Mariella Grech, director of the Department for Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs (January 23), replied to a reader’s letter concerning three issues: identity cards of non-Maltese persons; the new e-residence permit system; and identification documents for asylum seekers.
Before the letter appeared, I had already requested additional information from her department because it was not clear at whom the first two parts of the publication were aimed.
My initial impression was that it only concerned new applicants but later I had my doubts.
The answer that I was given confirmed my doubts because I was informed that all ID cards that were issued to foreign nationals would expire by the end of March and that all foreigners had to re-apply using a category-specific document in addition to form ID-1A that could be downloaded from the internet.
Why this information was not included in the publication is unclear and does not reflect well on the level of the three contributing offices. It reminds me somehow of the hapless new permanent residence scheme of a few years ago.
In case of permanent residents, who often reside in Malta for a very long time and who contributed significantly to the Maltese economy, it means that they have to go through the whole application process again since the supporting documents all concern new applications. For instance, form P in their case asks for a list of supporting documents, which would show continued residency in Malta for the last five years.
In a civilised country, government will seek the shortest communication routes with its citizens employing minimal bureaucracy. In case of the well-defined group of ID cardholders ending with A it would have been a simple and courteous procedure to send a personal letter with the necessary information together with form ID-1A.
The chosen way is a direct insult to (permanent) residents and I predict that many European Union citizens will simply ignore the new regulations. This will also happen in view of the present caricatural situation in which nearly all ID cards have expired a long time ago.
From a discriminatory point of view, it will be interesting to see what the comparative procedure for Maltese citizens will be.