Expert: “golden visa” will attract few people to Russia so far

The simplified procedure for issuing a residence permit (residence permit) in Russia begins to operate at a not the best time for foreign business, in the near future only a few investors from the East can use it, a leading researcher at the INSAP Demography, Migration and Labor Market Research Laboratory told Vedomosti RANEPA Julia Florinskaya.

“The project of a residence permit for investment has been discussed for a long time. Acceptance, alas, came at a time when there were problems with the investment attractiveness of Russia. A certain number of people, of course, will apply, but in principle this will not solve the problem of attracting investors,” she said.

Most likely, the opportunity to obtain the so-called “golden visa” will be used by investors from the East, the expert believes, but we are talking about units. The investor visa was unpopular even before, and practically no one was “attracted” to Russia using it, Florinskaya noted.

A residence permit for investors allows free entry into Russia to conduct business in any region without obtaining a temporary residence permit. It will be issued from January 11th. The law on the simplified procedure for obtaining a residence permit was signed by President Vladimir Putin in July 2022. Now such a mechanism is available, in particular, for IT specialists, as well as for citizens of Kazakhstan, Moldova and Ukraine, notes “Kommersant”.

According to the parameters determined by the government, to obtain a “golden visa” you need to invest from 15 million rubles. in socially significant projects of the regions or 30 million rubles. into the capital of a Russian legal entity. Another option is to buy real estate for any purpose at the construction stage or within two years after its commissioning with a total cadastral value of 25 million rubles. (in Moscow – from 50 million rubles, in the Far East – from 20 million rubles). The third possibility is registration and at least two years of business ownership with the payment of 4 million rubles in taxes per year.

Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation in 2022 expectedthat in the first year of the launch of the program, about 300-400 foreign investors will use it, in three years – no more than 600-650 per year. “We see interest in this mechanism from investors from the countries of the EAEU, the CIS, the Middle East and Asia. According to our calculations, the new law will allow attracting up to 12 billion rubles to Russia. in the first year and more than 40 billion rubles. in subsequent ones. These investments will help in the development of the construction industry, agriculture, and industry,” said Deputy Minister of Economic Development Dmitry Volvach.