Regulations Simplified for EU Citizens Seeking Residency
The government on Thursday amended the act on foreigners. Pending approval in parliament, the amendments will simplify the procedure for obtaining permanent residency for EU citizens.
According to the proposal, an EU citizen will be allowed to stay in the country for three months without registering, after which they will have to register at the local administrative unit.
After five years, they can apply for permanent residency, according to Bojan Trnovsek, the head of the administrative affairs directorate at the Interior Ministry.
The amendments also set out the rules for temporary and permanent residency permits for family members of the EU citizens, as well as for non-EU family members of Slovenians.
Regulations for non-EU citizens have also been changed. Most notably, they will be required to have lived in the country for five years prior to being eligible for a permanent residency permit, not eight as so far.
Also eligible for temporary residency permits will be non-EU citizens who have permanent or long-term residency permits in other EU countries. They can stay for three months without notifying the authorities, after which they have to register.
The amendments also provide for forced removal of non-EU citizens who have been banished by another EU member state and are in Slovenia. This is a power that the police have not had so far.
All the amendments are aligned with the appropriate EU legislation.
More articles from this issue:
Archive
|