Filenews 29 October 2022 - by Adamos Adamou
The visit, by appointment only, to the offices of the Civil Registry and Migration Department, which was rightly imposed during the pandemic, seems to have now turned into his biggest hoarseness.
A more important problem is faced by companies of foreign interests, which claim that they find it difficult to bring the necessary specialized staff from abroad, precisely because of the lack of availability of appointments at the Department's offices.
For specific services, as explained to us by the president of the Cyprus Payroll Management Association (CPMA) – the Pancyprian Payroll Management Association – Theodoros Mantis, there is no availability to arrange an appointment for up to three months from today. Several companies involved in the provision of immigration services, he said, are no longer able to arrange appointments, and the CPMA receives, on a daily basis, complaints from its members on the same issue. We note that appointments are "booked" through the website of the Civil Registry and Migration Department, where anyone with a simple visit can record the problem.
The problem of the lack of available appointments for the issuance of temporary residence permits or even the renewal of permits, according to the CPMA, particularly afflicts companies of foreign interests that wish to either relocate or operate in Cyprus, as they face a serious problem of transferring their staff from third countries.
"It is at least contradictory to include companies in mechanisms, with the aim of accelerating their licensing, providing a series of facilities and on the other hand to inconvenience them, delaying for months the transfer of their staff and their families, which add to economic growth but also to the supply of knowledge and technology", added the president of CPMA.
The problem has plagued the Association for months, he said, and despite his representations so far to the Civil Registry and Migration Department there has not been any positive arrangement.
According to Theodoros Mantis, CPMA is a directly interested party, as it deals with payroll, social security, personal taxation, labour issues, digital transformation issues but also with human resources and migration issues. In this context, he says that the association requested a meeting with the Minister of Interior Nikos Nouris, with an immediate positive response. The meeting will take place next week and specifically on November 3, in order to discuss the problem and seek solutions.
The problem is not unknown to the market in general, and in fact lately there have been situations of abuse of the existing system.
Thousands of applications for residence permits
The large volume of applications for residence permits and consequently the volume of work in the Immigration Department are also due to the new strategy for attracting businesses to the island, which seems to be bearing fruit. This was also mentioned at a recent CCCI event in Paphos, with the Director of the Civil Registry and Migration Department Maria Adamidou confirming that the new strategy has led to an "impressive increase in interest from foreign companies in relocating to Cyprus". This, he said, becomes apparent when comparing applications for residence and employment permits from foreign companies submitted to the Civil Registry and Migration Department in 2021 and 2022. "The number of applications submitted more than doubled in the first nine months since the adoption of the new Strategy. In particular, in 2021, 5,475 applications were submitted, while since January 2022, when the New Strategy came into force and until the end of September 2022, our Department has already received 9,090 applications", with 97% having already been examined, said Ms. Adamidou. He went on to say that in addition to facilitating the employment of third-country nationals, the new strategy also encourages family reunification. In 2021, 4,242 applications for family reunification permits were submitted, and in the first nine months of 2022, 4,653 applications were submitted.
COMMENT
Understanding and speed
The last thing the country and the economy need at this stage is to inconvenience potential investors. Without losing sight of what is already being done, which has even led to an increase in investment, there is still room for improvement in the procedures for facilitating potential investors. What seems urgent for the time being, however, is the acceleration of existing facilities and better understanding and coordination between those who have a role to play, in order to establish the country as an attractive investment destination.
