given the right to determine cases in which foreign workers temporarily staying in Russia will be able to work outside the region where their work permit was issued.

The initiative continues the course towards reforming migration legislation and centralizing powers in the field of control over the attraction of foreign labor.

In April 2025, the Ministry of Labor significantly revised the list of specialties that allow claiming simplified residence permit acquisition. The list was reduced more than 7 times - from 203 to 29 professions. It included engineering specialists, programmers, fitters, as well as representatives of high-tech industries.

Among the in-demand specialties that retained the right to simplified residence permit processing are software developers for unmanned aerial systems, industrial big data analysts, as well as specialists in astrophysics and genetic research.

The authors of the bill believe that transferring powers to the MIA will increase the efficiency of migration regulation and allow for a faster response to the needs of the Russian labor market.