Ministry of the Interior initiated official supervision over the procedure for issuing residence permits

On Thursday, December 15th the Ministry of the Interior launched official supervision in order to determine whether the Police and Border Guard Board’s (PBGB) internal procedure for the issue and control of residence permits is adequate for preventing misuse. The Ministry initiated the official supervision after having heard the preliminary results of PBGB’s follow-up control of residence permits.

The official supervision will be performed by Erkki Koort, Deputy General for Internal Security of the Ministry of the Interior. According to Koort, the results of PBGB’s ex-post control show that there may be deficiencies in the procedure for the issue and follow-up control of residence permits. “The data presented by PBGB raised a number of questions, which have to be answered in the course of supervision. It also has to be determined whether this involves deficiencies in work organisation,” he said.

Deputy Secretary General Koort added that the procedure for issuing residence permits also has to be reviewed in the Aliens Act. “Residence permits for entrepreneurship must only be issued to people who bring added value to the Estonian society. Upon changing the procedure for issuing such residence permits we must consider not only security concerns, but also the impact of the changes on the Estonian economy. That requires close cooperation with economic experts,” said Koort.
The Ministry of the Interior will finalise the amendments to the Aliens Act in the new year, after the official supervision has been performed and PBGB has completed the follow-up control of all the residence permits included in the allowed limit issued this year.

At the end of May this year, PBGB informed the Ministry of the Interior that the allowed immigration limit is being used up unusually rapidly by residence permits issued for employment (as a member of a governing body) and expressed suspicion that there may be incidents of misuse in applying for residence permits.
The Ministry of the Interior notified its cooperation partners of the situation and started work with PBGB to determine which deficiencies in legal acts could facilitate such misuse. On 4 July, the Minister of the Interior enforced a regulation prohibiting the issue of any further residence permits for employment (as a member of a governing body) this year. The allowed immigration limit was used up by 31 August.

At the end of September, the Government decided to increase the immigration limit to the level allowed by law in order to ensure that employees necessary for Estonia receive residence permits regardless of the immigration limit having been used up. By that time, there was reason to suspect that in addition to residence permits for employment (as a member of a governing body) fictitious applications may have been submitted also for other types of residence permits. On the orders of the Ministry of the Interior, PBGB increased the preliminary control of residence permit applications and the Minister of the Interior enforced a regulation establishing the distribution of the limit also for other types of temporary residence permits.

On the orders of the Ministry of the Interior, PBGB is currently checking all the residence permits included in the immigration limit issued this year. All the persons who have received a residence permit this year, but do not meet the requirements and obligations stipulated by law will lose their residence permit.