EXPAT RESIDENTS FACE DAILY FINES

  Oct 26, 2020 9:21 am Ibrar Younas 6663
FOREIGN residents over the age of 60 who have not yet applied for temporary residency permits could face fines of 176TL per day, Cyprus Today has learned.

EXPAT RESIDENTS FACE DAILY FINES

Taken from this week's issue

By KEREM HASAN / Chief Reporter

The current immigration and residency rules came into force on October 23, 2019, bringing to an end the “gentlemen’s agreement”

Over 60s may have to pay out 176TL a day introduced in 2010 that allowed some expats, such as property owners, aged 60 and over to live in the TRNC without the need to obtain a permit.

Immigration Department head Emre Hacı said that a one-year transitional period for the changes, introduced by Interior Minister Ayşegül Baybars, had

come to an end yesterday.
Due to the “crisis” caused by the People’s Party’s withdrawal from the coalition, the government was unable to pass a “fresh decree” to extend the transitional period, Mr Hacı said.

He told this newspaper: “The Residency and Visa decree, which came into force on October 23,

2019, and which was valid for a year, has now expired.

“My personal view is that there is a need to extend the transitional period for foreign nationals and expats . . . to at least December 31 or even by another year. I will be advising the [next] minister on the need to extend this decree.

“However, I make a call to all foreign residents to just apply for residency online immediately and to avoid a fine of 176TL for every day after the deadline has passed.”

British Residents Society (BRS) chairman Peter Wilkins said the pandemic had made it “incredibly difficult” for many over-60s to apply for residency and undergo the necessary health checks.

“We understood that an exten- sion had been made for residency permit applications to be made until December 31 with the requirement of a document that proved why an earlier application could not be made due to the Covid- 19 pandemic,” he said.

Mrs Baybars, who could not be reached despite several attempts by this newspaper, had said last year that the requirement was related to “getting residents registered”.

“We don’t know who, over the age of 60, is and is not an actual resident,” she said it the time. “It makes planning very hard for the government.”



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