Remunerated employment (single permit – GEN)
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Μισθωτή απασχόληση (ενιαία άδεια – GEN) as of 2025-12-30[3][4] |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Remunerated employment (single permit – GEN) as of 2025-12-30[3][4] The department's own English rendering; English is not an official language of Cyprus. |
| Legal basis | Not established from a qualifying source[3][4] No instrument is named on either language version of the Tier-1 page, which refers only to 'the provisions of the Legislation' and to 'the policy for the employment of third country nationals'. The permit is described as a single residence-and-work permit, but no transposing law, regulation or ministerial decree is cited, so none is asserted here. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2025-12-30[3][4] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA as of 2025-12-30[3][4] 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[3][4] Not stated on either language version. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | 1 to 3 years as of 2025-12-30[3][4] The page states the permit 'may last up to three consecutive years'; the fee schedule prices the permit as 'valid for 1–3 years', which is the source of the lower bound. |
|---|---|
| Renewable | Yes as of 2025-12-30[3][4] |
| Maximum total duration | 4 years as of 2025-12-30[3][4] 'The maximum period of stay of a third-country national for employment purposes is four (4) years.' The page exempts athletes and coaches, farming and agricultural workers, Syrians of Cretan origin and Kurds on the Ministry of Interior's lists, expatriates, and specialised cooks from any maximum duration of stay. |
| Work rights | own activity only as of 2025-12-30[3][4] The permit is a combined residence and work permit tied to the employment for which the contract was sealed. Change of employer requires a jointly signed release document, after which the holder has 30 days to find a new employer and apply to renew. No general labour-market access is conferred. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Not established from a qualifying source[3][4] Not stated. Cyprus's EU long-term residence track requires five years of continuous legal residence, which the four-year maximum stay on this route does not reach for the categories subject to it. |
|---|
Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2025-12-30[1][3][4] The route runs on an employment contract sealed by the Department of Labour. The page states the requirement negatively — holders of Special Identity Cards of the Diaspora have labour-market access 'without a sealed contract from the Department of Labour' — and the Companies of Foreign Interests policy states it positively for support-level employment ('a labour market test and a sealed contract by the Department of Labour are necessary'). |
|---|---|
| Labour-market test | Yes as of 2025-12-30[1][3][4] The Department of Labour's sealing of the contract is the labour-market check; the Companies of Foreign Interests policy describes highly paid employment as exempt from it and support-level employment as subject to it. |
| Qualification requirement | Not established from a qualifying source[3][4] No general qualification condition is published for this route. |
| Employer sponsorship | Yes as of 2025-12-30[3][4] The employer's sealed contract and, for most categories, an entry permit application are prerequisites. |
| Job-search route | No as of 2025-12-30[3][4] This is not a job-search instrument. A holder released by mutual agreement has 30 days to find a new employer, which is a change-of-employer window inside an existing permit, not a job-search permit. |
Process
| Where to apply from | Not established from a qualifying source[3][4] Not stated as a rule. The sequence described is: an entry permit is obtained before entering the Republic for work purposes, and the application for entry, residence and work permit is submitted at the Migration Department in Nicosia. Athletes, coaches, priests and tourist representatives are excepted from the entry-permit procedure and enter on a consular visa. Because the page does not state where the applicant must be at submission, no value is asserted. |
|---|---|
| Statutory processing time | 4 months as of 2025-12-30[3][4] |
| Fees |
Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2025-12-30[2][3][4] Family reunification is available to third-country nationals residing legally in the Republic under the general family-reunification regime (route cy-family-reunification), not under this route's own page. Its conditions include at least two years' prior legal residence, a permit valid for at least one year, and 'a reasonable prospect of acquiring the right of permanent residence' — the last of which sits uneasily with this route's four-year maximum stay. The department does not address that interaction. |
|---|---|
| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child as of 2025-12-29[2] Per the family-reunification regime: the spouse (marriage at least one year old, spouse at least 21) and minor unmarried children under 18. |
| Family may apply at the same time | Not established from a qualifying source[3][4] Not stated for this route. |
| Family members' work rights | full as of 2025-12-29[2] Spouses and civil partners admitted under family reunification have direct access to employment on the same terms and conditions as the sponsor. |
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 | 4 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 4 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2025-12-29 |
| Newest as-of date | 2025-12-30 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-11 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Companies of Foreign Interests — Legislation and policy
Migration Department, Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-30 · Accessed 2026-08-08 - [2] 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 - [3] Remunerated employment (single permit – GEN)
Migration Department, Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-30 · Accessed 2026-08-08 - [4] Μισθωτή απασχόληση (ενιαία άδεια – GEN)
Migration Department, Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-30 · Accessed 2026-08-08