Highly qualified foreign experts have willingly started to arrive in the Russian capital. This is the result of the liberalization of Russian legislation, says the head of the Moscow Department of Migration Service Fyodor Karpovets in an interview with the Voice of Russia.

An increase in the number of elite foreign workers has become a recent tendency. This was promoted not only by Russia’s “soft” laws but also economic factors related to the crisis in Europe and Russia’s admission to the World Trade Organization. About 10,000 such specialists from various countries have arrived in Moscow since 2011, and this figure has consistently grown Fyodor Karpovets said.

“At present, Moscow offers preferences for these foreign workers. They get working permits up to three years and residence visas under a simplified procedure. The only condition they have to fulfill is to prove their qualifications. Another demand is that their salaries should not be less than 2 million rubles a year (about 70,000 U.S. dollars). But this requirement has been halved for scientific workers and teachers. Basically, experts arrive in Moscow from Germany, France, England, Switzerland as well as the U.S. and Israel,” Fyodor Karpovets said.

The majority of foreigners without higher education arrive in Moscow from the other CIS member countries. They are mainly working in construction, trade and service sectors, and a small number work in factories. Clearly, under globalization, no country, especially economically developed one, can manage without the involvement of additional working hands.

According to the head of the Moscow Migration Service, the attraction of foreign workers also creates several problems such as the violation of duration of stay in the capital, doing illegal work and committing crimes. However, the number of these violations has gradually declined, Fyodor Karpovets said.

He said that the violation of immigration law is a punishable crime for a foreigner, and he will have to pay a fine of about 200 U.S. dollars. If he violates for the second time he will be deported. In this case, he will be banned from Russia for five years. In fact, the number of illegal foreign workers is declining in Moscow. The reason here is registration or getting permission for work as an expert or unqualified foreign worker has been simplified.