Russia’s Interior Ministry has drawn up a bill on migration policy, creating legal grounds for the biometric identification of foreign nationals entering Russia and reducing the amount of time they can stay in the country temporarily to 90 days a year, the Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk said.

"On March 29, 2024, the Russian Interior Ministry submitted to the government a draft federal law titled 'On the Conditions of Entry into the Russian Federation and Exit from the Russian Federation of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons, as well as the Conditions for Their Stay and Residence on the Territory of the Russian Federation,' which provides for the expansion of legal grounds for the use of modern means and methods of control over the entry and stay in Russia of foreign citizens," she wrote on her Telegram channel.

According to the spokeswoman, if enacted the law would establish legal grounds for introducing the biometric identification of individuals upon entering Russia, reducing the period of temporary stay of foreigners to 90 days per calendar year, and creating digital profiles of foreigner visitors.  Previously, foreigners could temporarily stay in Russia for 90 days within every six-month period.

In addition, the spokeswoman said that a controlled stay regime will be introduced for certain categories of foreigners.  There will be tighter control over employers and clients of work/services that recruit foreign labor, extrajudicial restriction of the rights of illegal immigrants, as well as prohibition on government bodies, organizations, individuals and legal entities from providing any services to violators of immigration law, as well as other decisions aimed at streamlining the stay of foreign citizens in Russia.

According to TASS, the spokeswoman pointed out that the bill provides for mandatory dactyloscopic registration and photographing of all foreigners entering Russia. It also provides for the possibility of registering biometric data in the representation offices of the Russian Interior Ministry abroad. "A law enforcement regime of ‘controlled stay’ will be established for foreigners staying in Russia illegally, as well as for persons whom the state authorities have deemed unfit for entering Russia," she explained.

As for the digital profile of a foreign citizen, it will consist of a set of information about the foreigner in the electronic systems of state bodies and organizations, linked by a single unique identifier. According to Volk, a single document certifying the identity of a foreign citizen in Russia will replace all currently issued migration documents, as well as confirm the right to reside and work in the country.

According to Volk, the Russian Interior Ministry plans to mandate that foreign citizens sign a loyalty agreement, in which they agree to a possible restriction of their right to enter the country, as well as to a restriction of their stay in the country in case they violate the law. In addition, the bill will introduce the concept of expulsion.  Such a measure will be applied to criminals or persons who pose a threat to security, and to those whose stay in Russia is deemed undesirable.  "In this case, expulsion will be [available as a legal remedy] to both the courts as a measure of punishment and authorized federal executive bodies as part of an extrajudicial procedure as a measure of state coercion," the spokeswoman pointed out.

The Russian Interior Ministry also plans to establish administrative supervision over the stay or residence of foreign citizens in Russia.  This will be a form of police activity. "Supervision includes the application of powers established by the law ‘On Police,’ as well as all new powers in the field of immigration," Volk added.