19.08.08

The Ministry of Public Health and Social Development has formed a list of occupations that will not count toward labor quotas affecting work visas. The list consists mostly of business executives, engineers, and also narrowly focused specialists such as biochemists, biophysicists and microbiologists.  However, it is possible that many enterprises will not be helped by this list because their staff schedule lists these occupations under different names.

This year’s quota was completely used up in Moscow and several other regions in early June. The Federal Migration Service stopped issuing work permits for all foreigners – from general level employees to top managers. The Ministry of Public Health and Social Development decided to readjust the quotas by excluding certain top management and scientific positions.

The Ministry's press service explained that the list of quota-less occupations was drafted based on a heavy domestic deficit of potential employees. “We considered the suggestions of regional governments and conducted a survey of companies in 65 regions of the RF.” The survey showed the greatest deficiency to be in administrative positions.

However, while a financial director is an administrative position, it is not listed on the decree. The same can be said about sales managers. Furthermore, while the list does include "IT department head," many companies officially list this position as "system administrator," meaning that they will likely not benefit from the decree.

Companies will either have to change their staff schedules, or to rename their "sales manager" as "marketing director," (or perhaps as "biochemist").

Professions Not Applicable to Quotas for 2008

1. general directors of joint-stock companies, associations, and other enterprises.
2. directors, heads, or administrators of factories, representative offices, manufactures, companies, and associations.
3. engineers of data security, automated industrial and management systems.
4. IT department heads
5. Microbiological engineers
6. Biochemists
7. Biophysicists

Source: The Ministry of Public Health and Social Development of the RF