The article was prepared by Svetlana Grishchenko, supervisor of the migration and visa department
There is an opinion, confirmed by dozens of articles on the Internet, that when hiring / firing citizens of the Republic of Belarus, it is not necessary to notify state bodies.
It proceeds from the fact that there is a decree of the Supreme Court in which a judge interprets the content of the decision of the Supreme Council of the Community of Belarus and Russia of June 22, 1996 No. 4 as a direct indication that the provisions of the Federal Law "On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation" from 07/25/2002 N 115-FZ do not apply to citizens of Belarus and, therefore, organizations that have not notified the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the conclusion / termination of an employment contract do not violate migration legislation.
Indeed, until December 31, 2014, there was a norm, according to which the employer was obliged to notify the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the conclusion / termination of the employment contract only with those foreign citizens who required a work permit to carry out their labor activities. Considering that the citizens of Belarus never needed to apply for a work permit / other permits to work in Russia, it was not necessary to notify the migration authorities about the conclusion / termination of labor contracts with them.
But on January 1, 2015, a new version of Federal Law 115-FZ “On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation” came into force, which states that “the employers or customers of works (services) that attract and use a foreign citizen to carry out labor activities, are obliged to notify the territorial body of the federal executive body in the field of migration in the subject of the Russian Federation, on the territory of which this foreign citizen is engaged in labor activity, about the conclusion and termination of an employment contract or civil law contract for the performance of work (provision of services) with this foreign citizen within a period, not exceeding three business days from the date of conclusion or termination (termination) of the relevant contract”.
Thus, notification of migration authorities about the conclusion and termination of employment contracts is required when hiring all categories of foreign citizens without exception, including citizens of the Republic of Belarus, as well as those with a Temporary Residence Permit, Residence Permit, refugee status, etc.
Attention should be paid to one more important fact - there are many international agreements between Russia and Belarus, the legal force of which is higher than national rules. One of these agreements contains the following statement: “To establish that the procedure for regulating the recruitment and use of foreign labor on the basis of national legislation does not apply to citizens of the Republic of Belarus in the Russian Federation and citizens of the Russian Federation in Belarus”
For our part, we want to note that basically, the provisions of N 115-FZ describe the legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation, and not only regulate the provisions on attracting them. For this reason, it is impossible to say for sure that the notification about the conclusion / termination of employment contracts is part of the “procedure for regulating attraction”. It means that the obligation of the employer to send notifications about the conclusion and termination of employment contracts does not regulate the attraction of foreign citizens, does not limit the citizens of the Republic of Belarus, does not change the procedure for involving them in labor activities, and does not affect the employment itself either.
Taking into account all the facts above, it is possible to conclude that each employer makes his own decision whether to notify the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the conclusion or termination of contracts with employees from Belarus or not. However, in our opinion, sending notifications about these events does not complicate the life of employers as much as guarantees that there are no risks to be fined.
