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Anastasia Balezdrova

The Ministry of the Interior has announced measures to facilitate the residence of legal immigrants in Greece. It has merged the provisions scattered until today in laws, presidential decrees, ministerial decisions and orders into an immigration code, which will introduce measures to facilitate the stay of immigrants in Greece.

The code will reduce the number of different types of work permits from 50 to 19 and in addition, it will remove 20 of the documents required before the issuance of permits.

The children of holders of a long-term residence permit will automatically receive the same document. When they turn 18 they will be able to apply for Greek citizenship if they were born in Greece and if they attended a Greek school.

Under the new code, the long-term residence permits will be valid for five years. One of the important changes that the new legal framework is about to introduce is that the specific permit will allow legal immigrants to travel and work in other European Union member states. Under the current law, the residence permits are issued for an indefinite period or for a period of 10 years and are valid only for Greece, i.e. their holders have no right to work in another European country.

One of the requirements for the renewal of permits is the presence of 120 working days per year. The Ministry of the Interior explains that it does not intend to cancel this condition because it will increase the informal employment. However, the code takes into account the fact that the majority of immigrants have lost their jobs due to the economic crisis and, for a specific period of time, the permits will be renewed on the basis of a regular health booklet. This will prevent the immigrants, who have lived in Greece for many years, from automatically acquiring the status of "illegal" when they lose their job.

It is expected that the "one-stop-shop" services that will process the documents of immigrants will start operating at the beginning of 2014. They will be the only body to which those wishing to obtain a residence permit or to renew it will refer. The aim is to limit the network of intermediaries and the corruption chain in different instances that exists to this day. Ideally, emergency permits and permits due to humanitarian reasons will be issued within one day.

As announced by the Ministry, the code provides for changes in relation to family uniting in connection with the cases in which the immigrants come from a country where polygamy is permitted. Under EU law, the husband has the right to take to the receiving country only one of his wives and the children which he has from all of his wives. Experience shows that the falsification of documents is very easy in these countries and the authorities are often faced with the arrival in Greece of many young people who present themselves as children of legal immigrants. The new immigration code provides for conducting a DNA test to prove the family connection.

The immigration code will affect 540,000 foreigners who have a residence permit for Greece. The draft code will be subject to public discussion until the end of October and then subsequently, in the shortest time, it will be submitted for a vote by parliament. The leadership of the Ministry of the Interior has assured that it will accept any comments that are within the boundaries of the national and European legislation.