Investors need at least eight years’ residence for a Cypriot passport

Cyprus stopped granting citizenship for investment on 1 November 2020, and a 2025 law deleted the provision the programme stood on. An investor who wants a Cypriot passport today goes through ordinary naturalisation: at least eight years of legal residence, meaning physical presence in Cyprus, Greek at B1 and a civics test. The €300,000 permanent residence permit does not appear among the naturalisation rules.

How the investment route ended

The Council of Ministers decided on 13 October 2020 to abolish the Cyprus Investment Programme from 1 November 2020, citing its long-standing weaknesses and abusive exploitation. Applications lodged by 30 October 2020 were still examined under the old scheme. Law 224(I)/2025, published on 12 December 2025, deleted the subsection of the Civil Registry Law, Article 111A(2), on which the programme rested.

A Ministry of Finance study counts 2,855 investor naturalisations between June 2013 and the end of 2019; its 2019 figure counts applications examined rather than approvals. Under the last published criteria, from May 2019, an applicant invested at least €2 million and, as a rule, made two donations of €75,000 each.

The law now provides that no investment, contribution or donation is refunded when citizenship obtained under the programme is revoked. Family members who acquired citizenship through the person deprived of it may also lose it, a rule that also covers families of people naturalised under the ordinary and highly skilled routes. In March 2026 the Law Office said the Council of Ministers had revoked “a number of” citizenships and that the European Commission had closed its infringement procedure. No official count of revocations was found.

Ordinary naturalisation today

Rules in force since 19 December 2023, and amended in May 2024, set these conditions in Article 111B of the consolidated Civil Registry Law:

• Residence: 12 months of continuous legal residence immediately before applying, with absences of up to 90 days in total, plus at least seven years of legal residence, or Cypriot public service, within the ten years before that twelve-month period.
• Presence: Residence means physical presence in Cyprus under the applicable immigration status. Time as an applicant for international protection, as a holder of subsidiary or temporary protection, or on a student permit does not count.
• Language and civics: Greek at B1, certified by written and oral examination; holders of a Greek-medium school-leaving diploma or a Greek-taught degree are exempt. A test on Cyprus’s political and social life, which the Interior Ministry says must be passed at 60% or more.
• Other conditions: Good character, suitable accommodation, stable and regular resources sufficient for the applicant and dependants, and the intention to live in Cyprus or serve in its public service.
• Fees: €500 on application and €500 for the certificate under the law’s fee schedule, plus two €8.54 stamps according to the Interior Ministry.

A shorter route exists for people in highly skilled posts at companies in categories fixed by a 2021 Cabinet decision, as summarised by the Interior Ministry: foreign-interest firms with offices in Cyprus, Cypriot shipping, high-technology and pharmaceutical or biotech companies, companies on the register of foreign companies, and accredited universities. They need three years instead of seven with Greek at B1 or a Greek-language diploma, or four years with A2, and the ministry also asks for at least two years with such an employer. The law caps examination of these applications, and their family members’, at eight months on payment of a fee set by ministerial decree; the ministry puts the fee at €5,000. Investment alone does not qualify: holders of the €300,000 permit and their spouses confirm that they will not work in Cyprus, except as directors of the company they invested in, the one opening the policy leaves and one on which TLT found no guidance.

What the €300,000 permit does and does not do

The naturalisation articles of the law do not mention the permanent residence permit for investors. The law counts physical presence under whatever immigration status applies, and TLT reads that as covering time on the permit, but only time actually spent in Cyprus. On that reading, holding the permit while living in Vietnam adds nothing toward citizenship. No official guidance on the point was found. The permit itself lapses if its holders take permanent residence abroad or are absent from Cyprus for two years.

Marriage and descent

A foreign spouse of a Cypriot citizen may be registered as a citizen, at the minister’s discretion, after three years of residence together in Cyprus, meaning at least six months a year and two of the last three years, or after three years of living together abroad. Good character and an intention to stay are also required, and the fee is €300. A child born abroad after a parent became Cypriot is a citizen by descent, but if the child lives permanently abroad the birth must be registered in the prescribed way. Children born before the parent naturalised are not covered; a minor child of a citizen may be registered on application, at the minister’s discretion, for a fee of €80.

Dual nationality and the seven-year rule

Cyprus does not generally require renunciation, but on the minister’s proposal the Council of Ministers may reject an application, in a particular case or category of cases, unless the applicant gives up other citizenships. TLT found no information on how often this power is used. A naturalised citizen who lives abroad for seven continuous years can be deprived of Cypriot citizenship unless they served the Republic or an international organisation it belongs to, or gave the prescribed annual notice to a Cypriot consulate of their wish to keep it.

Schengen

Cyprus is an EU member but is not yet fully part of the Schengen area; the European Commission’s evaluation page, dated 18 March 2026, names it as the only such state. Under the 2003 Act of Accession, full application of the Schengen rules needs a unanimous Council decision after a Schengen evaluation and consultation of the European Parliament. The provisional agenda, revised on 24 September, of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of 1–2 October 2026 and its Schengen Council session carried no Cyprus item, and TLT had found no Council decision as at 2 October 2026. Residence permits issued by Cyprus do not exempt their holders from registration in the EU’s Entry/Exit System.

For Vietnamese investors

Capital that once bought citizenship in Cyprus can now lead to permanent residence, not a passport. A Vietnamese family that qualifies for the €300,000 permit gains the right to live in Cyprus; citizenship through residence becomes possible only after at least eight years of living there, Greek at B1 and the civics test. Under Vietnamese law, naturalising in Cyprus does not by itself end Vietnamese nationality.