Immigration insurance for your Cyprus residence permit: is the cheap certificate enough?

Three ways to cover your Cyprus residence permit

On its visitor and digital nomad checklists, the Migration Department asks for a policy that covers in-patient care, out-patient care and transport of remains. Three set-ups fit that shape, each sold at its own price. Other permits word it differently, see the table below.

We price and sell all three separately. Read the full benefits on our DCare health insurance page.

No DCare box is ticked for you.

What each option costs at your age (checked on 4 November 2026)

At 30, the certificate costs €160 a year. Adding DCare Basic brings the total to €592 with a €650 excess, or €664 with a €350 excess. DCare Classic alone costs €788 or €925. Prices rise with age: at 65 the same three cost €175, €1,605 to €1,858, and €2,618 to €3,087.

More ages

Yearly price for one person by completed age, checked on 4 November 2026.

The certificate has no excess up to 65. At 66 to 70 it carries a €200 excess.

€350 or €650 excess?

The excess is what you pay once per policy year before DCare pays. Choosing €350 over €650 costs Basic €44, €72 and €253 more a year at 20, 30 and 65. On Classic it costs €106, €137 and €469 more. The lower €350 excess pays at 20 to 30. On Classic, €650 wins from about 60; on Basic, from about 70.

Online, the certificate gets cheaper per person: €150 each for two adults up to 50, €140 each for three or more. From 51 to 65 it's €175.

For employers and schools, group cover for 50+ people starts from €120 per person, arranged manually.

We need your date of birth and the excess you want.

Which option fits you

As DigiCare's licensed insurance agent, Costas Matheou starts with three questions: how long you're staying, what's already wrong with your health, and what you take home each month. By Costas's count, DigiCare arranges about 500 new immigration policies and about 250 DCare policies a year (renewals included), mostly for Pink Slip and Yellow Slip applicants.

What Costas tells clients, in this order:

Think of the immigration policy as a required fee for the Migration Department. Its limits are small, so don't wait for big payments from it if you have a serious health problem.

Which route fits your permit

How long each one takes

The insurer's medical questions are separate from the permit's medical tests, which the Migration Department asks for.

How far back does a pre-existing condition go?

DCare treats a condition as pre-existing if it showed in the 24 months before the policy starts, plus anything that shows in the first 30 days. The insurer may decline the application or exclude the condition. The certificate asks no health questions, but it doesn't cover pre-existing conditions. DCare takes new applicants under 80.

Costas explains these rules, with two real client bills, in his article on health insurance for a Cyprus residence permit.

Not sure which one fits? Tell us your permit. We'll answer in English, Greek or Russian.

What each policy pays, line by line

The certificate pays at most €8,600 per illness or accident and €13,700 a year in hospital, at 90%, with room and food capped at €75 a day. DCare Basic pays hospital treatment in full up to €1,000,000 a year. DCare Classic adds doctor visits, medicines, tests and maternity, up to €2,000,000.

What is included and not included in each policy. Certificate figures from the AKD schedule of benefits (V.1.1, 7 October 2026); DCare figures from policy wording EU/SI/04/26.

Three rules in the DCare wording matter at claim time:

See also: what Plan A covers.

Three hospital bills, and who pays them

The certificate's weak spots are the 10% you pay, the €75 room cap and the €8,600 limit per illness. The figures below are GeSY's DRG tariff for the whole stay, or prices reported in the press. Private hospitals set their own tariff for self-paying patients, and we found none that publishes it. GeSY's tariff may leave out devices that are billed separately, so a stent admission can cost more.

Three treatments against the three policies. DRG figures from GeSY's unit prices for 2025 (ΚΔΠ 403/2025) and cost weights (CY-DRG v2, April 2026).

Even at GeSY's own tariff (ΚΔΠ 403/2025), a complex stent admission can pass the certificate's €8,600 limit. For a small bill, the certificate can leave you paying less than a €650 DCare excess.

With both policies

A €40,000 bill or a €160 policy? Get your DCare price and compare.

What the Migration Department accepts

Cyprus law asks for medical insurance covering the risks normally covered for Cypriot citizens (Aliens and Immigration Law, Cap. 105). It names no euro amount. The Migration Department's checklist asks for a certificate covering in-patient care, out-patient care and transport of remains (Migration Department visitor checklist). "Plan A" is that checklist's label, not a product defined in law.

The visitor permit document list on gov.cy words it as "Certificate of Health Insurance for medical care that covers inpatient and outpatient care and transportation of corpse (Plan A)".

The department was renamed in 2024: it's the Migration Department, formerly the Civil Registry and Migration Department.

Not sure which document your permit needs? Read which insurance your permit needs or start from our immigration medical insurance page.

Where GeSY fits in

GeSY, Cyprus's national health system, covers people who work and contribute in Cyprus, their dependants and permanent residents. A visitor or retiree on a temporary permit usually isn't covered on arrival.

Two Cyprus law firms explain the rules: Demetriades Law and REVERA.

GeSY doesn't remove the insurance requirement. Costas Matheou hears this mistake often:

Some customers think they don't need any immigration insurance if they have GeSY. But even with GeSY you need a cheaper policy for the Immigration Department, for repatriation of remains.

On the domestic-worker route the department says so in writing: GeSY registration plus private cover for transport of remains. For people already in GeSY, that cover is the GeSY certificate, €105 a year.

Costas tells GeSY members to keep DCare for three reasons: no specialist waiting list, cover when you travel (worldwide excluding the USA), and high family limits.

When GeSY pays the hospital, DCare pays hospital cash: €100 a night on Basic (up to 15 nights) and €125 a night on Classic (up to 30 nights).

Read how GeSY works.

EHIC and GHIC cards cover temporary stays only. A Yellow Slip applicant who won't work in Cyprus needs comprehensive sickness insurance under Directive 2004/38/EC.

UK nationals

A UK State Pension holder living in Cyprus can register an S1 form with GeSY (GOV.UK, Healthcare for UK nationals living in Cyprus). The visitor checklist still lists only the certificate. Other UK nationals on a visitor permit need the certificate or DCare Classic.

Before you buy

One insurer issues both, but they are two policies with two applications. Check these points before you pay.

DigiCare Insurance is a licensed Cyprus insurance agency, ICCS licence 2451. Showing each price separately follows the cross-selling rule in Article 24 of the Insurance Distribution Directive.

Costas Matheou — Licensed insurance agent, DigiCare Insurance, Paphos, Cyprus

Last reviewed: 6 November 2026

Co-founder of DigiCare Insurance. He has placed health and immigration cover in Cyprus for 10 years.

We review this page whenever the insurer's prices or the Migration Department's checklist change.

Questions people ask before buying