After the start of the Russian armed invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of highly qualified specialists from Russia decided to move to Germany. “In April, Russian citizens were issued in Moscow 350 working visas,” the Federal Republic of Germany reported on Sunday, May 22. The General Consulate of Germany in St. Petersburg for the same period issued 190 working visas.
According to DPA, most of these people worked in German companies in Russia. “Over the first weeks after the start of the war, we assisted in obtaining working visas to more than 400 Russians who want to move to Germany,” said the Frankfurt Office Fragomen Global LLP specializing in labor migration, Katharina Vorländer. She noted that about 30 percent of the applicants are already in Germany.
According to FORENDER, such a speed became possible only due to the fact that “the German departments provided in the current situation such support that is usually not provided.” For example, the FERG Foreign Ministry, in agreement with the embassy in Moscow and the General Consults of the Federal Republic of Germany in St. Petersburg, made a group reception for several dozen employees of one of the companies.
From the beginning of the war to the beginning of May, Germany, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany, issued more than 600 visas to Russian specialists. These are national working visas for a long time, not Schengen visas, which allow foreigners to be in Germany and other countries of the Schengen zone for 90 days.