Can you get residence in Cyprus through your own company?

The main routes, not only the company ones, are compared on Cyprus residence permits.

Where each permit comes from

The company's staff permit comes from the government's 2022 strategy for companies with foreign interests, under the single-permit rules of the immigration law. Category C is one of the immigration permit categories in the Aliens and Immigration Regulations. The investor permit follows the Migration Department's policy in force since 2 May 2023. The Startup Visa is a scheme of the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, revised from 1 January 2025.

With an EU, EEA or Swiss passport

The owner's position for you is on moving a company to Cyprus.

The company's side

The company registers with the Business Support Centre first, unless it is on the register already, and each employee then has to meet both the single-permit conditions and the strategy's own. The register's conditions are under the register, and the staff conditions under your staff.

What the forms ask

The application form is filed for an employee, with the employer's declaration: it asks for the post, the length of the contract and the monthly salary, and has no field for the applicant's shareholding or board seat. One list of supporting documents serves all four staff categories, and nothing on it concerns the applicant's ownership. The declaration on return costs is signed by "the employer". Evidence of who owns the company comes from the company, not from the employee's application.

The "Director" category

The staff permits come in categories, Director among them, kept for administrative and statistical reasons.

The 2001 rule on partners

A rule inserted in the Regulations in 2001 provides that, in a company, only foreign partners who take an active part and whose presence is necessary may get a self-employment permit, at the department's discretion. It also provides that the department may instead admit such a partner, if they lack the majority or a significant share, as an employee. No current text of the Migration Department or the Business Support Centre refers to it, so whether it applies today is open.

Category E

Category E is a permanent permit for someone offered permanent employment here, where the Committee certifies that it creates no undue competition; its list asks for an employment contract. Whether an owner employed by their own company can use it, no official text says.

What ties the permit to the company

A permit that names an employer allows work only for that employer. A highly paid employee may move to another registered company if the new job is found within one month of the old one ending. Renewal asks for the employee's Social Insurance earnings statement and tax return.

What the department asks for

The core of the department's list:

• A business plan
• Proof of enough funds for the business
• The company's certificates of incorporation and of shareholders, from the Registrar of Companies
• A title deed or lease for the business premises
• Cyprus tax returns, Social Insurance statements and VAT registration, where they apply
• Bank statements from Cyprus
• Criminal record certificates for you and your spouse

How to apply

The department takes applications at its offices in Nicosia; the Regulations also let an applicant not yet in Cyprus apply through a consulate. The fee is €500 for everyone on the application, plus €70 if anyone on it needs an Aliens Registration Certificate.

When it lapses

The permit lapses if, living abroad, you don't take up residence within a year (the official texts count that year from different dates), if you take up permanent residence abroad, or if you're away from Cyprus for two years. The Minister may also cancel it if, without reasonable cause, you don't take up or keep up the occupation it was granted for.

The €256,290

That's the figure in the Regulations: a 1988 amendment set it in pounds, and the euro amount followed in 2007. The department's own page rounds it to "approximately €260,000".

Your shareholding

The department asks for the company's certificate of shareholders, but neither its list nor the Regulations say what share you must hold.

A temporary route for three groups

The department publishes a temporary self-employment route for three named groups: holders of the Special Identity Card of the Diaspora, and Syrians of Cretan origin and Kurds on the approved lists.

What the company must show

The share purchase agreement, the company's certificates of incorporation and of shareholders, a business profile, proof of payment, and Social Insurance evidence of its staff.

Your income

€50,000 a year, plus €15,000 for a spouse and €10,000 for each dependent child under 18. For the company option, all or part of it may come from activities in Cyprus; the department's Greek version adds that it must be taxed in Cyprus. It may be proved by a tax return or by a certificate from an independent certified accountant.

Where the money comes from

The investment has to be shown to have come from abroad. It may come from the account of a company in which you and/or your spouse are the only shareholders, if that shareholder is on the application.

Keeping the permit

You prove every year that the investment is still in place. Giving it up without replacing it at once with one of equal or greater value that meets the policy's conditions cancels the permit.

If your investment isn't in a company

Investing in other ways, you may still own shares in Cyprus companies, take dividends and be an unpaid Director there.

Who qualifies

An individual founder, or a team of up to five that is all founders or founders with senior executives. One or more of you must hold at least 25% of the shares. The startup must be innovative as the scheme defines it, and you can apply to set one up here or to move an established one.

How the startup is assessed

A startup with revenue under €1 million is scored by two independent evaluators on four criteria. It needs at least 3 out of 5 on each, and 15 out of 20 overall, from both evaluators or a third if they split. One with €1 million or more in revenue and R&D of at least 10% of its operating costs in one of the last three tax years qualifies on an auditor's certificate instead. A rejected application averaging above 12 out of 20 may be resubmitted once.

After approval

The approval alone gives no right to enter, live or work here. From abroad, you apply for a visa within six months. If you already live here lawfully, you apply to the Migration Department within one month, for a permit valid for a year from the approval. From a visitor's status you first ask in writing to change it, which is reviewed within five weeks. The department replies within three weeks of a complete application. The fees are €120 for entry and temporary residence, €130 for issue or renewal and €70 for first registration.

Money

The Deputy Ministry's guide sets no minimum capital: its form asks for the funds available, and the business plan is scored on a three-year financing plan. The Migration Department's documents list asks a founder for proof of a salary if employed, or of means and a bank guarantee if self-employed.

Hiring staff

The company may hire up to five more non-EU staff without the Department of Labour's prior approval, if each earns at least €1,500 gross a month. If it shows €150,000 or more invested in Cyprus, it may hire up to ten more without that approval.

Renewal

Before the permit runs out, you may ask the Deputy Ministry to re-evaluate the startup on three criteria, all of which apply: growth of at least 15% in revenue or at least €150,000 of investment; at least three new jobs, a local incubator or a new product; and digital-skills certificates. A positive result keeps your right to live and work in the company. After a negative one, the department tells you to settle your stay another way or leave.

The register

The official texts don't say whether a Startup Visa company can later join the register for companies with foreign interests.

Category C

Your spouse and children under 18 go on the permit, and the €500 fee covers everyone on it. Children's permits run until they turn 18, and adult dependants keep an unlimited right of residence. Adding someone later costs €50 a person and needs a tax clearance certificate and a Social Insurance statement.

The investor permit

Your spouse and children under 18 are covered as dependants, and the income you show rises by €15,000 for a spouse and €10,000 for each child.

The Startup Visa

The scheme gives founders' and senior executives' families an immediate right to residence and a right to family reunification. After a positive re-evaluation, reunification follows the immigration law.

Family reunification's conditions

Wherever family reunification is the route, the law asks, among other conditions, that:

• your permit is valid for at least a year, with a reasonable prospect of permanent residence
• you have normal accommodation, sickness insurance for the family, and stable, regular resources, though the law sets no figure
• your spouse is at least 21 and you married at least a year before applying, and your children are under 18 and unmarried
• you have lived here lawfully for at least two years

The full conditions are in the Aliens and Immigration Law.

For staff of a company approved to employ foreign personnel, the department may waive the usual two years' prior residence and may accept the application while the family is already here. It then decides within five months instead of nine. The family's first permit runs for a year, and as a rule not beyond yours.

On the staff permit

The department's English page says employees "as Directors or Key Personnel executives" can bring a spouse and minor children through family reunification; its Greek page gives that right to highly skilled employees, names no category, and makes it subject to the conditions of the Aliens and Immigration Law. A spouse living here through reunification may take paid work in a Cypriot company without a sealed contract, if the single-permit conditions are met, but not self-employment. The government's strategy links this to a salary of at least €2,500 gross a month, excluding support staff, without making clear whose.