Cyprus sees increased interest in digital nomad visas

Interior Minister Nicos Nouris on Thursday said that the government’s adoption of a new strategy designed to attract international businesses to Cyprus has led to significantly increased interest from a number of such organisations.

Nouris noted that the government received 5,475 application submissions throughout 2021, while this number has been far exceeded this year, with 7,883 applications being submitted as of August 2022.

In addition, there were 4242 applications for the relocation of international workers’ families in 2021, while during the first 8 months of 2022 this number rose to 4524.

Nouris’ statements came during his address at a business conference in Limassol, where he highlighted the benefits and opportunities stemming from this initiative, for both long-established and recently relocated companies, as well as companies who intend to relocate to Cyprus in the future.

“Our purpose is to enable companies to become better equipped to cope with the challenges posed by both the Covid-19 pandemic and the more recent financial crisis,” Nouris said, highlighting some of the measures that have been implemented, such as the easing of relocating a worker’s family to Cyprus.

Furthermore, the minister said that until the end of 2026, existing foreign interest companies in Cyprus will be able to hire as many workers from outside the European Union as they desire, however, in 2027, a cap will be introduced, forcing them to restrict the share of third country nationals to 70 per cent of their workforce.

On the digital nomad visa initiative, Nouris said that interest has been elevated throughout 2022, with 127 applications being received by third country nationals, all of which have been approved.

Initially, the plan was for a maximum of 100 such visas to be approved, however, this was subsequently revised upwards to a cap of 500 visas.

The digital nomad visa is applicable for a single year, however, holders can extend them for a further two years.