President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has signed the Federal Law "On the Procedure for Exiting the Russian Federation and Entering the Russian Federation." The document was adopted by the State Duma of the Russian Federation on May 23, 2023, and approved by the Federation Council on June 7, 2023.
The aim of the law is to improve the legal regulation of the process of issuing and using documents for exiting and entering Russia by Russian citizens.
According to the new amendments, the domestic passport and birth certificate (for children under the age of 14) have been added to the main identity documents used by Russian citizens for exiting and entering the country in cases specified by international treaties.
The Federal Law provides a complete list of grounds on which a foreign passport, diplomatic passport, and service passport can be declared invalid. It also establishes the timeframes after which these documents become invalid. The law includes requirements for the confiscation of such documents by authorized government agencies and conducting inspections in cases where there are indications of their issuance based on forged or invalid documents, false information, or counterfeit forms.
The Russian government is given powers to establish the procedure and timeframes for confiscating and transferring foreign passports, diplomatic passports, and service passports to the issuing authority in cases provided by law, as well as to establish a verification procedure to determine the fact of issuing these documents based on forged or invalid documents, false information, or counterfeit forms.
If an application for a foreign passport is submitted on the territory of the Russian Federation, where the citizen is registered, the processing time should not exceed one month. If the application is submitted in another region of the Russian Federation, the processing time is three months.
Furthermore, the Federal Law establishes a deadline for notifying the citizen or their legal representative by the authorities that have decided to restrict the citizen's right to leave the Russian Federation about the fact of such a decision (no later than three working days after the decision is made).
The document also establishes additional cases and procedures for the storage (confiscation) of foreign passports when a decision is made to restrict a citizen's right to leave the Russian Federation.
The Federal Law enters into force 180 days after its official publication.
