Latest updates in global immigration

10.10.2022

This week, the Global Immigration team at Smith Stone Walters would like to highlight the following recent updates from France, Italy, Poland and Russia.

France: Online applications for residence permits

Effective 28 September 2022, citizens of the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland can submit new and renewal residence permit applications online.

This non-mandatory residence permit is intended for salaried workers who are citizens of the EU, the EEA or Switzerland. Online applications for students, the self-employed, retirees and EU/EEA/Swiss family members of an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen will be available at the end of October 2022

To create an account on the ANEF portal, a user who does not already have a residence permit or visa must follow a specific procedure, including an appointment at the prefectural office to register their fingerprints.

Italy: Deadline for converting residence permits

The deadline for submitting an application to convert a residence permit issued for non-work reasons into a work permit has been extended from 30 September to 31 December 2022.

Poland: National minimum salary increase

The Polish government has announced a larger increase of the national minimum salary than was previously proposed.

Effective 1 January 2023, the minimum salary will increase by PLN 480, from PLN 3010 to PLN 3490. A further increase of PLN 110 from PLN 3490 to PLN 3600 will take effect from 1 July 2023.

At the same time, the minimum hourly rate (currently PLN 19.70) will increase to PLN 22.80 from 1 January 2023 and to PLN 23.50 from 1 July 2023.

Applications for type A work permits for local hire in Poland are affected by this change as they require a salary above the national minimum wage and not lower than the average for a comparable position.

Applications for EU Blue cards, however, re not affected by this change, as they require at least 150% of the national average salary for the previous year.

Russia: HQS salary notifications

Salary notifications for Highly Qualified Specialists (HQS) are due by 31 October 2022. Employers have until this date to report to the migration authorities the salaries of HQS foreign national employees for the third quarter of 2022.

Quarterly notifications must be submitted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) within 30 days of the end of each quarter, and the reported salary should be at least RUB 167,000 per calendar month or RUB 501,000 per quarter.

Violation of the established notification procedure may lead to administrative fines on the employer. Failure to pay the salary in the minimum amount established for HQS may lead to the company being banned from employing new HQS employees for two years.

The Highly Qualified Specialist (HQS) program allows companies in Russia to employ foreign national workers for up to three years (renewable) with various benefits including a simplified application process and exemption from quotas.