Is it worth moving to Crimea for permanent residence in 2020?

Is it worth moving to Crimea: pros and cons

Everyone determines for himself the advantages and disadvantages of moving to a new place, including Crimea.
However, there are a number of objective factors that should be kept in mind before traveling. Advantages of living in Crimea:

1. The peninsula has sunny and warm weather almost 365 days a year, which means that the likelihood of contracting ARVI or other colds is significantly lower.
2. Crimea is replete with picturesque nature. There are mountains, steppes, forests, sea, caves and much more. From almost any city you can get to the coast in a matter of minutes.
3. Since 2014, infrastructure has been actively developing on the peninsula, and this makes it possible to open your own business by investing your own funds.
4. The city of Sevastopol has the largest seaport, which makes it possible to learn a new profession, for example, to become a sailor.
5. Warm climate. There is no need for brick houses with heated floors here. On the real estate market you can find inexpensive land plots, especially in the northern part of the peninsula, on which it is really cheap to build a private house.
6. A landmark event for Russians was the construction and opening of the Crimean Bridge, which makes it possible to quickly get to the mainland of the Russian Federation and back.

Disadvantages of living in Crimea:

1. Crimea is, first of all, a resort, and real estate prices in the southern part of the peninsula are too high. We are talking not only about purchasing, but also about renting.
2. Employment. Finding a well-paid job is a difficult task, even despite the presence of more than 530 large and medium-sized enterprises on the peninsula.
3. After the annexation of Crimea, many educational institutions located on the mainland of the Russian Federation provide benefits for residents of the peninsula, since local universities cannot offer training at a level that reaches the Russian average.
4. Medicine. Another area where there are big problems. The lack of qualified personnel, minimum wages, technically and morally outdated equipment in medical institutions are the tip of the iceberg of problems in this area.

Trends towards improving the situation are visible, but tangible results are unlikely to be seen in the foreseeable future.

Selection and purchase of living space

The cost of living space in Crimea is relatively small compared to prices in Russian megacities. If you live in a large city, but are planning to move to Crimea for permanent residence, in most cases, the proceeds from the sale of your apartment will be enough to buy a new home.

Crimean real estate prices have jumped up noticeably after the political situation has calmed down a bit. Local residents expect to sell their living space at a higher price to wealthy Russians. It was expected that after the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation, streams of wealthy residents of the capital would immediately pour in, wanting to purchase housing in the resort area. However, the trend of buying property abroad has continued. Housing prices on the South Coast are high, but in other regions you can buy an apartment from 1.5 million rubles.

Experts predict a significant decline in housing prices in Crimea. Whether to wait or buy real estate immediately is a personal matter for everyone; if such questions arise, you should carefully study the trends of the modern housing market.

Dangers when buying a home

Not all legal issues have been resolved. There is some legal collapse in Crimea. It is quite difficult to figure out how to register real estate, what laws are used to calculate the cadastral value, etc. Therefore, the first rule for you should be to control the legality of purchase and sale. The best option would be to cooperate with a qualified lawyer with solid experience. Every step you take must be agreed upon with a specialist.

If you do not deal with professional intricacies, purchasing a home can be divided into two types:

• purchasing a so-called new building, when you give money to build a house and move in after construction.
• purchase of ready-made housing.

The option with new buildings seems to be the most preferable, but this is only at first glance. It is worth noting significant savings compared to the purchase of already constructed housing; in addition, residents of the Russian Federation are accustomed to good mortgage lending conditions. But if you decide to leave for Crimea, it is worth remembering the unstable situation on the peninsula. Fraud in real estate transactions is widespread; in Crimea the situation is completely depressing. Therefore, do not be surprised when, after moving, you immediately receive a flood of offers from realtors.

So, how to go for permanent residence in Crimea and not make a mistake when buying a home? Remember, until the registry is open, there can be no talk of any legal purchase of a home. Often, all the promises of realtors are unreliable, or even outright false. Chat with them, ask about the guarantees of the transaction.

You should also be wary of the services of a notary. After moving to Crimea for permanent residence, you will, out of habit, operate with your old baggage of legal knowledge, which is not always suitable here. And so notarization may seem like a strong guarantee to you, but in reality it is not. A notary cannot deal with real estate issues on the territory of Crimea; breaking the rules of such a transaction is not difficult.

Some adventurers strive to formalize a fictitious deal retroactively under Ukrainian laws in order to circumvent Russian legislation. Such scams threaten criminal liability, so you should not perceive this method of “purchase” as something effective.

In simple words, it is better to wait for the opening of Rosreestr, and only then proceed with relocation and purchase of real estate for permanent residence in Crimea.

Legal side of the issue

Since 2014, Crimea has become a full-fledged subject of the Russian Federation and legally moving is no different from changing your place of residence from one to any other region of the country. The citizen will need to have with him:

• SNILS;
• medical insurance;
• identification document - passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation.

Read also: How to check the registration of a foreign citizen

The specified list of documents is enough to become a new resident of the peninsula. However, simply moving with your things and documents is not enough. Registration will be required, and it will be temporary to begin with. If it is available, the task of finding employment or enrolling a child in a school or preschool educational institution is simplified.

To obtain registration, you must contact the territorial office of the Main Department of Migration Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a package of documents, including:

• passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation;
• title documents for housing - a certificate of ownership or a lease/social tenancy agreement;

  
  Sample apartment rental agreement

• written permission from the property owner to register a new tenant - if we are talking about a lease agreement.

Important! After receiving registration, you should transfer pension payments to your new place of residence, and also visit the military commissariat.

Employment in Crimea in 2021

It is necessary to move to Crimea for permanent residence only after a real assessment of financial capabilities. It is important to take into account the availability of work in the selected locality or determine the prospects for opening your own business.

Read also: Extradition Law

The average salary in 2021 is 24 thousand rubles. The amount of earnings largely depends on the region of residence. The cost of renting a home depends on a number of factors, including:

• housing area and condition;
• distance from the coastal zone;
• seasonality.

  
  Rating of the highest paying vacancies on the peninsula

When moving to Crimea, it is better to immediately acquire real estate, otherwise the rent will make significant adjustments to the budget, and, unfortunately, not in the direction of increasing it.

Is it difficult to find a job in Crimea?

The employment situation in Crimea is also ambiguous. When planning to move to Crimea for permanent residence, you should think about how to earn money and support yourself and your family.

On the one hand, there are many advertisements for existing vacancies on local websites and newspapers. If you analyze them, you can see that vacancies predominate for low-paid positions that do not require high qualifications. The average salary here is below the national average and ranges from 16 to 18 thousand rubles. Therefore, you should not count on high earnings.

A more favorable situation is observed among public sector employees (teachers, doctors, civil servants and military personnel), but there are no free vacancies here.

In such a situation, it becomes profitable for a Russian pensioner to move for permanent residence to Crimea in 2021 - a high “northern” or military pension will allow him to live on the South Coast. The unemployment rate in Crimea, according to official data, is 0.7%; according to unofficial data, it is 35-40% of the working population.

We should not forget that for decades, Crimeans, especially residents of the South Coast, made money mainly by receiving tourists from all over the USSR, and after its collapse - from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. With the collapse of the tourist season, traditional sources of income have ceased to be profitable: Russian tourists with great pleasure go on vacation to Turkey, Vietnam or Hainan, where they can get better service for the same money. The airport and seaports serve only domestic flights.

Recently, real job vacancies have been provided by the repair of roads and the construction of the Kerch Bridge, although it is difficult for local residents to get a job there - specialists from other regions of Russia work there. The situation is complicated by rising prices, which were already high here before.

Features of purchasing real estate in 2021

On the one hand, having the status of a resort peninsula is a plus. The annual flow of tourists makes a significant contribution to replenishing the budget and also provides employment to the local population, but on the other hand, purchasing real estate in resort towns is not an easy task.

Speaking in terms of numbers, for example, in Sevastopol the cost of one square meter varies from 4 to 10 thousand US dollars. In Yalta, prices start from 15 thousand dollars per square meter. In Simferopol, you can bargain and agree on the cost of housing starting from $800 per square meter.

Number of legal entities registered in Crimea

Important! When concluding a purchase and sale agreement, you should check the owner’s title documents for compliance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation.

Useful tips

For those who have already decided how much better it is to move to Crimea. Permanent Residence Our following tips are certainly useful.

There are also some nuances for those who decide to stay in Crimea for a while. Before moving to Crimea, you need to find coastal boarding houses in Yandex that rent rooms inexpensively and for a long time. Renting an apartment for daily rent in Crimea will be much more expensive, and rarely will anyone be able to rent an apartment for a long period of time. Immediately after the start of the season, the price of an apartment can increase several times. It's cheaper in pensions.

Because for an apartment you need to pay at least 20 thousand plus a deposit of 20 thousand, plus 10-15 thousand to the agency, and for a row in a pension - from 13 thousand per month.

Level of medicine and education system

The issue of education and medical care is no less important, along with employment and general living conditions.
Since the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation, medical insurance policies have been issued in accordance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation, which guarantees free treatment if necessary. Despite investing in updating the medical fleet and purchasing equipment, the level of medical services still remains low. In some clinics there is a staff shortage, which greatly affects the quality of patient care.

The education system has been reoriented to all-Russian standards. There are kindergartens, schools and universities on the peninsula. Unfortunately, many countries do not recognize diplomas from Crimean educational institutions, which is a significant drawback.

Relocation procedure for Russians

To become a full-fledged resident of Crimea and move to the peninsula for permanent residence you need to have:

• passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation;
• SNILS;
• compulsory health insurance policy.

  
  Sample compulsory medical insurance policy

To be employed you must have:

• work book;
• military ID;
• educational document;
• marriage or divorce certificate - if available;
• driver's and pensioner's licenses.

To register a child in a preschool educational institution or school, you will need to have temporary or permanent registration at the place of actual residence.

Important! If a citizen is on the territory of Crimea with temporary registration, it should be renewed in a timely manner.

Moving to Crimea for permanent residence by foreign citizens

In general, migrants can move to permanent residence in Crimea, taking into account certain features caused by the political situation that has developed regarding the territorial affiliation of the peninsula. For foreigners, general rules of stay apply throughout the Russian Federation.

Important! Foreign citizens who moved for permanent residence to the territory of Crimea after 2014 will inevitably encounter difficulties crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Federal Law of August 15, 1996 No. 114-FZ “On the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation”

Read also: How to obtain a residence permit in Russia

Border crossing rules

Before purchasing a ticket to Crimea, a foreigner needs to find out whether there are any bans on entry into the territory of the Russian Federation. This can be done online on the official website of GUMV. Personal information is entered in a special form and the verification is started.

Enter the required data

Registration

A foreigner is given 7 days to obtain temporary registration for legal stay on the territory of the peninsula. The mark is placed in the international passport or document on the temporary residence permit. A temporary residence permit is valid for 3 years, but you can obtain a residence permit after a year.

This is what the RVP looks like

Registration of a residence permit

Participants in the state program for the resettlement of compatriots are additionally required to confirm the financial ability to maintain and have housing. A residence permit gives the right to reside in the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as to take part in local elections. After 5 years, you can think about obtaining citizenship or renewing your residence permit.

This is what a residence permit looks like in Russia

How did Crimea greet us? Hospitable Sevastopol

Moved to Sevastopol

The reason why we decided to move from St. Petersburg to Crimea was the doctors’ recommendation to change my wife’s climate for health reasons to the northern capital of Russia to a warm mountain-sea climate. Without thinking twice and without much preparation, we decided to make this move. The first city we arrived in was Sevastopol. We settled on its northern side, in a spacious two-room guest suite with a gorgeous view of the sea. If anyone doesn’t know, the northern side of Sevastopol is, one might say, a quiet suburb, where there are several high-rise buildings of 9-10 floors, but mostly in the private sector. A quiet, calm life flows here. We were very happy with everything. Even the price of our housing was quite reasonable. At first we paid 13,000 rubles, and later the price rose to 18,000 rubles and we were still happy. We walked along the seashore, enjoyed the scenery and, in the literal sense of the word, experienced euphoria.

In Sevastopol, as in any resort city, there are a lot of shops and markets. There are about twenty markets. The largest and most famous of them:

• central at 5th km. Balaklava highway,
• wholesale grocery on Korabelnaya side,
• clothing and grocery store in Balaklava,
• "Moskovsky" in Streletskaya Bay,
• clothing and grocery store on the North side,
• car market at Cape Fiolent.

During the holiday season from May to September, we moved to another guest house, since the one in which we lived before costs much more during the season (up to 200,000 rubles), we immediately had an agreement with the owners about this. We also had an agreement that we would continue to live until May 2018, and in the summer months, after the end of the school year, we would travel around Crimea, live for a month in Feodosia, a month somewhere else. However, we were asked to move out already in April 2018, which unsettled us and made us fuss a lot. In just three days we traveled all over Sevastopol, Yalta, Simferopol. Fortunately, the world is not without kind people, we found friends from Krasnodar who were vacationing here at the time and had a car, they helped us a lot by driving us around looking for an apartment. Plus, we were running out of money, and we were, as they say, broke. I would like to note that finding work in Crimea is not so easy. And even if you are lucky and find a job, then the salaries leave much to be desired. They are in the range of 20,000-30,000 rubles. This money is certainly not enough for a family of three. Therefore, I give advice, if you do not have savings, and the savings are not 100,000 rubles or even 200,000, but at least 500 thousand, or if you have a stable income from some kind of remote work, then it will be much more fun for you to live in Crimea and it’s more pleasant to admire its beauties. Because doing it on an empty stomach is not fun at all.

Simferopol – a city of parks, gardens and public gardens

So, we found ourselves an apartment in Simferopol. Moreover, by this time we began to acutely feel the lack of civilization. And Simferopol in this regard is what we need. This is a city where life goes on regardless of the holiday season. There are offices, shops, concert halls, theaters, a philharmonic society, a circus, restaurants, cafes, etc., a developed infrastructure, many educational institutions, a lot of attractions, one minus - there is no sea. 40 km to the sea. However, public transport works great and from Simferopol you can easily get to any point in Crimea, be it Yalta, Alushta, Sudak, Evpatoria, Bakhchisarai, Feodosia, etc. And if you have a car, then, hallelujah, you won't have to travel on stuffy, crowded public transport during the hot summer months. There are also many green areas in the city, there are old parks and very young squares. The most famous:

• Salgirka Park;
• Central Park of Culture and Recreation;
• Park of Culture and Leisure named after Yu. Gagarin;
• Children's park;
• Park named after Trenev;
• Shevchenko Park;
• Salgir embankment;
• Botanical Garden of KFU named after Vernadsky.

Having lived in Simferopol for several months, we realized that civilization is wonderful, but we went to Crimea to live by the sea, inhale its smell, admire the mountains, and now we are deprived of this. And still there is not enough money, a job with a salary of just over 20,000 rubles a month does not cover expenses, all this suggested the idea of ​​returning to St. Petersburg. Moreover, they received a job offer from there with a salary of 120,000 rubles. We thought of returning back to St. Petersburg, working, saving money, better preparing for life in Crimea, and returning here again. But we didn’t want to leave our dream.

By the way, I have to tell you one more thing. It is very difficult to find an apartment in Crimea if you also have pets. There was a dog with us. But again, we were very lucky and they rented an apartment to us in Simferopol without any problems.

So, faced with a dilemma - to leave or stay, we realized that we just needed to solve the problem with work and income. It took me a lot of effort to persuade employers in St. Petersburg and prove to them that I could work remotely. And so, after working for a couple of months practically for free on test projects, I got the long-awaited job, and the financial problem was solved.

Yalta - an exotic city drowned in the sun

And now to Yalta!

Now we were free in our dreams, in our movements around Crimea, so we decided to go to the South Coast, and more specifically to Yalta. Yalta amazed us with its fabulous beauty, palaces and parks, amazing vegetation, there were a huge number of trees:

• huge cypress trees,
• juniper,
• sessile oak,
• aspen,
• Rowan,
• fan palm,
• Enkoran acacia,
• fir,
• figs,
• pomegranate,
• prickly pear,
• and many other local and exotic specimens.

The combination of these trees is amazing, where you can find cypress and palm trees, fir and figs side by side?!!

The sun shines more here than in Sochi. The climate can be said to be Mediterranean - with mild, rainy winters, cool springs, hot summers and long warm autumns. And for the last three months we have been living in Yalta, in this amazingly beautiful and green city.

In general, Crimea is very diverse and each city is its own world, each is beautiful in its own way and captivates with its own characteristic features. In Yevpatoria there are endlessly long wide beaches, steppe landscapes, Simferopol is movement, the rhythm of metropolitan life, huge shopping centers, an airport, Yalta is exotic, unusual vegetation, mountains, and so on. There are no bad cities; each one has its own nuances and finds something for yourself. Therefore, we would advise those who decided to move to live in Crimea to first come and live here for at least a few months, and in different cities. Ideally, this is a year. To live through all the seasons, to feel all the pros and cons of the resort town, to pass through the summer influx of vacationers and the winter peace and quiet.