The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia explains additional measures to regulate the legal status of foreign citizens in connection with the spread of coronavirus. Foreign citizens and the host country are not required to take actions to extend the periods of temporary stay (including the extension of visas), the terms of registration at the place of stay, the periods of temporary and permanent residence (including the extension of the residence permit), the validity of the certificate of temporary asylum, refugee certificates, if such terms expire between March 15 and December 15, 2020.

For foreign citizens who left the Russian Federation before the closure of the borders and have a temporary residence permit, residence permit or certificate of a participant in the State Program for the Resettlement of Compatriots, the period from March 15 to December 15, 2020 does not count towards the period of stay abroad and the duration of the status, respectively. For foreign citizens who arrived in the Russian Federation in a manner not requiring a visa, until December 15, 2020, the right to file an application for the issuance (extension, renewal) of a patent is retained, without taking into account the requirements for the deadline for filing documents and the declared purpose of entry. Work permits for foreign citizens from "visa" countries covered by the Decree will be issued with a validity period until December 15, 2020.

A provision has been introduced that allows foreign citizens to leave the Russian Federation to the state of their citizenship, excluding transit travel through third countries, according to documents proving their identity and recognized in the Russian Federation as such, if the validity of such documents expired after March 14, 2020. If a document with an expired validity period from March 15 to December 15, 2020 had a visa, which also expired in the indicated period, then these documents are valid for leaving the Russian Federation within 276 days from the expiration date of their validity period without the need for a transit visa. From September 16, 2020, the period of voluntary departure from the Russian Federation of foreign citizens and stateless persons, in respect of whom a decision has been made to administratively expel from the Russian Federation in the form of a controlled independent departure, to refuse to enter the Russian Federation or the undesirability of stay (residence) was suspended in the Russian Federation.

At the same time, decisions are not made on forced administrative expulsion from the Russian Federation, deportation or transfer to a foreign state in accordance with the international treaty of the Russian Federation on readmission, decisions on reducing the period of temporary stay, deprivation of refugee status, temporary asylum, on cancellation of previously issued visas, work permits, patents, temporary residence permits, residence permits, certificates of a participant in the State Program. Such decisions can be made only in relation to foreign citizens and stateless persons released from places of confinement, or violating the legislation on the state border of the Russian Federation, or posing a threat to the national security of Russia, including those who advocate a violent change in the foundations of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, or assisting in the commission of terrorist (extremist) acts or committing them, as well as other actions supporting terrorist (extremist) activities.