Arranging a foreign employee’s arrival begins before the employee appears at the employer’s workplace. Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs (Министерство внутренних дел Российской Федерации, МВД), the government authority cited in the source, reported that a foreign national planning to enter Russia without a visa must submit an electronic application for the planned trip in advance through the RuID app. The stated deadline is no later than 72 hours before the trip.
For the HR function, this is neither a standalone hiring procedure nor a replacement for checking the employee’s documents. However, the entry procedure affects the feasibility of the arrival date, the start of onboarding, and the employee’s internal start-date schedule. Therefore, the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ information should be included in the preliminary checks when planning the arrival of a visa-free candidate.
Which workers the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ information concerns
The communication concerns foreign nationals entering Russia without a visa, including foreign workers. It does not allow the described procedure to be automatically extended to every overseas candidate: above all, the employer must establish whether this particular person is planning to enter without a visa.
The source data also mention the legal representatives of minors and persons lacking legal capacity. However, the procedure they must follow, the information required, and the specifics of submitting the application are not described in the material. If this situation applies to a candidate, the procedure should not be inferred by analogy: the current explanations from the Ministry of Internal Affairs should be checked.
RuID when planning the arrival date
The Ministry of Internal Affairs states that an electronic application for the planned trip must be submitted through RuID no later than 72 hours before the trip. The app creates a digital profile for the foreign national. For the employer, this means that the arrival date should not be fixed without taking this deadline into account and without confirming that the procedure applies to the employee.
It is useful to separate organizational communication from immigration-related conclusions. The employer may agree a tentative travel date with the candidate and remind the candidate to verify the official rules. However, the material provided does not indicate that the company submits the application on behalf of the foreign national, gains access to the person’s digital profile, or is required to verify that the application has been submitted.
How the biometric experiment affects the HR schedule
Since 1 December 2024, an experiment involving the collection of foreign nationals’ biometric personal data has been conducted at the state border. This circumstance should be taken into account as part of the entry process, rather than as a separate HR action by the employer.
The material does not specify how long the checks take, which border-crossing points are covered, what data are collected, or what the employer must do after the border crossing. Therefore, no specific additional time should be built into the schedule, and the employee should not be asked to provide documents that are not specified. A practical approach is not to schedule critical HR events solely on the basis of the expected arrival date.
What the Ministry of Internal Affairs uses border checks for
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the biometric system helps identify people who attempt to re-enter after changing their identifying details while being subject to an entry ban. Migration-control points are also used to counter illegal border crossings and restrict the entry of people who violate migration rules.
The employer should not interpret this information as a basis for independently assessing a candidate’s entry restrictions. The communication does not describe a mechanism for companies to conduct such a check. However, the fact that checks are conducted shows that it is risky to build the hiring process on the assumption that the candidate will definitely cross the border on a preselected day.
What to check before agreeing on the start date
The candidate’s internal process should be divided into stages: trip planning, entry, and subsequent HR actions. The information about RuID and 72 hours applies to the first stage; the information about the biometric experiment applies to the second. This material does not establish the rules for formalizing the employment relationship, required permits, or any other deadlines.
Before making decisions, check the current procedure on the official resources of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Separately verify whether the procedure applies to the particular employee and the selected border-crossing point. This is especially important because the source material is explanatory in nature, and it does not specify the consequences of failing to submit an application through RuID.
What to check
- Establish whether the candidate plans to enter Russia without a visa.
- Check the current entry rules on the official resource of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
- Take into account the deadline specified by the Ministry of Internal Affairs when planning: the application through RuID must be submitted no later than 72 hours before the trip.
- Check whether the procedure applies to the particular employee and border-crossing point.
- Do not treat the HR formalization date as a guaranteed date for crossing the border.
- Do not draw conclusions about the consequences of failing to submit the application: they are not specified in the source material.