Relocation news digest - August 17, 2024

🇫🇷 France: a new residence permit category added to the online application system

France has added its 10-year residence permit programme to ANEF, the national online application system.

The system streamlines the paperwork, offering far greater transparency - applicants can track their status online - and removing the need to visit a prefecture in person.

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka: electronic visa issuance temporarily suspended

Sri Lanka's Department of Immigration and Emigration (DOIE) has temporarily suspended its new eVisa online platform in order to refine the system.

Until further notice, foreign nationals planning to visit Sri Lanka must apply for a visa on arrival, which allows a 30-day stay.

🇲🇾 Malaysia: immigration applications can be filed online again

The ESD online portal has been back up and running since 2 August 2024, after a month-long outage.

🇧🇬 Bulgaria: the country is switching to the euro

Bulgaria's National Assembly has passed, in its final reading, the law adopting the euro as the national currency.

For one month after the law takes effect, both currencies will circulate on equal terms.

Prices for goods and services will be displayed in both currencies for a full year.

🇲🇾 Malaysia: authorities ease work permit requirements

From 16 August 2024, Malaysia's Expatriate Services Division (ESD) will relax the documentation required for work permit applications.

The following documents will no longer be required:

• bank statement;
• employer's letter;
• job description;
• work schedule;
• CV.

🇫🇮 Finland: authorities move to ban property deals for Russian citizens

Finland's Ministry of Defence is drafting a bill that would impose a full ban on the purchase of property in Finland by Russian nationals.

🇷🇺 Russia: Raiffeisen to block dollar and euro transfers from 2 September

Raiffeisen's support team has officially confirmed the news.

Once Raiffeisen introduces its full ban on dollar and euro transfers, sending money abroad from Russia will become all but impossible.

🇸🇬 Singapore: authorities clarify policy on employing foreign nationals

Singapore's Ministry of Manpower has clarified that employers are not permitted to apply for a work permit for a foreign national who is in Singapore while still employed by a foreign company - doing so constitutes an offence.

🇹🇷 Turkey: authorities to fingerprint everyone entering the country

Turkey's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has announced plans for a scheme to take fingerprints on entry to the country.

The Turkish authorities intend to adopt the practice from the United States and the United Kingdom.

🇷🇺 Russia: broker BKS to suspend yuan deposits and withdrawals from brokerage accounts

The brokerage BKS Mir Investitsiy has notified clients of a temporary suspension of Chinese yuan deposits and withdrawals from brokerage accounts to the details of external banks, including those of BKS Bank. The restriction took effect on 13 August.

🇻🇺 Vanuatu: authorities to collect biometrics at four locations abroad

To obtain a Vanuatu passport, applicants will be able to submit biometrics in Belgium, Hong Kong, New Caledonia and the UAE.

🇨🇾 Cyprus: authorities adopt the EU Blue Card Directive

The directive offers the following advantages to non-EU citizens who wish to work in the European Union:

• the right to accumulate professional experience;
• a simplified path to permanent residence and citizenship;
• an extended period of validity.

🇷🇺 Russia: the Interior Ministry removes the tool for checking domestic passport validity

The function to verify the validity of a domestic passport has disappeared from the websites of Russia's Interior Ministry and the Gosuslugi portal.

The removal comes amid reports of passports being annulled for relocators. The Russian authorities have annulled the domestic passports of at least nine Russians who had spoken out against the war.

Obtaining new passports abroad is impossible. When a passport is annulled, a Russian citizen loses access to all state services, such as the Gosuslugi portal. SIM cards from Russian carriers and banking apps stop working.

To minimise the risks, Murblz advises securing a second citizenship in advance. Options open to Russian citizens in 2024 include Paraguay and Kyrgyzstan.

🇺🇸 USA: American banks are freezing Russians' accounts

Banks can determine a client's location by IP address when they log into the bank's mobile app or enter their card details to pay at an online store.

American banks may freeze their clients' accounts if it emerges that they attempted to use the banks' services from within Russia.

❗️ Murblz advises checking your bank's terms in advance.

🇹🇷 Turkey: authorities to deny residence permits to tourists

Turkey's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has stated that the authorities will not grant residence permits to those who entered the country on a tourist basis.

What changed by October 2026

Bulgaria: the euro is now in use

The switch mentioned above has happened: Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026. Taxes, fees and payments to the budget are now calculated and paid in euros, and savings and income in leva were converted at a fixed rate with no tax consequences. The rates are unchanged: a flat 10% income tax, 10% corporate tax and 20% VAT. More on the page about taxes in Bulgaria.

Vanuatu: biometrics in person only, Schengen closed

Biometric collection points abroad have become a mandatory part of the procedure: since 1 July 2025 biometrics for the passport must be given in person. Visa-free Schengen access for Vanuatu passports has been fully suspended since 4 February 2023, and since 3 February 2025 Vanuatu has been on the list of countries with a permanent visa requirement. A visa for the UK has also been required since 19 July 2023. In September 2026 a Vanuatu passport opens 86 destinations without a visa, compared with 135 in 2022. More on the page about Vanuatu citizenship.

Finland: the property purchase ban is law

The idea reported in the issue has become law: since 15 July 2025 Russian and Belarusian citizens have not been granted the Ministry of Defence permit for real estate with land, such as a house, a plot or a holiday home, unless they hold a Finnish permanent residence permit. An outright refusal has replaced the earlier case-by-case checks; a flat is held as shares in a housing company and needs no such permit.

How we help

We check entry, residence and property purchase rules on the date of the deal or application, choose a country whose programme is open to your passport and support the process until the documents are issued. Write in the chat.

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