What you need to know about obtaining Russian citizenship by marriage
This article will talk about those who apply for citizenship only on the basis of marriage with a citizen of the Russian Federation. For those who have a common child (children) with a Russian spouse , other conditions for obtaining citizenship apply. In another article, read about obtaining citizenship by marriage and child.
Some foreign citizens believe that just having a Russian spouse is enough to immediately, without any preliminary steps, apply for citizenship. It's a delusion.
Simply marrying a Russian or marrying a citizen of the Russian Federation is not enough for you to be immediately issued a Russian passport.
Family migrants go through the same stages as others. Namely, first they get a temporary residence permit, then they get a residence permit. And only after passing these two mandatory steps does a person receive the right to obtain Russian status.
The second point concerns the duration of the marriage. Documents for Russian citizenship by marriage will be accepted from you only if the union is already 3 years .
Excerpt from Article 14 of Federal Law 62 “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation”
Let's look at examples. A citizen of Kazakhstan married a Russian. The family lived in Kazakhstan for five years and then moved to Russia. The wife began the process of obtaining Russian citizenship: she received a temporary residence permit and a residence permit. Since her union with a Russian citizen is already more than three years old, immediately after receiving a residence permit, she submitted papers for Russian citizenship by marriage. In this case, she did not have to wait any period of time before proceeding to obtain Russian status.
Example No. 2. A Ukrainian married a Russian citizen. Immediately after the wedding, he received a temporary residence permit, and a year later he was given a residence permit. Since the official union was only one year old at the time of receiving the residence permit, the man was not able to immediately apply for citizenship. In this example, the Ukrainian needs to wait another two years before he can apply for Russian citizenship.
One more nuance: documents for Russian citizenship on the basis of marriage will be accepted from you only if your Russian spouse has permanent registration in the Russian Federation. If your husband/wife only has temporary registration, then you will not be able to register on this basis.
Registration of international marriage
In accordance with the norms of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, to register a union, future spouses must:
- Submit an application to the registry office.
- Wait for the date of the ceremony.
- Arrive at the registration location on the specified day and time.
In accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 11 of the RF IC, marriage takes place one month after filing the application. However, some reasons allow us to make an exception to the rules:
- pregnancy;
- birth of children;
- there is a threat to the life of one of the parties;
- other important, urgent circumstances.
The law defines the requirements that those getting married must meet. But they are relevant only if the bride and groom decide to get married on the territory of the Russian Federation.
When planning a wedding, you should remember that the ceremony is held in accordance with the legislation of the state in whose territory it will take place. Since a couple can get married under Ukrainian laws, it is worth discussing how the wedding will take place in the first and second cases.
As mentioned above, the main legislative act regulating the procedure for registering a marriage is the Family Code of the Russian Federation. Please note that:
- Marriage with a citizen of Ukraine in Russia in 2021 will take place only if both the bride and groom are over 18 years old.
- Russian legislation prohibits family unions between close relatives, as well as adopted children and adoptive parents.
- A prerequisite for the ceremony is the absence of other official marriages at the time of registration.
- The union will not be legal if one of the parties is incapacitated or suffers from mental illness.
When going to the registry office, a citizen of the Russian Federation must have with him an identity card, as well as a receipt confirming payment of the state duty.
The Ukrainian side will have to prepare an expanded package of documents. If a Ukrainian citizen marries a Russian citizen on the territory of the Russian Federation, his application must be accompanied by:
- national passport;
- documentary evidence of the absence of another marriage at the time of filing the application;
- a certificate of divorce if the Ukrainian was already married;
- receipt of payment of state duty.
All documents issued in Ukrainian must be translated into Russian and properly certified.
Future newlyweds can sign on the territory of Ukraine. The marriageable age for the bride and groom is 18 years. Until 2012, girls could get married upon reaching the age of 17.
Registration of marriage in Ukraine with a citizen of the Russian Federation is carried out on the basis of an application. The only difference is that now a Russian will have to collect certificates, translate them into Ukrainian and have them certified by a notary.
If, after an official ceremony on the territory of Ukraine, the newlyweds decide to settle in Russia, additional legalization of the marriage will not be required.
Obtaining a temporary residence permit for family migrants
For migrants who have a union with a Russian man or woman, there is a simplification. They will not have to receive a quota for temporary residence permits.
Marriage to a citizen of the Russian Federation gives the right to a quota-free temporary residence permit.
Extract from Article 6 of Federal Law-115 “On the legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation”
- RRVP
TRP for marriage: features of obtaining
- Elena Voropaeva
- 10.02.2021
Therefore, you can collect documents and immediately bring them to the migration division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. You can make a temporary residence permit even immediately after the registry office. At this stage, it does not matter how long ago the marriage took place.
Note! Documents for permission must be submitted in the region in which your Russian husband (wife) has permanent registration (stamp in the passport). If, for example, a Russian husband lives in St. Petersburg under temporary registration, but is permanently registered in Novorossiysk, then his wife will apply for a temporary residence permit in Novorossiysk. In St. Petersburg, her application will not be accepted. This requirement is specified in the law and has been in effect since 2021.
Excerpt from Federal Law-115
If a foreign citizen has a child with Russian citizenship, then you can skip the TRP stage and immediately apply for a residence permit.
Residence rights
Every repatriate who has married a Russian citizen must understand that in this situation he will have the right to live on the territory of our state.
Of course, a repatriate can receive these documents without registering a marriage with a Russian citizen, however, upon entering into a marriage, such a person has the opportunity to immediately obtain permanent residence.
After this, the person will simply have to register permanent residence and wait another year to have a basis for obtaining a Russian passport.
Look,
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How can a Russian citizen obtain Spanish citizenship? Find it at the link.
How to apply for Russian citizenship by husband or wife
Registration takes place through the migration department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - where you are registered. In the capital, to submit documents, you need to contact the Multifunctional Migration Center - popularly called Sakharovo.
Migrants married to Russian citizens prepare a standard list of papers. Plus, to this list you will need to attach documents confirming the existence of grounds for simplified registration. In your case, this will be a marriage certificate and a passport of the Russian husband or wife .
Fictitious marriage
According to the Russian Investigative Committee, a marriage union is concluded so that 2 people can start a family and acquire common property. If a marriage union is concluded for the sake of obtaining any benefit, it is considered fictitious, invalid and legally meaningless.
The main reason for the existence of such marriages is considered to be one of the norms of the Russian legislative framework, which allows the husband/wife to obtain citizenship. The law does not define criminal liability for a fictitious marriage, since it does not pose a danger to society.
For example, if a citizen of Ukraine marries a Russian citizen fictitiously in order to obtain citizenship, and later, at the stage of living in the country under a residence permit, his deception will be revealed and deportation will be carried out. In addition, the migrant may be temporarily prohibited from entering the Russian Federation. In view of this, it is recommended to acquire citizenship without trying to circumvent the legislative norms of the Russian Federation.
The legislation of the Russian Federation does not provide for punishment for entering into a fictitious marriage. As practice shows, it is impossible to prove the impurity of the intentions of the participants in the union.
In this case, the Ukrainian will be denied citizenship. And if it has already been received, then the documents will be canceled and the offender will be forced to leave the country.
Registration of a fictitious marriage is a fairly serious offense not only on the part of the repatriate, but also for a Russian person. It is important to note that in this case, liability can be not only administrative, but also criminal.
If migration service employees find out that a marriage between a repatriate and a Russian resident is fictitious, then in this case the foreigner will definitely be deported from the country if he attempts to obtain citizenship.
If forged documents are discovered when submitting an application, for example, a “false” marriage certificate, then criminal liability is provided for both persons. The foreigner will be convicted according to current Russian laws.
Read how to
Federal Migration Service, register online for citizenship
.
How to obtain Russian citizenship? The answer is here.
How to obtain Ukrainian citizenship? Find out further.
Obtaining Russian resident status through marriage is a fairly simple procedure that does not require special consideration. To hope for success in obtaining a passport on this basis, you just need to prepare all the necessary papers correctly and on time, as well as meet the deadline established by this legislation in Russia
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- Due to frequent changes in legislation, information sometimes becomes outdated faster than we can update it on the website.
- All cases are very individual and depend on many factors. Basic information does not guarantee a solution to your specific problems.
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Documents for obtaining Russian citizenship by marriage
An applicant wishing to obtain citizenship in a simplified manner needs to collect the following list of documents:
- Statement. The questionnaire must be prepared in two copies.
- Applicant's passport + notarized copy of the document.
- Residence permit, you will also need to make a regular copy of the document.
- Photos. To submit, you need to bring three photos measuring 3 x 4 cm. It is allowed to use both color and black and white photographs, but the paper must be matte, not glossy.
- Receipt for payment of state duty. Foreign citizens pay 3,500 rubles for document review. Payment can be made through a branch of any bank, but be sure to check all the data indicated on the check, since if there are errors in the receipt (for example, errors in spelling your full name), citizenship documents will not be accepted.
- A document confirming knowledge of the Russian language.
- Marriage certificate + notarized copy.
- Passport of husband/wife with Russian citizenship + copy of passport. The document must indicate permanent registration in Russia. Instead of the spouse's original passport, you can present a notarized copy.
- If you changed your full name, you will need the appropriate document. If it is made in a foreign language, you need to make a notarized translation.
When applying for Russian citizenship by marriage, you do not need to confirm your income or renounce your previous citizenship.
The list of papers indicated above is required to be presented from those applicants who are applying for registration in Moscow. The list may vary slightly in different regions, so before applying for citizenship, check the list of required certificates with your migration department.
In another article, we talked in detail about the preparation of documents for citizenship.
The application is filled out on a standard form. Samples are attached at the end of the article. How to fill out an application for Russian citizenship.
Your documents will be reviewed within three months . You will receive the decision by mail. If you don’t want to wait for the letter, then after the deadline has passed, you can start calling the migration department at your place of registration and find out if there is a response to your application.
After receiving a positive decision, all that remains is to take the oath and get a Russian passport .
Find out from our material what to do after receiving citizenship.
Procedure and terms of receipt
In order to obtain Russian citizenship based on marriage with a citizen of our country, it is important to remember that the procedure for acquiring resident status will be simplified.
We invite you to familiarize yourself with: Sample contract for the purchase of land
In general, if we specify these conditions, we can understand that a person must have lived in Russia married to his wife for at least 3 years in order to have grounds to apply for a Russian passport.
It is also important to remember that the application itself will not be considered for long. Russian legislation currently determines that consideration of an application under a simplified procedure must be carried out within a period of three to six months.
If we rely on practice, then in general this period does not exceed 4 months. It is worth noting that a person should no longer have any grounds that could affect the period for consideration of the application.
If a citizen has other grounds that will allow him to further reduce the term, then he will need to register specifically for them, and not for marriage to a Russian citizen.
Denial of citizenship by marriage
Starting a family with a Russian resident does not guarantee citizenship. The grounds for refusal are listed in Art. 16 of the Federal Law of May 31, 2002 “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation” No. 62-FZ.
If a citizen of the Russian Federation marries a citizen of Ukraine or a Russian marries a Ukrainian woman, the foreigner will be denied the status of a citizen of the Russian Federation for the following reasons:
- failure to sign a renunciation of previous citizenship within 12 months;
- participation in protests for a violent change in the constitutional system of Russia;
- involvement in extremist activities, participation in military operations against the Russian Federation;
- the presence of restrictions on entry into the territory of Russia;
- outstanding conviction, criminal prosecution or serving a prison sentence;
- service in the Armed Forces, law enforcement agencies or security service of Ukraine.
Problems may also arise when knowingly false information is included in the application.
Conclusion
Marriages between Russians and Ukrainians occur quite often. After starting a family, newlyweds often decide to live in Russia. To do this, a foreigner must legalize his status and obtain citizenship.
To prevent the union from turning into problems, it is worth finding out in advance how the relationship is registered, what is needed for this and how to obtain a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation on preferential terms.
Foreign citizens who are in a marital relationship with a Russian (by marriage or marriage) are entitled to obtain Russian citizenship under a simplified procedure. To obtain citizen status, you must go through the procedure prescribed by the legislator, which includes obtaining a temporary residence permit and obtaining a residence permit.
