# British National (man) married to a Non EU woman, wanting to move to Cyprus...



## gregory1981 (May 9, 2014)

First post, be kind!

I'm a British man living in the UAE where i work. I was married to my wife (belarus passport) by a church in the UAE which belongs to the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf (not sure if thats any help for us).
We have a baby with dual nationality and my wife has an 11 year old daughter (belarus passport)

We have jump over hurdles to be together in the UAE and are finding it a very difficult place to live with a family.

I currently work offshore (self employed) and at present have no job in Cyprus, setting up my own self employed company in Cyprus would be an option if needed.

I lived in Cyprus for 3 years as a child (military father) and would love to live there.

We are looking at other options and would like to know if anyone has experienced a similar situation of can help point us in the right direction.

Thanks in advance, 
Gary and Ruslana


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## Baywatch (Mar 30, 2014)

gregory1981 said:


> First post, be kind!
> 
> I'm a British man living in the UAE where i work. I was married to my wife (belarus passport) by a church in the UAE which belongs to the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf (not sure if thats any help for us).
> We have a baby with dual nationality and my wife has an 11 year old daughter (belarus passport)
> ...


You should not have a problem living here. And your family has the right to stay here together with you. You can register as self employed here and work in Dubai, though you should pay tax here. But for the tax thing I would contact a tax lawyer here to find the best solution. 

Self employed in Cyprus is a very simple thing to do


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## gregory1981 (May 9, 2014)

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I'd be quite happy to setup a company in Cyprus or to use the Dubai company, either that is more beneficial for me and my family i will do.

So what would you advise our first steps? We are applying for a spouse visa for her to come and go from the UK as my wife. Clearly this will be of some use if she already has that.

Just want to know where to start really?

Also where do people live there days? Best place for schools and families etc?

Thanks


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## Rema (Aug 12, 2012)

Hi, welcome!

I am also British and married my non-EU wife at St Andrews in Abu Dhabi so we were in a similar place to you when we moved here although we don't have children of school age.

The process is very easy. As a UK national you will have no problem living here but your wife will need a residence visa, so you will have to apply for one too. Yours will have a lifetime validity but your wife's will be for 5 years when she will need to renew it. 
The immigration office in Paphos were very helpful and will give you a list go the documents you need, in particular is an attested copy of your wedding certificate. (You can get this done at the Cyprus embassy in Abu Dhabi), passport copy plus photo, tenancy/purchase agreement, proof of earnings and health insurance policy.
Go to the immigration office as soon as you can after arrival, they will give you a date for your interview and the documentation list. Depending on how busy they are this can be a couple of weeks so plenty of time to get the things you need.
Our interview was very easy and I got my yellow (residence) slip within 45mins. My wife's took two months as, being a non-EU, it had to go to head office in Nicosia for approval.
I assume the same process will apply for your children.

Watch out for the health insurance as it can be expensive.

You are doing right to get a UK visa for your wife. Mine got a 10 year one at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi before we left.

I can't advise on either employment or schooling but the villages around Paphos abound with (mostly!) decent expats so you will be in for a great time. Best of luck with things.


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## H&S (Jun 12, 2013)

Hi Gregory

Rema and Baywatch have given you good advice. I can add some information on schooling if it helps - in the Paphos district there are 4 private schools offering an English-style education.
The biggest one is the International School of Paphos which has good facilities and is pretty full at the moment. The other 3, the American Academy, The Learning Centre and Aspire are smaller, although Aspire is currently building new facilities at Chlorokas on the coast road. I may be wrong but I don't think all the smaller ones all have the necessary government licences yet.
Check out their websites and visit them to get an idea of how they all feel to your family.
When you are choosing schools here, it's handy to live fairly close by (15 minutes?), because at 7.15am when you will be driving there, the roads are more manic than usual!


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## gregory1981 (May 9, 2014)

Rema, 

Thanks for the long and detailed reply. It's nice to know someone who has been in a similar situation. 
I have a few more questions...

We plan to visit before we move to get an idea of the places we would like to live, view rental property, schools etc.
How exactly did you get your wife's visa to enter the country? And how long as it valid for, 30, 60, 90 days?

Did your wife's 10 year UK spouse visa help with entry or did you just simply apply through the Embassy in Abu Dhabi?

How does the housing work? Is it like Dubai with cheques or can you pay cash or each month?

Is there a website like Dubizzle? I think this would be a good start for houses?

Too many questions, sorry!! 


H&S, thanks for your reply about the schools, very helpful. We will be sure to check them out, we have a daughter who will soon be 12 and speaks Russian and a little English and our other daughter is only 3 months. I'm sure i will have more questions once the move date is nearer regarding this. Thanks!

Gary


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## Rema (Aug 12, 2012)

gregory1981 said:


> Rema,
> 
> Thanks for the long and detailed reply. It's nice to know someone who has been in a similar situation.
> I have a few more questions...
> ...


Hi Gary,

My wife came in on a Schengen visa. This is allowable provided the visa is both valid and has already been used, i.e. stamped by a Schengen member state. As we had been on holiday to Switzerland her's therefore qualified.
The maximum permitted stay in this case is 90 days in any 180 day period so multiple visits are permitted up to the max, provided the Schengen visa is still valid.

The UK 10 year visa is for the UK only and we did not see any advantage in it for Cyprus.

I can't tell you about renting as we bought our place and I have no knowledge of long term rentals.

Try BuySellCyprus.com as a starter for housing, there are other sites for general stuff and there is a Daily Deal site too.

Any further help I can give?

regards Rema


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

For rentals I would recommend any of the companies below.

Property for Long Term Rent in Paphos, Cyprus

Cyprus Property Prime > Home

Cyprus Villas - Your local holiday experts in Cyprus

They are all very professional and helpful.
They are our companies of choice if we have clients looking for rentals.

Rent is paid monthly here with one months deposit. Payment is usually made either to the rental agent or direct to the bank account of the owner, according to agreement.


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## Ken and Valery (Jan 17, 2014)

Hello Gary Ruslana!.

I am not sure if I can help you out a little. I for 20 years worked as an Immigration Lawyer in a specialist firm in London. Before retiring the end of 2013. And moving here to Cyprus!). All of the comments should provide you with very much help here!. But there are some points they have missed with regard to non eu wife status in obtaining Cypriot Residency for 5 years..

I am not sure what kind of Visa you have applied for in the U.K. You mentioned Spouse Visa?. That is a little confusing in my reading. As a UK Spouse visa is for residency in the U.K. However if you are going to make Cyprus your main residence or your wife is, then the Spouse Visa will be nullified. And you will loose the Uk Spouse Visa entitlement. The UK spouse visa therefore is soley for main residence in the U.K. If your wife or you are outside the U.K.for more than 6 months then it is cancelled. Also the U.K. Spouse Visa will offer you no benefit in coming to Cyprus. 

There are many new stipulations with regard to Spouse Visa Applications to the Uk. Check with UKBA. If you are self employed then the salary stipulations are seemingly not as straight forward. The UKBA are rejecting now many applications based on new criterias. I can help you if you need to have more information regarding this.

As the members have stated as you are an EU citizen you are entitled to bring your non- eu wife to any EU country and settle. The Cypriot Immigration Office require the following.

A full valid visa. You can obtain this from the local CYpriot Embassy in your country of residence. Call them for further information. This is normally issued on the day. And it must be for 3 months or the Cyprus Immigration Dep will not issue your wife the residency.

On arrival in Cyprus register at the local Police Station which is if in Paphos the Immigration Dep there. Then they will give you an appropriate date normally in a week to bring to them the below documentation. After which when you return to Paphos Immigration and the lady will collate your and your wifes documentation and send them to Nicosia. You and your wife will be issued with Pink Receipts. These should suffice for your wife to return to Cyprus without a visa. Also any stay our of CYprus for more than 6 months will cancel your application.

You will need the following.

1. You will have to prove the legitimacy of the marriage through an Apostille stamp on the marriage certificate. And produce a certified translated copy by a notary. (do not hand in your original marriage cert and obtain a translation by an official notary)
2.Adequate Health Insurance that remains for the 1 year period. You will be entitled to get a less exhaustive cover than your wife as you are an EU citizen although not recommended (may I point out that it should be in english or greek.) If you obtain it in Arabic then it will be viewed not favourably and the application will be rejected. Which implies you to pay yet again revenue to the Immigration Authorities. Also your children will also have to obtain health insurance.
3. Finances and Proof of Earnings. If you are going to be self employed then that may prove difficult for the Cyprus Immigration Office. Which is not good. As this is a new business I assume with no established base in Cyprus, cash flow etc?. Therefore funds held in a bank can suffice. Such as Bank Statements or holdings.(whilst EU law states nothing but a marriage cert and appropriate fee. Member countries have the right to their own discretion. There is no good jumping up and down about it. As some expats do)
4. A Tenancy agreement. Which must be stamped by the local Muktar. Also the tax stamps must be placed on the tenancy agreement. This is available from the local tax office of the region. 
5. A visit to the District Court in order to Stamp the Tenancy Agreement for its recognition of the above.
6.You mention that your wife has a children.They would have to have health insurance.
7.When you have completed this then you have to wait for 6 months. That is the 'official' time scale. However in Rema's case such is not unknown to obtain it in 2 months or 3 months. There are others who wait even longer than 6 months. However such cases normally have unclear applications. If your application is above board then it should be without problems.

And finally with regard to Paphos Immigration. Be very wary if they disclude any of the above as necessary. Many of my clients from the UK previously were led up the garden path with poor service and in my book possibly deliberate errors to delay and reject applications with certain individuals in Paphos Immigration who I am sure still are there. All they do is collate information in your case. And post it too Nicosia. They have nothing to do with the processing.

If I can be of any further assistance.Then I will be more than happy to help!. GOODLUCK!


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## Rema (Aug 12, 2012)

Ken and Valery said:


> Hello Gary Ruslana!.
> 
> I am not sure if I can help you out a little. I for 20 years worked as an Immigration Lawyer in a specialist firm in London. Before retiring the end of 2013. And moving here to Cyprus!). All of the comments should provide you with very much help here!. But there are some points they have missed with regard to non eu wife status in obtaining Cypriot Residency for 5 years..
> 
> ...


Hi Ken,

You are not quite 100% right here, at least from our experience.

The folk in Paphos immigration do process the information and are not just postmen. This is how I got my residence yellow slip, not just the receipt, within 45 mins during our initial interview. You are right though for the non-EU application, that has to go to Nicosia - as I mentioned previously.

We also did not need to get any permissions from either the Muktar or District Court - maybe because we had a sale agreement rather than a tenancy agreement but it was neither presented nor stamped by either body.

Re the visa, you don't necessarily need a full Cypriot visa. My wife had, as I mentioned, a Schengen visa rather than a Cypriot visit visa. So long as this has been previously used and is still valid this is acceptable here in Cyprus

Re leaving Cyprus while the application is in progress, we were advised to be away no longer than 2 weeks. If you are out longer then it may be cancelled. I was led to believe it depends on when the authorities process your application. Apparently if you are logged by immigration as being outside the country when they review your case it will most likely be rejected. They surmise that if you want a residence visa to live here then, logically, you should be present in the country not out of it.

We may have been very lucky with my wife's application. We were prepared for a six month wait, as advised by everybody we spoke to but it came through almost two months to the day following the interview and this was over the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

I understand your reticence about trusting the authorities, I am very much in the same boat. However praise where praise is due. The level of service and help we had from the Paphos immigration officials was excellent and could not be faulted. Actually the same applies to the customs people when we shipped goods from both UK and Abu Dhabi.

I do realise others may not have had such a smooth ride as we have had but it's important to present a balanced picture.

Best regards


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## Ken and Valery (Jan 17, 2014)

Hi Just back in response with you Rema. I am not being rude, but I feel that you are as you stated writing from "your experience". Fortunatley it was a good experience you had!. In fact your experience was and could not have been better!. Sadly this is not always the case. 

The reason I suggested for a Cyprus Visa is because a Schengen Visa is very much more a detailed application and with a waiting time of 2 weeks. Also there would be no need for him to apply for a Schengen Visa as they would not be travelling through a Schengen Zone. Cyprus is not in the Schengen zone. On top of this the Cyprus Visa would allow his wife to travel in and out of the island for a further 90 days. Which would avoid confusion of re/entry.

The Embassy of Cyprus in London state that a visa is required for an application for residency permit for a non eu citizen. In otherwords not a visa free entry as Cyprus has with for example Russia or Ukraine. 

I understand that Paphos offered you your yellow slip there and there. Which actually is not the normal process. Normally when a EU Citizen submits his application for family member non eu they are processed 'together' with his non eu wife. It is true that a Eu citizen gets his or her yellow slip sooner than their non eu partner. But on the very day is almost unheard of. Normally the Eu citizen gets his approx 1 month after the application has been made. His wife or her husband 2-6mths.

Also I think that you have been very fortunate indeed. I do admit that the list I originally posted seems quite perhaps troublesome under Cypriot Law. But that is what is officially is expected by a person who is looking to rent a home in Cyprus and obtain residency for his non-eu wife. Its best to present everything than have something rejected. Given that the time scale can be a waiting period of up to 6 months. Then if something is rejected over something that could have been avoided then its best to avoid that. Also you are a homeowner. This makes matters different.

In some places immigration officials are unfamiliar with the rules around exercising your Treaty Rights, it is worth having a letter outlining your intent, and quoting Directive 2004/38/ec of the European Parliament which establishes the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States.

It is also fair to state that a Paphos Immigration official is not qualified to give advice on border control. You will find that out if you ask him to put it into writing officially. He or she will soon back down. The scare tactics of not being able to be out of the country for 2 weeks is also highly inaccurate. As long as the person is less than 6 mths out of the country they cannot deny the resident permit.

I do not think that I have been imbalanced at all. I am trying to be as helpful as I can to anybody who faces this situation. Not to pay attention to the above points that I quoted for Greg is playing a risky game.

As stated not being rude to you. At the end of the day we both want to help!)


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## Rema (Aug 12, 2012)

Dear Ken,

Why on earth did you think I was being rude? I wanted to make it clear to Gregory that this was our experience of the immigration process and not, as per your post, an interpretation of the rules. There are some clear differences between theory and practice so don’t get upset if your rules are not as I found the process in action. 

However, your advice was not comprehensive as you failed to mention the Schengen visa as an alternative to a full Cypriot visa. It’s possible that Gregory’s wife may already be in possession of a suitable visa, as my wife was, which would negate the need to apply for a Cypriot one. Incidentally, applying for a Schengen visa is very easy and does not take any longer than applying for a UK or Cypriot one in most cases.

I’m not sure what you imply about ‘scare tactics of not being able to be out of the country for 2 weeks’.
Both the Nicosia immigration office and our (very good) Cypriot lawyer, not to mention previous posts on this forum, all recommend that once the application is in progress you should not leave the country, let alone for 6 months! This may be contrary to the letter of the law but you will find EU laws and directives etc. are not always applied as intended in Cyprus. They are a law unto themselves here so be-warned.

You mention your client’s past problems with the Paphos immigration dept. This is totally contrary to our experience; we found the staff excellent and very helpful, at all levels of the establishment. Perhaps, after living in the Middle East for many years, I approached them in a different way. Too many ex pat newbies adopt a superior attitude with the locals, only to get upset with the negative results.

I note that your problem with the letting agent was due to an Englishman not performing as expected. It is sometimes commented on that ex-pats who come over and set themselves up as experts and professionals cause more problems and usually charge far more than locals. On the other hand I know of expats who have set up resale and letting agencies, amongst other occupations, who perform an excellent service from home. My point being we should not judge all by one bad experience. This should apply to dealings with local officials too where I fear you have developed a jaundiced opinion. 

I’m sorry to hear about your problems with the lack of adequate heating leading to health issues. I’m sure the warmer weather will improve both your health and your experience of living in Cyprus.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

I don't think that Richard (Rema) was being rude in any way.
We all have different experiences and can only say it as we see it from a personal point of view.
By giving different experiences people can have a better idea of the vagueries of how things work here and can be prepared for anything.
That is what this forum is about and there is no need to fall out because we see things from different angles.

Veronica


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

This thread is now closed as it is degenerating into a personal slanging match.


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