The term for Venezuelans to apply for a Temporary Permission of Permanence (PTP) in Peru has been extended to June 31, 2019, decided president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
The PTP is a document granted by Migraciones Superintendencia Nacional, that officially confirms the migrant status and grants persons the right to legally be employed in Peru.in January, resulting in long rows of Venezuelans crowding the migration office.
Due to the new rule, people that enter Peru before December 31, 2018,who entered the country legally but have expired visas and don’t have a criminal record, are granted permission for a year.
With this new norm, Venezuelans can withdraw from applying for the refugee status at the Ministry of Foreign affairs to be able to stay in Peru, like they had to do before.
According to Peruvian legislation, a refugee is defined as “a person that, due to grounded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, belonging to a certain social group or having political opinions, lives outside his country of nationality and cannot or doesn’t want to benefit from the protection of that country”.
Furthermore, Peru defines a refugee as “a person that is forced to flee from his country of nationality or country of residence, due to a violation of human rights, foreign aggression, internal conflict, occupation or foreign dominion or due to events that heavily shock public order”.
Once all the necessary documents (copy of passport, sworn statement of not having a criminal background, and an INTERPOL certificate) are delivered at the Migration office and the application is done, a resolution will be emitted within 30 days. Venezuelans have a term of 10 days to rectify information in the application.
The PTP expires after one year. If it isn’t then renewed, the person has to leave the country within 30 calendar days.