Is it possible to travel abroad with a suspended sentence in 2021?

A trip abroad today has ceased to be a pipe dream for the majority of our citizens. Vacations, studies, and employment abroad have become commonplace. However, not everyone manages to complete their planned trip. For those citizens of the Russian Federation who have a suspended sentence, traveling abroad may not take place. What does Russian legislation say about this and is it possible to correct the situation?

What does the legislation of the Russian Federation say?

Everything related to having a criminal record and the possibility of traveling outside Russia is clearly stipulated in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Federal Law No. 114-FZ of August 15, 1996 “”.

The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides in a number of cases the possibility of replacing the actual serving of a sentence by a suspended sentence for those sentenced to a term of up to 8 years. Such a decision can be made by the court only after assessing all mitigating circumstances, the personality of the convicted person and the nature of the danger to society of the crime committed. In the event of a suspended sentence, the court sets a probationary period of 6 months to 5 years, depending on the type of punishment, as well as other types of punishment.

Paragraph 5 of the above article defines the fulfillment of duties, which include partial restrictions on the rights and freedoms of the convicted person: do not change the address of permanent residence and place of work without notifying the regulatory authorities. If you don’t have a job, find a job or go to school.

The state must exercise full control over the behavior of the probationer, and, if necessary, react by canceling or adding to the duties. Real control over such a person is possible only within the borders of the Russian Federation.

Law of the Russian Federation No. 114-FZ of August 15, 1996 (clause 4 of Article 15) temporarily restricts the right to travel for citizens of the Russian Federation in the event of a conviction, including a suspended one.

Art. 18 of the same law prescribes the confiscation of the international passport of a convicted citizen of the Russian Federation and its transfer for storage to the government agency that issued it.

Information about persons who are prohibited from traveling is entered into the database of the Information Center of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the Russian Federation and transmitted to transport companies and the Border Service of the Russian Federation.

The right to leave with a suspended sentence

Is it permissible to travel abroad with a suspended sentence? In accordance with changes in legislation, such entities that previously had the right to travel have lost it. The ban on such an action is due to the fact that a suspended sentence involves monitoring a citizen to ensure that he does not repeatedly violate the law and public order. If a person stayed outside the country for a certain time, this fact did not make it possible to determine whether the conditions of the suspended sentence could be considered to have been met by him. At the moment, only those citizens for whom the assigned probationary period has already been exhausted can leave.

Removal of temporary restrictions on traveling abroad

According to the Administrative Regulations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the registration and issuance of foreign passports (Order of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation No. 4271 dated March 29, 2021), if the fact of restriction of the right to travel abroad is revealed, the applicant is given a notice of refusal to issue an exit permit (Appendix No. 19 to Order 4271).

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The notification contains information about the basis for the restriction and about the authority that made this decision. The restriction period is also stipulated here, after which the applicant receives the right to leave.

Persons who have been convicted, regardless of whether they have committed serious or minor offenses, are considered to have a criminal record until the conviction is expunged or removed in accordance with the established procedure. Thus, the temporary ban on traveling abroad will be lifted in two cases:

upon expiration of the established sentence, the criminal record is expunged;
as a result of a criminal record being vacated.

Removal of restrictions when expunging a criminal record

The first option for lifting a temporary restriction on rights is associated with the expiration of the sentence, which was established by a court decision - that is, the citizen has served the entire prescribed period. In this case, the criminal record is automatically expunged (provided there are no new offenses).

Part 3 Art. 86 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in relation to conditionally convicted citizens of the Russian Federation establishes the date of expiration of the probationary period at the moment of expiration of the criminal record. From this moment on, the citizen is considered to have no criminal record, and, according to Part 6 of Art. 86 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, temporary loss of rights associated with a criminal record ceases to apply; including .

Early expungement of a criminal record

It is possible to cancel the negative legal consequences associated with a criminal record early - before the expiration of the probationary period. The legislation provides for several options. In the first case, the expungement of a criminal record can be realized when the conditionally convicted person:

realized his guilt and proved correction by his behavior;
compensated for the damage caused to the injured party;
served at least half of the probationary period.

A petition from the convicted person is not required. The submission to the court will be prepared by an inspector from the regulatory authority. After considering the case, the court may make a decision to expunge the criminal record (Part 1 of Article 73 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

In the second case, the expungement of a criminal record can occur during an amnesty (Article 84 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), when the article under which the citizen was convicted is excluded from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, or after the charges are dropped by a decision of the court of first instance or appeal.

Finally, the third option is a pardon by the President of the Russian Federation (Article 85 of the Criminal Code). In this case, the initiator of filing the petition is the person against whom a sentence has been passed or who has already served his sentence.

An act of pardon is a sufficient basis for early expungement of a criminal record.

Interesting fact. Every year in the Russian Federation the number of those pardoned by the President decreases. If in 1999 more than 7.8 thousand convicts were pardoned, then in 2021 - 5, in 2021 and 2021. - 2. If in the 1990s, an application for pardon had to go through only one pardon commission under the President of the Russian Federation, then currently there are already five such authorities.

How to bypass the ban?

When considering the answer to the question of whether they will be released abroad with a conditional conviction, it is worth noting that even if there is a ban, certain circumstances may make it possible to travel abroad. This situation could be the death of a relative who lived in another country. To confirm the true reason for the trip, you will need to provide indisputable evidence of relationship with the deceased, as well as that he actually lived in the territory of another state. No other situations under the current legislation of the Russian Federation give the right to leave the country.

Certificate for those who have served a criminal record: how to get it

In some situations (when applying for a job, when applying for a visa), a police clearance certificate may be required. Such a document is issued free of charge by the territorial bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

For assistance please contact:

to the territorial body of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in person or through an authorized person;
at the MFC (please note that this service is not available in all regions of the Russian Federation);
through your personal account on the portal.

To obtain a certificate, you must write an application and also attach a photocopy of your Russian civil passport. The execution time for this public service is within a month from the date of application.

Banning procedure

The procedure for imposing a ban is as follows:

The person to whom the defendant has an unfulfilled obligation applies to the court to resolve the issue.
In case of a favorable outcome, the plaintiff receives a writ of execution, which he sends to the FSSP authorities.
The bailiff, having accepted the writ of execution, initiates proceedings within three days (Article 30, paragraph 8 of Federal Law 299) and sets the debtor a period (5 days) for voluntary compliance with the requirements.
If the obligation is not fulfilled within the established period, the SSP employee, on his own initiative or at the request of the creditor, has the right to issue a resolution to temporarily restrict the debtor’s travel outside the Russian Federation.
The resolution is approved by the higher management of the bailiff.
Information about the decision made is transmitted to the border and federal migration services. A copy of the decision must be sent to the debtor the next day after its issuance. As practice shows, the recipient often does not receive documents and remains in the dark about the status of “restricted to travel.”

The resolution is valid for 6 months. After this time, the ban is automatically lifted. If the debtor does not fulfill the obligation, the bailiff has the right to again restrict travel for six months and do so until the requirement of the writ of execution is fully satisfied (Appendix No. 54 to the FSSP Order No. 318 of July 11, 2012).

Thus, the debtor has a green light at customs until a corresponding decision is issued.

Often, bailiffs, even if the debt exceeds 30 thousand rubles, do not impose a ban on leaving. The reason is the enormous workload. According to research conducted by the Accounts Chamber in September 2021, one SSP employee handled more than 400 cases monthly, which is 18 times the established norm. Civil servants, overwhelmed with a large volume of work, simply do not have time to perform their duties efficiently. If the collector does not show activity, the debtor has hope of traveling abroad without any problems.

So it turns out that the presence of debt and enforcement proceedings in itself is not an indicator that a person will not be released from the country.

In addition to the bailiff, the court can restrict travel abroad. For example, if the writ of execution was issued on the basis of a notarized agreement on the payment of alimony, the certificate of a commission on labor disputes, acts of authorized bodies, officials. In this case, the duration of the ban is determined by a court decision.

What difficulties may arise with an expunged criminal record?

Registration of a foreign passport for citizens who have an expunged criminal record follows the same procedure as for other persons of Russian citizenship. A certificate of the presence/absence of a criminal record is not among the documents that are required for issuing a foreign passport, as follows from the Administrative Regulations for the provision of services for the registration and issuance of foreign passports, approved by Order of the Federal Migration Service No. 320 of October 15. 2021.

All that is required of the applicant is to fill out the application form correctly and truthfully. The migration service will receive the information it needs itself by sending a corresponding request to the Information Center of the Main Migration Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Therefore, citizens with an expunged criminal record should not experience any additional difficulties or problems when obtaining a foreign passport.

A different situation may arise with obtaining a visa. When surveying at consulates, it is necessary to indicate all criminal convictions that were in the person’s biography, regardless of the statute of limitations and repayment. You should be prepared for the fact that such a past is a negative point, but not critical.

An attempt to hide this fact will be received much worse: if the deception is discovered, the result will be a refusal of a visa and additional sanctions, for example, a lifetime ban on entry into the United States or Australia. You should simply try to prove to the migration authorities that the mistakes of your youth have been taken into account and that they are now a model citizen. This is where a certificate of expungement of a suspended criminal record can come in handy, which must be translated into a foreign language and certified by a notary.

Interesting fact. Sometimes having a criminal record, or even several, can be a compelling argument for obtaining refugee status. This will become possible if the applicant manages to convince the migration authorities that the criminal record is the result of political, racial and other persecution.

Features of expunging a criminal record

Expunging a criminal record differs from expunging it. There are several main differences:

The expungement of a criminal record may occur earlier than the specified period.
During this process, the convicted person must submit a petition to the magistrate's court.
Only a judge can decide to expunge a criminal record from a citizen of the Russian Federation.

An outstanding criminal record can be expunged in rare cases when a person has a sufficiently serious reason for this. There are situations when a judge decides to remove a criminal record from a Russian citizen:

If the convicted person behaved very well in prison for a long time.
When the applicant dropped all charges.
When the article under which a person was tried was removed from the Criminal Code.
The statute of limitations for the sentence has expired, and the convicted person has not fulfilled all the duties assigned to him for reasons beyond his control.

In such situations, a citizen of the Russian Federation has the right to submit a petition to the magistrate’s court in order to travel outside the country. Then you must wait until the judge makes a decision on the pending case. In case of removal or expungement of a criminal record, the convicted person is completely freed from absolutely all administrative consequences. If desired, you can cross the territory of the Russian Federation.

An attempt to cross the border of the Russian Federation by conditionally convicted persons: possible consequences

An outstanding criminal record and traveling abroad are incompatible. According to clause 32 of the Administrative Regulations of the FSB of the Russian Federation for the implementation of border control (Order of the FSB of the Russian Federation No. 562 dated November 8, 2021), persons who are legally prohibited from leaving the territory of Russia are not subject to passage across the state border. If they try to pass passport and border control, they will be identified and brought to administrative and criminal liability.

The following may be applied to the violator:

Art. 322 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on illegal crossing of the border of the Russian Federation, since such a person cannot obtain proper permission to leave. Punishment - up to 200 thousand rubles. or forced labor for up to 2 years. If such an action is committed by a group of people or with the use of violence - imprisonment for up to 6 years;
Art. 18.1. Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation on violation of the rules for crossing the state border of the Russian Federation. Punishment - from 2 to 5 thousand rubles.

In the event of a serious illness or death of a close relative abroad, a suspended sentenced person with an outstanding criminal record may apply for permission to leave for a certain period. The petition must disclose the reasons for the need to urgently travel abroad and attach several supporting documents to it: a certificate of death, illness, and family ties.

This situation is quite controversial and is not provided for by the Administrative Regulations: removing information about “travel restricted” persons or removing a ban on travel from the database of the Information Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is extremely difficult and burdensome. Therefore, in each specific case the decision can be either positive or negative.

Exceptions

Like most legislative norms that have exceptions, the Criminal Code also provides exceptions for citizens with a criminal record. This exception implies the possibility of a convicted citizen to leave the country in the following cases:

If a convicted citizen has a serious illness, and it is not possible to provide medical care in our state, this citizen is allowed to leave the country to receive medical care;
The death of close relatives who are in another state gives the convicted citizen the opportunity to leave the territory of the state for a period specified by law.

To obtain permission to leave, a convicted citizen must draw up a corresponding petition and attach supporting documents to it proving the need to travel abroad. Also, if the departure is associated with the death of close relatives, it is necessary to submit documents confirming the degree of relationship.

Based on this article, we can conclude that if a citizen has a criminal record, his civil rights are curtailed. This citizen is prohibited from traveling abroad by the law of the Russian Federation. The main condition for expunging a criminal record is not only serving the sentence, but also observing the deadline for expunging the criminal record, which is determined individually for each citizen depending on the severity of the crime committed.

Let's sum it up

The court's suspended sentence results in a temporary restriction of rights, including the right to travel outside the Russian Federation. Until the suspended conviction is expunged, all attempts to travel outside of Russia, both to visa and visa-free countries, will be considered illegal. After expunging the criminal record, all rights, including obtaining a foreign passport and traveling abroad, will be returned.

Despite the European Union's criticism of the European Union's ban on traveling abroad as a violation of human rights, the situation in 2021 is likely to remain the same.

Conviction expunged - how to leave?

To fully understand this situation, it is worth turning to Russian legislation. Regarding the possibility of traveling abroad with an expunged criminal record, the regulations state the following:

Although there is the concept of repayment, end of sentence, etc., there are also rules that prescribe prohibitions on certain actions for a longer period of time;
If a citizen has been convicted of a serious crime (subject to a sentence of 10 years or more), he can leave only after 10 years, when the term ends;
If you have been convicted for a crime classified as serious (the punishment lasts no more than 10 years), after expungement you cannot leave for another 8 years;
Provided that the crime was committed of moderate or minor gravity (if the term of imprisonment was less than 5 years), the border cannot be crossed for another 3 years;
If the sentence imposed on a citizen did not consist of imprisonment, exactly one year after the end of the period established by the court, he is allowed to travel abroad.

The important point is that, if we are talking about parole, the period that is determined for granting the right to leave begins counting from the date when the official release was established.

Some relief is also expected for those citizens who were convicted before reaching adulthood. In this situation, the repayment period will be shortened. If the crime is classified as of medium gravity, the right to leave will be granted within a year. If the offense was the most serious of all possible, the document can only be obtained after 3 years.

So, the answer to the question of whether it is possible to obtain a foreign passport with a criminal record will be in the affirmative, but only if the travel restriction period has passed.

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