Category F Health Insurance Cyprus: CRMD-Accepted Cover for Your Permanent Residence Application
Private medical insurance for your Form M.67 packet. Same-business-day certificate, from €120/year, accepted by the Civil Registry & Migration Department for retirees and financially independent non-EU applicants.
A valid private health insurance certificate is part of the Category F application packet for every non-EU applicant who isn't yet registered with GESY. The Civil Registry & Migration Department lists it as a required document on Form M.67.
Category F health insurance: the short answer
Category F health insurance is a private medical policy from a Cyprus-licensed insurer that non-EU applicants attach to a Cyprus Permanent Residence application. The Civil Registry and Migration Department accepts the standardised Plan A certificate, which names the applicant and every dependant and covers in-patient and out-patient care in Cyprus. The term is one year, renewable. Cover starts from €120 a year.
Why Category F applicants choose DigiCare
5 to 7 year wait, one agency
Cyprus immigration lawyers report that the CRMD is still working through Category F files submitted in 2019 and 2020, a real wait of roughly 5 to 7 years from submission. No regulation sets that timetable. Your annual policy renews with us the whole time, at the price we quoted you on day one wherever the underwriter lets us hold it.
CRMD documentary fit
We issue the certificate in the format the M.67 packet accepts: applicant and named dependants, inpatient and outpatient care, repatriation, with the Cyprus-licensed insurer named on the face of the document.
Same business day
Confirm your details online and we email your certificate the same business day. You attach the PDF directly to your Form M.67 packet. No queue, no courier.
3-language support
We speak English, Russian, and Greek. Every quote, every renewal email, every certificate in the language you actually use at home.
What is Category F health insurance, and who issues it?
Category F health insurance is a private medical policy that non-EU nationals applying for a Cyprus Permanent Residence Permit must include in their Form M.67 packet. It's issued by a Cyprus-licensed insurer and accepted by the Civil Registry & Migration Department.
I get this question every week, usually from retirees who've just landed in Limassol with a stack of paperwork that's three inches thick. The health certificate isn't a 'nice to have.' It sits on the CRMD's documentary checklist for the Form M.67 application packet, right next to the income proof, the accommodation contract, and the apostilled criminal record. The legal foundation is Regulation 5(f) of the Aliens and Immigration Regulations, made under the Aliens and Immigration Law (Cap. 105). The Council of Ministers grants the permit. The CRMD is the office that reviews your file. The policy must cover the applicant and every named dependant, and it has to be issued by an insurer licensed in Cyprus. Your home-country private insurance doesn't qualify, no matter how comprehensive it looks on paper.
For the eligibility side of the picture, see the underlying Category F visa explained in the retiree guide.
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Start my quoteWho needs Category F health insurance?
Category F insurance is for non-EU nationals applying for a Cyprus Permanent Residence Permit with secure annual income from abroad. That's primarily retirees, pensioners, and passive-income recipients with at least €9,568 a year for the main applicant and €4,613 a year per dependant.
Income from abroad
At least €9,568 per year from outside Cyprus for the main applicant.
Per-dependant top-up
Plus €4,613 per year for each dependant (spouse and children under 18).
No Cyprus employment
You cannot be employed in Cyprus on Category F. You can be a director or shareholder of a Cyprus company and draw dividends.
Accommodation
A Cyprus rental contract or property purchase, in your name.
Clean record
Apostilled criminal record from your country of origin, usually refreshed every three years.
Not Category F? Try the right route.
Not sure Category F is your route at all? We compare all four Cyprus permanent residency routes, and who each one is for on income, fee and waiting time.
What insurance does the CRMD accept for Category F applications in 2026?
The Civil Registry & Migration Department accepts a private health insurance certificate issued by a Cyprus-licensed insurer that covers the applicant and every named dependant for inpatient and outpatient care during their Cyprus stay, with repatriation of remains included as market-standard.
I'll be honest with you here. The CRMD doesn't publish line-item coverage minimums anywhere on its public pages. What we work from is what every immigration officer at the Nicosia and Limassol district units has accepted for the last decade, and what every Cyprus-licensed insurer writes into a Plan-A-equivalent policy.
CRMD-fit certificate checklist
Issued by a Cyprus-licensed insurer (not your home-country insurer, not a travel insurer)
Inpatient cover of at least €13,700/year, with €8,600 per illness or accident, and outpatient cover of at least €1,710/year: the market-standard minimums every district unit has accepted for a decade (some insurers print €13,750 and €1,750)
Repatriation of remains, with the certificate stating "transportation of mortal remains" word-for-word: the exact wording the CRMD checklist looks for
A 12-month policy term, matching the full permit period
Names every dependant individually, with date of birth and passport number on the certificate face
DigiCare's Category F certificate carries this exact wording, so it clears the CRMD counter on the first pass.
Specific line-item amounts (inpatient cap, outpatient cap, reimbursement percentage) are market practice rather than statute. The Cyprus-licensed insurers we place policies with hit the same internal benchmarks the CRMD has accepted for years. We don't quote those numbers as if they were law, because they aren't, and Cap. 105 doesn't publish them.
How to attach your health insurance certificate to Form M.67
Most retirees I work with assume the certificate is the last thing they attach. It isn't. The CRMD won't accept a 'to be obtained' placeholder, which means the policy needs to be live before you walk into the district immigration unit.
Buy the policy first
Confirm your details, pay, and we email the certificate the same business day. The CRMD will not accept Form M.67 packets that promise the insurance is on its way. The certificate has to be in the folder when you walk in.
Name every dependant
Spouse and each child under 18 go on the same policy, with date of birth and passport number. Get one digit wrong and the certificate has to be re-issued, so triple-check before you sign off. We catch typos on the second pass more often than I'd like to admit.
Include the original certificate in the packet
English is accepted at every district immigration unit. A certified Greek translation is only required if your local CRMD office specifically asks for one. For applications going through Nicosia, English alone is normally fine.
Submit at the district immigration unit
Attach the apostilled criminal record (refreshed within the last three months) and your bank-deposit letter for the €15,000 to €20,000 Cyprus deposit. Pay the €500 application fee plus the €70 Aliens Registration Certificate fee per person.
The application is Form M.67. In some current procedure documents the form is referenced as MIP2. Both refer to the same Category F application packet, just under different internal codes the CRMD has used over the years.
What medical documents does a Category F application need from 1 September 2026?
From 1 September 2026, Immigration Permit applications under Categories A-F need original blood tests for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV and Syphilis conducted abroad, plus an original chest X-ray for tuberculosis issued in the country of origin or last country of lawful residence. Category F applications are in scope.
Original blood tests for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV and Syphilis, conducted abroad.
An original chest X-ray for tuberculosis, issued in the country of origin or the last country of lawful residence.
Certification and legalisation attached to the originals, not to a copy or a scan: an apostille where that country is party to the Hague Apostille Convention, which Cyprus joined in 1972, or consular legalisation through the Cyprus diplomatic mission where it is not.
One exception to legalisation: a bilateral intergovernmental agreement between Cyprus and that country. The release does not publish the list of those agreements, so check with your District Immigration Unit before paying for an apostille.
The tests are not required again where the applicant already holds a temporary residence permit in the Republic, the required medical examinations were submitted under that permit, and the results are still retained in the relevant administrative file. For a Pink Slip holder moving on to an Immigration Permit, that is the clause to read closely. The release does not say whether a screening carried out in Cyprus counts, because it never mentions the Pink Slip panel, so ask your District Immigration Unit whether your results are on the file before booking a flight home for a fresh blood draw.
This is an immigration-documents rule, not an insurance condition. It changes what goes in the envelope, not what the policy has to cover. The health insurance certificate is a separate document and its requirements are unchanged.
The Migration Department published the rule on 25 June 2026, and it applies to applications submitted from 1 September 2026.
The full rule, including how the Pink Slip panel differs, is in our guide to the Cyprus residence medical examination.
Get the certificate that goes in the same envelopeCategory F private insurance vs GESY: what changes once the PR card lands?
Private health insurance is mandatory while your Category F application is pending. Once your PR card is issued and you become a legal Cyprus resident, you can register for GESY. Most retirees I work with keep a complementary private policy for shorter waits, private rooms, and second opinions.
Cyprus immigration lawyers report that the CRMD is currently processing Category F applications filed in 2019 and 2020, which works out to a real wait of 5 to 7 years from submission. The Auditor-General's February 2026 report looked at a different queue in the same department, almost 11,900 pending citizenship files with naturalisation averaging 37.7 months. Your insurance has to remain in force the whole time, which is why we quote and renew you annually rather than treat the certificate as a one-off purchase.
For the public scheme detail, the General Healthcare System (GESY) official site lists eligibility and registration steps.
UK pensioners: does an S1 form or GeSY replace Category F health insurance?
No CRMD or gov.cy document lists a UK S1 form, or GeSY registration, as a substitute for the Category F health insurance certificate. GeSY registration normally needs legal Cyprus residence, which a pending Category F application does not yet grant. UK pensioners should expect to buy the private certificate, and should confirm their own file with their District Immigration Unit.
Two systems run side by side here and they answer different questions. The certificate is an immigration document: it goes in the application packet and satisfies the requirement to hold medical cover. GeSY (General Healthcare System) is healthcare access, and it begins once a person is lawfully resident and registered with the Health Insurance Organisation. A UK State Pension recipient can still apply for an S1 after Brexit, which registers them with GeSY through the Health Insurance Organisation at no Cyprus-side contribution on that pension. Standard GeSY co-payments still apply, and the separate 2.65% GeSY levy on other Cyprus-taxable income is not waived by S1 status. Early retirees who have not yet reached UK State Pension age do not qualify for an S1 at all. UK nationals who first took up Cyprus residence on or after 1 January 2021 are third-country nationals for immigration purposes, which puts them on the Category F or Pink Slip route rather than the MEU1 yellow slip. Only those lawfully resident before 31 December 2020 keep their protected Withdrawal Agreement status.
| What it is | When it starts working | Accepted on the Category F application? |
|---|---|---|
| Portable document S1: a UK certificate that makes the UK the funding state for your Cyprus healthcare once you draw the UK State Pension. | After you are lawfully resident in Cyprus and the Ministry of Health registers the S1 with the Health Insurance Organisation. | No. No CRMD or gov.cy document lists an S1 as a substitute for the private certificate. |
| GeSY (General Healthcare System): the Cyprus public healthcare scheme, run by the Health Insurance Organisation. | After registration, which normally requires legal Cyprus residence. A pending Category F application does not grant it. | Not at the application stage. Most Category F applicants are not yet GeSY beneficiaries when the file goes in, and the private certificate is what the packet carries. |
| Cyprus-licensed private certificate (Plan A): a one-year medical policy from an insurer licensed in Cyprus, naming the applicant and every dependant. | From the day the policy incepts. DigiCare emails the certificate the same business day. | Yes. This is the document district immigration units have accepted for the Category F packet for years. |
Cyprus law and the published CRMD pages are silent on the S1 either way, so treat this as the safe reading rather than a settled rule. Ask your District Immigration Unit to confirm your own file before you submit without a certificate.
Who qualifies for an S1 and how to apply for one is set out in the NHS guide to planning your healthcare when living abroad.
Price the certificate for your Category F packetPlan A certificate or comprehensive cover: which should a Cyprus retiree buy?
Plan A is the immigration document. Comprehensive Cyprus medical cover is the healthcare. A Plan A certificate clears the Category F application from €120 a year, with in-patient cover of at least €13,700 and pre-existing conditions excluded. Retirees who want private treatment for a condition they already have need a comprehensive plan as well.
| What it is | Typical limits | Price band | Who it suits | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan A immigration certificate: the one-year policy a Cyprus-licensed insurer issues for the Category F packet. | In-patient at least €13,700 a year (€8,600 per incident), out-patient at least €1,710 a year (€700 per incident), transportation of remains from €3,420, reimbursed at 90%. Exact limits and any per-claim deductible vary by insurer. | From €120 a year for an adult. €200 to €300 a year in the 65 to 79 band. | Every Category F applicant. It is issued without medical underwriting, so age and health history do not block it. | Pre-existing conditions are excluded. Most certificates cover treatment inside the Republic of Cyprus only, and dental work and routine check-ups usually sit outside the policy. |
| Comprehensive Cyprus medical plan: a full private health policy from a Cyprus-licensed insurer, medically underwritten. | Far higher annual limits than the certificate, with private rooms, a chosen specialist, diagnostics and out-patient care in one policy. | €1,238 to €2,499 a year at age 60, and €3,317 to €6,225 at age 70, on DigiCare's published D-Care rates from June 2026 with a €350 excess. | Retirees who want private treatment rather than a document. Written by a Cyprus-licensed insurer, it can also satisfy the packet, provided the certificate carries the repatriation wording the CRMD looks for. | Underwriting tightens from the mid-60s. Some insurers stop taking new applicants past 65 to 70, and a condition you already have usually carries a waiting period or a permanent exclusion. |
| GeSY after the PR card: the Cyprus public system, once you are a legal resident registered with the Health Insurance Organisation. | The public network in full, with co-payments at the point of use and an annual co-payment cap of €150 (€75 for low-income households and for children up to 21). | 2.65% of pension income for pensioners, plus the same rate on other Cyprus-taxable income. A UK State Pensioner with an S1 pays no Cyprus-side contribution on that pension. | Residents who already hold the card and want the cheapest route to routine care. | It is not available while the Category F file is pending. No private rooms, no repatriation of remains, and waiting times run on the public network. |
At 68 with a heart condition, a Plan A certificate is enough for the Category F application but not for the condition itself, because pre-existing conditions are excluded, so most retirees in that position buy the certificate for the permit and price comprehensive cover separately.
Comprehensive options and what they cost are on our Cyprus health insurance page, and the plan tiers behind those figures are on the D-Care health insurance page.
Compare the certificate and a full plan on your own ageFamily cover, renewals, and the 2-year absence rule
A single Category F policy can cover the main applicant, the spouse, and children under 18. Children re-issue as their own policyholder the year they turn 18 if they want to keep residency on their own application. The policy renews annually while your application is pending and after the card lands.
Annual renewal alongside the application
Your insurance renews every year for as long as your file sits in the CRMD queue, and again every year after your PR card is issued. We send a renewal reminder 30 days before expiry so the cover never lapses while your file is open.
Two years' absence cancels the permit
The published rule is an absence rule, not a visit schedule. Your permit ceases to be valid if you acquire permanent residence abroad or are absent from Cyprus for a period of two years, and your policy lapses with the permit. "Visit every two years" is a paraphrase nobody official wrote.
Children at 18
Adult children lose dependant status the year they turn 18. If they want to stay on Category F, they apply on their own merits with their own income, accommodation, and health certificate. We move them onto their own policy without disturbing yours.
The residence right itself has unlimited validity. The PR card expires ten years from the date it is issued and has to be replaced when it does, so permanent status doesn't expire, only the card.
Add a dependant in 60 secondsHow much does Category F health insurance cost?
Category F health insurance runs €120 to €300 per adult per year in Cyprus, with retirees over 65 paying toward the higher end. Children under 18 are typically €100 to €150 each. DigiCare's adult floor is from €120/year for a standard occupation.
NOT insurance: A few costs get confused with the health insurance every week. The €15,000 to €20,000 non-pledged Cyprus bank deposit is part of the Category F financial-means test, not an insurance premium. The €500 government application fee and the €70 Aliens Registration Certificate fee per person are paid to the CRMD, not to DigiCare. We sell the health insurance certificate. The bank deposit and government fees are separate parts of the application bundle.
For seniors aged 80 and over, the underwriting is age-banded and we quote on a case-by-case basis. Send us a date of birth and any pre-existing condition notes, and we'll come back with the firm price.
Your exact premium depends on age, pre-existing conditions, and which Cyprus-licensed insurer we place the policy with. We're an independent insurance agency, which means we match the cheapest compliant policy to your profile rather than push one carrier's price.
Get a price for my profileWhich Cyprus residence permit are you applying for?
Most Cyprus residence routes ask for proof of medical cover, but the wording, limits and price change from one permit to the next.
Pink Slip
Non-EU nationals applying for or renewing a temporary residence permit.
from €120/yr
Yellow Slip
EU, EEA and Swiss citizens registering MEU1 who are not working in Cyprus. Workers are usually covered through GeSY.
from €120/yr
Category F
You are hereRetirees and other non-EU applicants for permanent residence on secure income from abroad.
from €120/yr
Student visa
Non-EU students at a Cyprus university, college or school. They apply for a pink slip.
from €120/yr
Work permit
Employers arrange and submit the medical cover for non-EU employees and domestic workers on a Cyprus work permit.
from €120/yr
Digital nomad & other permits
Digital Nomad Visa applicants, anyone on another permit route, and anyone unsure which applies.
Priced by permit
Frequently asked questions
Costas Matheou — Licensed insurance agent, DigiCare Insurance, Paphos, Cyprus
Last reviewed: 10 September 2026
Licensed Cyprus insurance agency · ICCS licence 2451
We review this page when the Civil Registry and Migration Department changes what the Category F packet has to contain, when the 1 September 2026 medical examination rule is amended, and whenever the Cyprus-licensed insurers we place cover with revise the certificate limits.
Get your Category F health insurance certificate today
Same business day. From €120/year. Accepted at every Cyprus district immigration unit for your Form M.67 packet. We've placed immigration cover on the island for over 15 years.
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