Quota for foreign labor hire

Article is prepared by Grischenko Svetlana, supervisor of the migration division, Confidence Group, 01.04.2016

Over the years, many employers in Russia are wondering how to guaranty receive the quota, how to minimize the risk of refusal and whether it is necessary to receive it.

The article is concerned with a number of recommendations and basic explanations in order to answer these questions.

The registration of work permits for foreign citizens staying in Russia on the basis of a visa, provided that the employer is not willing to pay such employee salaries more than 167 thousand rubles a month, may be possible in two ways. The first way is within quotas annually established by the Russian Government. The second way - under the quota-free (non-quota) positions and professions, including mainly office senior management of organizations, artists, engineers, tourism industry specialists, and a number of other no classified posts.

Quotas for foreign workers do not cover the foreign citizens with the status of the TRP and the PRP, highly qualified specialists, as well as foreign citizens arriving from non-visa countries (starting from January 1, 2015). For the last category it is enough to obtain a patent for work.

At the same time, if there is no quota for foreign workers, employers are wondering whether it is possible to hire foreign workers on the quota-free positions, which are not real positions of foreign citizens, and whether the risks of such actions are significant or not.

We believe that such option is possible under the certain conditions, which we would like to specify below.

When the employers choose one of the non-quota positions, first of all, it is necessary to pay attention to the compliance of the requested positions of a foreign citizen with the basic kind of activity of the company. Another important item is the need to confirm the compliance of the selected positions with corresponding diploma (certificate) on education. For example, if the employer intends to hire a foreign citizen as an engineer, it is required to provide a diploma certifying a higher technical education when applying for a work permit.

It is also necessary to take into account the size of the organization, which is expected to attract foreign workers on quota-free position. For example, the company with an annual average number of employees of 3 people cannot have 5 people holding posts of heads of departments, and so many departments cannot exist in such a small company. For sure the employer will be informed of such incompliance and will be refused on the issue of work permits.

Anyway, if the employer managed to obtain such a work permit, basing on our experience we may say, that the cases of claims by the competent authorities on non-compliance of position in work permit of a foreign worker with the real one, are extremely rare.

Exceptions are the obvious cases, for example, when employers had issued a work permit with an engineer position, and then when checking by the competent authorities, it turned out that this foreign citizen actually works as a constructor. In this case, the probability of imposing penalties for illegal hire of foreign citizens is almost 100%.

Therefore, provided a reasonable approach, any employer may use this option to attract foreign workers.

We would like to draw your attention on the following question. Is that easy to get the quota for foreign workers?

Many factors influence the decision of the Russian Government on the allocation of quotas to hire foreign workers. They include socio-economic situation in the country and regional characteristics of the labor market, the presence / absence of sufficient labor force among Russian citizens, etc.

The submission of documents for the quota can be made in two ways. The first way suggests applying for the quota by the employers until July 1 of the current year, the consolidation of applications from employers in Russia, and the approval of the general number of foreign workers suggested to be hired with their further distribution to qualifying groups, to the territorial entities of Russia, as well as directly to employers.

The second way is the so-called "correction of the quota". It suggests applying for the quota throughout a year, as a rule, until October 1, for the consideration of the Interagency Commission of the applications from specific employers and approval for them the quota for the current year.

The newly registered employers as well as the employers, wishing to obtain additional quota or correct previously issued one in terms of nationality or position of a foreign citizen, may take an advantage of this option.

We have to state the fact that the first option of obtaining the quota has recently become very inefficient, especially in the largest of the RF subjects, such as Moscow. Thus, according to statistics of our company, in 2015 Moscow has been allocated only with 20-25% of the total amount of quota for foreign workers requested by employers, and in 2016 - no more than 15%.

The second option of obtaining the quotas seems to be much more effective. In 2014-2016 years our company's clients were issued from 50 to 70% of the requested amount of quota, when applying for the correction of quota in Moscow and the Moscow region. It gives us all grounds to state of more efficient and accurate tool for obtaining the quotas for foreign workers.

There are also negative aspects when making the quota under the correction procedure. They include the timing of consideration of documents from the date of application till the time of applying for a work permit. If the employers are issued with the quota for foreign labor hire, unfortunately, this does not mean that they can immediately apply to the FMS for a work permit.

First, they have to wait for the order of the RF Government, the original letter from the competent authorities with information on the quota, as well as, most importantly, additional order, directed to the Federal Migration Service by the heads, allowing the reception of documents within the corrected quota. Thus, it may take from 4 to 6 months averagely from the date of application of the quota till the time of applying for the work permit.

In both ways there are significant factors that increase employers' chances to receive the quota:

• before submitting the documents the employer must be sure to contact the government agency of employment (Employment Center) for assistance in the selection of necessary workers by profession (specialties, positions);
• the employer must provide to the foreign citizens the accommodation to live, a residence hall, rent of premises or other housing. Even if the employer doesn’t do this in the future, the lack of formal information on the provision of housing in the application, will automatically lead to the failure of receiving the quota;
• the employer is obliged to provide medical assistance under the contract concluded by the employer with a medical organization for paid medical services or a contract (policy) of voluntary medical insurance of the foreign worker, purchased by the employer;
• it is needed to properly justify the need to attract foreign workers for relevant professions (specialties, positions).

When filling out an application for the quota it is necessary:

• to specify an adequate wage for the respective professions (specialties, positions), taking into account the current situation on the labor market;
• to indicate in the column "professional qualification requirements", namely, the education of a foreign citizen, as a higher or secondary professional. The higher the educational requirements, the less Russian citizens would be able to qualify for this position, which means less chance of receiving the refusal of one of the main reasons: the presence of a sufficient number of personnel among Russian citizens;
• to specify not "0", but the corresponding number of Russian citizens, which the employer plans to send for training, continuous professional education of professions (specialties, positions ), in the column "Planning of training of national personnel for the profession (specialties, positions)".

When applying for the quota, the employer shall also take into account the limitations on the permissible share of foreign workers involved in various sectors of the economy established by the Russian Government on an annual basis.

In conclusion we would like to point out, that following all the recommendations for obtaining the quota does not give a 100% guarantee, but increases significantly employers' chances to receive the quota. The assistance of professionals, such as the Confidence Group specialists, would significantly increase the chances to obtain the quota and ensures compliance with Russian migration and labor legislation.