What to do if a foreign citizen has not left the Russian Federation after the visa expires?
The article was prepared by Viktorova Alina, consultant of Confidence Group Company.
A visa is an authorization document granting a person the right to cross the border and stay for the period of its validity in the country that issued the visa.
Unfortunately, there are cases when a foreign citizen for any reason violates the permitted period of stay and does not leave the Russian Federation after the visa expires
This situation is a serious violation, entails administrative responsibility under Art. 18.8 Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, as well as a lot of time and material costs necessary to leave the Russian Federation.
If the visa of a foreign citizen expired no more than 3 days, then in this case
a foreign citizen will be able to buy a ticket for a trip outside the Russian Federation, moreover, the airline can even register it for a flight without any problems, however, at the time of passport control, a foreign citizen will be denied passage to the transit zone for subsequent departure from the Russian Federation due to an expired permit document.
This issue must be resolved at the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Ministry of Internal Affairs. This authority is represented at every major international airport in the Russian Federation. First, you need to contact an employee of the migration department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with an explanation of the situation and a request for assistance in leaving the Russian Federation.
An employee of the migration department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will draw up a protocol on an administrative offense and write out a corresponding fine, which must be paid immediately.
In parallel with this action, you must find the Consul of the Russian Federation at the airport, explain him the situation and request for help with leaving the Russian Federation.
You necessarily need contact the inviting party (person) who assisted in issuing the invitation for a foreign citizen.
The inviting party (if it is an organization) must write an e-mail on the company letterhead addressed to the Director of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in a free form, with a request to extend the validity of the expired visa for a period sufficient to leave the Russian Federation, explaining the reasons for late departure, by attaching air tickets, copies of documents of a foreign citizen and any other documents that are proof that a foreign citizen was not able to leave the Russian Federation in a timely manner.
If you receive a positive resolution, you must pay the state fee for visa extension and contact the Consul for visa extension.
In case of receiving a negative resolution from the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, leaving the country is possible only by a court decision.
Now we will describe the procedure in case a foreign citizen has expired visa for more than 72 hours.
First, you need to contact the Embassy of your country in the Russian Federation in order to get a certificate stating that a foreign citizen is not wanted and does not have any claims from the state of his citizenship to him personally. In addition, it is necessary to ask the Embassy staff to apply for the so-called “transit” visa (hereinafter transit visa) for the foreign citizen to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As a rule, Embassies are reluctant to make this application, with the exception of countries such as Israel and the United States, which rarely refuse their citizens such a request.
After receiving these documents from the Embassy, you must apply to the territorial division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is responsible for issuing visas and invitations in the subject of the Russian Federation, for a transit visa to go outside the Russian Federation.
But in case of refusal of the Embassy of the country of citizenship there is nothing left but to apply to the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the place of migration registration of a foreign citizen (or at the place of his actual stay) with an explanation of the situation, the attaching documents (including those that justifying untimely departure) and a request to assist in leaving the Russian Federation.
Moreover, the key word is “request”, as the Ministry of Internal Affairs officers do not like to get in touch with foreign citizens who have violated the period of their stay in the RF that they have allowed and this involves a lot of time for preparing documents.
The employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs draws up a protocol on an administrative offense, and prepares documents for sending to the court, which will decide how the foreign citizen will leave the Russian Federation, as well as the measure of administrative responsibility for the violation.
After preparing the documents, the foreign citizen goes to court, where he will have to explain the reason for his delay. At this stage, a foreign citizen can provide any documents confirming the presence of extenuating circumstances of the delay in the Russian Federation, such as the need for emergency treatment, a serious illness or death of a close relative living in the Russian Federation, or the occurrence of force majeure circumstances (extreme and unavoidable circumstances under these conditions), as well as natural phenomena.
The court may decide that this foreign citizen is not guilty of not leaving the territory of the Russian Federation on time, and then he should contact the territorial division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for obtaining a transit visa for leaving the Russian Federation.
A possible court decision may be the imposition of administrative responsibility in the form of a fine. The amount of the fine is from 2 to 5 thousand rubles, in Moscow, Moscow region, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region - up to 7 thousand rubles.
A court decision can also make a decision on the expulsion of a foreign citizen from the Russian Federation. The order of execution of this decision is described in Art. 32.10 Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. Expulsion can be either compulsory or controlled independently.
In difficult cases, when a foreign citizen does not have documents and / or money to leave, he can be placed in a temporary detention place, where he will stay until he has the opportunity to buy a ticket and leave.
It is important to note that after a court decision on forced or controlled independent expulsion, a foreign citizen will be prohibited from entering the Russian Federation for up to five years.
It is worth paying attention to the fact that the presence of family members on the territory of the Russian Federation may affect a court decision. The decision to expel a foreign citizen from the Russian Federation with a subsequent ban on entry is unlikely to be made by a judge in connection with these circumstances.
So, leaving the Russian Federation after the visa expires is a very long and complicated process, requiring considerable financial and time costs of both the foreign citizen and his inviting party. In this connection, we strongly recommend that you follow the visa validity period, constantly remind the foreign citizen of his obligation to leave the Russian Federation before the visa expires, as well as the serious consequences and the possibility of further entry into the Russian Federation. Anyway, we recommend contacting professionals who will help make the right decision and minimize risks for both a foreign citizen and the inviting party.
