In the last five years, 3,844 foreigners were granted Cypriot citizenship. Most passports have been issued to Russians.
This information was released on Monday 10 February by the Cypriot Minister of the Interior, Constantinos Ioannou.
He also said that his ministry had rejected a total of 3,475 naturalisation applications during the period under review, with a further 5,366 applications under consideration.
Interestingly, of the 3,844 passports, 1,041 were issued to Russian citizens, 733 to Chinese citizens, 160 to Ukrainian citizens, 116 to Lebanese citizens, 62 to Jordanian citizens, 55 to Saudi Arabian citizens and the rest to other nationalities. Regarding the status of all the above mentioned persons in Cyprus, Ioannou mentioned that 318 passports were for members of Cypriot families, 294 for employees of various companies, 259 for holders of immigration permits and others.
It should be recalled that there are currently three ways to obtain a local passport in Cyprus:
- through naturalisation, i.e. by living in Cyprus for 8 years;
- under the programme for 'highly qualified professionals', by paying 5,000 euros;
- by marrying a Cypriot citizen.
It should be noted that the Cypriot passport is consistently ranked among the 15 best passports in the world. Today, Cypriot citizens can travel freely to 179 countries in the world without a visa. In addition, they have access to 47 destinations with an entry visa.