A total of 1,156 foreign nationals have applied for temporary residence permits in Russia through the Shared Values Visa (SVV) program, since August 2024, when it was implemented.
The figures have been provided by the spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Irina Volk, VisaGuide.World reports.
Germans Were Top Applicants for Russia’s SVV
According to the statistics provided by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Germans accounted for the largest share of applications submitted under the Shared Values Visa scheme, with a total of 224 requests submitted since August 2024.
Germans were followed by Latvia (126 applications), the United States (99), France (95), Italy (82), the United Kingdom (57), Canada (50), Estonia (55), Lithuania (39), South Korea (34), Australia (33).
Majority of Applications Filed by Europeans
A report from Imi Daily reveals that among the top ten applicant nationalities, Europeans accounted for 79 percent of the total, with a total of 678 applications submitted.
These figures reveal that the majority of applications were filed by European citizens.
North American applicants from the US as well as Canada accounted for 17 percent of applications, with 149 applications. Asia, on the other hand, represented by South Korea, accounted for 4 percent of the total.
“We Are Seeing a Month-to-Month Increase”
General Managing Partner of MovetoRussia.com, Ilja Belobragin, told Imi Daily that the program was launched in August 2024, but it became completely operational in October 2024.
He said that, therefore, the program has been operating for nearly six months.
Initial numbers have been modest, but we are experiencing a month-to-month increase in applicants as word of the opportunity spreads.
He expects that there will be an increase to 100,000 annual applicants as the scheme continues to be developed.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs pretends that the applications continue to increase daily, in spite of the fact that the country’s authorities have not yet revealed approval rates or processing times.
Russia’s SVV program operated along with the current Residency-by-Investment scheme of Russia, known as the Golden Visa Program. The latter offers foreign nationals residency in exchange for financial investments and meeting the needed conditions.
However, a previous report from RBC revealed that Russia’s Golden Visa scheme is far from achieving its goal after it received only 14 applications last year.
The same source revealed that in early 2025, just two applications for Russia’s Golden Visa Program were submitted.