How to Obtain Citizenship in Cyprus: Rules and Fees (2026)

How to Obtain Citizenship in Cyprus: Rules and Fees (2026)

Citizenship in Cyprus depends on which legal system a person means. The Republic of Cyprus, a European Union member state since 2004, grants citizenship under the Civil Registry Law 141(I)/2002 as amended, and its Ministry of Interior runs the procedure. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), the name the Turkish Cypriot authorities use for the area they administer, grants its own citizenship under Citizenship Law 25/1993. This guide gives the position of both systems as of 8 November 2026, kept apart and attributed to the official text that sets each rule.

The sections below cover the routes to Republic of Cyprus citizenship (descent, registration, naturalisation after years of residence, marriage, adoption and children), the fees and forms, the end of the citizenship-by-investment scheme, the residence permits that are not citizenship, the EU consequences, the TRNC Citizenship Law, the positions of the Republic, the United Nations, the European Union and the TRNC authorities, and what a property purchase does and does not change in each system. Every figure carries a source and a date, and rules can change after the date shown.

Citizenship in Cyprus: Two Legal Systems on One Island

Cyprus has been divided since 1974. The Republic of Cyprus administers the southern part of the island and the Turkish Cypriot authorities administer the northern part. A 2009 press release of the Court of Justice of the European Union described the TRNC as "not recognised by the international community with the exception of Turkey", and the Turkish Cypriot side describes the TRNC as a state of its own. Both descriptions are attributed in the section on official positions further down. For the purpose of this page the practical point is that two authorities issue two different kinds of citizenship under two different laws, and a search for citizenship in Cyprus therefore returns pages that describe quite different rules.

The Republic of Cyprus citizenship is the one that carries European Union citizenship, because Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ties Union citizenship to the nationality of a Member State. TRNC citizenship is created by TRNC law, and the Court of Justice press release cited above names Turkey as the only state that recognises the TRNC. The table sets out the basic facts side by side before the detail.

Republic of Cyprus Citizenship: The Routes at a Glance

Article 108 of the Civil Registry Law says that citizens of the Republic are people who had, or were entitled to, citizenship when the law entered into force, and people who acquire it afterwards under the law or under Annex D of the 1960 Treaty of Establishment of the Republic of Cyprus. The Ministry of Interior's Civil Registry Section groups the procedures under four headings: Cypriot origin, marriage or civil partnership with a Cypriot citizen (form M125), naturalisation after years of residence (form M127), and renunciation. Within "origin" the Ministry lists six separate forms, because the conditions depend on the date and place of birth and on the parent's status. The routes are summarised below, with the fee each Ministry page states.

The forms are filed with documents that are officially translated and certified, and the descent forms are signed before a Registrar of Court in Cyprus or a consular officer abroad, according to the Ministry pages. The diplomatic missions of the Republic also receive applications for citizenship by descent, marriage or naturalisation under a service listed on the government portal.

Citizenship in Cyprus by Descent and Birth

Descent is the route with the fewest conditions, because the status follows from the parent's. Under Article 109(1) of the Civil Registry Law, in the consolidated text corrected on 8 April 2017 and published by the Global Citizenship Observatory, a person born in Cyprus on or after 16 August 1960 is a citizen if either parent was a citizen at the time of the birth. Birth in Cyprus to two foreign parents does not by itself create citizenship under Article 109(1), because the article requires a citizen parent. A proviso says the rule does not apply where the entry or stay of either parent in the Republic was illegal, unless the Council of Ministers decides otherwise. In a House committee discussion on 27 January 2025, an Interior Ministry representative described the same position, saying that such cases are decided by the cabinet under criteria set in 2007 and revised in 2024, as reported by Cyprus Mail.

Article 109(2) applies the same principle to births abroad after 16 August 1960, with a condition for people who live abroad permanently: the birth has to be registered in the prescribed manner, which is the purpose of form M121 and the consular birth certificate that the Ministry issues after approval. Article 109(3) deals with people born between 16 August 1960 and 11 June 1999 whose entitlement came only through the mother. The text lets an adult of that group register on application, and a parent can apply for a minor.

The older forms cover the generations before independence. Form M71 and form M72 are for people born before 16 August 1960 who descend from Cyprus in the male line, depending on whether they hold United Kingdom and Colonies citizenship. Form M123 is for adults born on or after that date who descend from a person who became a British subject under the Annexation of Cyprus Orders of 1914 to 1943, or who was born in Cyprus between 5 November 1914 and 16 August 1960 while the parents habitually lived there. Form M124 concerns adults of Cypriot origin who hold UK or Commonwealth citizenship and who live in Cyprus or lived there for 12 continuous months before the application, intend to stay and are of good character. Form M126 registers a minor whose parent acquired citizenship after the child's birth.

The European Commission's 2024 summary adds a detail for one category: applicants in the high-skilled employee track must not have entered or left Cyprus through ports or airports that are closed or illegal, including those in the areas the Republic does not control. That line is the Commission's wording and is not repeated on the form pages.

Naturalisation After Years of Residence: The 2023 Rules

Naturalisation is the route for a foreigner with no Cypriot parent or spouse. The Ministry of Interior's M127 page states that the Civil Registry (Amendment) Law of 2023 came into force on 19 December 2023 and that adult applicants must meet seven conditions together. They need legal and continuous residence for the 12 months immediately before filing, where absences of up to 90 days in total do not interrupt the period. They need at least seven years of cumulative legal residence in the 10 years before that 12-month period. They need good character, Greek at level B1, knowledge of the basic elements of the contemporary political and social reality of Cyprus, suitable accommodation with stable and regular financial resources sufficient for the applicant and family, and an intention to reside in the Republic.

The arithmetic is easy to misread, so here are the steps. Take an application filed on 1 December 2026. The 12-month window runs from 1 December 2025 to 30 November 2026. The seven years are counted in the 10 years before that window, so from 1 December 2015 to 30 November 2025. Seven years inside the older window plus the final 12 months means at least eight years of legal residence inside an 11-year period, which is how the European Commission's 2024 summary words it: eight of the last 11 years. Under the Civil Registry Law text corrected on 8 April 2017, Schedule Three set the test as the previous 12 months plus at least four years in the seven years before that, so five years inside an eight-year window, with a longer period for students, visitors, self-employed people and people employed by offshore or foreign employers. The 2023 amendment therefore raised the standard period by about three years for most applicants.

Language and civics evidence

The B1 certificate comes from the Greek Language Certification examinations run by the Greek Language Centre of the Hellenic Republic through the Examination Service of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth, or from the School of Modern Greek of the University of Cyprus. Holders of a secondary-school diploma from a recognised school whose main language of instruction is Greek, and holders of a degree taught in Greek, are exempt from the language condition. The civics examination is conducted by the same Examination Service, and the Ministry states a grade of at least 60 percent. The Ministry also accepts certificates from the sessions of July 2023 and February 2024.

Accommodation and income evidence

For suitable accommodation the Ministry lists a title deed, a purchase agreement and payment receipts, a rental agreement and rent receipts, and utility bills. For finances it lists payroll evidence, an employment contract, a social insurance contribution statement, income tax records, bank accounts or other proof of income. A title deed is therefore one accepted piece of evidence for the accommodation condition, but the page lists it next to rental papers and utility bills, and it does not replace the residence years, the language certificate or the civics certificate.

The high-skilled employee track and family members

Article 111B(2) differs for people who live in Cyprus for high-skilled employment in companies defined by the Council of Ministers decision 92.018 of 15 October 2021. The covered employers include foreign-interest companies with their own office premises, Cypriot shipping companies, listed categories of Cypriot technology and pharmaceutical companies, companies registered in the Register of Foreign Companies, and accredited international higher-education institutions. Employees qualify in two ways: a temporary residence permit holder who is a director, specialist or key employee of a foreign-interest company, or a person with a gross monthly salary of at least EUR 2,500 and a university qualification or two years of experience in the position, who needs a certificate from the Business Facilitation Unit or the Civil Registry and Migration Department confirming the employer. The employee and family members can ask for an accelerated examination of no more than eight months for EUR 5,000. Family members are the spouse or partner at the time of the application and a dependent adult child with a disability.

How an application is filed

Form M127 is filed at the local District Administration Office. It must be signed in front of a Registrar, and the supporting documents must be certified and translated. The EUR 500 fee is paid on filing and a further EUR 500 is paid for the certificate of naturalisation if the application is approved, so the Ministry's fees add up to EUR 1,000 for an approved standard application. Under Article 111 of the 2017 text, the person becomes a citizen after an official declaration of faith to the Republic, from the date the certificate is granted.

Citizenship by Marriage, Civil Partnership and Adoption, and Dual Nationality

The marriage route is shorter in years but has its own residence test. The Ministry's M125 page says that foreign spouses and civil partners of Cypriot citizens may apply after three years of marriage or civil partnership. For a couple living in the Republic, the couple must have lived there for at least six months each year, and their total stay in the three years before the application must be at least two years. A spouse who permanently lives abroad can also apply after three years of marriage. The approval step is a declaration of harmonious cohabitation, signed before a competent officer, after which a stamped copy of the application shows that citizenship has been acquired. The fee is EUR 300.

Article 110(2) of the 2017 text gives the statutory source. It requires residence with the spouse for at least three years, good character and willingness to continue to reside, lets the Minister accept a shorter period of not less than two years in special circumstances, and excludes foreign nationals who entered or stayed illegally. Worked through, two years is 730 days and six months is about 183 days. A couple present for six months in each of three years (about 549 days) falls short of the two-year total, so the test is met only if the couple was present for 730 days or more across the three years and also spent at least six months in each year.

Adoption is treated by Article 114. A minor adopted under the law on personal legal status is treated as a legitimate child from the date of adoption, which brings the child within the descent rules if the adopter is a citizen. An adult adopted by a citizen does not acquire citizenship by adoption and may apply for naturalisation instead.

Dual nationality, renunciation and loss

The statute does not forbid holding another nationality. Article 111 of the 2017 text allows the Council of Ministers, on the Minister's suggestion in a specific case or category of cases, to reject a naturalisation application unless the applicant renounces other citizenship, and the Ministry's current M127 list of conditions contains no renunciation requirement. Renunciation by a citizen who holds another nationality is possible under Article 112. Article 113 lets the Council of Ministers deprive a citizen who acquired citizenship by registration or naturalisation of it by decree where it is satisfied that it was obtained by deceit, false pretences or concealment of a material fact, and on other listed grounds, after written notice and the right to request an investigation by a committee.

Fees, Forms and Processing Times

The fee table below repeats the amounts from the Ministry of Interior and Migration Department pages. Some of the Ministry pages also list stamp duties on the forms; the table shows only the application and certificate fees.

Processing times

The only time limit the Ministry states is the accelerated examination of no more than eight months, which the European Commission's 2024 summary also describes for the high-skilled track. For ordinary applications the figures come from Parliament. At a House audit committee hearing on 3 April 2025 on the Audit Office report for 2022, the committee heard average waits of about three years for citizenship based on years of residence and about two years for citizenship by marriage, and about 12,000 pending citizenship applications as of November 2023, according to Cyprus Mail. A civil registry official told the committee that applications had fallen since the criteria were added. Those are averages from a hearing and not a service standard, and the Ministry pages do not give a statutory deadline.

Citizenship in Cyprus After the Investment Scheme Ended

For many years the Republic offered a route to citizenship in exchange for an investment. It was run under Article 111A(2) of the Civil Registry Laws, which let the Council of Ministers naturalise investors and their families by exception. It no longer exists. The table lists the dated steps as they appear in the official minutes, the Law Office press release and press reports of official reports.

The Council of Ministers minutes record the reasons in short form: the long-standing weaknesses and the misuse of the programme's provisions. The same minutes say that, once the inquiry committee had reported, the government would examine as a whole its policy for attracting foreign investment to the Republic. The decision abolished the programme and, with it, the naturalisation of foreign entrepreneurs and investors and their family members under Article 111A(2).

The Nicolatos report, as described by Cyprus Mail on the day of delivery, said that 3,609 of 6,779 people naturalised under the exceptional provisions, 53 percent, were family members and company executives who were naturalised outside the legal framework. The inquiry also said that 92 percent of investors met the financial criteria and 88 percent met the permanent residence ownership criterion, and its panel suggested considering the rescinding of citizenship in 85 cases. The Law Office states that the Council of Ministers revoked a number of citizenships based on the findings of the Nicolatos Committee and of the Kalogirou Committee.

The legislative end came later. According to the Law Office, the European Commission had asked for the national law to be amended even though the programme had been closed in 2020. A bill prepared with the Commission was approved by the Council of Ministers and voted into law by the House within three months of being tabled. Cyprus Mail reported on 4 December 2025 that the House passed the law in its last regular plenary session of the year, ending the cabinet's power to grant citizenship to investors. The Commission closed its procedure on 11 March 2026.

Malta's scheme was a separate case. On 29 April 2025 the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice declared in Case C-181/23 that Malta had failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 20 TFEU and Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union by operating an institutionalised investor citizenship scheme based on predetermined payments or investments. The judgment concerns Malta and does not mention Cyprus, but it shows the legal reading the Union's court gave to transactional naturalisation.

Residence Permits That Are Not Citizenship: Category F and the Investment Permit

Two Republic of Cyprus residence routes are often confused with citizenship, and they are also often confused with each other. Both are immigration permits under the Aliens and Immigration Regulations, applied for at the Migration Department, with the Deputy Minister of Migration and International Protection as the competent authority. Neither is a naturalisation decision.

Category F is the income category. The Migration Department describes it as covering people who possess from abroad an annual income of an appropriate amount to allow a decent living in Cyprus without engaging in any business, trade or profession in the Republic. The page states at least EUR 9,568 a year for the applicant and at least EUR 4,613 for each dependent person, and lists pensions, dividends, fixed-deposit interest and rents as examples. Category F therefore has no property or investment condition at all.

The investment route is a different policy, issued under Regulation 6(2) of the Aliens and Immigration Regulations. The Fourth Revision of May 2023 requires an investment of at least EUR 300,000 in one of four categories: a house or apartment sold for the first time by a development company at EUR 300,000 plus VAT; other real estate such as offices, shops or hotels, which may be resales; share capital in a Cyprus company with a physical presence and at least five employees; or units in qualifying Cyprus investment funds. The applicant also needs an annual income of at least EUR 50,000, plus EUR 15,000 for a spouse and EUR 10,000 for each dependent minor child. A family of two adults and two minor children therefore shows 50,000 + 15,000 + 10,000 + 10,000 = EUR 85,000 of annual income. Property payments must have been transferred from abroad, and receipts for a house or apartment must total at least EUR 300,000 excluding VAT. At the standard 19 percent VAT rate listed by the Tax Department, a EUR 300,000 first sale carries EUR 57,000 of VAT, so the buyer's total outlay is EUR 357,000; a separate 5 percent rate exists for a primary residence under its own conditions, which our guide to reduced VAT on a primary residence in Cyprus sets out.

Two further details come from the investor policy, which estimates about two months for the examination of a complete application. A permit holder has to show every year that the investment is still held, that the income continues and that health insurance is in place, and adult family members must supply clean criminal record certificates annually; failure leads to cancellation of the permit and the dependants' permits. Adult children who are not financially dependent can be included only on a larger investment: EUR 600,000 for one adult child and EUR 900,000 for two. The page also says the permit lapses if the holder and dependants do not take up residence within one year of approval. Residence under a permit is a residence status; the naturalisation criteria on the M127 page are a separate list and are decided by a separate procedure.

EU Citizenship and the Nationality of the Republic of Cyprus

Article 20(1) TFEU provides that every person holding the nationality of a Member State is a citizen of the Union and that Union citizenship is additional to, and does not replace, national citizenship. Cyprus acceded to the Union in 2004. Protocol No 10 to the 2003 Act of Accession suspends the application of the EU acquis in those areas of the Republic of Cyprus in which the Government of the Republic does not exercise effective control (Article 1(1)), and provides for the Council to set the terms under which EU law applies to the line between those areas and the rest (Article 2). The European Commission's Green Line Regulation page adds that all Cypriots are in principle entitled to Republic of Cyprus citizenship and therefore to EU citizenship, that the north is outside the Union's customs and fiscal territory, and that the line is not an external border of the Union.

Two consequences follow from those texts. First, a Republic of Cyprus citizen is a Union citizen wherever he or she lives on the island. Second, the Court of Justice stated in its 2009 judgment in Apostolides v Orams (Case C-420/07) that the suspension of EU law in the north does not prevent a judgment of a court of the Republic from being recognised and enforced in another Member State, even if it concerns land in the north. The Court's press release is the source for that point, and it matters for property buyers because it links to the question of what a purchase does and does not change, covered below.

The Law Office's account of the infringement procedure shows that the Commission concluded that granting citizenship through the investment programme breached EU law, and the Malta judgment of April 2025 shows how the Court read Article 20 for a comparable scheme. For a foreigner without a Cypriot parent or spouse, the residence-based rules in force since December 2023 are the route the Ministry describes.

Citizenship in Northern Cyprus Under the TRNC Citizenship Law

The TRNC Citizenship Law 25/1993 is published on the website of the TRNC Central Legislation Office in a consolidated text dated 13 October 2026. The text is in Turkish, and the descriptions below paraphrase it. It is divided into acquisition by law (articles 4 to 7), admission by decision of the Ministry or the Council of Ministers (articles 8 and 9), the position of foreigners (articles 10 to 12), renunciation and loss (articles 13 to 20A), proof and appeal (articles 21 and 22), publication, offences and fees (articles 23 to 25). The footnotes show amendments by Laws 42/2026 (Official Gazette of 25 June 2026), 52/2026 (8 July 2026) and 71/2026 (Official Gazette No. 203, 13 October 2026).

Naturalisation after five years

Article 8(1) is the route for an ordinary resident. The five years are counted back from the application date, and interruptions of up to 40 days a year do not count as interruptions. Article 10 defines residence for a foreigner as living in the TRNC in accordance with TRNC legislation, and it says that time outside the TRNC totalling not more than six months does not break the residence period but is not counted as residence. Five years at 40 days a year is 200 days, and six months is roughly 180 days, so the two allowances are alternative measures rather than additions to each other, and the law does not say how they are combined. The spouse and minor children of a person admitted under Article 8 acquire citizenship automatically under Article 8(2). The law says that the person "may" be admitted, so the decision is discretionary even when every condition is met.

Marriage

Article 7 is the shortest route in years. A wife who applies and proves a shared life with her citizen husband of not less than one year acquires citizenship, and the Minister can shorten the year. A husband who has been married to a citizen woman for more than one year and lives with her acquires it without any residence requirement. Article 7(4) and (5) protect a spouse of good character, and the children, if a marriage is later declared void. The Permanent Residence Law 51/2015, consolidated to 25 June 2026, separately gives a foreigner married to a citizen a permanent residence permit if the Citizenship Law marriage conditions are met.

The Council of Ministers route and property or investment

Article 9(1) lets the Council of Ministers, on the Ministry's proposal, admit foreigners without the residence and settlement conditions of Article 8 in these cases: adult children of people who lost TRNC citizenship; people who invested in the TRNC in industry, trade, tourism, or the social and economic fields, or who rendered or can render outstanding service in science, technology, politics or culture; people whose admission the Council considers necessary; participants in the 1974 operation and their spouses and children, and certain relatives of those killed; and people who served in the Turkish Resistance Organisation in the TRNC after 1 August 1958. The investment limb sets no amount, does not define investment and does not mention housing. No article of the Citizenship Law attaches citizenship to buying a home. Article 23 requires every decision on acquiring or losing citizenship to be published in the Official Gazette.

Application and fees

Under Article 11, applications go to the Immigration Department or its branches in the TRNC, or to TRNC embassies, consulates or representations abroad, and the completed file is forwarded to the Ministry. Article 12 provides for an investigation under rules that the Council of Ministers makes under Article 25. Article 22 gives people affected by an administrative decision on citizenship a right to go to court. The fee schedule attached to Article 25, in the text of 13 October 2026, is in Turkish lira.

The arithmetic is 10,000 + 55,000 = TL 65,000, and 65,000 × 15 = TL 975,000, because Article 25(5) allows the Council of Ministers to raise the scheduled fees by regulation up to 15 times, taking the annual inflation rate into account. The law sets no time limit for the Ministry to decide, and it makes it an offence under Article 24, punishable by up to two years in prison or a fine of up to ten times the monthly gross minimum wage or both, to mislead the authorities knowingly with false statements.

Residence permits in the north

Residence comes before citizenship for most foreign owners. The Residence and Visa Regulation, consolidated on 5 October 2026, ties permit length to property value: where the total value of properties registered in the applicant's name is GBP 300,000 or more, the regulation provides a 10-year permit without an income test, and a 5-year permit below that figure. The Permanent Residence Law 51/2015 provides that a foreigner with at least six years of continuous permits for housing and assured income can obtain a permanent residence permit if the housing is worth at least EUR 125,000, subject to health insurance, a clean record and limits on days abroad; for applicants aged 60 or over the periods are three years instead of six. Our guides on the North Cyprus residency program, permanent residence permit in North Cyprus and rights under a residence permit in Northern Cyprus go through these rules in detail, and the page on North Cyprus citizenship reads the Citizenship Law article by article.

How Authorities and Institutions Describe the Status of Each System

Citizenship in Cyprus is entangled with a dispute about statehood, so the descriptions below are attributed to the body that makes them and are not adopted as this page's own view.

The TRNC Citizenship Law itself shows the link between the two systems in one provision. Article 4(2) treats as TRNC citizens people who acquired Republic of Cyprus citizenship, subject to Article 67 of the TRNC Constitution, and who were resident in the north on 15 November 1983. The Republic's citizenship articles, for their part, list Annex D of the 1960 Treaty of Establishment as a source of citizenship, and the Commission's Green Line page says all Cypriots are in principle entitled to Republic citizenship. Neither side's texts treat a purchase of property as an element of any of these provisions.

Turkish citizenship by investment: a separate scheme

Turkey runs its own scheme under its own law, and it does not give rights in either Cypriot system. Article 20 of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law, in the text on the Turkish legislation portal, allows a foreigner to acquire Turkish citizenship by Presidential decision on meeting one of several investment conditions, including purchasing immovable property worth at least USD 400,000 with a three-year no-sale annotation on the title deed, a fixed-capital investment or a bank deposit of at least USD 500,000, or the creation of employment for at least 50 people. The footnotes attached to the property condition cite Presidential Decision 5554 (Official Gazette 31834, 13 May 2022) and Presidential Decision 7938 (Official Gazette 32397, 12 December 2023) as amending that text. The General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs states in its FAQ that the process requires a conformity certificate from the competent institution, a short-term residence permit and an application to the provincial population and citizenship directorate, and that the foreigner must apply in person.

What a Property Purchase Does and Does Not Change for Citizenship in Cyprus

Buying a home is the step many people have in mind when they ask about citizenship in Cyprus. The official texts treat it as a property transaction with, at most, a residence consequence. The table sets out what each source says.

Our guides on whether foreigners can buy property in North Cyprus, the step-by-step purchase process and the legal status of land in Northern Cyprus cover the purchase rules, and the comparison of North Cyprus and South Cyprus property sets the two property systems side by side. The overview of the Cyprus real estate market and the guide to reduced VAT on a primary residence in Cyprus deal with the south. The country pages for Southern Cyprus and Northern Cyprus list the properties, and the guide to Cyprus citizenship requirements gives a short summary of the Republic's criteria.

Side-by-Side Comparison of the Routes

The table brings the main routes of both systems into one view, with the residence period, the core documents, the deciding body, the official fee and the source. It compares rules and does not rank them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a foreigner obtain citizenship in Cyprus by buying property?

Not under the texts reviewed here. In the Republic, the investor naturalisation provision was deleted in December 2025, and the property rules on the Ministry of Interior and Migration Department pages concern permission to buy and an immigration permit. In the TRNC, the Citizenship Law has no article tying citizenship to a purchase. Citizenship in Cyprus in either system is acquired through the routes in the law, not through a purchase.

How many years of residence does the Republic require?

For standard naturalisation, the Ministry of Interior states 12 months of legal and continuous residence immediately before filing plus at least seven years of cumulative legal residence in the 10 years before that period, which is eight years inside an 11-year window. For high-skilled employees of listed companies it is three or four years in the earlier period, depending on Greek level.

How long does TRNC naturalisation take?

Article 8 of the TRNC Citizenship Law requires five uninterrupted years of residence counted back from the application date. The law sets no deadline for the Ministry's decision, so the five years are the only period the law states.

Is dual nationality allowed?

The Republic's Civil Registry Law does not forbid it. Article 111 allows the Council of Ministers to reject a naturalisation application unless the applicant renounces another citizenship in a specific case or category, and the current M127 list of conditions does not include renunciation. In the TRNC, articles 13 to 15 regulate renunciation, and Article 8 does not list renunciation of another nationality among its conditions for admission.

Does the investment programme still exist?

No. The Council of Ministers abolished the programme with effect from 1 November 2020, a law removing the cabinet's power to grant citizenship to investors passed on 4 December 2025, and the Commission closed its infringement procedure on 11 March 2026. Anyone looking for citizenship in Cyprus through an investment will therefore not find that route in the Republic's law.

What is the difference between Category F and the investment permit?

Category F is based on annual income from abroad (EUR 9,568 for the applicant and EUR 4,613 per dependant, per the Migration Department) and has no property condition. The investment permit under Regulation 6(2) requires at least EUR 300,000 invested in a listed category plus an annual income of at least EUR 50,000. Both are immigration permits and neither is citizenship.

Does a TRNC passport give EU rights?

EU citizenship follows nationality of a Member State under Article 20 TFEU, and Protocol 10 suspends the application of EU law in the areas of the Republic that its Government does not control. The Commission's Green Line page says all Cypriots are in principle entitled to Republic citizenship and thereby to EU citizenship. TRNC citizenship by itself is a different status under TRNC law.

How much do the applications cost?

As of 8 November 2026 the Republic lists EUR 500 on filing and EUR 500 on approval for naturalisation, EUR 300 for marriage and EUR 20 to EUR 80 for the descent forms. The TRNC fee schedule lists TL 10,000 for an application and TL 55,000 for a document concerning acquisition. Each can change by regulation.

Where are applications filed?

In the Republic, form M127 is filed at the local District Administration Office and signed in front of a Registrar, and diplomatic missions also receive applications. In the TRNC, Article 11 of the Citizenship Law names the Immigration Department, its branches, and TRNC embassies, consulates and representations abroad. For citizenship in Cyprus in either system, the forms are filed with translated and certified documents.

How long does the Republic take to decide?

The Ministry states no deadline for standard applications. Officials told a House committee on 3 April 2025 that the average wait was about three years for residence-based naturalisation and about two years for marriage, and the Ministry offers an accelerated examination of no more than eight months for high-skilled employees at EUR 5,000.

Last checked: 8 November 2026. Sources: Ministry of Interior, form M127; form M125; citizenship and nationality procedures; Civil Registry Law text corrected 8 April 2017; European Commission, 6 March 2024; Migration Department, investor permits; Migration Department, permit categories; Council of Ministers decision 90.177; Law Office press release, 11 March 2026; Cyprus Mail, 4 December 2025; Cyprus Mail, 7 June 2021; Politis, 12 September 2025; Cyprus Mail, 3 April 2025; Cyprus Mail, 27 January 2025; Article 20 TFEU; Case C-181/23; Green Line Regulation page; TRNC Permanent Residence Law 51/2015; TRNC Residence and Visa Regulation; Turkish Citizenship Law Regulation; NVI citizenship FAQ; Tax Department VAT rates.