#+TITLE: Immigration experience after events of 2022 #+DATE: <2024-10-30 Wed> #+LANGUAGE: en * Immigration experience after events of 2022 [[../../public/images/wkz-immigration.gif]] I had left Russia in September of 2022 as many other Russian developers. Not sure if I did it permanently or temporary. I've moved to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country)][Georgia (country)]] (also named Sakartvelo) with the help of [[https://trop.in/][Andrew Tropin]] (big kudos to him) as a temporary solution after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_mobilization][partial mobilization]] was announced in Russia. That temporary solution did last 2 years already and third year is to come. [[https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/flights-out-of-moscow-russia-putin-intl/index.html][The aircraft tickets price went high]] immediately after partial mobilization, so the only choice left was to move by land. The only Russia-Georgia border was [[https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/10/03/in-photos-russians-fleeing-putins-draft-queue-at-georgian-border-a78957][stuck in a huge traffic jam]] before even we started to drive. It took us ~3-4 days to manage to drive there facing corruption, closed oblasts (Russian administration borders) and buses on roads with ongoing mobilization. My mental state was bad, because it felt like the country can be closed at any moment (government can accept new laws extremely quickly, like for 1-2 hours). I don't want to concentrate my story on that part much, because there are already many evidence published. So we passed the border after all the struggle and stayed at the longest traffic jam of my life. Both borders were quite easy to pass thankfully. I had a two hour long small-talk with FSB guys at spring before when I first tried to leave Russia, so I was nervous. I decided to migrate extremely low on cash: I had about $600-800. So I needed to find a job to grind my way for a living in a new place. Luckily the tax-rate is extremely low here: only 1% for small business and 0% for micro-business. I wanted to stay outside of Russia as long as I could, so I found a job in a two-three weeks as Symfony Developer (php) and made some money to stay here for some time. ** Why I have left Russia in a first place - Men can be mobilized. Mobilization thing is still going. - USD and EUR were prohibited or limited at banks atm and VISA/Mastercard stopped working + sanctions (mostly minor) - [[https://www.investing.com/currencies/usd-rub-advanced-chart][Ruble became weak]]. There is less and less reason to work with it, because it drops all the time and salaries usually don't get re-indexed. - Many random censorship blockages of Internet resources (and other media for example books). For example GNU Mailing lists were banned. Also [[https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2022-03/msg00004.html][Guix servers were banning ru IPs]], so you can't use substitutes there, which is critical for such system as GNU Guix. - Censorship is strong enough to get you into jail just for [[https://roskomsvoboda.org/en/post/gigest-apr-2022-kritika-derzhavy/][posting online that war is a war]]. ([[https://roskomsvoboda.org/en/cards/card/safe-posting-rules/][Instruction on how to not get arrested for posting]]). - Censorship is strong enough to get you into jail just for LIKES and REPOSTS of some materials. For example there is ongoing thing of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_foreign_agent_law][FOREIGN AGENTS]], if you repost them without marking YOU will be fined. - Censorship is strong enough to get you into jail for [[https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/05/23/russia-finds-a-new-tor-criminal][hosting TOR exit node]]. In general in Russia you have a feeling that everything is prohibited if otherwise is not stated, not the other way around. The state has a centralized control over society. - Political propaganda became [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation_in_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine][too wild to handle]]. Schools started to have propaganda too ([[https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/02/17/russian-tv-airs-wartime-patriotism-lessons-for-schoolchildren-a80253][Уроки о важном]]). - I was arrested once at the protest (and after that police might be interested in you) Those reasons you might find a bit silly, but I believe if you are involved into IT it would be a shame to be not connected to the rest of community especially if you are into free software. Internal market might be ok, but I think it would suck like it sucked in USSR. Majority of my Russian friends stayed in Russia. Immigration is costly, standard of living will be lower and there is no guarantee that immigration is even the answer. I find myself that I might return any-day if something critical happens to my friends, family or something else. At the same time would be nice to distance from Russia even further. ** Tbilisi [[../../public/images/tbilisi.gif]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tbilisi][Tbilisi]] is a capital of Georgia. It is very nice city and I like being here. At the time of arriving it had lots of support of Ukrainian people and lots of hate to Russia expressed in wall graffities and demonstrating Ukrainian flags. It was a bit of a shock for me, because in Moscow if you do something like this you just get arrested, you literally can't even write something on a wall without being punished hard. Tbilisi also has lots of EU flags, because the state and people want (or wanted) to be in EU hard enough. The currency is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_lari][Georgian Lari]] (GEL). And when I've arrived it was something like 20 rubles per lari, now it is 35 rubles per lari. Ruble has dropped for at least 33% if you ask me and lari became much stronger currency compared to it. It was easy to buy crypto here, it became a bit harder after the regulations, but it is still possible. Yet I don't use this, just noting that you can see some Bitcoin shops in the city, which was a surprise for me because there is literally none in Moscow. *** Arrival [[../../public/images/tbilisi2.gif]] I've arrived with no plan at all. I was randomly luring the city with a backpack full of my clothes + my Thinkpad. My phone was low on charge, so I've stopped a random taxi driver and asked for direction to hotels. Because [[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65790759][~100-200k Russian migrated at the same time]] (not exactly to Tbilisi) all hotels were full. Gladly that driver invited me to his house, I've recharged my phone there and ate. After he proposed me a deal to rent his country-side place. Knowing that everything has high prices right now I've agreed. It was 40-60 minutes away from Tbilisi which felt actually far away and it was on a mountain, so it was colder. Tbilisi itself is very warm city, when I've arrived in the end of September it was +33 Celsius. I was using my winter clothes because the border was located in mountains, so it was cold there. [[../../public/images/tbilisi3.gif]] After settled down in a country side, I've came back to Tbilisi city. I've bought a local sim-card, Georgia doesn't has stupid limitations for tourists, so I've bought same sim-card as locals. Went to the bank and opened VISA card with no problem. Other Russian fellows had problems with that, so the process is a bit random, but I particularly had no issue. After that I went and registered a small business. It took me 1-3 days to do everything, which is extremely quick and it was easy in general. After all of that done I was ready for legally earning the money. After that I found a job and after several months moved to the city to better neighborhood. ** Why Georgia is nice [[../../public/images/tbilisi4.gif]] - No VISA required :: Russians can stay here for 1 year without a visa as a tourist and than do the visa run and stay another year. Ukrainians can stay for 2 years straight. - 0-1% business tax :: probably the lowest in the world - Rent is cheaper :: I think the minimal is $300-350 per month here. It was even cheaper before big migration wave. - Products :: Products are generally cheaper than in EU (I hope) - Community :: Many Russian-speaking people are here. It means that Georgia is a good place for meetups, conferences and other activities. For example there is a hackerspace F0rthsp4ce. @akater organized [[https://gitlab.com/akater/emacs-tbilisi-meetup-page/-/blob/main/public/index.org][Emacs meetup]] and @tropin did [[https://fosstodon.org/@w96k/112483547960128437][guix meetup]]. - Russia :: Georgia is close to Russia, so friends, family and other can come here more easily compared to other countries. - Climate :: Georgia has a warm climate. There is almost no snow at winter and generally very warm. - Nature :: Georgia has a lot of mountains and caves and it is great for hiking. - Georgian are friendly :: hospitality is their feature - Free (Libre) Internet :: Mostly not blocked at all. - No bureaucracy :: It was extremely easy to open a business and bank card. In general country feels much less trouble than others, I'm sure that EU has much harder procedures for everything. - Minimum regulation :: Georgia feels like it has low government regulations in general, but it might be only a feeling. Russia and Moscow felt much more over-regulated, you can be arrested if you cross the road in non appropriate place for example. ** Why Georgia is not so nice [[../../public/images/tbilisi5.gif]] - Russia :: Russia is too close and has influence in Georgian politics. Also it might be dangerous for activists. - Citizenship :: It is mostly impossible to get a citizenship. You need to stay here for 10 years with a permit for a living and government often declines providing those. - Less jobs :: If you work outside of IT it is much harder to get a job compared to Moscow. - Less salary :: If you handle to get a job it will be less profitable. My brother works here and get 50% less. I might guess that IT jobs has the same downside here, but not sure. - High import fees :: You need to pay 20% fee if you order stuff from Internet markets above $100. - Hard language :: Georgian language is very hard to learn compared to others. It is old and niche language. - Visa problem :: Many embassies requires a permit for a living in a country before your visa request, so I can't for example do a visa in Georgia. I need to go either to Russia or seek other countries to get a permit. The only exception is Spain Embassy in Armenia which works as a proxy for Embassy in Russia, so you can get a visa without a permit. - Internet is expensive and slow :: In Moscow I've paid $3 per month to get 40MBit. Here 45MBit costs $12.5. It is actually not so critical as packet losses and overall quality. - Electricity shutdowns :: Compared to Moscow it happens a bit too often and it depends on your neighborhood. ** Other options Of course Georgia is not the only option for migration. It was for a moment because of mass emigration and prices, but in general there is a choice. EU and other countries closed its borders for Russians or made it harder to get a VISA. If something happens to Georgia, most likely I would move to one of these countries: - Serbia :: - Montenegro :: - Spain :: - Portugal :: - Argentina :: - Urugway :: Most options has a common problem - *T* *A* *X* *E* *S*. They are extremely high. In Russia the tax for individual business is 6-12%. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing in general, but it is a bad thing for the guy, who wants to start living in a country without having billions beforehand. 15-22% is kinda nice, but still quite high compared to Georgian 0-1%. ** Conclusion [[../../public/images/georgia_mountains.gif]] Overall I'm glad that I've left Russia. Even if I would return it is nice to have an experience living abroad. I never been abroad before and generally I'm more "sitting at one place all my life" type of person. I've found new connections here and not feeling alone, maybe I even became more social here. I hope other Russian fellows who decided to not participate in government actions are doing well. /Peace./