It depends first on your passport. An EU, EEA or Swiss citizen registers on form MEU1. A non-EU family member of an EU citizen applies for a residence card on MEU2. Everyone else goes through the Aliens and Immigration Law — usually a temporary employment permit, then long-term residence after five years, or Regulation 6(2) if investing €300,000.
Residence & immigration
Cyprus residence & immigration
Find the right residence status for your situation. Which route applies to you depends on one thing before anything else — the passport you hold — so start there.
If you hold an EU, EEA or Swiss passport
You register rather than apply, and you have free access to employment from the first day. Three months you may stay on the passport alone.
If you are the non-EU family member of an EU citizen
You move under free movement law, not the Aliens and Immigration Law — cheaper and on better terms. The EU citizen has to attend with you.
MEU2 — residence card
For a spouse, a child under 21 or dependent, or a dependent parent. Biometrics are taken and the EU citizen must show sufficient resources.
MEU3 — permanent residence card
The same five years, ending in a card rather than a certificate — and that card runs ten years before it needs renewing.
If you hold a third-country passport
More routes, more evidence, and the one decision that shapes everything: whether you need to work in Cyprus. That single answer rules half of these in or out.
Temporary residence and employment permit
The ordinary working route. Tied to the employer named on it — and the five years it builds are what later open long-term residence.
Long-term residence (MLT3)
The cheapest permanent route, and the only one that frees you from a named employer. Submitted in Nicosia only, and refused at the counter if short.
Immigration permit, Regulation 6(2)
The fast one. It also wants €50,000 of secured income arising outside Cyprus, and a declaration that you will not take a job here.
Permanent residence — all five routes compared
€300,000 invested against five years of legal residence for €30 — the same status, at very different prices. Worth reading before choosing.
Not sure which route applies to you?
Tell us your nationality, your current status and what you are trying to achieve. We will tell you which route to investigate — and, just as usefully, which ones to stop reading about.
Tell us your situationBefore you go to the counter
Common questions
Long-term resident status, on form MLT3, at €30 — but it needs five years of legal, continuous residence behind you. Regulation 6(2) is far faster at about two months, and requires a €300,000 investment.
An EU citizen and their family members have free access to employment. A temporary permit for a third-country national is tied to the employer named on it. Long-term resident status frees you from that. Under Regulation 6(2) you declare that you will not take employment in Cyprus at all.
An MEU1 is examined within one month. An MEU2 or MEU3 takes up to six. A temporary employment permit takes up to four months to issue. Long-term residence runs six to twelve months. Regulation 6(2) is about two. Every one of those limits assumes a complete file; an incomplete one has no deadline at all.
It is still published on gov.cy and the Migration Department still accepts applications for it, but on our experience it does not decide them. No announcement has withdrawn the category. We describe it, and we advise against building a plan on it.