Discover more from Fr. Joe’s Newsletter - Moving to Russia
Fr. Joseph Gleason to Speak at Russian Parliament: Help Americans Immigrate to Russia
Russian deputies want conservative Americans to move to Russia
Conservative families from America and Western Europe continue moving to Russia, and Russian lawmakers want to make the process easier.
Comparable to the House of Representatives in America, or the House of Commons in English Parliament, the Russian State Duma is the lower house of the legislative branch in the Russian Federal Assembly, responsible for passing laws which govern the Russian nation. Members of the Duma are called Deputies.
Recently, the Duma has been turning its attention to immigrants coming to Russia from America, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe. Just a couple weeks ago, one Deputy proposed the idea of giving free land to immigrants who come to Russia from western countries.
On February 14, 2023, the Duma is hosting a conference on immigration, with the participation of expats from the US and Europe. They are looking for ways to facilitate the movement of Western migrants to Russia.
Dmitry Kuznetsov is the Russian Duma Deputy spearheading this effort. He invited me (Fr. Joseph Gleason) to be one of the speakers at this event. He asked me to present the Duma with specific proposals for immigration reform. In short, they want to know — How can Russia make it easier for conservative American families to move to Russia?
In an earlier article about Deputy Kuznetsov, in the very lively comment thread, readers proposed many ideas about Russian immigration reform. Many of these ideas are good, and are quite worthy of consideration.
In order to make sure that the most pressing needs are addressed first, it seemed fitting to select the most urgent issues, making sure they receive a proper hearing with the Russian legislature. So in correspondence with Deputy Kuznetsov, I identified the two topics which I have seen most frequently cause difficulty for immigrants. These are the issues that need to receive top priority:
Quota - Prospective immigrants cannot apply for legal residency in Russia until they receive quota, but the current process for receiving quota is extraordinarily difficult. The quota process needs to be significantly simplified for American, Canadian, Australian, and Western European applicants.
Criminal Background Checks - Under current Russian regulations, all prospective immigrants must obtain official criminal background checks from their home countries. These documents must then be apostilled, shipped to Russia, translated, and notarized. Yet these documents are only accepted if they are less than 90 days old. This tight timeframe proves to be difficult for many immigrants. With the current widespread anti-Russian sentiment, America and Canada can be quite slow about providing the necessary apostilled documents. We need to make it impossible for unfriendly countries to interfere in the Russian immigration process, by lengthening the validity of immigrants' criminal background checks to 180 days.
If there is sufficient time, I also hope to address the topic of reinstituting the availability of one-year humanitarian visas.
This conference will be live streamed and available online afterwards. For those who would like to tune in, here is the video link:
Perhaps Orthodox Christians could be given preference for simplified procedures. (This principle is often used for immigrants from other CIS countries, for example.) A letter of reference or affidavit could be provided by the family’s home Orthodox parish or jurisdiction in their country of origin.
I'm 70 and retired. I've also been harassed by the vile LGBTQ+ degenerates for a decade and a half; lawsuits, destruction of my photography business and death threats. I would LOVE to retire to Russia. Many countries allow for foreign nationals to retire to their country if they have a good income. Russia should do the same.