Northern Cyprus- Expats Back in business
It’s goodbye from some and hello from others
By Chris Elliott…….
The beloved remaining expat entertainers of ASAP have now set course for their individual futures and at the end of this month All Stars Agency Promotions will cease operation. 
Who knows, perhaps the agency will be mothballed until such times as the employment laws are changed to make it easier for expat entertainers to perform legally and more economically.
The good news is that the Cyprus Today newspaper of 7/11/2015 reported this past weekend that a new company “Elite Entertainment” is being formed and should commence operations at the end of this month. It is reported that they will not be operating as an agency but rather helping expat entertainers gain multi-venue permits, although the question of full time work permits has not been clearly reported.
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Any attempt to negotiate with the authorities so that expat entertainers can work legally is excellent news as, to date, it has been a TRNC legal requirement for expatriates to be invited to work by a TRNC company and following approval by the authorities, then a full time work permit would be granted for a specific job in a single location.
In the case of the ASAP agency they had originally negotiated with the authorities so that they could arrange to acquire work permits for their entertainers to work at various locations legally which was excellent news.
The main problem, as we understand it, has been that the bulk of entertainment is seasonal and mainly during the period of May through to October but the authorities had deemed these entertainers as being full time workers as expats are not allowed to work part time and they are taxed throughout the full year and paying social sigorta etc even when there are very few opportunities to entertain.
They were also required to pay a bond to the authorities when joining ASAP which we understand is refundable.
So back to the latest news of multi-venue permits being available for those that sign up with Elite Entertainment, no doubt they will want to publicise this news in greater detail and we will be pleased to share this with our worldwide readership.
Perhaps their new arrangements may allow expatriate entertainers outside the TRNC to visit North Cyprus and work legally for short periods and this could be further good news which will help boost tourism through encouraging high quality entertainers to come here and perform legally.
We may also see other companies being formed to offer the same services or perhaps even ASAP may return and this would be good as competition is healthy and ensures the venues and their guests would have the very best entertainment available.
