Foreigners will be issued with documents at one stop shop

Beginning today, February 25, foreigners will be able to use the services of the one stop shop within the Bureau of Migration and Asylum, which will serve up to 45 customers daily. It will offer assistance in issues related to residing in Moldova, obtaining a work permit, education, marriage with Moldovan citizens, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The one stop shop is meant to solve one of the foreigners’ main problems in Moldova. Previously, they had to go to three different institutions responsible for issuing documents to foreigners: the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family, the Ministry of Informational Technologies and the Ministry of the Interior. The one stop shop will not only reduce the time of issuing documents, but will also simplify many bureaucratic procedures”, said Liviu Prodan, head of the Bureau of Migration and Asylum. The deadline for issuing documents to foreigners will be reduced to 15 days, while the current legislation requires responsible institutions to process foreign citizens’ requests for documents within 30 days. Interior Minister Alexei Roibu says the opening of the one stop shop will eliminate some unnecessary procedures. More importantly, it is a step towards the EU visa regime liberalization. The one stop shop is an initiative of the Bureau of Migration and Asylum, funded by the European Commission and the International Organization for Migration. The overall investments are estimated at 150,000 lei. Yearly, about 2000 foreign citizens are issued documents by responsible Moldovan institutions.