The Federal Migration Service plans to ease the rules for foreigners employed by representative offices of foreign companies by allowing them to work in Russia without work permits, officials said Tuesday.
Under the proposed change, which is currently being drawn up by the FMS, employees of some 10,000 representative offices will no longer need work permits, said Artyom Frolov, head of the service's department that grants permission to employ foreign workers.
The change would allow representative offices to bypass the lengthy work permit application process and move straight to applying for visas for their employees after accrediting them.
The proposed change will not, however, apply to foreign companies operating in Russia through established branches or subsidiaries, Frolov said. Those companies will still have to go through the three-step procedure for getting work permits for foreign staff.
Under this procedure, a company must get a document from the Federal Employment Center that confirms the company needs staff that cannot be found among unemployed Russian citizens and that establishes its quota of foreign workers. Next, the company needs to receive permission from the FMS to hire foreign staff. Only then can a company apply for a work permit for each foreign employee.
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