MOSCOW, May 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's easing of its complicated visa system for foreign specialists is already proving a success, Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) chief Konstantin Romodanovsky said on Tuesday.
"If we compare this year with last year, we have an almost twofold increase in the number of both skilled specialists and highly qualified professionals," Romodanovsky said.
Foreign specialists are already entitled to three-year visas for themselves, their spouses and children. Now their parents, grandparents and grandchildren will also be able to get visas. To qualify as a foreign specialist a worker has to earn at least 2 million rubles [$68,000] a year.
Some 6,800 highly skilled specialists have come to work in Russia since last July, when a bill on visa reforms for top workers was passed. The Russian government undertook the reforms in a bid to steer Russia's economy away from its dependence on oil and gas and boost the innovation sector.
The government has also recently broadened its definition of a highly qualified specialist to include foreigners working in the education sector who earn 1 million rubles ($34,000) a year, and anyone working at the Skolkovo hi-tech research hub currently under construction near Moscow.
