Family Members of Cypriots
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Μέλη Οικογένειας Κυπρίων as of 2025-12-30[1][2] |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Family Members of Cypriots as of 2025-12-30[1][2] The department's own English rendering; English is not an official language of Cyprus. |
| Legal basis | Aliens and Immigration Law (Cap. 105); 'for the family members of Cypriot citizens who are nationals of third countries, a policy is applied for facilitating them', which the department does not further identify. as of 2025-12-30[1][2] |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2025-12-30[1][2] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA as of 2025-12-30[1][2] The regime applies to third-country nationals; EU and EEA nationals are recorded as outside its scope on that basis. Whether Swiss nationals are likewise outside its scope is not stated. |
|---|---|
| Criminal-record condition | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] Not stated. Retention of a residence right after divorce, annulment or the Cypriot citizen's death is conditioned in part on the third-country national not having 'a problematic immigration record'. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] 'The duration of the permit depends on the residence status of the family member of the Cypriot citizen. Each application is examined on its own merits.' The only figure published is a ceiling for the employment case — see max_total_duration. |
|---|---|
| Renewable | Yes as of 2025-12-30[1][2] The fee schedule prices issuance or renewal in each of the three permit cases. |
| Maximum total duration | Not applicable[1][2] 'The family members of the Cypriot citizens may reside in the Republic without a time limit, provided that their residence conditions continue to be met and that they are holders of a valid residence permit.' Separately, and not as a limit on residence, 'in case of employment the maximum duration of residence permit is five years' — a cap on the term of an individual permit, not on total stay. |
| Work rights | full as of 2025-12-30[1][2] 'Non-dependent family members of Cypriot citizens, i.e. spouses/partners and parents of minor Cypriot citizens have free access to the labour market including self-employment.' The page does not state the position for dependent family members, and the fee schedule's separate 'residence permit without employment' case implies that not every family member holds a work right. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
Requirements
| Who can sponsor | citizen as of 2025-12-30[1][2] The sponsor is a Cypriot citizen. Family members who are themselves EU/EEA citizens, and family members of UK citizens with free movement rights, are handled under separate regimes and are not part of this route. |
|---|---|
| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, minor child, adult dependent child, parent as of 2025-12-30[1][2] Third-country nationals who have contracted a marriage or a civil union with a Cypriot citizen; direct ascendants of a minor Cypriot citizen, provided parental care and any right of communication with the child has not been removed by a court decision; direct descendants of a Cypriot citizen and of the spouse who are under 21 or dependent on the Cypriot citizen; and dependent direct ascendants of a Cypriot citizen and of the spouse. 'grandparent' is not recorded separately: the page says 'direct ascendants', which the relation vocabulary splits into parent and grandparent without the source distinguishing them. |
| Sponsor income requirement | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] Not stated. |
| Sponsor accommodation requirement | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] Not stated. |
| Pre-entry language test | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] Not stated. |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2025-12-30[1][2] 'A family member of a Cypriot citizen who is a third-country national may enter the Republic with a visa from the consular authorities of the Republic abroad, or with an entry permit from the Department for which an application is submitted by the Cypriot citizen.' |
|---|---|
| Statutory processing time | 4 months as of 2025-12-30[1][2] 'The applications are examined within four months from the date of submission of the application, provided that the applications are duly completed.' |
| Fees |
Physical presence
| maximum consecutive absence | 3 months · to keep the permit as of 2025-12-30[1][2] Re-entry on a valid residence permit is available on presentation of the permit and a valid passport 'provided that the person concerned has not remained outside the Republic for more than three months'. Stated as a re-entry condition rather than as a lapse rule. |
|---|
Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2025-12-30[1][2] Recorded for completeness on a route that is itself a family route. The Cypriot citizen sponsors the third-country family member and applies for the entry permit; the family members admitted are the beneficiaries of the route rather than dependants of a separate principal. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, minor child, adult dependent child, parent as of 2025-12-30[1][2] The same relations as requirements.eligible_relations; see that field for the published wording. |
| Family may apply at the same time | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] Not stated. |
| Family members' work rights | full as of 2025-12-30[1][2] Non-dependent family members — spouses, partners and parents of minor Cypriot citizens — have free access to the labour market including self-employment. The position of dependent family members is not stated, and the fee schedule prices a 'residence permit without employment' case. |
Your next step
Read the requirements above considering your own situation: the income multiple, the absence limits, who you can bring. Check the country record for the reference figure those amounts are calculated from, and for anything that has changed recently.
The next step is your own case. That assessment is legal work. Create profile for our assistance in this.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 2 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 2 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2025-12-30 |
| Newest as-of date | 2025-12-30 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-11 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Family Members of Cypriots
Migration Department, Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-30 · Accessed 2026-08-08 - [2] Μέλη Οικογένειας Κυπρίων
Migration Department, Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-30 · Accessed 2026-08-08