Russia · Citizenship by naturalisation
Citizenship by naturalisation (Federal Law No. 138-FZ)
Open, and repriced hard. Federal Law No. 190-FZ of 26 June 2026 took the state duty from RUB 4,200 to RUB 50,000 with effect from late July 2026, alongside the residence permit at RUB 30,000 and the temporary permit at RUB 15,000. Grants of citizenship fell about 27% in 2025, to roughly 152,400.
Five years is not a long clock by European standards, and the removal of the renunciation requirement in 2023 made Russia formally dual-citizenship friendly for the first time. What has moved in the other direction is everything around it: the quota that gets you to the first permit has been cut by two thirds, the exam has been nationalised, the fee has gone up twelvefold, and the passport at the end is revocable in a way most passports are not.
Qualifying routes
The clock runs from the date the permanent residence permit was issued, not from first arrival or from the temporary permit.
Article 16(1)(1) waives the residence term only. The language and history requirements are not waived for this category.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- RUB 50,000 in state duty since 27 July 2026, plus the examination fee, document legalisation and translation. Budgeting from any pre-July-2026 figure understates it by an order of magnitude.
- Route type
- By residence
- Timeline
- 6–8 years (Six to eight years from first arrival is the realistic general-route figure: the temporary permit, then the permanent permit, then five years, then a decision in three months extendable by three more. The decision deadlines are the fast part; the residence stages are not.)
- Physical presence
- Continuous permanent residence for five years, held on a permit that is itself annulled by more than six months abroad in any calendar year.
- Family
- Spouse — but only with a common child, under Article 16(2)(5)Minor children with a parent
- Permanent residency
- The permanent permit is the prerequisite, not the outcome. It comes either after a temporary permit or directly on one of the roughly two dozen grounds in Article 8(2) of Federal Law No. 115-FZ.
- Citizenship
- Five years of permanent residence, Russian language, Russian history and the fundamentals of Russian law, an undertaking to observe the Constitution, and the oath.
- Language test
- Yes. Since 1 January 2026 the examination is computer-only, taken at state-designated centres under video recording, on a question bank rotated monthly. The old ecosystem of commercial testing centres was closed by Federal Law No. 260-FZ of 8 August 2024. Waived at 70 and over and for disability group I.
- Dual citizenship
- No renunciation is required — the 2023 law dropped that condition. Article 10 nonetheless means Russia recognises only the Russian citizenship of a dual national inside Russia, with no consular protection from the other state and no relief from any citizen obligation.
- Requirements
- five years of continuous permanent residence from the date the permit was issuedthe state examination in Russian language, history and lawan undertaking to observe the Constitution, and the oathno ground for refusal under Article 18
- The five-year clock starts at the permanent residence permit, so the years spent getting to that permit do not count.
- The permit underlying the clock is annulled by more than six months abroad in a calendar year. Absence does not pause the clock; it can end it.
- The state duty rose from RUB 4,200 to RUB 50,000 in July 2026.
- Acquired citizenship can be terminated for life on a long and growing list of grounds, including speech offences and failure to complete military registration. See the ancestry route for the detail — it applies identically here.
- Conscription, military registration and the exit ban that attaches to an electronic summons all follow the passport for men. A residence permit does not carry them.
- The register of controlled persons, operating since 5 February 2025, is an administrative listing with no court involved. It freezes bank accounts, caps cash withdrawals at RUB 30,000 a month and blocks property transactions, driving, marriage registration, company formation and every migration document. A paperwork lapse can trigger it, and removal takes up to thirty days.
- Your Western advisers may not lawfully be able to help you. EU Regulation 833/2014 Article 5n bans the provision of accounting, audit, tax, business and management consulting, legal advisory and IT consultancy services to entities established in Russia, and reaches indirect provision, outsourcing and EU nationals acting as employees. The US determination under Executive Order 14071 bans accounting, trust and corporate formation and management consulting services to any person located in Russia. The UK bans the equivalent list to persons connected with Russia. The three regimes are drawn differently and must each be checked.