Cyprus · Golden Visa (Fast-Track)
Cyprus sells permanent residency for $345,000. The tax on top is $65,550 more.
Buy a new-build home, a shop, company shares or fund units, show $57,500 a year in income, and Cyprus makes you a permanent resident in about two months.
If you want an EU address without an EU life, Cyprus is built for that. If you want a passport or a job, it's the wrong door, and we'll show you why.
The offer
Permanent from the first card, not a permit you renew
Portugal, Greece and Italy all start an investor on a temporary card with a renewal date. Cyprus doesn't. Clear the file and the status is permanent, of unlimited duration. The card expires after ten years; the right behind it stays.
Upkeep requires almost nothing. Set foot in Cyprus every two years and the permit lives. Spouse and children under 18 ride on one application. No quota, no filing window, no Greek exam.
Now for the line that never makes the headline: the 19 percent VAT on a new-build home is charged on top of the investment requirement, not inside of it.
What it costs and what it buys
$345,000
The qualifying investment, before tax
Cyprus writes it as 300,000 euros, before VAT
$65,550
VAT on a new-build home at 19 percent
57,000 euros, and the reduced 5 percent rate rarely reaches investors
$57,500
Yearly income you have to prove
50,000 euros, plus 15,000 for a spouse and 10,000 per child
Every 2 years
How often you must set foot in Cyprus
Two full years away and it is canceled
One of four
One threshold, four assets, and a trapdoor in the first
One number, $345,000, which the law fixes at 300,000 euros before VAT. Four places to put it, and you fund one in full, with the cash reaching the seller's Cyprus bank from abroad.
A new home from the developer
First sale only, one or two units. A resale does not count, however expensive it is. Buy from the current owner and you own a house, not a residence permit. Income here must all come from abroad.
Commercial property
Offices, shops, hotels - same threshold. A resale is fine. That's the quiet advantage. New commercial space pays the full 19 percent VAT.
Shares in a Cyprus company
The company has to be real: a presence on the island and five on the payroll. Only here can you draw a salary, as its director.
Units in a Cyprus fund
An AIF, AIFLNP or RAIF holding Cyprus assets. Cleanest on paper, least tangible of the four.
The official record
Golden Visa (Fast-Track)
Offers permanent residency to non-EU nationals who make a qualifying investment. Allows living, working, and studying in Cyprus. Residency must be maintained by visiting Cyprus at least once every two years. Path to citizenship possible after additional years of residence and meeting further requirements.
- Government cost
- $300,000
- Processing time
- ~60 days
- Timeline
- Permanent, with minimal stay requirements
- Difficulty
- Easy
About that data card
Read the card above with a pencil. The $300,000 cost line isn't a fee but it's the investment itself. Cyprus sets it in euros. Real charges are small: 500 euros to file plus 70 euros a head. The description also says the permit lets you work in Cyprus. It doesn't. We hid the requirements list because its income figures predate the May 2023 rewrite, flagging it all for our data team. Euros here convert at about $1.15 on September 16, 2026.
The part people miss
You sign a paper promising not to take a job
Golden visa suggests a work permit with a price tag. This isn't one. You and your spouse both sign a declaration that you won't take employment in Cyprus or draw a salary there. If living here without working was the whole plan, Cyprus has a cheaper visitor permit, the pink slip, that asks for no investment.
What you keep is the right to own. Hold shares in Cyprus companies, take the dividends, sit as an unpaid director. The exception is the company-shares route, where you can be paid as a director of the business you bought into. Remote work for clients abroad sits outside the rule, but have a Cyprus lawyer confirm it.
The file has to stay alive, too. Each year you prove the investment is still yours and coverage remains in force. Every three years, you file a clean criminal record.
What it won't do
A permanent address is not a passport, and it isn't Schengen
The passport clock barely moves
Cyprus sold citizenship until November 1, 2020, then closed the program and replaced it with nothing. Naturalizing takes seven years of legal residence inside the last ten, a final unbroken year with under 90 days away, Greek proficiency at B1 and a civics exam. Those years count days physically here.
In the EU, outside Schengen
Cyprus and Ireland are the last two EU states outside the zone. The Commission approved Cyprus's readiness in 2026, but entry needs a unanimous Council vote that was never scheduled. The good news is underrated: days here don't burn your Schengen 90 in 180, so you keep a full quarter for Europe.
The permit is not a tax plan
It makes you neither a Cyprus tax resident nor a non-dom; those are separate tests. Pass them and the prize is real: no Cypriot tax on dividends or interest for 17 years, no inheritance tax, no wealth tax. Washington still wants its 1040 filed either way.
Line these up before you sign
ReBase Cyprus
Cyprus Relocation
Based on the island, ReBase Cyprus runs the whole move: the residence file, tax registration, company setup and the property hunt.
Arton Capital
Golden Visas
Arton Capital brokers investment-residency programs worldwide and covers Cyprus, useful if you're still weighing it against Greece or Malta.
Simon Conn
International Mortgage Lending
Simon Conn has arranged overseas property finance for four decades, Cyprus included. Start here if you'd rather not liquidate US holdings.
Picking a base
The island is small. The price gaps are not.
Limassol
Where the money went
The business capital and the dearest market on the island. Apartments averaged about $463,000 in 2025, and seafront stock runs past that. Those towers up top are here.
Paphos
Retirees and golf
The long-established expat district, heavy on British buyers, and the corner of Cyprus where $345,000 still buys a view. Prices rose 6.4 percent in the year to early 2026.
Larnaca
The one people watch
Coastal living at roughly half Limassol's rate, the main airport on the doorstep, a marina and port rebuild under way, and 8.9 percent annual price growth.
Nicosia
Inland and affordable
Landlocked and priced for locals, not foreign buyers. Apartments averaged $204,000 in 2025. No beach, and a city split by a border.
From wire to card
Two months is the target, not the promise
You commit the money first, then file. Firms report that $230,000 of the price, which Cyprus counts as 200,000 euros, should already have left your foreign account when you apply.
The Migration Department publishes an examination estimate of about two months, which is what the 60 days on our data card reflects. Practitioners describe real files running two to six months once document requests, biometrics and the card itself are counted.
Budget for one new item. Applications filed from September 1, 2026 must carry original blood tests done abroad for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV and syphilis, plus a chest X-ray for tuberculosis, for you and every dependent. That rule is weeks old, so any checklist written before September is out of date.
The questions that decide it
How much income do I have to prove?
About $57,500 a year, a floor Cyprus sets at 50,000 euros. A spouse adds 15,000 euros and every minor child another 10,000, so a two-child household is tested at 85,000 euros. Buy a new home and all of it must arrive from abroad, proved by a foreign tax return.
Am I allowed to work in Cyprus on this permit?
No. The applicant and spouse both sign a declaration that they won't take employment in Cyprus or draw a salary there. You may hold shares in Cyprus companies, take dividends and serve as an unpaid director. The exception is the company-shares route, where you can be paid as its director.
How much does the Cyprus Golden Visa really cost?
The investment is $345,000, which Cyprus fixes at 300,000 euros and quotes before tax. On a new-build home, 19 percent VAT adds about $65,550, taking the realistic outlay to roughly $410,550. Government charges are small: 500 euros to file plus 70 euros a head.
What happens if I sell the investment later?
The permit is canceled unless you replace it at once with another qualifying asset. Each year you file evidence that the investment is still held and coverage in force, plus a clean criminal record every three years. Two straight years away also ends it.
Do I still pay US taxes if I live in Cyprus?
Yes. A US passport or a green card means a 1040 on worldwide income no matter where you sit, and Cypriot bank accounts pull you into FBAR and FATCA reporting. Cyprus itself is gentle if you qualify as a tax resident and claim non-dom status, but the permit alone makes you neither.
Can I qualify by buying a resale property in Cyprus?
Not on the residential route, and this is the costliest mistake buyers make. A home counts only if it's a first sale from a developer. Commercial property is different: offices, shops and hotels qualify new or resale, as do company shares and fund units.
Does Cyprus permanent residency give me Schengen travel?
No. Cyprus is an EU member but sits outside the Schengen Area alongside Ireland, so the permit carries no Schengen travel rights. A unanimous Council vote on accession was still pending in September 2026. One upside while that lasts: days in Cyprus don't count against the Schengen 90-in-180 allowance.
How long until I can apply for a Cypriot passport?
Cyprus closed its citizenship-by-investment program on November 1, 2020 and never replaced it. Naturalizing takes seven years of legal residence within the previous ten, a final continuous twelve months with under 90 days abroad, Greek at B1 and a civics exam, and those years count days physically here.
Maybe Cyprus. Maybe somewhere you haven't priced yet.
Tell us what you earn, what you own and who's coming, and see where the math lands.
Why not you?