Number of denied invitations to enter Russia for migrants almost doubles from 2022

MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax) - Specialists from the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Migration Department have denied more than 5,000 foreign citizens invitations to enter Russia since the start of this year, which is a 90% increase from 2022.

"The number of denials of state service for issuing invitations to enter Russia continues to increase as part of the work done by the Russian Interior Ministry to eliminate channels of illegal migration (+88%; 5,600)," a report of the Main Migration Department on the results of the division's work in January-October 2023 said.

The number of issued invitations remains at the level for the same period in 2022 (234,400; +0.3%).

Despite this, the Main Migration Department has recorded an almost 60% increase in the number of migrants arriving in Russia on visas for work purposes.

According to the department, there has been a decrease in the number of temporary residence permits issued to foreigners (-53.7%; 71,900) and permanent residence permits (-12.1%; 227,600).

"The decrease in these figures is due to the active work carried out by the territorial bodies of the Russian Interior Ministry to find and stop cases of abuse by foreign citizens of their right to file corresponding applications based on fictitious marriages to Russian citizens and also [on] the use of the legal status of a qualified specialist, which provide the right to receive temporary residence permits and permanent residence permits according to a simplified procedure," the department said.

According to the document, there was a 30% increase in 2023 in the number of work permits issued to foreigners (80,700), and the number of work licenses issued also increased (+4.5%; two million).

Some 70,000 foreign citizens have been deported from Russia since the start of this year. A total of 138,000 foreign citizens (+18.6%) have been denied entry to the country by bodies of the Interior Ministry.

The Illegal 2023 preventive operation conducted by the agencies of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2023 helped detect more than 73,000 violations of the rules governing the entry, departure, transit and stay/residence of foreign citizens on Russian territory and more than 22,000 violations of the procedures governing foreigners' work activities, and helped authorities make some 15,000 decisions on the administrative expulsion and deportation of foreign citizens from the country.