Cap. 464 Art. 42ICouncils to ensure that all requirements, procedures and formalities may be easily completed.

(1) The relevant Councils shall ensure that all requirements, procedures and formalities relating to matters covered by Part VIII may be easily completed, remotely and by electronic means. The relevant Councils shall be permitted to request certified copies at a later stage in the event of justified doubts and where strictly necessary:

Provided that this shall not apply to the carrying out of an adaptation period or an aptitude test.

(2) Where it is justified for a relevant Council to ask for advanced electronic signatures, as defined in point 2 of Article 2 of Directive 1999/93/EC, for the completion of procedures referred to in sub-article (1), the relevant Council shall accept electronic signatures in compliance with Commission Decision 2009/767/EC of 16 October 2009 and provide for technical means to process documents with advanced electronic signature in formats defined by Commission Decision 2011/130/EU of 25 February 2011.

(3) All procedures shall be carried out in accordance with article 4(d) of the Services (Internal Market) Act relating to the point of single contact. The procedural time limits set out in articles 42(1)(f), (g) and (h) and 42(6) shall commence at the point when an application or any missing document has been submitted by a citizen to the point of single contact or directly to the relevant Council. Any request for certified copies referred to in sub-article

(1) shall not be considered as a request for missing documents.