2.4 Obtaining a Work Permit

The 2007 laws dramatically changed the procedure for migrant workers to obtain work permits. A migrant in possession of a residency registration and seeking to work may file an application for a work permit with the FMS directly or through an employer or intermediary. Previously, workers were able to obtain a work permit only through an employer, thereby making their legal status directly linked to the employer and making them more vulnerable to abuse.

Under the new laws, upon receipt of an application, the FMS should issue the work permit, in the form of a plastic card, within 10 days of application. The fee for the work permit is 1,000 rubles (US$42). In order for the work permit lasting longer than 90 days to remain valid, within 30 days of application, the foreign worker must submit medical documents, including a certificate on HIV status, tuberculosis, and other conditions. [52] Medical documents can be obtained usually only from a few designated medical facilities in each city or oblast. The worker must obtain legal employment within 90 days of receiving the work permit or the permit expires. The work permit is valid only for the city or region in which the migrant worker applied. If a worker decides to move to another region, he or she must apply for a different work permit.

Once a foreign worker has been hired, the employer should file notifications with the FMS, with the local office of the Federal Service for Work and Employment (known as Rostrud), and with the local branch of the tax ministry. The worker's registration on the migration registry should then be prolonged until the end of the employment contract or until one year after arrival, whichever comes first.

If a foreign worker does not secure a legal employment contract within 90 days of arrival, the worker's residency registration expires and he or she must leave the country. Often in such cases, migrant workers travel by train across the border to Ukraine or Kazakhstan and reenter Russia. In such cases, however, the migrant must obtain residency registration anew. He or she may either continue searching for employment if the original work permit is still valid or obtain a new work permit. [53]

The 2007 laws also established harsher administrative penalties for workers working without a valid permit and employers hiring workers without a valid permit. A foreigner working without a work permit may incur a fine of 2,000 (US$84) to 5,000 rubles (US$211) with or without administrative expulsion from Russia. [54] After paying the fine for irregular employment, migrants can apply for a work permit in the usual manner. [55]

Employers may not hire a migrant not in a possession of work permit; doing so can result in fines of up to 800,000 rubles (US$33,776) per migrant for a legal entity as well as suspension of a company's activity for up to 90 days. In 2007, the Federal Migration Service issued fines totaling four billion rubles (US$168.8 million), up from 500 million (US$ 18.2 million) in 2006 . [56] Both employers and migrants are often able to avoid fines or more serious sanctions by paying bribes. [57]

Delays in Issuing Work Permits

Some migrant workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch complained of severe delays in receiving work permits from local Federal Migration Service offices. Although under law, migration service offices must issue the work permits within 10 days of application, migrant workers often wait for over a month to receive them. Many migrant workers work illegally while waiting to receive their work permits. Working illegally often makes workers more vulnerable to abuses and unlikely to seek assistance from government agencies in cases of abuse.

When a Human Rights Watch researcher visited the FMS department in Ekaterinburg on May 30, 2008, migrant workers were waiting in line to receive work permits submitted more than a month before. One worker from Uzbekistan receiving his permit told Human Rights Watch, "[It has been so long], I don't even remember anymore when exactly [I applied]." [58] Another stated that he had submitted an application for a work permit through an intermediary more than a month earlier, on April 28, but was still waiting for it. He had found work as an odd jobs worker on a construction site despite not having a work permit. [59] The director of an intermediary firm in Ekaterinburg that assists migrants in applying for work permits confirmed that work permits were issued usually only after 30-40 days. Officials at the FMS department in Ekaterinburg stated that in general they provide the work permits in time, although there may be "small technical problems." They blamed any delays on intermediaries who may wait to collect a certain number of applications before filing them with the FMS. [60]

Delays in issuing work permits were not limited to Ekaterinburg. Workers interviewed in other cities faced similar waiting times. According to Markhamat Mamajanova, an employer in St. Petersburg, it usually takes one to two months to receive a work permit. [61] Nasriddin N. , who had worked in Rostov and Sochi told Human Rights Watch, "People must wait one month before they get the work permit, but they work anyway. If the FMS catches them they pay a [big] fine." [62]

The delays in issuing work permits lead many to seek out the use of intermediaries, many of which, as noted above, may provide false documents or charge excessive fees. According to Davlat D., from a small village in Tajikistan, who was planning to return to Russia in May 2008 for work in Sochi, "When I go back, I will do a work permit. … You can do all of this through an [intermediary] firm. They do it quickly, for 7-10,000 rubles (US$296-492)." [63] Nasriddin N., who went to Sochi in June 2007 and found work on a construction project at a border post stated similarly, "I registered on the migration registry, I went to do the four medical checkups… Then I paid a firm 4,500 rubles (US$190) to get the work permit for me in one week. Otherwise it would take a month." [64] Many migrants told Human Rights Watch that they had used intermediaries to obtain work permits and only later learned that the work permits were false.