What do foreigners coming to Pridnestrovie need to know?

What documents are needed to visit Pridnestrovie?

You can enter and leave Pridnestrovie according to identity documents indicating the citizenship of a foreign state. At the same time, you do not need to have an international passport - an internal one is enough.

In addition, it is necessary to receive and fill in the migration card at the entrance to the PMR (scanners are installed at some check points to fill them in automatically). You do not need to arrange a visa.

How long can a foreign tourist stay in the republic?

A document confirming the temporary residence right of a foreign citizen in the territory of Pridnestrovie is a migration card. Its validity period is up to 45 days. At the same time, the migration card can be repeatedly extended.

And if a foreigner intends to stay in Pridnestrovie for a long time?

In this case, it is advisable to issue a temporary accommodation or temporary residence permit or permanent residency. The validity of both types of permits is three years, the permanent residency is issued for a five-year period. All documents can be repeatedly extended.

The key difference is that obtaining a temporary residence permit or permanent residency obliges a foreign citizen to apply for residency registration in Pridnestrovie. And for that, it is necessary to de-register in the country from which the foreign citizen has arrived in Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. 

In order not to be removed from the register, you can get a temporary accommodation permit.

How to get it?

The list of grounds for obtaining a temporary accommodation permit(TAP) is listed in Article 6 of the Law “About the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic”.

In accordance with it, citizens who own accommodation in Pridnestrovie (or their family members), persons who have arrived to close relatives, or are married to Pridnestrovian citizens, who have signed an employment contract with organizations, or registered as individual entrepreneurs, foreign investors, whose share in the authorized capital of a Pridnestrovian enterprise is at least 10%, as well as students enrolled in Pridnestrovian educational institutions. 

To obtain a TAP, you must, along with the owner of accommodation, in which a foreign citizen intends to register, apply to the Migration Department of the Passport Office with a statement and provide originals and copies of identity documents, documents confirming that he has grounds for obtaining a TAP (their specific list is clearly spelled out by mentioned above law), as well as a receipt for payment of state duty. The owner of the accommodation must also sign an agreement that he allows the registration of a foreign citizen.

After that, the TAP will be issued within 7 working days. On the back of the document will be stamped registration of a foreign citizen.

And how to get a temporary residence permit or permanent residency?

A permanent residency is issued to a foreign citizen or stateless person in order to confirm their right for full-time residence in Pridnestrovie, as well as their right for free exit and entry to Pridnestrovie. The main condition for obtaining these documents is the presence of accommodation, which can be declared as your permanent place of residence. It can be a house or an apartment owned by a foreign citizen, as well as the housing of relatives or real estate, which the foreigner rents under a lease agreement.

However, in the latter two cases, a permanent residency or a temporary residence permit requires the written consent of the property owner to ensure that a foreigner is registered in his apartment or house.

You will also need to provide copies and original passport, migration card or temporary accommodation permit and receipt of state duty payment, 4 photos of the established format (as in the PMR passport), as well as a document confirming that the citizen has de-registered at the previous place of residence.

A temporary residence permit is issued within 10 working days. The registration of a permanent residency, as a rule, takes from one and a half to two months. Living on the territory of Pridnestrovie for more than a year on the base of permanent residency gives the right to acquire citizenship of PMR.

Can the issuance of a temporary accommodation permit, temporary residence permit, permanent residency be refused?

The legislation of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic provides the possibility not only to refuse in issuance of permanent residency, but also to annul it. At the same time, the law clearly defines the grounds for the adoption of such a decision by the authorized bodies. The grounds for refusal of a temporary accommodation permit or permanent residency are listed in Articles 10 and 13 of the Law “About the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic”.

Thus, a foreign citizen may be denied in the issuance of these documents if he has been brought to administrative responsibility for offenses threatening public order two or more times within one year, has an outstanding conviction for committing a serious or especially serious crime, advocates a violent change of the constitutional order, finances terrorist and extremist activities.

Also, the issuance of these documents may be denied if the decision about the undesirability of his stay in the territory of Pridnestrovie or the non-permission to enter in relation to a foreign citizen has been made.

A foreign citizen, in respect of whom a decision to refuse issuance of temporary residence permit or to cancel a previously issued temporary residence permit was made, is obliged to leave the territory of Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic within 15 (fifteen) days from the date of receiving of the decision making notification, unless the foreign citizen does not have any legal grounds for staying on the territory of Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

A foreign citizen, in respect of whom a decision to refuse issuance of temporary residence permit or to annul a previously issued temporary residence permit was made, having exercised the right to appeal this decision, is obliged to leave the territory of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic within 5 (five) days from the entry into force day of a court decision refusing to satisfy a complaint, unless the foreign citizen has any other legal grounds for staying in the territory of Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.