Filenews 19 September 2023
The "come and go" of thousands of European citizens, as well as British nationals who are struggling when they want to carry out some procedures concerning either their stay in Cyprus or their employment, comes to an end, since they will soon be able to submit their applications to the local Citizen Service Centers (KEP).
At the same time, it paves the way for reducing inconvenience for third-country workers who are employed by companies of foreign interests and who have to regulate their legal residence in Cyprus.
It is worth noting that some of the permits or certificates are issued by the headquarters of the Civil Registry and Migration Department, which entailed and entails great inconvenience for the applicants.
An official at the KEP told "F" that for some time now consultation has been taking place with the Civil Registry and Migration Department in order to be able to integrate some additional immigration services to serve European citizens, as well as British citizens. Based on the provisions of the bill, the Director/Director of the Civil Registry and Migration Department may authorize staff who do not belong to his Department to perform certain tasks. Specifically, for this purpose, the staff of the Citizen Service Centers will be authorized.
The service that will be "assigned" by the Civil Registry Department concerns the submission of an application for registration certificates to European citizens and British nationals who reside permanently in Cyprus, and KEP. Applications will be received and JEPs will issue certificates on the spot. This will help avoid the inconvenience of these two categories of non-Cypriot citizens, while helping the employees of the Civil Registry Department to breathe a sigh of relief from the process of receiving applications, so that they can devote more time to its other occupations, which have increased in recent years, due to increased migratory flows.
At the same time, the receipt of applications for residence and employment permits to employees of companies of foreign interests is being discussed. Consultations have been going on for months now, and the idea behind the proposed regulation is to have another point of contact between the citizen and the state.
A bill has been tabled before Parliament to regulate issues concerning European citizens and British nationals. The amendment provides the possibility of submitting an application to any employee, other than the employees of the Archives Department population, duly authorized by the Director, so that applications can also be received by employees at the Citizen Service Centers.
Discussion of the bill begins on Thursday before the House Committee on Internal Affairs.
