# Bank accounts and residency



## Edge111 (Nov 18, 2008)

Sounds a bit complicated but, honestly done compared to the corrupt procedures in Odessa, Ukraine.

Now, another question: All of my retirement pensions are directly deposited to my bank in Texas. I can prove my income by statements from my pension providers. It would be practically impossible to have my pensions directly deposited to a bank in Cyprus. Is opening a bank account in Cyprus a mandatory requirement for residence?


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## BabsM (May 24, 2008)

Obviously, residence is a different issue to importing a car so I have made this a separate thread......

The way I understand it, what Cyprus is looking for is to see that you are making a life here and that includes receiving an income. So yes, you will need a bank account in Cyprus although I don't know if it is mandatory. As far as we worked out, you need in excess of 10,000Euros in accounts in Cyprus plus a regular income of some sort to prove you are of 'independent means' and therefore fit to retire here!. 

When you go to register for residency immigration require copies of your bank statements for both your 'original' country and for Cyprus. The Cyprus ones have to be certified by your bank and be current ie no more that 48hrs old. We think they wanted to see that the majority of our money has been moved to Cyprus. Friends of ours got told to move some money because they had the majority in a bank account in Britain and had no visible income in Cypriot accoutns. 

For us Brits it is possible to get some pensions paid directly into a Cypriot bank accounts using the TAPS system (don't ask me what it stands for!). The money is transfered by the pension provider at preferential exchange rate. For example the exchange rate for my latest payment was more than 10% over the bank exchange rate for the day (hope that makes sense!). There is a charge but we reckoned that the increased exchange rate compensates.

When it comes down to it, if you are going to live in Cyprus you will need ready access to money for day to day living and a local account to pay bills. Why not have a bank account in Cyprus? Your money is probably just as safe as anywhere else!


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## grumpy (Nov 10, 2007)

I agree with babs, simply open an account anyway.

If your pension only goes to a Texas bank, then have a forward transfer arranged as required.


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