Currency note: This article reflects a legislative proposal as tabled on 14/12/2023, and the legal situation at that time. The application deadline mentioned (31/12/2024) has since passed. Please contact us for the currently applicable legislation.
In the bill of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security entitled "Reform of occupational insurance, rationalisation of insurance legislation, pension arrangements, system for the appointment and recruitment of teachers of the public employment service, and other provisions", joint amendment No. 56/7 was tabled yesterday, 14/12/2023, by the Ministers of National Economy and Finance, Foreign Affairs, Interior, Labour and Social Security, Citizen Protection, Justice, Migration and Asylum, Digital Governance, and the Deputy Minister of the Interior, entitled "Arrangements for matters within the competence of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum".
Article 4 of the amendment proposes the grant of a new-type, three-year residence permit for employment, for third-country nationals who: (a) hold a statement of a job offer from an employer in Greece; (b) resided in Greece until and including 30 November 2023 without a residence permit and continue to reside in Greece; and (d) complete three continuous years of residence in Greece prior to filing the application. The application may be filed up to 31/12/2024.
Applicants will receive an application-filing certificate (formerly known as the "blue certificate") within forty days of filing the application, thereby becoming lawfully resident immediately, and are required to submit an employment contract within sixty days of the issuance of that certificate. Pending applications for a residence permit on exceptional grounds are examined under the above provisions, provided that the relevant requirements are met.
In addition to the applicant third-country national, a residence permit is also granted to their minor children who resided in Greece until 30/11/2023, and to the spouse, if they do not meet the requirements to apply independently for the above permit.
The proposed provisions establish a new type of permit, which had been a standing request both of third-country nationals themselves and, above all, of employers wishing to employ third-country nationals in sectors of the economy facing a serious problem in finding staff (construction, tourism, primary production). The amendment introduces a substantive regulation of the residence status of thousands of third-country nationals who have resided in the country for a number of years, who until recently had no means of regularising their status, and who were usually employed in undeclared work. As a result, on the one hand, third-country nationals themselves are, today, at risk of arrest and deportation from Greece, and, on the other hand, employers risk the imposition of very high fines, while the State suffers reduced revenue from contributions and taxes. Under the proposed provisions, on the one hand third-country nationals are required to declare their presence and employment, paying what is lawfully due to the insurance funds and tax authorities, while, on the other hand, the same amendment introduces extremely strict sanctions (administrative and criminal) for employers who employ undeclared foreign nationals.
From the above, it follows that the government, with the proposed arrangements, has recognised the issue that has existed for several years now, of a shortage of labour in certain sectors of the economy and of the large number of workers employed under undeclared work and the informal economy, and is now legislating in the direction of regularising the majority of third-country nationals residing in the country, who until now have remained invisible, living on the margins, without any protection under labour legislation.
The only discordant note, in the writer's opinion, is the requirement of a minimum period of residence in the country of three years prior to the application, given that there is already a requirement concerning their residence before 30 November 2023, because there will again be isolated cases of third-country nationals who entered Greece within the last three years and who will fall outside the proposed provisions.
We await, in due course, the passage of this amendment and the issuance of the relevant ministerial decisions, so as to form a complete view of its content and application.