Employing a domestic worker in Cyprus: rules, permits and costs

Employing someone in your home makes you an employer in the full legal sense: permits, contributions, insurance, working hours, leave. Most of the trouble in this area comes from families who thought of it as an informal arrangement and discovered otherwise.

First: do you qualify?

The Migration Department sets criteria for who may employ a domestic worker. You must fall into one of these:

• A single person with an annual gross income of at least €24,000
• A person over 65, subject to family income requirements
• A person certified by the Department of Social Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities
• A recipient of Guaranteed Minimum Income
• A recipient of the Low Pensioners' Allowance, or of an incapacity or invalidity pension

If none applies, the application will not succeed, and that is worth establishing before anything else is arranged.

The entry permit comes first

A third-country national cannot travel to Cyprus and then be hired. They must obtain an entry permit from the Migration Department before travelling, and the application is made by the employer or an authorised representative acting for them — not by the worker.

The Department states that examining the application and issuing the temporary residence and work permit is completed within four months. That is the number to plan around. Families who arrange help for a date four weeks away are planning against a process that does not move that fast.

Two restrictions people are not told about

Nationals of Myanmar and Ethiopia are not permitted to enter Cyprus to work as domestic workers.

A male domestic worker is permitted only where the employer has severe mobility limitations — bedridden, severely disabled, or significantly overweight — and a medical certificate from a specialist doctor is submitted with the application.

Both are Migration Department policy, and both routinely surprise people who have already found someone they want to employ.

What it costs

Government fees:

Issue or renew the residence and work permit (including change of employer)	€80
First registration in the Aliens Register	€70

A bank guarantee is also required, held for the duration and reported at €350–€850 depending on the worker's country of origin, valid for at least twelve months from the start of employment. That figure comes from practitioner sources rather than a published table, so treat it as an indication and confirm the amount for the specific nationality.

One thing that got cheaper. Employment contracts previously carried €2 stamp duty per copy. The Stamp Duty Laws were repealed with effect from 1 January 2026, so a contract signed on or after that date is no longer stamped at all.

Then the ongoing costs: salary, employer social insurance contributions, employers' liability insurance, medical cover, and the worker's medical examinations.

Salary and conditions

Reported minimums are €460 a month in the first year and €500 after renewal, with capped deductions where you provide accommodation and food — commonly cited at €150–€200 a month. Working hours are reported at 42–45 a week with at least one full day off, and paid annual leave in line with Cypriot employment law.

These figures are set administratively and revised, and they are not published in one authoritative place. Confirm the current amounts before you sign a contract, because the contract is submitted for approval and a salary below the floor will not be approved.

The obligations you take on

This is the part families underestimate:

• Register as an employer with Social Insurance and pay employer contributions on the salary
• Employers' liability insurance is compulsory under Law 174/1989 for anyone working eight or more hours a week — a live-in domestic worker is comfortably over that. See private insurance in Cyprus
• Respect working hours, rest days and paid leave, as set out in employee rights in Cyprus
• Renew the permit annually, before it expires
• Keep the contributions current. Unpaid months cause exactly the problems described in checking social insurance — and they land on the worker, who did nothing wrong

Common mistakes

Arranging the person before checking you qualify. The income criterion is the first gate, not the last.

Expecting it in a month. Four months is the Department's own figure.

Assuming a man can be employed. Only in narrowly defined circumstances, with a specialist's certificate.

Treating it as a private arrangement. It is employment, with an employer's full obligations.

Letting the permit lapse. Renewal is annual and late renewal creates status problems for the worker.

Not insuring. Employers' liability is compulsory, and an injury in your home without it is a serious exposure.

What we do

We start with the question that decides everything: whether you meet the criteria at all. If you do not, you will hear that from us before any money is spent.

Where you do, we handle it end to end — the entry permit application in your name, the contract prepared to what will actually be approved, the bank guarantee, registration in the Aliens Register and the residence and work permit on arrival, your registration as an employer with Social Insurance, and the employers' liability cover, which we can have issued quickly. Then the annual renewal, so the permit does not lapse while you are not watching the date.

Fees, salary floors and criteria are set by the Migration Department and revised. The figures above are for planning; we confirm the current position before anything is submitted. Tell us your situation and we will tell you first whether this is open to you.