Investment Immigration “Golden Visa” program for Russia
In our past articles we wrote about the necessity of adopting clear investment immigration laws in Russia to attract foreign investors, similar to the programs that exist in many countries. Finally, it happened, the relevant law was adopted on July 11th, 2022, and it comes into force on January 11th 2023. In the next 6 months Russian Government should establish the exact criteria that would determine the investment objects, amount of investment, conditions of investment, etc. for a foreign investor to be recognized as one and obtain residency.
Initially the idea of “Golden visa” for Russia was discussed in the press in June 2020, in April 2021 I have participated in the working group at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade to brainstorm what those criteria should be. I was very skeptic about the draft of proposed criteria as I believed that the way they are proposed they will not work and there would be hardly few investors that would using this law to obtain residency in Russia. So, let’s again briefly go over pros and cons of the proposed criteria
• Investment to the Russian existing company in the amount of 15 million Rubles (approximately 260.000 USD)
• Investment to the Russian government bonds in the amount of 30 million Rubles (approximately 520.000 USD)
• Investment to the residential or commercial real estate in Russia in the amount of 30 million Rubles (approximately 520.000 USD)
Pros:
• Not only foreign investor would obtain residency but also his/her family members – spouse, children, parents, spouse’s parents, grandparents, and grandkids
• Foreign investor will skip the necessity of obtaining quota for temporary residency and will obtain residency
• There will be no requirement to reside in Russia for 6 months in a year on the basis of residency not to lose it for the investor and his family members
Cons:
• Prior to the possibility of applying for residency foreign investor should hold of his investment in Russia for 3 years
• No clear path to citizenship apart from after 5 years of having such residency
We are of course in support of this law but believe in order to really attract foreign investors the criteria should be thought through with a more real-life approach. Russia and foreign investor could greatly benefit from this law if all is done in a proper way. From our side we will do our best to inform Ministry of Economic Development and Trade that initially proposed investment criteria should be changed and would definitely be monitoring the situation and sharing it on our Telegram channel
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