Member of Parliament George Pantophlet says that for clarity sake the government has to embark on an information campaign to correct the misunderstandings that have been created when the law for Admittance and Expulsion was amended to make it possible for government to charge fees for residence permit applications. The confusion surrounds how many times one has to pay for a residence permit.
Although this matter has appeared in the media and explained during the last plenary session on the law amendment, the Member of Parliament says that he is still getting phone calls asking for information or clarity. The persons affected wanted to know since they are already in possession of a permanent residence permit whether they have to pay for it each year. His response to them was in the negative. The fact is that persons already in possession of a permanent residence permit don’t have to pay. The law states that persons whose request for permanent residence permit is being processed will not have to pay the fee. To reinforce this point the Member of Parliament made reference to page 3 Article III of the explanatory notes which reads as follows:( freely translated ) Persons who have submitted a request before this ordinance comes into force the justifiable expectation exists that no fees will have to be paid. Based on this the proposed charges will only be levied on new requests. However the Member of Parliament adds that if one loses their residence permit and requests is made for a duplicate they will have to pay the fee. When it comes to the persons with temporary residence permit the same applies except in this case if the temporary residence permit is valid for 1, 2 or 3 years only when you are submitting a request for its extension then you will have to pay the fee. The Member of Parliament said that he visited the office of the Ministry of Justice and was informed that a service center will be set up in order to give the necessary information to the public and or persons affected. What is important to note is that although the changes or amendments to the law were approved by Parliament it still has to be published for it to become legal. The Member of Parliament hopes to have brought more clarity on this issue.