Aliens Police Directorates (Διεύθυνσεις Αλλοδαπών) based on beneficiaries’ place of residence. Contrary to the electronic procedure followed by the Asylum Service, this procedure requires the drafting of a legal document for the renewal application. Based on available Country of Origin Information (COI), the renewal application must demonstrate that reasons of persecution / serious harm still exist. During the renewal stage, even for the procedure before the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police, GCR observed that, in the years 2025–2026, following the submission of a renewal application, the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police notifies applicants who are beneficiaries of international protection with a document requesting that, either through an interview or by way of written submissions, they present within 20 days the reasons why they continue to face persecution in their country of origin. This practice effectively initiates a reexamination procedure on the merits, which in several cases—particularly concerning beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, including individuals originating from countries facing an extremely dangerous security situation, such as Afghanistan—leads to the non-renewal of residence permits. Throughout 2025, a total of 450 applications for renewal were submitted before the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police, 57.3% of which concerned refugee status holders (258), and the rest beneficiaries of subsidiary protection (192). Of these, 227 applications were accepted, 5 were rejected, while the majority (51.5%) were still pending at the end of the year, 1285 highlighting ongoing challenges in the timely renewal of ADETs under the “old procedure” as well. Though waiting times for renewal continued to be reported at less than 6 months in most pending cases under this procedure, close to a third were reported as pending for more than 6 months or even a year. 1286 Pending the renewal decision, a large number of beneficiaries have no access to the labour market, to social security, social welfare and sometimes healthcare for several months. As a consequence, they also face an increased risk of destitution and homelessness. The attestation of application status (βεβαίωση κατάθεσης αίτησης ανανέωσης άδειας διαμονής) issued by the Aliens Directorates underwent a complete change in format in 2025. In contrast to the attestation previously provided by the Asylum Service, it now includes a photograph and an expiration date of six months (with a fixed validity date), and it contains an explicit reference to Article 31 of Law 5226/2025, stating that the holder resides legally in the country and enjoys all rights attached to the residence permit for which renewal has been requested. This, in principle, should allow the document to be accepted by other Greek public authorities. However, the attestation does not bear a unique identification number, and therefore cannot be processed through the ERGANI system, preventing access to the labour market and to social benefits. Moreover, although beneficiaries receive their renewed residence permits on the same day they are notified of a positive renewal decision, these permits are often not accepted by public services, as they are handwritten, issued in booklet form, and remain unfamiliar to the majority of administrative authorities. As of December 2025, a total of 96,438 active residence permits for beneficiaries of international protection were reported by the MoMA,1287 the majority of which concerned nationals of Aghanistan (35.8%), Syria (20.2%), Palestine (11.5%), Iraq (8.1%) and Eritrea (4%). This represents 10.3% of the total number of active residence permits reported up to December 2025 (936,522) in Greece, the majority of which concerned other categories of legally residing third country nationals (56.2%), as well as expatriates (ομογενείς) and EU citizens (29.5%). At the same time, 7,640 renewal applications were still pending before the Asylum Service at the end of 2025.1288 2. Civil registration 1285 1286 1287 1288 Information provided by the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police on 28 February 2026. RSA, Recognised refugee statistics in Greece in 2025, March 2026, available at: https://tinyurl.com/435psr2v, p.3. MoMA, Statistics: Consolidated Reports – Overview, December 2025 – Legal Migration | Appendix B, available in Greek at: https://migration.gov.gr/statistika/, Tables 1 and 18. RSA, Recognised refugee statistics in Greece in 2025, March 2026, available at: https://tinyurl.com/435psr2v, p.3. 257