MOSCOW, June 25 (RAPSI) – The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, passed a bill simplifying a procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship by highly qualified foreign specialists in a final third reading on Tuesday.

Authors of the bill note that proposed changes apply to foreign citizens and persons without citizenship, who are qualified and sought after in segments of Russian economy.

Although the current law grants these persons a right to obtain Russian citizenship by a special procedure, to meet the requirements, a specialist has to work in the country for 3 years under the occupation listed in a special registry.

The bill reduces the term from 3 to 1 year and increases frequency of the registry’s updates, in order to have a more adaptive system.

The draft law was prepared as part of the instructions issued by Russian President in June 2018.

If signed into law the bill will take effect after the expiry of 90 days from the date of its official publication.