Russia · Residency by investment
Permanent Residence for Investors (ВНЖ without a temporary permit)
Open. The criteria sit in Government Decree No. 2573 of 31 December 2022, in force from 11 January 2023 and amended by Decree No. 1375 of 23 August 2023. There is no sunset clause. The Ministry of Economic Development must first issue a conclusion that a criterion is met; only then does the Interior Ministry consider the permit.
This is the only investment-linked residence route Russia operates, and the real-estate criterion is the only property-based residence channel in the country. It matters mostly for what it is not: it is not a purchase-and-receive golden visa. Two of the four criteria are tested on taxes actually paid rather than on capital committed, and the property criterion is measured on cadastral value on new-build stock only, so the trophy apartment on the resale market does not qualify however much it cost.
Qualifying routes
Invested over the three years before the application, confirmed by a letter from the executive body of the federal subject concerned.
This figure is an annual tax bill, not a capital sum. The company must have traded continuously for at least two years and pay at least RUB 4m a year in taxes, levies and social contributions.
The company must have operated for at least three years and have paid at least RUB 6m in taxes and contributions in the preceding calendar year.
Cadastral value, which is usually well below market: RUB 50m in Moscow, RUB 25m in most regions, RUB 20m in the Far Eastern Federal District. New-build only, bought off-plan or within two years of commissioning, and held unencumbered for a full year before applying.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- 15M RUB
- Total landed cost
- The qualifying investment, plus a state duty of RUB 30,000 for the residence permit since 27 July 2026 — it was RUB 6,000 before that — and Russian legal, appraisal and translation costs on top. There is no published tariff for obtaining the Ministry of Economic Development conclusion.
- Route type
- Residency by investment
- Timeline
- 4–12 months (The Ministry of Economic Development conclusion comes first and carries no published service standard; the permit decision itself runs to about four months. No issuance statistics are published for this route, so the approval rate is unknown.)
- Physical presence
- Real, and it is the point most often missed. The permit is annulled if the holder spends more than six months outside Russia in a calendar year, and it carries an annual notification confirming residence, filed within two months of each anniversary with evidence of income at or above the regional subsistence minimum.
- Family
- SpouseChildrenThe decree certifies the investor only. Family members follow through the ordinary family grounds of Federal Law No. 115-FZ rather than being carried automatically on the investment
- Permanent residency
- This is the permanent permit. Since Federal Law No. 257-FZ of 2 August 2019 it is issued open-ended for most categories rather than for a renewable five years.
- Citizenship
- Five years of permanent residence counted from the date the permit was issued, plus the language, history and law examination and the oath, under Article 15 of Federal Law No. 138-FZ.
- Language test
- Yes — Russian language, Russian history and the fundamentals of Russian legislation. Since 1 January 2026 the exam is taken only on computers at state-designated centres, under video recording, from a question bank rotated monthly. Waived at 70 and over, and for disability group I.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- a conclusion from the Ministry of Economic Development that one of the four criteria in Decree No. 2573 is metfor the property route, an extract from the state register evidencing cadastral value and a full year of unencumbered ownershipfor the business routes, a register extract plus records of taxes and contributions actually paidmedical certificates, fingerprinting and a clean criminal recordan annual notification of residence thereafter, with proof of income at the regional subsistence minimum
- THE PROPERTY ROUTE IS NARROWER THAN IT LOOKS. The test is cadastral value, not price paid, and cadastral value typically sits well below market. The property must be new-build, acquired off-plan or within two years of commissioning, and held unencumbered for a year before you apply. Resale stock does not qualify at any price.
- The quota route to a temporary permit has effectively closed, so the quota-free grounds are the only realistic entry. The 2026 nationwide quota is 3,802 permits — 500 of them for Moscow — down about 64% in two years.
- The permit is annulled by more than six months abroad in a calendar year, and requires an annual residence confirmation with proof of subsistence-level income. It is incompatible with a multi-jurisdiction, low-presence life.
- A person from a state Russia designates unfriendly needs Government Commission permission under Presidential Decree No. 81 of 1 March 2022 to acquire Russian real estate or securities at all. There is no published timetable and the decision is discretionary.
- Getting money out is harder than getting it in. Non-resident individuals from unfriendly states who do not work in Russia may not transfer funds abroad at all, a restriction rolled over every six months and currently running to 7 December 2026. Those who do work in Russia may remit no more than their salary.
- THE BANK IS THE BINDING CONSTRAINT, NOT THE PERMIT. Visa, Mastercard and Amex cards issued outside Russia have not worked inside the country since March 2022 — not in shops, not online, not at ATMs — and Apple Pay and Google Pay are dead. The fix is a Russian account and a Mir card, but Mir works reliably in Belarus and Abkhazia and patchily in a short, shrinking list beyond them — the operator has withdrawn its official country list, so no authoritative version exists, and the EU barred its own entities from connecting to Mir, SPFS and the SBP fast-payment system from 25 January 2026. Over a hundred Russian banks are now under EU transaction bans.
- Russia was added to the EU's own anti-money-laundering high-risk list by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/46, applicable from 29 January 2026, and has sat on the EU tax blacklist since February 2023. Enhanced due diligence on any Russia-linked relationship is now legally mandatory across the EU, and de-risking is the common outcome. Expect account refusals and source-of-wealth demands elsewhere for as long as you hold Russian residence.
- From 30 June 2026 visa-free arrivals must file an electronic entry declaration through the ruID app at least 72 hours before crossing, submitting a photograph, passport image and voice sample. Biometrics are collected at all technically equipped crossings.