Russia eases immigration rules for foreign specialists.

MOSCOW (Itar-Tass) - Russia eased immigration rules for
high-skilled foreign specialists on Friday hoping to increase their inflow
to promote economic modernization.
Amendments to the immigration law came into force today that extend
registration deadline to 90 days, allow to be registered not only in an
apartment, but with the employing organization, and provide for multiple
entry three-year visas with an extension option.
Spokesman of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) Konstantin Poltoranin
said the amendments will radically increase the number of high-skilled
foreign labor in the country which currently comprises only five thousand
people.
However former FMS Deputy Director Vyacheslav Postavnin who currently
chairs the Migration XXI Century Fund doubts such prospects, as FMS
currently has only one unit registering high-skilled foreign workers.
The Skolkovo innovation project, a planned Russian analogue of the
Silicon Valley, which wants to engage high-skilled foreign labor said the
simplified migration rules were of great significance for the Russian
economy, but could not estimate the number of experts who would arrive in
Russia.
Its press service said 29 companies with foreign partners agreed to
join the Skolkovo project so far and their number is expected to rise to a
hundred by the end of the year.