ANNUAL POLICY REPORT 2012 located at the seat of the district in which it is to provide employment. After considering the request, an approval decision is sent to the competent Greek consular authority to issue the relevant visa. Following his/her entry in the Greek territory on the basis of the respective visa, the TCN shall then submit an application for the issuance of the residence permit to the competent office for Foreigners and Immigration. The latter shall be equal in terms of time to the duration of employment, according to the relevant employment contract, it may not exceed six (6) months for seasonal workers and eight (8) months for workers employed in the fishery sector, and it provides access to the labour market exclusively for the provision of this employment and the specific employer having submitted the application on the basis of which the permit was issued. With the aim to limit bureaucracy and facilitate the invitation procedure for specific categories of migrants (seasonal employees / workers in the fishery sector), a number of circulars have been issued in 2012 for the implementation of Law 4018/2011 which introduced some innovative elements regarding the entry and residence for the purpose of seasonal / temporal employment. In particular, articles 5 and 6 of this Act amended the relevant framework by adopting a procedure for the entry and residence of these categories on the basis of national visa (Visa D), without the subsequent issuance of a respective residence permit. This regulation relates mainly to Albanian nationals who are entering Greece for seasonal work purposes on the basis of the relevant bilateral agreement179 and to fish workers mainly from Egypt also entering Greece under relevant bilateral agreements180. Regarding the impact of the economic crisis on the employment of foreign laborforce, what is clear from the statistics is that in recent years there has been a steady decline of the requests submitted by the inviting employers to municipalities and the approved employment posts to be covered by TCNs. According to Ministry of Labour, in 2006 there were approved 59,008 requests; in 2007 42,180; in 2008 38,278; in 2009 28,924; in 2010 26,209 and in 2011 24,083 requests. The reduction of demand for foreign labor is mainly connected to the large supply of domestic workforce due to the increased unemployment among Greek nationals and third countries’ nationals already legally residing in the country In accordance with the above, the data of the Ministry of Interior show a decline since 2010, in the number of residence permits issued per year for employment purposes as well as other purposes: First Residence Permits issued per year, by category at the regional level. In each Decentralised Administration operates an office for Foreigners and Immigration with responsibility to implement the legislation in force regarding residence of aliens. This office must be in constant collaboration with the relevant services of the competent Ministry, in order to better address the problems and manage the affairs falling under their area of competence. 179 Law 2482/1997 on "Ratification of the Agreement for seasonal employment of labor between the Government of the Greek Republic and the Government of the Republic of Albania" (Official Gazette A73) 180 Law 1453/84 on "Ratification of the Agreement on the promotion of bilateral cooperation in the field of labor between the Government of the Greek Republic and the Arab Republic of Egypt" (Official Gazette A88) 3