South Cyprus Tightens “Golden Visa” Scheme Ahead of Schengen Entry

According to Haravgi, Yoannidis made the remarks during a meeting of the House Committee on Monitoring and Control of Public Expenditure, where an Audit Office report on migration management was discussed.

The “golden visa” scheme grants permanent residency to foreign nationals in exchange for investment in real estate or other economic investments.

Yoannidis said around 1,500 golden visas had been issued over the past two years. He added that strict checks were being carried out on around 12,000 passports granted in exchange for investment since 2013 to determine whether their holders continued to meet the relevant criteria.

Yoannidis also said an information system designed to track third-country nationals from their entry into South Cyprus until their departure was being developed.

Citing Audit Office data for 2021–2023, he noted that the departure of around 290,000 third-country nationals who had legally entered South Cyprus was not recorded in the available data.

Yoannidis said the situation had since changed, with information systems being linked to those of other ministries, while the new system was expected to be established by next March.

Referring to political asylum statistics, Yoannidis said the number of applications had declined, falling from 24,000 to 12,500 since the deputy ministry was established.

Regarding Syrian nationals, Yoannidis said more than 6,100 applications had either been withdrawn or cancelled since December 2024, while around 5,500 Syrians had returned to Syria.