Are the cracks beginning to show?
From time to time, I read snippets of information in the news, and over the weekend, I read some of the less publicised side effects of Brexit that are starting to become apparent. You’ve probably heard more about them than I have, so I may not be 100% accurate here. For example, Spain residents trying to get home from the UK and not being allowed to fly because of paperwork confusion was one story. Another was a Dutch company who are no longer able to deliver to the UK because of new and expensive paperwork and tax collection issues. I think that was for bicycle parts. Then there’s the extra cost of postage and customs duties on some items when you order from Amazon and others online. Plenty more delist like that to come, I expect, as the small print kicks in.
For me, when ordering online, I’ve been using only Greek sites and those in Europe. Places like Amazon.de and German eBay when I can only find items I need outside of Greece. I do have to use the online translator a great deal to make sure I don’t hit the wrong button and find myself signed up for Amazon Prime or some other neatly hidden add-on when all I want to do is buy a book, but otherwise, it’s not only cheaper but quicker to arrive.
As for the residency thing, I’ve also been following posts and pages for Brits abroad, and there’s still loads of confusion around 90 days out of 180 residency and all that. I don’t look too deeply as I have had residency for many years, and all I need to sort out this year is exchanging my paper permit for a biometric one. That may involve having to go to Rhodes, somehow, finding photos and putting them on a CD ROM and proving that I have a sustainable bank account, but none of that should be an issue. I hope. Again, I’ve read stories of some people having no trouble, others having to more or less reapply, and some having to show they have over €40k in a Greek bank account. As the period for switching to biometric only kicked in yesterday, I’ve not yet heard how it’s going to work for us, but we have until June to sort it out.
What I still don’t get though, is the 90 out of 180 days thing. I mean, I get it, but I don’t understand how some others don’t. I may be wrong on this, but I thought that residency permits were for permanent residents, not for people who wanted to pop over for an extended holiday. If you have residency, you pay tax here, and that’s that. (Or you have an agreement to pay tax in the yUK, but then may have to top up to the Greek authorities the difference in what your tax bill would have been had you been paying it all in Greece…) Some people are still asking how they can get a card so they can come for longer than three months at a time and then pop home again when it suits them. That doesn’t seem right to me, you can’t have your cake and eat it, not now Brexit has kicked in. You can’t even order your cake from the yUK unless you want to risk paying import charges and extra postage to ELTA…
I think this is a show that’s going to run, and there will be lots more gossip and lots of niggles coming out as the weeks go by, and all for what? Ah well, at least the NHS is benefiting from the extra 350 million a week, so that’s fine.
