As I currently spend more than 183 days per year in Russia, I consider applying for a temporary residency permit in Russia to reduce my tax bill. I have the following questions relating to my testament based on choosing Russian law to be applicable to my entire estate in accordance to article 5 of the convention of The Hague on applicable law to the estates of deceased persons concluded on August 1, 1989. If I make a will and testament in Russia, will it be executed in Russia based on claiming habitual (based on owning a house, living there and being married with a Russian national) residency in Russia on my temporary visa registration or do I need a temporary residency permit? Will the marriage agreement be executed before the testament? Do I understand it correctly that if I relocate after a few years to another country, loosing my temporary residency status in Russia, and take up residency in France, that my testament will still be executed in Russia , because it was written in Russia while I lived there? Do you know a competent lawyer in St.P. who can write my testament? Do you know somebody who can organize my temporary residency permit?
First of all I would like to tell you couple things: Temporary residency permit is given to you for 3 years. Only in one year after you will be able to apply for permanent residency permit. You won't be able to live with temporary residency permit all the time. Permanent residency permit allows you to live in Russia all the time and it's given to you for 5 years. Permanent residency permit allows the foreign citizen to live and work in Russia like Russian citizens and pay 13% income taxes (not 30%). As in American legislation, Russian legislation has some points to cancel your temporary residency permit and permanent residency permit. It could happen in case of getting the residence in some other country or living out of Russia for more then 6 month. You have to realize that applying for temporary residence permit and permanent residency permit in Russia, you can lose your permanent residency in United States. And if you live not in the USA for 6 month you still have a chance to save your green card (in case of submission of tax declaration in USA and in case you pay the income taxes in USA), so if you will live out of USA for more then one year you will lose your green card forever. Even if you are not in USA for more then 6 month it could cause irreversible consequences. If you still want to apply for temporary residency permit in Russia, I can consult and help you. First the shares of each spouses will be defined. And only after that the testament will start to operate. Your testament in Russia will operate until you cancel it or make a new one. It doesn't depend on place of your residence. The easiest way to cancel your testament is to go to any Russian Consulate with the application and to send the same application to the notary public who has notified your testament. I would be glad to help you at any time.
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Russian attorney at law Karina Duvall.
