Ed Bentley

Moscow's foreign-language schools have been thrown into chaos after a reinterpretation of the law changed the legal status of many expatriate teachers overnight.

Russian law requires employees to be issued with a work permit by the Federal Migration Service, but language schools employing native speakers were excluded from this requirement.
However, on Nov. 18 this all changed and foreign-language schools were told they would need a work permit that would cover all their teachers - leaving the schools and their foreign teachers in a legal limbo.

"The activity of all the English schools that invite foreign teachers became illegal in one day," said a visa specialist, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid having problems with the migration service.

Language schools were left in confusion as they tried to find out exactly how to make their employees legal again. Many of them have contacted the migration service, but have yet to receive a definitive answer on their status.

Questions to the migration service's press office went unanswered by press time.

"We are getting different interpretations depending on how the local [migration service offices] are interpreting the law," said Rob Jensky, owner of Language Link in Russia, which has 40 schools in various regions across the country.

So far, the migration service hasn't cracked down on any of the teachers now working in a gray area of the law, but it is becoming increasingly hard for them to leave the country. 

"People who haven't left Russia since November 18 are more legal, but those who've left and come back, the Federal Migration Service have refused to extend their registrations," said the visa specialist.

One of the problems appears to be an interpretation of exactly who is included under the term "prepodavatel" which is used to describe teachers, he said.
Schools have also suffered because they have not been able to employ new teachers.

"We've been badly affected by this new law," said Natasha Chernyshyova, owner of the Modern English School in Kurkino, just outside Moscow. "Now we can't invite teachers on work visas because we are waiting for the permit."

The migration service told Chernysheva that permits would be granted on Feb. 20, but she remains unsure if this will clarify the situation fully.
The move appears to be part of the government's anti-crisis measures designed to protect employment levels for Russian citizens.

Stricter supervision is "part of the protection of the Russian labour market," said Andrei Labutsin, of Visa to Russia. "But at the same time it is aimed at strengthening control over Russian employers."

School owners and managers warned that not being able to employ native speakers is damaging the quality of teaching.
And while the authorities get their house in order, Moscow's language schools are fighting a battle to survive, while they try to regain the right to employ staff.

"Language schools never needed to be registered employers," said Jensky. "What they did need was the right to invite and employ. This changed very quickly."
The confusion has been exacerbated by the quota system for foreign specialists, which is only usually confirmed every year in May.

With the rapid change in the law, schools are now asking if anything can be done to adjust quotas before then.
It is not just teachers who are facing tougher controls from the authorities, as many businesses are finding it increasingly tough to get visas and prices have shot up.

"We noticed that the consulates started interviewing people who apply for business visas to find out the genuine purpose for their visits, while the migration service does more thorough check-ups and asks more questions when issuing business visa invitations," said Eugene Kharkov, of director Real Russia, a UK company which provides visa support. 

The changes have not been a completely one-way process though, as some Russian members of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce say they have found the bureaucracy required for British visas increasingly entangling.

"Whether there has been a tit-for-tat tightening up of rules I don't know, but on the work permit side I can appreciate the fact you need one to work here," said Chris Gilbert, the Moscow director of the RBCC. "But the problem with it is it takes so long to issue."

Teachers outside the law

One expatriate English-language teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had been in Moscow working "illegally on a business visa, which you're not allowed to work on", since his former company couldn't renew his visa last year.

While he still works for the school, he also teaches privately, meaning he doesn't pay tax on this income. When his old visa expired after the regulations changed in November, the language school recommended an agency he could go through to get a new visa as a consultant for a local organisation.

"Had I been given more time to solve this problem, I wouldn't be here now," he said, adding that he was only given 10 days by his school to solve the problem.

Another teacher, who also asked not to be identified, said he had spent six weeks in London trying to get a new visa before getting one "under the table" in Kiev.