Do you need a degree to move to russia?

Welcome to Expat.com sirlewis!

I'm sure that you will soon be given some tips.

Harmonie.

To get a work visa you generally need a degree in the field of work you will be doing.  Getting residence is not easy, even being married to a Russian does not guarantee you will be granted temp or permanent residence.  Work visas generally are good for a year unless you are classified as a specialist, then you can get residence for three to five years.  There is talk that this may ease up before 2015 in order to bring in more specialists for Russia's growing economy, but as of now that is just talk.  However, generally work visas requite that you produce a degree to the Russian embassy in order to be granted  a work visa.  Your IT qualifications may qualify if you can land a job in this field, otherwise not.  Do not give up hope because these rules change all the time.
                                       JD

Russia immigration is very simple compared to other countries - if you need only residency then get married to Russian female citizen not difficult and have good police report & will receive  wife will sponsor you can receive 10 years residency with green passport done it myself or learn Russian, get a job, have small amount of money, good police report and apply for migration - their is a Russian law for this process.

Just marrying a Russian citizen does not automatically guarantee Russian residence, I know of several instances where somebody married to a Russian citizen was denied residence.  You have to meet certain obligations whether you are married to a Russian citizen or not.  Plus marriage will only give you temporary residence good for three years, you can apply for permanent residence after one year of having temporary residence which will be good for 5 years and has to be renewed every 5 years. No matter what type of residence you have, you have to re-register every year and if you do not meet the requirements such as have  a certain income level and legal employment, you will lose your residence.  There is a little more to the process than what you say, not to mention have a clean police record both in Russia and your home country, pass certain medical tests and have a certain income level, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

I agree with Bossman1 comments re working visa.

However please note that I did not indicate that marrying a Russian guarantees residency.
I never use the words "guarantee" or "promise" regarding visas.
I work in an professional role of overseeing the obtaining of visas for candidates in more than 20 different countries.
I continue to believe that Russian visa system is easier compared to other counties such for example Australia. USA UK etc 

Those cases referred to as being refused Russian residency after marriage; most likely they (expat) would have been refused because of a poor character background in their home country or in Russia or maybe the wife/husband changed her/his mind and quietly withdrew sponsorship or made an adverse comment to local security!! - then one must ask who got the best deal upon the forced separation of the "loving" newly weds - interesting situation - beware.
I hope the refused expat partners - did the right thing - and arranged for the Russian partners to gain residency in their home country and live happily ever after, abroad?

I my opinion the "iceberg" isn't so deep in Russia.

Hope it further helps and clarifies matters.

I just went by what you said quote: "if you need only residency then get married to Russian female citizen not difficult if you have  a clean police record."  A lot can be misread into a statement like that, I think you will agree, but again marriage to a Russian citizen is no guarantee you will get residence and it could be a simple reason of dating your documents in the US style instead of the European style.  They will not say a word to you about it, just rejected.  I know because it almost happened to be and I am a former law enforcement officer in the US who is married to a Russian.  I only found out the mistake when I called to find out about the status of my application.

Also, your case officer could be one of those who feels that there are too many foreigners in Russia, so rejected.

No telling how many applications these case officers have to look through on a daily bases and since they are low paid employees like most Russian government employees, they just may decide to take it easy on this day and stamp every other application rejected.  I know of several instances where the husband or wife had to leave Russia until residence was granted, though the separation was only for a few months, they still had to leave.

When i first came here, residence to married couples was hardly ever denied, only in rare case, however, it is a lot more common now to denie residence if the spouse does not have legal employment or income at a certain level. 

Rejection of residence applications for those married to Russians happen more often than you think they do, so I stand by my statement,  Marrying a Russian citizen is no guarantee you will get residence.  I know because I have contacts with several Immigration attorneys here and they always have more work than they can handle dealing with issues like these.
                                    JD
                                 JD

Anyhow the debate is interesting & informative for all, hopefully.
Lets hope we didn't frighten off the other guy.
Bye

let's just agree to disagree.  I should mention that Putin wants to streamline the work visa and residence process by 2015 where most of the applications will be filled out online and mailed to the Federal Immigration Office.  Whether this happens or not remains to be seen, but Russia wants to firm up its economy with manufacturing and in order to do this, they will have to bring in people who know what they are doing.  As a matter of fact the Federal Immigration Service wants to end the quota system on workers and residences.  However, some in the Duma want to make knowing Russian a requirement for getting a work permit.  So maybe there will be some good news about the process getting easier before long.
                               JD

A further update on Russian work visa.
Suggested reading rbth.ru/questions/12386