Political asylum in the Russian Federation and extradition

Temporary asylum for foreign citizens on the territory of the Russian Federation is the acquisition by a representative of another state of the right by law to stay in Russia for a certain period for humanitarian reasons. This status is almost completely identical to refugee or forced relocation. But there are still certain differences in the legal situation.

Who can apply for temporary asylum status in the Russian Federation?

Important! Please keep in mind that:

• Each case is unique and individual.
• A thorough study of the issue does not always guarantee a positive outcome. It depends on many factors.

To get the most detailed advice on your issue, you just need to choose any of the options offered:

• Use the online chat in the lower corner of the screen.
• Call: Federal number: +7 (800) 511-86-74

Not every foreigner or stateless person can qualify for this position. This is relevant only in two cases.

1. The first implies the absence of sufficient grounds for assigning refugee status to the applicant. But due to humanitarian considerations, deportation abroad is unacceptable. Let’s say it was established that there was a threat to a person’s life or health due to his professional activities - in most cases, this is common among intelligence officers.
2. The second is if the migration service employees identified the reasons for granting refugee status, but the citizen himself decided to refuse the certificate - all he needs is asylum for a short period. In other words, circumstances have been identified that make it highly likely that a person will be persecuted in his home country.

Step-by-step instructions for obtaining temporary asylum

To advance your own candidacy for temporary asylum, you will first need to submit an application - the law provides for a special form of document.

Important! If a whole family is applicants, then each family member who has reached the age of majority must fill out the application. Regarding children, they will be reflected in the request of the legal representative.

The further order is as follows:

1. All applicants over 18 years of age must undergo an individual interview, fill out a questionnaire and a questionnaire - all forms are provided by employees of the Main Department of Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
2. Photographing and fingerprinting - fingerprints are taken from each person counting on protection.
3. The applicant is issued a certificate confirming that the application meets the stated requirements and has been accepted for consideration.
4. Within three months, the identity of the applicant is established and the relevance of the information provided is clarified.

As a result, a decision is made: refuse the request or grant asylum. In any situation, the citizen receives a notification from the authorized service no later than three days have passed from the date of approval of the results of the review.

Where to contact?

The application and mandatory information are submitted by the applicant to the territorial division of the Main Directorate for Migration Issues of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. The option of sending an application in electronic format is now available through the official website of the migration service.

As an alternative, you can use the Multifunctional Center, which has a section for working with migrants.

What documents will be needed?

Providing temporary asylum on the territory of the Russian Federation is impossible without mandatory documents, the list of which is provided by law:

• statement;
• citizen's passport;
• migration card;
• a document confirming the relationship between applicants - a marriage certificate, a child’s birth certificate;
• photographs taken in accordance with established criteria.

Usually this is enough for the application to be approved. But in some cases, federal service employees have reserved the right to request additional information.

The key item from the above list is the statement. You need to fill it out first. The form itself can be downloaded either on the website of the Main Directorate for Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or directly when contacting the service department. You can also request an official sample there. When designing, you need to consider the following features:

• an application is required not only from the head of the family, but also from each adult member;
• if there are children under 18 years of age, information about them is entered on the form of one of the parents;
• in the absence of parents, all information about the child must be reflected in the application of the guardian, trustee or other adult relative who needs temporary shelter and is ready to bear responsibility for the upbringing, maintenance and actions of the children;
• if a representative of another state cannot independently prepare a document (is illiterate or does not know Russian), then he has the right to address the problem to competent employees of the migration authority, who are obliged to help with filling it out.

Important! To submit an application, there is no need to pre-register for migration registration at your place of stay.

Where, how, when to get a completed certificate?

If the application of a representative of another state to obtain temporary asylum on the territory of the Russian Federation is granted, the certificate can be obtained from the migration service unit where the application was submitted the very next day. To do this, you will additionally need to take four standard photographs per recipient and two photographs for each minor family member.

The document itself can only be received personally in the hands of the owner - there are no exceptions in this regard by law.

Important! To purchase a certificate, the old passport must be deposited with the department of the Main Directorate for Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. After that, all that remains is to register with the migration service at the place of actual stay.

Obtaining a completed certificate

The law stipulates that a certificate of temporary asylum is prepared within 3 months. During this period, employees of the Department for Work with Compatriots, Refugees and Forced Migrants of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs make requests to various authorities to verify the authenticity of the submitted documents or identify the reasons for refusing temporary asylum.

While the case is going through all these stages, a foreign citizen can independently inquire whether his certificate is ready. The readiness of a temporary asylum permit is checked on the official website of the department; a special form is provided for this. A foreigner can enter his passport data in separate fields and get the result.

If the service responds that the certificate is ready, you can pick it up. A foreigner cannot entrust this important matter to third parties; he must come for it with the original of his foreign passport. The status of a forced migrant assumes that the received certificate will replace the citizen’s passport on the territory of the Russian Federation, so he will deposit his general civil document with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Renewal procedure

The standard period during which a foreigner can use temporary asylum is set at 12 months. However, in the future it is allowed to extend the period for another 1 year - however, there are no restrictions on the number of extension procedures.

To renew, you must submit a corresponding application (drawn up in free form) to the same department of the migration service where the certificate was received.

The main condition is the preservation of the grounds for the citizen’s non-return to his homeland. For example, if the reason was a military conflict in the country, then when it ends, the applicant will most likely be refused.

The application must be made no less than a month before the expiration of the right to temporary asylum. As an exception for failure to meet deadlines, a valid reason, supported by documents, may be accepted.

What rights and responsibilities do this category of citizens have?

Providing temporary asylum to the Russian Federation legitimizes the status of a foreigner in Russia. But it is important to understand that his legal status is far from real citizenship. In essence, granting the application provides access to the following opportunities and obliges the citizen to fulfill the following requirements:

After acquiring temporary asylum, you can exercise the right to legalize permanent residence in Russia, that is, apply for a temporary residence permit.

Registration of temporary residence permit

There is a federal quota for issuing temporary residence permits. It is divided into different regions, but not in equal quantities. Once all quota places are filled, applications are no longer accepted, so you should hurry up with your application.

It is necessary to prepare the following set of documents:

1. Application in two copies (can be by hand or on a computer, and then printed). You can download the application here, a sample form can be found here.

   Sample application for issuing a temporary residence permit

2. Two photographs that will be pasted into the application.
3. Certificate of temporary asylum, since at the moment this is the identity document.
4. Certificate of no criminal record or acquittal if a criminal case has been opened.
5. Medical examination of the state of health and the absence of contagious dangerous diseases.
6. Certificate of passing the Russian language exam.
7. Documents confirming marital status: marriage certificates, birth certificates of children.
8. Migration card and information about registration with the migration service
9. Payment of state duty in the amount of 1600 rubles.

For children you will need the same list of documents. Minors, starting from 14 years of age, must give their consent to reside in the Russian Federation. In addition, children do not need to take a language exam.

All documents provided, if they are in a foreign language, must be accompanied by a translation. The translation must be certified by a notary.

Ukrainian passport

Getting out of quota

Some categories of foreign citizens can receive a temporary residence permit without taking into account the quota. This is especially important for those who are afraid of refusal to extend temporary asylum. Without taking into account quotas, the following can apply:

1. Those who once had USSR citizenship.
2. All those born in the Russian Federation.
3. Legal spouse of a citizen of the Russian Federation.
4. A pensioner or disabled person whose child currently has Russian citizenship.
5. Any foreigner whose retired parents live in Russia.
6. All participants in the program for the voluntary resettlement of compatriots to Russia.
7. Anyone who decides to serve in the Russian armed forces.
8. Parents of children with Russian citizenship.
9. For minors, obtaining a temporary residence permit is outside the quota.
10. An incapacitated foreigner whose guardian has Russian citizenship.

On August 2, 2021, the President of the Russian Federation adopted Federal Law-257: the full text of the law can be found on the official website https://www.kremlin.ru/acts/bank/44554. It came into force 90 days after its signing. Now citizens of Ukraine and stateless persons permanently residing in the territory of this country can apply for a temporary residence permit without taking into account the quota. You can view the editorial by following the link.

When applying outside the quota, you must provide proof of eligibility in addition to the general list. This may be a certificate of participation in a state program, a birth certificate, a marriage certificate and other documents indicating family ties with a Russian citizen.

RVP example

Document requirements

Collecting the necessary papers is not difficult, but there are some subtleties, knowledge of which can save a lot of time.

Statement

Everyone, except children and the disabled, must complete the application themselves. When filling out manually, you must write legibly; it is better to use block letters. All words must be written without abbreviations; corrections and dashes in lines are not allowed.

If there is not enough space, you can use a simple blank sheet with signed full names as an application. It is better to provide as much information as possible about yourself.

Particular attention should be paid to checking the written data and document numbers. All written information is verified, so it is better not to remain silent about criminal convictions or outstanding fines. If the deception is discovered, the person faces expulsion from the Russian Federation with deprivation of all statuses received.

Video: filling out an application for temporary residence permit

Photo

The size of the photo should be 3.5 x 4.5 cm, and it does not matter whether it is color or black and white. Head coverings are only permitted if required for religious reasons. Glasses are allowed in the photo, but only those that do not hide the eyes; there should be no glare on the glass.

Medical examination

Everyone who wants to receive a temporary residence permit must pass a commission. The examination is carried out for serious contagious diseases, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infections. The commission is accepted only from certain hospitals; you can find the list in the department of the Main Department of Internal Medicine.

Those who arrived without a visa are given 30 days to undergo a medical examination from the date of application. If you do not bring the certificate, the application will be canceled and you will have to start all over again.

Example of a medical certificate of health status

Nuances and situations of obtaining temporary asylum for Ukrainians

Citizens of Ukraine who have decided to seek asylum in Russia deserve special consideration. Even taking into account the gradual “subsidence” of military conflicts on the territory of the “brotherly” country, many Ukrainians still seek protection in the Russian Federation. Therefore, the Government has approved a different procedure for obtaining status - it involves a significant reduction in the time required for consideration of an application, which allows one to quickly eliminate the risk of a threat to life and health.

Recently, the flow of Ukrainian citizens wishing to apply for temporary asylum in Russia has increased significantly. First of all, people who have been persecuted by local authorities for linguistic reasons, as well as those who do not intend to become participants in hostilities or an accidental victim of a conflict, turn to us for support. Taking into account these features, the overwhelming number of applicants are residents of the regions of Donbass and Lugansk - the civilian population simply wants to exclude a high threat to their own health and life.

Taking into account real and statistical information, the Government of the Russian Federation has taken a number of measures to simplify the procedure for obtaining temporary asylum. Thus, the period for consideration of applications by Ukrainians was reduced from three months to three days.

Additionally, the positions determining the stay of Ukrainian representatives on Russian territory have changed. If previously it was allowed to stay in Russia for 90 days, after which this period could be extended, now the maximum number of days in a year cannot exceed 90 days. During this time, interested persons must legalize their continued stay by obtaining a temporary residence permit.

There are no significant features in the generally accepted procedure for submitting a request for temporary asylum for Ukrainians: you must provide the same package of documents, undergo a medical examination and fingerprinting, a survey and an interview. Only the consideration of the case is limited to three days. When a satisfactory decision is made, the citizen receives a certificate whose validity period corresponds to the standard one.

Documents for temporary asylum

Local migration service offices recommend preparing a package of at least 3 photographs, one of which will be pasted into your personal file.

Some photo studio employees do not know the requirements for photographs on a temporary residence permit, so you need to ensure that the photographs taken are correct.

Temporary asylum is an opportunity to receive help and protection from another state for a period until the situation in the homeland stabilizes. This status is described in Resolution No. 271 “On the provision of temporary asylum”, adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation on 04/09/2001. Also, when working with this category of citizens, certain provisions of Law No. 4528-1 “On Refugees” of 02/19/1993 are used. The status can be obtained by:

• foreigners who do not want to return to their homeland due to persecution and persecution on the basis of religion, race, political views or other distinctive characteristics;
• foreigners who do not leave for their homeland due to humanitarian reasons.

Russian legislation provides for obtaining citizenship of the country upon receipt of asylum by foreigners. To a large extent, the presented actions are carried out on a general basis; there are minor simplifications in the procedure.

It is provided as a kind of humanitarian status, in order to protect foreign citizens and stateless persons from persecution for one reason or another in the territory of another country. In essence, it is perceived by law enforcement agencies as a deferred deportation of persons who do not want or cannot obtain refugee status in Russia. The applicant has the right to provide any documents confirming the validity of his application. After receiving the application, the applicant receives a certificate, which becomes the main document confirming the legality of the foreigner’s presence in the Russian Federation. The application is considered no longer than one month. If the President of the Russian Federation signs the petition, the applicant receives a certificate of political asylum and a residence permit is issued to him in the prescribed manner. After all the procedures and receiving a positive response, the person is issued a certificate of temporary asylum in Russia on the appointed day. At the same time, many people ask the question: is it an identity document? Refugees in Russia are required to legalize their stay as soon as possible. One way to do this is to apply for temporary asylum. This option is accepted by the majority of immigrants. Despite its name, thanks to this status, a foreign person can live in Russia for a long time and enjoy all the rights of a citizen.