Family members of certain third country nationals that are legally residing in Cyprus (FR family reunification)
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Μέλη οικογένειας ορισμένων υπηκόων τρίτων χωρών που διαμένουν νόμιμα στην Κύπρο (FR οικογενειακή επανένωση) as of 2025-12-29[1][2] |
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| Official name (English) | Family members of certain third country nationals that are legally residing in Cyprus (FR family reunification) as of 2025-12-29[1][2] The department's own English rendering; English is not an official language of Cyprus. |
| Legal basis | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] Aliens and Immigration Law; the department states the sponsor conditions 'according to the Aliens and Immigration Law' without citing an article or a transposing instrument for Directive 2003/86/EC. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2025-12-29[1][2] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA as of 2025-12-29[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. |
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| Criminal-record condition | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] Not stated. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | 1 year as of 2025-12-29[1][2] 'Family members are granted a first residence permit of one year's duration.' |
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| Renewable | Yes as of 2025-12-29[1][2] 'The permit is renewable and cannot be valid beyond the date of expiry of the sponsor's permit.' Where the sponsor holds an intra-corporate transfer or long-term mobility permit, family permits as a rule share its expiry date; the same applies to researchers' family members, including where the researcher holds a permit to seek employment or do business. |
| Maximum total duration | Not applicable[1][2] 'Family members may reside in the Republic without a time limit, provided that the conditions of the legislation continue to be met and provided that they hold a valid residence permit.' |
| Work rights | full as of 2025-12-29[1][2] 'Spouses/partners in civil unions have direct access to employment, with the same terms and conditions as the sponsor.' Spouses and civil partners of long-term residents and of intra-corporate transferees have free access to the labour market including self-employment. Spouses and civil partners of employees at companies of foreign interests have free access to paid employment without a Department of Labour sealed contract, but not to self-employment — so the access is 'full' only for some sponsor categories, and employment-only for that one. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
Requirements
| Who can sponsor | permanent resident, temporary permit holder, specific permits as of 2025-12-29[1][2] The regime is open to third-country nationals residing legally in the Republic who satisfy the sponsor conditions; 'permanent_resident' is recorded because the page addresses the labour-market rights of spouses of long-term residents, and 'specific_permits' because intra-corporate transfer, long-term mobility and researcher permits are named and given their own exemptions. The page does not enumerate an exhaustive list of qualifying permits. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child as of 2025-12-29[1][2] (i) The sponsor's spouse, provided the marriage took place at least one year before the application and the spouse is at least 21. (ii) The minor children of the sponsor and the spouse, including children adopted under a decision of a competent authority in the Republic, a decision recognising a foreign adoption, or a decision automatically enforceable under the Republic's international obligations. (iii) Minor children, including adopted children, of the sponsor where the sponsor has sole custody and the children are dependent. (iv) The same for minor children of the sponsor's spouse. Minor children must be under 18 and unmarried. |
| Sponsor income requirement | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] No income figure or income condition is published on the page; the sponsor conditions it states are the two-year residence, the one-year permit validity and the reasonable prospect of permanent residence. |
| Sponsor accommodation requirement | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] Not stated. |
| Sponsor waiting period | 2 years as of 2025-12-29[1][2] Sponsors must 'reside legally in the Republic for a period of at least two (2) years'. Exceptions: the Director has discretion to waive it where the sponsor is employed by a company within the meaning of the Companies Law approved to employ foreign personnel; and it does not apply to sponsors holding an intra-corporate transfer permit, a long-term mobility permit in the context of an intra-corporate transfer, a researcher permit or a long-term mobility researcher permit issued by Cyprus. |
| Pre-entry language test | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] Not stated. |
| Who qualifies as a sponsor |
|
Process
| Where to apply from | from abroad only as of 2025-12-29[1][2] 'In order for a third-country national to enter the Republic for the purpose of family reunification, it is necessary to obtain an entry permit', applied for by the sponsor; 'a third-country national cannot enter the Republic with a tourist visa for the purpose of family reunification'. One exception: where the sponsor is employed by a company approved to employ foreign personnel, the Director has discretion to accept an application for family members already legally residing in the Republic on a visa. Applications may be submitted only at the department's headquarters in Nicosia. |
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| Statutory processing time | 9 months as of 2025-12-29[1][2] 'Applications shall be examined within nine months of submission, or within 90 days in the case of an intra-corporate transferee or researcher.' The shorter clock is a sponsor-category variant the field cannot hold alongside the general one. |
| Fees |
Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2025-12-29[1][2] Recorded for completeness on a route that is itself a family route: the family members admitted under this regime ARE the beneficiaries, and each family member holds their own residence permit obtained through the sponsor's application. The block does not describe a further right for the permit holder to bring additional relatives; nothing on the page addresses that. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child as of 2025-12-29[1][2] The same relations as requirements.eligible_relations; see that field for the full published conditions. |
| Family may apply at the same time | Not established from a qualifying source[1][2] Not stated. The sponsor applies for the entry permit for the family member; whether several family members must be included in one application is not published. |
| Family members' work rights | full as of 2025-12-29[1][2] Spouses and civil partners have direct access to employment on the same terms as the sponsor; spouses of long-term residents and of intra-corporate transferees also have access to self-employment, while spouses of employees at companies of foreign interests have paid employment but not self-employment. |
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.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 2 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 2 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2025-12-29 |
| Newest as-of date | 2025-12-29 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-11 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Family members of certain third country nationals that are legally residing in Cyprus (FR family reunification)
Migration Department, Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-29 · Accessed 2026-08-08 - [2] Μέλη οικογένειας ορισμένων υπηκόων τρίτων χωρών που διαμένουν νόμιμα στην Κύπρο (FR οικογενειακή επανένωση)
Migration Department, Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-29 · Accessed 2026-08-08