Work permits through your own Cyprus company

For a non-EU founder, the most reliable way to live and work in Cyprus is to become an employee of your own Cyprus company. The company registers as a “company of foreign interests” with the Business Support Centre — BSC, known until its May 2025 reorganisation as the Business Facilitation Unit (BFU) — and registered companies may employ third-country nationals, including you. No labour-market test, no quota, provided the company and the salary meet the criteria below.

What makes a company “of foreign interests”

The main gate is ownership: more than 50% of the shares held by third-country nationals. Where the foreign stake is 50% or less, that participation must be worth at least €200,000. Several further categories qualify on their own terms — among them listed companies, shipping, high-tech and innovation firms, and pharma or biotech — but for founder-owned businesses, the ownership test is the one that matters.

Two conditions apply across the board:

• The €200,000 initial investment. Funds must come from the shareholders abroad — either deposited into the company’s account at a credit institution licensed by the Central Bank of Cyprus (EMIs and payment institutions are explicitly not accepted), or spent on business premises and equipment with invoices in the company’s name. The investment must be made within the six months before filing and still be in place on the filing date. Real estate bought for resale does not count.
• A real office. Separate commercial premises, not a residential flat; a lease of at least twelve months is acceptable.

Both conditions echo a bigger theme: this route rewards companies that look like businesses, not shells. That is worth building properly from day one — see company formation and what substance means in practice.

Salary levels: the two tracks

Permits in the highly-paid track are issued for up to three years. One obligation runs the other way: within five years, 30% of the company’s staff should be Cypriot or EU nationals, with the ratio checked for new hires from January 2027 onwards. Plan the hiring mix with that in mind rather than discovering it at renewal time.

The process, in order

1. Company first. Incorporation, registered office, the commercial lease, and an account with a licensed credit institution able to receive the investment.
2. Evidence the €200,000. Transfers from the shareholders abroad, or invoices for premises and equipment — dated within six months of filing.
3. Register with the BSC. Filed online through the company’s CY Login profile (the only channel since July 2026). Registration in the foreign-interest register is decided within up to ten working days.
4. File the employment permits. Contract, qualifications or experience evidence, clean criminal record, insurance, biometrics. Examination typically takes around a month.
5. Renewals and changes — new hires, salary changes, the staffing ratio — become part of the company’s ongoing compliance calendar.

The honest note: the government’s own steps are quick. The calendar is set by everything around them — the bank’s onboarding, apostilles moving between countries, and how cleanly the investment paper trail reads. That is where preparation pays.

Family

Families of highly-paid employees qualify for family reunification. Spouses receive free access to the Cyprus labour market — employment with any employer, not only the sponsoring company. Children join as dependants. File the family’s applications in parallel with yours; the relocation sequence shows how the family timeline fits the rest of the move.

Your obligations as an employer

The permit makes your company a Cyprus employer in the full sense: payroll registration, social insurance and GESY contributions, payslips and filings every month — see how payroll works. Add the staffing-ratio obligation and the requirement to keep the office and investment real, and the picture is clear: the immigration status and the company’s accounting discipline are one system. Treat them separately and renewals get harder than they need to be.

How we run it

1. Eligibility check: ownership structure, investment plan, salary levels for you and the team.
2. Company setup sequenced for the BSC filing — bank, lease and investment evidence included.
3. Registration and permit files prepared and submitted through CY Login.
4. Family applications in parallel.
5. Handover into payroll and the compliance calendar, so the status stays clean at every renewal.