There is a citizenship program in force in Cyprus, which means that if your purchase real estate on Cyprus or make any other investments, you have the right to apply for citizenship.

Advantages of the citizenship program:

• Express procedure- receive the passport of the Republic of Cyprus within 6-8 months.
• No need to permanently reside on Cyprus.
• Visa-free travel to many countries in the world, including the EU.
• No requirement of giving up the previous citizenship, hence you have the right to hold a dual citizenship.
• A citizen of Cyprus enjoys the same rights as the citizens of the EU.
• The citizenship is automatically granted to the spouse, as well as minor children and financially dependent children up to 28 years old.
• Low state fees when applying for citizenship.
• The choice of an investment opportunity is vast: real estate, various assets, as well as a combination of different investment types.

Investment options:

• Investment in residential and commercial real estate.
• Investment in financial assets of Cypriot companies.
• Mergers and Acquisitions of Cypriot companies.
• Investment in shipping industry 
• Development projects
• A combination of any of the above mentioned investment options.

The investor must adhere to the requirements of receiving the citizenship:

• Minimum investment amount – 2 million euros (excluding VAT).
• A donation of €75,000 to the land development.
• A donation of €75,000 for research and business innovation development.
• At the time of submitting the citizenship application investor + spouse should be in possession of a valid Schengen visa. 
• Maintaining the investments for at least 5 years.
• Applicants who were rejected by another EU country shall be excluded from the CIP and their applications will automatically be rejected by the Ministry. 
• Absence of criminal convictions of the applicant, as well as of their spouse and adult children.
• The investor must be an owner of at least one real estate property on Cyprus, the value of which must be of at least 500 000 euros.

ATTENTION! In cases where the applicant is purchasing residential properties that have already been used by another applicant for his/her application, then the investment amount will be increased to €2,5 million.

Naturalization

It is possible to become a citizen of Cyprus the standard way, through naturalization. For this you need to live in the country for 7 years. If one of the spouses has is granted the citizenship, after 2-3 months all minor children will automatically receive the citizenship as well. The spouse of a citizen of Cyprus may apply for the citizenship after 3 years.