New Format for Residence Permits in Greece for Foreign nationalsVarious changes in the sphere of Greek legislation have already entered into force since the beginning of 2017. A number of amendments were made to the immigration law as well. We recently highlighted the issue regarding the state authorities which are responsible for receipt of the residence permits applications based on exceptional reasons. According to the amendment law, foreign nationals who have entered the country with a Greek visa at least three years ago or who have lived here for more than seven years may apply for a residence permit to the immigration services at the region of their residence starting from April 2017. At the same time, those who have already applied for a residence permit to the Ministry of Interior, in order to accelerate results will be able to refuse from the first application and to reapply to the relevant Prefecture (Decentralised Administration). Today’s publication will concern a new format for residence permits in Greece which is approved and in a short time will be issued by the relevant competent authorities. This is about an electronic residence permit which is planed to be already applied from March of the current year and is to replace usual stickers in the immigrants’ passports. Such a residence permit except of the holder’s personal information will also contain their biometrical data, including fingerprints. Residence permits of a new format will be issued not only for those third-country nationals who become legalised for the first time, but also for those who are going to extend their already existing residence permit. By means of this innovation the Hellenic Ministry of Migration Policy is planning to regularise the residence permit issuance system and to also solve many problems associated with falsified or forged documents. Thus, every third-country national will have to appear in person to the authorised immigration service for the fingerprints procedure. The relevant equipment is already installed at the authorised services. The Ministry is also planning to carry out the census to define a number of immigrants residing in the territory of Greece, simultaneously registering their legal status and place of residence in their electronic identity card. We will keep you informed on the updates about Greek immigration law. Stay tuned for the new publications posted on our website and on our social media pages: http://kasatkinalaw.com/en/legal_news/ Back |
