The February 2026 amendments to Regulation 6(2) of the Aliens and Immigration Law are the most significant rewrite of the Cyprus permanent-residency programme since 2020. They are not a relaunch and not a tightening in the headline sense — but they change the practical calendar and the paperwork in ways that will catch unprepared applicants.
What is genuinely faster
The €300,000 (plus VAT) real-estate route now has a published service-level commitment: 60 working days from a complete file to a decision, down from an unwritten 8–14 months. We have processed four files under the new track and three came back inside the window. The fourth was stopped on a source-of-funds query, which brings us to the second change.
Source-of-funds: the new bar
The Civil Registry has effectively imported the same source-of-funds standards the Central Bank applies to high-value account opening. In practice, this means a three-year traceable chain for the €300,000 of investable funds, certified translations of any non-English source documents, and — new in 2026 — a sworn declaration that the funds did not transit through a jurisdiction on the EU's grey or black list within the last 24 months.
- Three years of bank statements showing the build-up of the investment sum.
- Tax filings (or equivalent) from the country of tax residence for the same three years.
- If the funds came from a business sale: the sale contract, the buyer's identity, and the receiving bank's name.
- If from inheritance: the probate document plus a certified family tree.
- If from a gift: a notarised gift deed and the donor's own three-year source-of-funds file.
Biometrics and the one-visit rule
From January 2026 the principal applicant must appear in person in Cyprus once during the application window for biometric capture. The visit can be as short as a working day. Dependants follow within 12 months of the principal's approval. The old practice of submitting through a power of attorney without ever boarding a plane is over.
"The programme is not harder to qualify for. It is harder to qualify for badly. Files that would have limped through in 2022 will be rejected outright now."
