IMMIGRATION and OFFICIALDOM!

Article by Fiona of Larnaca

I thought this might give a bit of hope to anyone battling with Cypriot officials. When we moved here 14 months ago, we were told we didn't need to apply for residency as Cyprus is now in Europe. Good advice unless you need to do anything! Our eldest son was told he couldn't take his driving test as he didn't have residency. So we decided to apply. After our 4th visit to the prison-like building on the Larnaca seafront we gave up and told him to take his test abroad. A while later our solicitor told us we couldn't transfer the deeds to our land into our names as we didn't have residency (something to do with the plot and does not apply to everyone) so we had to try again. 4 more depressing visits later, we got residency!! It took six months, not that bad really looking back, but at the time, so frustrating. We also got the much coveted pink card for medical care as a result of the residency papers, even though we keep being told that as Europeans we are entitled to free medical care. Tell the Cypriots! And this week a miracle occurred - we got our land transferred into our names and guess what? We didn't need residency any more as the laws have just changed! Still it came in handy, we needed a document to show our address and the only thing we had with us was the residency paper.Us Brits are used to things being sorted out in a much quicker, efficient way and it takes a real effort to get anything done here. It can be so annoying but if you can be patient, things usually happen in the end. We are now trying to get CYTA to put in a phone line! We've been there 3 times and a CYTA man did come out to the house. Still nothing. Wish us luck!!