Civil Registry and Migration Department Cyprus: Which Office, Which Form, Which Documents

The Migration Department sits under the Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection and works from one office, at Archbishop Makarios III Avenue 90 in Nicosia. Everywhere else you file at the police District Aliens and Immigration Unit. Most of the government's own websites, and most guides online, still use the old CRMD name.

DigiCare Insurance places residence cover for applicants on almost every route below, so we read these checklists the week they change. Everything here is what the department itself publishes.

The short version:

What is the Civil Registry and Migration Department, and what is it called now?

The department says so on its own site, under “Who we are”:

“Before the establishment of the Deputy Ministry, the Department was called the 'Civil Registry and Migration Department', it was part of the Ministry of Interior ... Today the Department is responsible for migration issues.”

Its form letterheads now read ΤΜΗΜΑ ΜΕΤΑΝΑΣΤΕΥΣΗΣ / MIGRATION DEPARTMENT, so the Greek term to search for is Τμήμα Μετανάστευσης.

Where each half went. Residence permits, registration certificates, immigration permits, long-term resident status, employment and student permits and family reunification are Migration Department work. Births, deaths, identity cards, passports, marriages and Cypriot citizenship belong to the Civil Registry Section of the Ministry of the Interior. If you came for a birth certificate or an ID card, that link is your destination.

Which name, and which website, is current. Five live surfaces, five different answers:

Nobody has finished retiring the old name, including the department: its own Digital Nomad page still tells applicants to submit to “the Civil Registry and Migration Department in Nicosia”. Searching the former name is not a mistake, and a form carrying it is not automatically out of date. The date on the document tells you more than the name in the header.

Where you file is a separate question from who decides. Applications from outside the Nicosia district are lodged at the police District Aliens and Immigration Unit for your district, which forwards them for examination. There is no Migration Department office in Limassol, Larnaca or Paphos; those cities have police units. For addresses and hours, see our guide to the Cyprus city immigration offices, or the pages for Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca and Paphos.

The department also does not decide asylum claims, grant citizenship, issue identity cards, register births or deaths, or conduct marriages. Asylum is the Asylum Service; the rest is the Civil Registry Section.

Which form do I file for my permit, and where?

Which form does an EU citizen file? (MEU1)

An EU, EEA or Swiss citizen staying longer than three months applies for a Registration Certificate, the Yellow Slip, on form MEU1. The fee is €20 per family member, first issue or renewal, and gov.cy says the application is examined “within one month at the latest”. Whether you need health cover depends on your sub-category, set out below. Full walkthrough: the MEU1 Yellow Slip guide and Yellow Slip insurance.

“Not published” means exactly that, and estimating a figure would be guesswork. On its current pages the department publishes no fee for the Immigration Permit in Categories A to F, long-term residence, employment or student routes, and no examination target for those same four routes plus the UK routes. The two MIP2 routes part company here: the investor route under Regulation 6(2) publishes both a fee and a target, and Categories A to F publish neither. Published validity: visitor permit and Digital Nomad Visa one year on first issue, MEU2 Residence Card five years, and UK form UKW2 five years, UKW3 ten.

MEU3 has two variants, one for EU citizens and EU-citizen family members, one for third-country-national family members. The €20 fee and six-month target above come from the latter, so check which of the two forms pages matches your household before downloading.

The Immigration Permit application, for Categories A to F and Regulation 6(2) alike, is Form MIP2. Older guidance and some advisers still call it M.67; the current forms pages serve MIP2 and nothing else. See permanent residency in Cyprus, Category F for retirees and the pink slip guide.

Whichever route you file, two side-forms go with it: Authorisation of Representative and Declaration of Mailing Address. At first registration you also pay the second €70 into the Aliens' Registry and receive an Alien Registration Card. The ARC number on it is what the department asks for whenever you contact them later.

What documents does the Migration Department want from me?

The shared pack. A valid passport, which on the visitor route needs at least three months' validity from the date of submission. Proof of address: title deed, contract of sale with proof of payment, rental agreement, or a host's declaration. An original criminal record certificate, certified and translated. Plus the two side-forms above. The Declaration of Mailing Address deserves more attention than it gets: decisions and refusals go to the latest declared address, and gov.cy states that “updating their address is the absolute responsibility of the applicants.”

The visitor pack (MVIS8). Foreign remittances into a Cyprus account “should not be less than €2,000 per month or €24,000 per year for one person”, rising by 20% for a spouse and 15% per child, with transfers abroad or to third parties excluded. A first permit also accepts a cash transfer or deposit of at least €10,000. On renewal the balance must be not less than €6,000, described as three months' income regardless of family size. A bank letter of guarantee runs ten years, the amount depending on your country of origin. Criminal record certificate and medical tests are required “ONLY for the 1st Permit”. Costs: our pink slip cost guide.

Digital Nomad Visa income. The current gov.cy checklist asks for “sufficient and stable monthly living resources amounting to at least €3500” net of contributions and tax. That is a monthly figure, and the only income figure the checklist states.

The 1 September 2026 medical rule. New and narrow, and we have not found it in another guide. It applies to Immigration Permit applications in Categories A to F, and to those only. From 1 September 2026, applicants and their dependants must submit original blood test results conducted abroad showing they do not have hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV or syphilis, plus an original chest X-ray for tuberculosis from the country of origin and/or last country of lawful residence, certified or legalised unless a bilateral agreement exempts them. The tests are not required again, though, where the applicant already holds a Cyprus temporary residence permit under which they were submitted and the results are still on file.

Set that against the visitor route, which wants the same tests “stamped by a specialist doctor from the Republic of Cyprus”. Same diseases, opposite country of testing. What each involves: our guide to the Cyprus residence medical examination.

Health insurance, route by route. The requirement is worded differently on every checklist, and on two routes it does not exist.

How do I book an appointment, contact them, or check my status?

How long does the Migration Department take?

Part of the timetable is your responsibility. The application is filed within four months of entry into the Republic, as the MEU1, MEU2 and UK-nationals pages all state, and you must attend in person: a lawyer may come with you but cannot submit in your place. Expect a decision by post on MEU1, and biometrics on MEU2 and MEU3, where photograph, fingerprints and signature are taken, or a photograph only under age six. On MEU3 the Union citizen attends alongside the family member.

Frequently asked questions

Need the certificate before your appointment?