Arend Feenstra, who received a three-year temporary residence permit under a simplified procedure for citizens of "unfriendly countries," now needs to meet one of the conditions of a decree signed in November 2025 to move to permanent residency.
Feenstra moved to the Nizhny Novgorod region with his wife and eight children. The family explained the move by their disagreement with the liberal policies of the Canadian authorities and their desire to raise their children in accordance with conservative Christian values.
The decree obliges able-bodied male foreigners aged 18 to 65, including those transitioning from temporary to permanent residency on a general basis, to sign a contract for military service in the Russian Armed Forces or the rescue military formations of the Emergencies Ministry for at least one year.
Alternative conditions include previously completed military service with discharge on the grounds listed in the decree, or being declared unfit for service upon attempting to enlist under contract. To be exempted on health grounds, an ordinary medical certificate is not enough: a decision by a joint commission of the selection point and the military enlistment office, or an extract from the protocol of the attestation commission of a military unit, is required. The requirement does not apply to citizens of Belarus.
Feenstra himself says he does not understand what the proposed contract actually means. "At the moment I have no opportunity to move from temporary residence to permanent without signing a contract. What does this contract mean? I don't know. I asked people, officials, I contacted the OKA agency, but they couldn't say anything," he said.
According to the farmer, he did not come to Russia to sign a contract, and he needs to run his farm and raise his children. Feenstra added that now, by his account, he would rather have taken his chances in Canada.
The Canadian's current temporary residence permit will expire in about a year and a half. He plans to turn to the Defense Ministry for clarification.
The simplified procedure for obtaining temporary residence permits for foreigners from countries where, in the view of the Russian authorities, "destructive neoliberal ideological attitudes are being imposed," was introduced by a decree signed in August 2024. Participants in the program were allowed to obtain temporary residence permits without regard to quotas and without confirming knowledge of the Russian language, history and legislation. However, the decree did not provide for a special procedure for subsequently obtaining permanent residency, so the document on the military contract changed the conditions after the program had already been launched.