Employment Based Immigration

Russian immigration legislation provides a way to obtain residency and even citizenship (with regards to possibility to obtain citizenship this provision could be abolished by March 2023 by the relevant draft of the Citizenship law which is currently in the Russian parliament) through employment.

Foreign citizens who come to Russia to work in one of these professions are allowed to obtain a residence permit after 6 months of working officially in any of the professions from the list and citizenship after 12 months of employment. Most of the professions from the list except for teachers and journalists require obtaining of employment permit by the employer company, individual work permit and work visa for the foreign national. Foreign national can’t just come to Russia and apply for the work permit and then find the employer. It’s chicken first then the egg.

Employment process

In order for the employer to obtain employment permit such employer should file a request to the local department of labor for quota. Labor authorities before approving would send to the employer Russian unemployed candidates to the fill the vacancy. If the approval for quota is granted, the whole process of obtaining relevant immigration documents until foreign national can enter Russia and start working can take 4-5 months.

Once foreign national is officially employed and has worked for 6 months in the profession from the list such foreign national is entitled to apply for a permanent residency in Russia. The process takes about 4-5 months from submission of the application and other required documents to the Russian immigration authorities. After 12 months of employment foreign national that already received permanent residency can apply for Russian citizenship. The process of obtaining citizenship takes 3-4 months from the submission date.

Russia is in need of foreign specialists and is ready to provide to such individuals possibility to obtain residency and citizenship. As of May 2022, a new increased list of professions has been adopted. The professions can be grouped in the following categories:

For residency and citizenship foreign national apart from documents from employer should pass

useful links

Helpful links to employment in Russia
Headhunter – biggest online employment portal (unfortunately only in Russian)

Specialized Telegram channel with jobs for expats

The full list of job titles

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The full list of job titles can be found here -