Cyprus PR by investment (Reg. 6(2))

Cyprus grants permanent residency to non-EU investors under Regulation 6(2): invest at least €300,000 plus VAT in qualifying assets and show secured annual income of at least €50,000. It is the fastest permanent status Cyprus offers. Since the 2023 rule changes it also carries ongoing obligations: annual evidence that the investment is maintained and a fresh criminal record certificate every three years.

The figures here follow the Migration Department’s page on immigration permits for investors, last updated on 29 December 2025. We verify the live requirements against the current text before every filing.

The requirements

The investment: at least €300,000 plus VAT, in one of four categories:

The income: at least €50,000 per year, secured and documented: salary, dividends, pensions, rents. The threshold rises by €15,000 for a spouse and €10,000 per child. If you invest in residential property, the income must come from abroad. In the other three categories part or all of it may come from activities in Cyprus. Funds for the investment itself must be shown to come from abroad. Pension income counts towards that test, which is why permanent residency and Category F are the two routes people retiring to Cyprus on a pension end up comparing.

How the four categories actually differ

The regulation treats them as equivalent. In practice they are not.

Residential property is the most used and the least flexible. It must be a first sale from a developer, which rules out the entire resale market. VAT applies on top of the €300,000, and the reduced VAT rate for a main residence has its own conditions that do not automatically follow the PR application.

Commercial property allows resales, which widens the market considerably. It suits applicants who already intend to hold a Cyprus asset that produces rent. Special defence contribution on rental income was abolished from 1 January 2026, which changes the arithmetic of holding commercial property here.

Company shares require a Cyprus company with genuine physical presence and at least five employees. This is not a shelf structure with a mailbox: five real employees means real payroll, and payroll in Cyprus carries employer social insurance at 8.8% up to insurable earnings of €68,904 a year, healthcare at 2.90%, plus a social cohesion fund contribution of 2% with no ceiling at all. The staff cost belongs in the budget alongside the share purchase.

Fund units (AIF, AIFLNP or RAIF) are the quietest option and the one that leaves the fewest local obligations. It suits applicants whose objective is the status rather than an operating business or a home.

What PR costs beyond the €300,000

The investment is the largest cost, but not the only one.

What applies after approval

The May 2023 revision tightened compliance; later clarifications on the same gov.cy page dropped annual income proof and moved criminal-record checks to every three years. The practical rules:

• Annual confirmations. Holders must show every year that the investment is maintained and, if they are not covered by GESY, that health insurance is in place. The amended rules dropped the annual proof of income. Failure risks revocation.
• Criminal-record renewals. A clean certificate for the applicant and adult family members is required every three years, not every year.
• Adult children. Unmarried children aged 18 to 25 who study abroad and depend on you financially file their own application, and you show a further €10,000 of annual income for each. An adult child who is not dependent can get a permit on a higher investment (€600,000 with one such child, €900,000 with two) and must show €50,000 of secured income of their own.

The €300,000 threshold has not changed through 2025–2026, and the figures above stand in 2026.

Process and timing

1. Fit and category check. We look at your investment options, income evidence and family scope. The category decision (property, shares or funds) shapes tax, VAT and exit options, not just eligibility.
2. Source-of-funds file. Where the money originated, how it moved, and the paper trail that proves it, built to examination standard before anything is signed.
3. Investment vetted against the scheme’s terms. First-sale status, VAT treatment, and the five-employee test for shares.
4. Filing with the Migration Department. A complete file is examined in about two months. The fees are €500 per application plus €70 per person for the ARC.
5. Approval, biometrics and issue. The annual-confirmation calendar starts from that day, and we run it alongside your tax-residency plan.

Family

The application can include a spouse and minor children, with the income requirement scaled up per person. Unmarried children aged 18 to 25 who study abroad and depend on you financially file their own application, and you show a further €10,000 of annual income for each. An adult child who is not dependent can get a permit on a higher investment (€600,000 with one such child, €900,000 with two) and must show €50,000 of secured income of their own. For parents and other relatives, treat inclusion as a case-by-case question under current policy. We confirm it before filing.

Why applications fail

• Source-of-funds gaps. The money is real but the paper trail isn’t.
• Income that isn’t secured. The test wants documented income, not projections. In the residential property category it must also come from abroad.
• The wrong property. A resale flat does not qualify in the residential category.
• Missed confirmations after approval. A missed annual confirmation puts the permit at risk of revocation.
• Treating PR as a tax plan. See below.

The “golden visa” is this scheme under its market name. The golden visa page sets the label against the actual rules.

PR against every other way to live in Cyprus

Regulation 6(2) is one of six routes, and for many applicants another one fits better.

Two points follow from the table.

First, if you intend to work in or from Cyprus, PR is not the route. It is built around secured income, not a Cyprus salary. The entrepreneur’s route is a Cyprus company registered as a company of foreign interests through the Business Support Centre, which then employs you. The company needs a €200,000 initial investment from abroad, held either as a deposit at a licensed Cyprus credit institution (electronic money institutions are not accepted) or as €200,000 spent on offices or equipment for the business. The highly-paid category requires a gross salary of at least €2,500 a month and a contract of at least two years, and registration in the foreign-interest register runs to about ten working days. That path starts with company formation, not with a migration file.

Second, the pink slip is the better entry point for many people who do not yet need permanent status. It costs €70 for the permit plus €70 for the first registration in the Aliens’ Register, against €300,000 tied up in property. It buys the right to live here while you decide, and you can apply for another status later.

If you hold Ukrainian temporary protection

Temporary protection in the EU has been extended to 4 March 2027, Cyprus applies it, and renewal is automatic without a fresh application. Founders arriving on that basis usually pair it with the sequence on Cyprus company formation from Ukraine. Access to the labour market is immediate and does not require a separate work permit. Around 24,880 beneficiaries were in Cyprus at the end of April 2026, the fourth-highest per capita in the EU. If that is your status, treat PR as a long-term option to evaluate calmly, not as an emergency measure.

PR is not a tax plan

Regulation 6(2) status answers exactly one question: whether you may live in Cyprus permanently. It does not make you a tax resident; the day-count rules do that. It is also not an employment permit: the scheme is built around secured income, not a Cyprus salary. If you intend to run a business here and pay yourself, look at the work permit through your own company instead, or alongside. And if the endgame is dividends taxed the Cyprus way, the non-dom rules deliver it, not the PR card. The relocation sequence shows how the pieces fit together.

Does PR lead to a Cyprus passport?

Not by itself. The Cyprus Investment Programme, which granted citizenship for investment, was closed on 1 November 2020 and has not returned. What remains is ordinary naturalisation, which counts years of lawful residence, and holding Regulation 6(2) status does not shorten that clock or guarantee its outcome. The citizenship page sets out what actually exists today.

PR makes sense if you want the right to live in Cyprus permanently, including for schooling. It is not a passport route.

The questions we ask before we take the file

You can check each of these points yourself.

• Is the €300,000 genuinely available, plus VAT, plus transaction costs, without borrowing against the same asset?
• Can the source of funds be documented, not just asserted? Bank statements showing money arriving are not a source-of-funds file; the file explains where it came from originally and how it moved.
• Is the €50,000 income secured? Projections and invoices to future clients do not pass. For residential property the income must come from abroad; in the other categories part of it may be Cyprus-source.
• If property: is it a first sale from a developer? For the residential category this is binary.
• If shares: are there five real employees and physical premises? The five-employee test is checked, not assumed.
• Will someone own the annual confirmations? Most revocation risk sits here, in the years after approval.

If you want us to check which category fits your family, tell us the situation.