Moscow news
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19-Sep-2008
Hotels empowered to register guests
Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) launched the pilot version of an electronic system, which offers on-line registration of foreigners at five hotels in the Russian capital. That means that the hotels that provide the service will have to invest in the implementation of the new system.
In the past, the hotels' staff had to go to a department of the FMS [in order to register the hotels' foreign guests]. But now they can apply the migrant registration seal to the corresponding document on their own after sending the information to the FMS over the Internet. The hotel will then receive confirmation of their guests' registration in the data base [of the FMS]," Mikhail Tyurkin, first deputy head of the FMS of Russia, told journalists at the presentation of the electronic system, which was held at the Metropol hotel.
The pilot version of the system is being tested at Metropol, Budapest, Pokrovka Siut, Elegant, and Sovetsky hotels. Later it will gradually spread to other hotels in the city.
"I think the pilot period will be over by the middle of October. After that we will start [further] distributing of this system," Tyurkin said.
All the information in the system is fully protected. The system was designed in strict correspondence with Russia's legislation and the norms of the international law.
The system is designed to improve the level of service in the hotels. This will undoubtedly raise Moscow's attractiveness on the global travel services market. After the new system's introduction, a foreigner's registration procedure will take about five minutes, compared to the previous bureaucratic hassle, which took up to 24 hours.
However, the hotels will have to spend around 170,000 rubles (approximately $6,600) for the equipment, personnel training, and access cards to the FMS' data base that are required to operate the new system. Most hotels seem to think the charge is worth it
However, the FMS assures that these expenditures are not obligatory for hotels and depend on their decision to use the system or not. Yet, the majority of hotels are expected to do themselves and their guests a favor by switching to the new electronic system.
Tyurkin said that around 60 hotels, as well as those engaged in the system's probation, have already purchased all the necessary equipment.
"The introduction of the new system has been held by the FMS together with Moscow government," Tyurkin said. "The result, it can be said now, is completely positive. We are simplifying the work of the migration service as well as that of the hotels, which register foreign citizens."
Moscow FMS reported the registration of 1.6 millions foreigners last year and 1.042 million in the first seven months of this year.
By Sergei Dmitriyev
The Moscow News