NEWS

• Posted March 04, 2015

Cypriot citizenship

Amended criteria for granting the Cypriot citizenship.

The Ministry of Interior, has announced amendments to the criteria for granting the Cypriot citizenship by exception to foreign investors, in an effort to further promote foreign investments in Cyprus.

As per the relevant announcement the amended criteria for granting the Cypriot citizenship by exception are as follows:

1. The applicant should have direct investments in Cyprus of at least €5 million in Cyprus government bonds which have been bought only from the primary market.

OR

2. The applicant should have direct investments in Cyprus of at least €5 million in financial instruments of companies and shares of public companies registered in Cyprus.

OR

3. The applicant should have direct investments in Cyprus of at least €5 million in real estate and land developing (e.g. Residential).

OR

4. The applicant should have a direct investment in Cyprus of at least €5 million through the purchase, establishment or participation in businesses and/or companies that are based and have activities in Cyprus. The applicant must be able to verify their physical presence in Cyprus and should employ at least five Cypriot citizens.

OR

5. The applicant should have deposits in Cyprus banks amounting to €5 million, for a period of 3 years. The deposits can be either personal or deposits of a private entity or of a trust whereby the applicant is the beneficiary.

OR

6. The applicant may choose to have a combination of any of the above amounting to €5 million.

OR

7. Any applicant who was the holder of deposits in Laiki Bank and suffered an impairment in the value of his/her deposits of at least €3 million as at March 15th 2013, as a result of the measures imposed on the bank. In the case whereby the applicant has suffered an impairment in the above mentioned bank which is lower than €3 million, he may still apply for Cypriot citizenship provided that he invests the remaining amount (i.e. the sum up to €5 million) under any of the mentioned criteria.

8. Collective Investments

At the discretion of the Council of Ministers and provided that certain criteria are met, the applicant may invest a reduced amount of €2.5 million in criteria 1 to 4 above, on the basis that he participate in a collective investment scheme with a total value of at least €12.5 million.

Requirements:

It is noted that the applicant must:

a) Have a clean criminal record;

and

b) Own a permanent residence in Cyprus of a market value of at least €500,000 excluding VAT, if he will not invest in the real estate and/or land developing.

Our team can provide specialised assistance for obtaining the Cyprus citizenship for foreign investors. For more information, please contact us at [email protected].