Participants of the resettlement program may be required to confirm their knowledge of the Russian language

The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has proposed changes to the process of facilitating the voluntary resettlement of citizens living abroad. Thus, the Ministry of Internal Affairs plans to introduce a test of knowledge of the Russian language for immigrants from the CIS countries, since recently the number of applicants for citizenship who do not speak the language at a sufficient level has increased, according to the department. Citizens of Belarus, DPR, LPR, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, as well as stateless persons permanently residing in these countries, will be exempted from this requirement.

“As part of the implementation of the state program to assist voluntary resettlement in the Russian Federation of compatriots living abroad, there has been a tendency to increase the number of citizens of the CIS countries applying for participation in the state program and acquiring Russian citizenship in a simplified manner, whose knowledge of the Russian language is insufficient level for oral and written communication in a language environment,” TASS quotes from a draft presidential decree prepared by the department.

You can confirm the level of the language with a document on education in the territories that were part of the USSR before September 1, 1991. Also allowed is a document received in Russia after the specified date or issued in a country where Russian is one of the state languages.

The program to assist voluntary resettlement in Russia was adopted in 2006. As part of the project, people are being resettled who found themselves outside of Russia after the collapse of the USSR and want to move to the Russian Federation. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the first quarter of 2022, 16,000 people moved to Russia under this program.

In May, the Ministry of Education acted with the initiative to simplify the exams for obtaining a residence permit in Russia for the period of a special operation in Ukraine. The exam includes Russian as a foreign language, the history of Russia and the fundamentals of the legislation of the Russian Federation. February 10 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Decree on the establishment of an interdepartmental commission of the Security Council on improving the state migration policy. In particular, this happened after the incident in Obninsk. Kaluga Governor Vladislav Shapsha visited a multifunctional migration center where one of the migrants had a fake Russian language certificate.

Read more about the migration situation in the region – in the material “Kommersant” “Kaluga region took on strangers”

Lusine Balasyan