Filipino Jayson Vizconde finally got his work and residence permits. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Filipino Jayson Vizconde is overjoyed that he is finally able to live and work in Malta after a bureaucratic battle that dragged on for over nine months.

“I am very happy I’m finally working. I’m also very happy that the company [he was meant to start working for last July] did not abandon me... I just hope this does not happen to anybody else,” the 35-year-old told Times of Malta during his work break.

He started working last month as a housekeeper in a private company, which he should have joined last July, having arrived in Malta about three years ago to work and support his family in the Philippines, especially his mother, who was on medication.

Last year, Times of Malta reported Mr Vizconde’s plight when he was held in detention for two weeks after being arrested on July 9 for working without a permit following “a misunderstanding”.

Mr Vizconde, who was between jobs, was waiting for a work permit to be issued under his new employer, Joseph Spiteri.

Mr Spiteri said he misunderstood a document sent to him by the Employment and Training Corporation to mean that Mr Vizconde could start working. This followed a conversation he had, on those lines, with an ETC official. It later turned out the document only stated the work permit application was being processed.

After receiving an anonymous phone call, ETC officials and police turned up at the company and arrested Mr Vizconde for working without a permit. He was arrested and a deportation order was issued.

Mr Vizconde then went to the Immigration Appeals Board. His residence permit, valid till the end of July 2014, expired but he could stay until the board’s decision.

He lived with a relative in Malta who supported him through the waiting period. Three months ago, the board decided in his favour but this only meant the beginning of a paper chase to obtain the necessary documents. He spent two months shuttling between the ETC, the Department for Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs and the police until he finally got the necessary work and residence permits and so could start working.

“I am very happy now,” Mr Vizconde said with a beaming smile, adding he could finally start earning money to send to his family back home. “I speak to my mother twice a week. She is very happy for me too,” he said.