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We were in your position last October.

We got an airbnb for 2 weeks during which time we toured the area on foot, and then found a flat to rent. After that, we started the pink slip process. You have 90 days you can stay in Cyprus  before you need the pink slip process started. (Cyprus is non-schengen so your other European holidays don't count in your 90 days in the previous 180 days. So you could airbnb for up to 90 days, which should be more than adequate to find a place to rent.

If you go to an estate agent, they will do all the legwork for you (I think they take a cut from the owner.) The agent will take you round places to view, whether or not it is a place on their books. We didn't realise this though when we were finding a place to rent, and arranged the viewings ourselves.

Many thanks for your reply. Out of interest what is the average time for the purchase of a property.

Thanks Mike.

Buying a property takes months.  The authorities are not efficient. They require lots of paperwork. Mistakes are made. Papers are lost.

This is for visas, driving licence, buying a place - anything official.

Patience is required. But it is worth it. Cyprus is a good place to live.

As a TCN (if British) Permission to buy from Cyprus Council of Ministers takes anywhere between 4-9 months.... Seller tax clearance takes time too albeit  concurrently.

If you have access to an EU passport ie Irish then much easier and quicker.

As others have said take your time .. rent first always.. the location dynamics change morning noon and night ...  When you get here apply for an appointment first, as that is likely to be three months away..

Good luck

@Craven J Mike

The short answer is you need to have a residence in order to get a residence permit.

The long answer...

You will most likely arrive on a 90 day tourist visa which gives you 90 days to get a feel for the area you want to live and then secure a (minimum) 1-year rental contract or buy a house.

You have the option to apply for an extension to the tourist visa for another 90 days, but I do not have any experience in this so do not know the success rate or approval time required.

Irregardless of when you find a place, the first step in the stairway of Cypriot life is to ask for an appointment at the immigration office where you will be living. Each district (Nicosia, Famagusta, Paphos, Larnaca and Limassol) have their own immigration offices. 

Permanent Residence applications are made directly to Nicosia office, whereas all temporary residency permit applications are done at the District office where they screen for accuracy and completeness, and once they feel it is complete (may take more than one visit) they will send it off to Nicosia for final review and approval / denial.

The appointment request is made by e-mail to the e-mail address on the main immigration website, or you get the address from the immigration office itself.

You should get a reply from the District office within a week or 3 and it is entirely possible that your appointment may not be until after your 90 days tourist visa expires.

Unless the process has changed, you are allowed to stay here until your appointment as long as you have the e-mail showing your appointment date.

I once had a renewal appointment 3 months after my 1 year permit had expired and was able to cross into the north and back without problem once I showed the appointment e-mail.

So, it is vital that you request the appointment well in advance of of your 90 days so that you receive an appointment e-mail which should allow you to stay past the 90 days.

Once your application is scrutinised at the District Office, you will pay a one-off fee of 70 EUR for initial registration (Alien Registration Certificate - ARC), and then another 70 EUR fee for the actual application. this will be a recurring fee everytime you renew your temporary residency permit.

On the receipt will be a stamp stating that you are allowed to leave the country for a period of no longer than 90 days (at a time). You can do your biometrics (photo and fingerprint) any time after you receive payment receipt, but they can't issue you a plastic card until you have biometrics done, so best to do it when you apply and pay.

For the love of Gord, once you get this receipt, make multiple copies, both hard copies and digital for this is now your "de-facto" residency permit until the Nicosia office gets around to looking over your application and either approving it or denying it for some bureaucratic reason.

Ensure the receipt has that stamp otherwise you may not get back into the country if you cross over to the North or leave the island. I photocopy my receipt and tuck it into my passport and show it whenever I return to the south side.

It may take months to get an approval/denial, but you are legally allowed to stay until judgement has been rendered and you are made official. Until the renewal is required in which case you then repeat the process all over again until you either can't be bothered to renew and just come back on a tourist visa max 90 out of 180 days or you apply for permanent residency (usually based on investment).

Keep in mind that they only want to see a rental contract for the year your temporary residence permit is valid for. Nothing says you have to stay in that residence for the entire year. Once you find an area you want to live in (the island has 2 periods - tourist and sane and a neighbourhood will be completely different in those 2 periods) you can change locations and get a new rental contract or buy a property.

you may have difficulty finding long-term rentals during the summer as the market is geared towards short-term rentals as renting to tourists for a week is much more lucrative than a year long contract.

However, I very much recommend you looking during the summer to see where the party places are, because once the heat and the tourists go away, the place will have a very different feel to it.

And there will be more availability on the rental market.

you may find a landlord that only wants to fill the house in the low season to keep the cash flow... flowing.

Any rental contract less than 1 year in duration is not valid for temporary residency permit.

So, either keep looking, or accept the 1-yr contract knowing that it will not be honoured.

Buying a house as a Third Country National (TCN) - or non-EU citizen is not a quick process, there are a few steps other than just signing a bill of sale and sending a bag of money into the void.

It took us roughly 3 months to complete the process of agreeing on sale terms / price, transferring title and getting Council of Minister's (COM) permission to own a property here as a TCN.

It's a relatively smooth process, but it takes time as most government offices are very short-staffed and some government employees are less motivated than others.

And each district has its own COM, so Limassol may take 1 month, whereas Paphos was taking 6-12 months to rubber stamping your purchase.

Until you get the title or proof of sale, you cannot get a residence permit unless you are already here renting.

You can always change residences if renting mid year and you can always change from renting to owning, but when you submit the initial application or renewal, you have to play the game and follow their rules.

No residence for the year, no permit for the year.

Above all else, remember that the system is not terribly efficient, so leave yourself enough time to ensure you can stay here legally during the process.

Also be aware that properties for rent and sale may look great during summer months and it changes with the cold damp months of the winter period when  the reakk property condition and damages show through the owners attempts to hide them

Many thanks to every one who has contributed. Its been very informative. We had not realised that it takes quiet as long to purchase property. I guess for us & maybe others its the uncertainty of either being refused the visa or not being allowed to purchase a property as a TCN. Having researched all the criteria required for visas. We more than meet the criteria for acceptance. However like the property purchase permission there is always the possibility of a refusal in either. The result for us would be that, we are left with no where to go other than back to the UK. I appreciate there are appeal processes, but i guess that again would take a long time. We are still trying to work out a fall back plan, not that we want to use it. But we would have sold everything in the UK to achieve the move. On top of that we would have to leave our pets in kennels. Which we had thought would initially be around three months. But now due to visa & rental restraints regarding pets it would be far longer. Our plan was to get professional help with the visa applications. To at least take away some of the stress & paperwork. Maybe we are over thinking it & worrying unnecessary, but we have always tried to alleviate every possibility as far as possible.

All above is totally relevant and I would like to add be prepared for the enormous amount of time required depending on district. In Paphos it took 18 months to customs clear 2 vehicles. Nearly 2 years to get a biometric card and a year to get the ARC sorted.

On the bright side I got the driving license swapped once I had the biometric card in 2 months

The best advise is also to engage a professional. It costs but it does take a lot of anxiety out of the process if they are any good!

Get the immigration appointment started ASAP as in some districts this can be months.

My choice was to rent as I did not want to tie money up that I would probably die leaving behind. I'm in spend mode not investment lol. And the whole property market here is a wild west show with dodgy lawyers and sellers. Total buyer beware flag for Cyprus! I could write a book with the stories I have been told by poor unfortunate buyers.

@phildraper

Yep.this is Cyprus reality unseen by all new arrivals

Been here 11yrs and I ve never heard of anyone being refused permission to buy ..it's a mere formality and nothing to be worried about currently ...

However having said that there have been articles recently demanding further controls  on foreign buyers..but that will take a good while to take any effect if it was to be passed and actually  happen

Siga siga

There have been a few residency application rejections without explanation... But I have no more details other than that

I will say that while the (immigration) system is slow and well, useless, the people at the pointy end of the stick (police, immigration at airport, immigration office) know that their system is slow and useless, and there is a surprising amount of common sense in the actual application of the laws.

"Ok, so you've been here 9 months on a 3 month visa, but you couldn't get an immigration appointment until next week... We won't kick you out just yet, so enjoy your stay" kind of approach"

"yes your renewal appointment is 3 months past your current permit expiry, but that's not your fault and as you have an email note from immigration (which nobody could possibly fake 🤔), you may proceed to baggage", etc

Same with the COM approval. As long as you don't exceed your max allotment as TCN, it will/should be approved, it just takes time. From my understanding, the problem in Paphos district was that there was one person doing the COM approvals as a 2nd job in the department, and was often called back to do his/her real job. So this seriously set back the approval time.

And strictly speaking, there is nothing to prevent you from moving in before COM approval as long as you have the previous owner's permission.

Or  get a rental agreement from the previous owner to occupy your new house while you are waiting for the COM approval, property transfer, etc to finailse the sale.

Play the game.

Sound advice from previous posts. There are many ways to stay within the rules with a bit of forward planning.

The idea of short term renting your eventual purchase sounds reasonable (with safeguards) Something I as an owner would consider.

I have been here 23 years and cut U.K. ties where neccesary. I am smugly comfortable with long term residency and all official requirements ticked.

It has been a long hard slog but totally worth the effort. The frustration with inept officials gets forgotten the minute you clutch the item you have fought for.

I love my Cyprus life although owning property can be a drag when time comes to sell. We own two decent size houses and now want to sell and buy one smaller.

Thank you to all. I am still reading these as experiences are knowledge.

@Craven J Mike

The "proof of address" in your new country is a standard requirement in the EU (and elsewhere).

And, of course, most folks would like to look around a bit before committing themselves to a purchase or a long-term rental.

So us would-be expats often see it as a "chicken or the egg" type problem. However, Immigration is very emphatic that the chicken comes first. :-)

If you meet the requirements, then perhaps you can afford a delay. You can visit Cyprus multiple times (as a tourist) purely to do your location/property searching/viewing. Then buy or rent, as you prefer (as non-residents/tourists can do both). After you have the paperwork in hand (much longer for a purchase than a rental), you finally start your residence application.

Alternatively, you compromise by grabbing a quick/inexpensive studio or other small apartment, so that you have a formal rental contract. Then you can start the residence process immediately. As far as I'm aware, you're not tied to this address/contract, it's simply a requirement for starting your application. Hence, you can subsequently give your landlord suitable notice, and move to another a property/location more to your taste. (There's always a cost to breaking a contract, but typically it's losing your deposit, rather than being compelled to pay for the whole year.)

I'm not advocating you move into a cockroach-infested shack for 150 euros a month, I'm just clarifying that you don't need to stress too much about your initial rental contract, as you can easily move elsewhere later. And, actually, if you did find such an offer, it's a rather good deal for an LT rental contract for Immigration... and you keep staying in Airbnb while you search for something more suitable. :-)

@gwynj

Even cockroaches don't stay in some properties  you describe.  Lol

Just a note to say that the first part of the residency process is applying for your residency application appointment... By email.... Usually get a reply with a appointment date within 5-10 days if You dont get a reply then send again.... Once you have the reply with day you more or less can stay until such time as your appointment date irrespective of how long it takes to the appointment so no need to worry about 90/180 day rules ..just be sure to carry your appointment communication with you..