Immigration and Residential Visa requirements

All persons arriving in the TRNC should hold a valid passport. Citizens of the TRNC and Turkey may enter with a valid identity card. Visas are not required for the majority of foreign visitors except for Greek and Armenian citizens.
Tel Number of Immigration Office: +90392 2283559

Visas, Permits and Licences

Residence Permit in North Cyprus

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus law states that residence permits can be applied for once you have bought your North Cyprus Home. The British Residents Society can provide you with all relevant information. When you arrive in North Cyprus, you are issued with a 3 month tourist visa. After that you must apply for a residence permit. The procedure is fairly straight forward but initially does require medical checks for HIV, Typhus etc at the hospital in Nicosia. The current cost of the residence permit is approximately £150 for your first application and then a small renewal fee in subsequent years.

The standard procedure for applying for a permit is as follows:

Basically the first step on the road to residency in North Cyprus is applying for the visa as soon as you know you’re going to be in the country for more than three months. For every single day you reside in North Cyprus after your three month visitor’s visa is up you will incur a fine of around YTL 66 a day (which equates to about GBP 28 per day depending on the fluctuating Lira/Sterling exchange rate) – this fine will be incurred unless you have at least applied for your temporary residence visa.

This fine soon adds up and so if you know you will be in North Cyprus for more than three months apply for your temporary residency visa immediately. Those who know that they have come to live in Northern Cyprus for the rest of their days or for at least the foreseeable future cannot apply for permanent residency straight away. They too have to apply and reapply for a temporary visa for up to five years before they can get permanent residency status.

Once you’ve decided to apply for residency in Northern Cyprus get about 6 or 8 passport photographs and a dozen official stamps (obtainable from the Post Office) and then you will need to visit the local Muhtar (Mayor) in the area of TRNC where you are residing – the Muhtar will need to see proof of your residence in the form of a rental or purchase contract as well as bank statements showing that you have sufficient money available to sustain you.

The Muhtar will provide you with a Resident’s Certificate after filling in a form with information about you, your parents, and your place of residence in North Cyprus etc. Then you should go to one of a number of licenced clinics in Girne (Kyrenia), Gazimagusa or Lefkoşa (Nicosia) for a blood test. The names of Northern Cyprus clinics accepted by the immigration authorities are available from the immigration offices in Kyrenia and Nicosia. A blood sample will be taken then it’s necessary to have a chest x-ray and check-up done in a licenced clinic in North Cyprus and the fees for all of these tests comes to between GBP 100 and GBP 160 per person.

The clinics where the tests are done will provide the applicant with a receipt. With the receipt, Resident’s Certificate, proof of address and income, passport, more stamps, pictures and photocopies of all documents in hand the applicant should visit Immigration and apply for residency. Most offices involved in the whole process are only open between 8.30am and 12 noon. A number will be written into the applicant’s passport by immigration officials and photocopies of all documents will be taken.

After about 2 weeks all the medical tests will have been completed and the applicant can pick up their results which will be in a sealed envelope. It is very important that you do not open the envelope or break the seal!!! The applicant should then hand deliver these results to Immigration in Lefkoşa and sit back and wait for all police checks to be completed and all medical results to be analysed. An applicant will have to regularly visit immigration in Lefkoşa until checks and tests are finalised and a visa can be granted. The current fee for a temporary residence visa in North Cyprus is YTL 214 but there has been talk that this may be reduced to YTL 130.

If all this sounds like too much hassle and too big a headache there are various individuals and companies based in North Cyprus who can assist for a fee. For example, Louis (based at Pegasus Restaurant) in Karaoglanoglu has helped many ex-pats with work permits, driving licences, business permits and also importing personal effects to the TRNC.

For a Permanent Residence Permit the requirements are as follows:

By law the foreign resident has to have obtained and completed a minimum of five consecutive temporary residence permits before submitting an application, which may then take a further two years before being granted.

• The applicant has to have a place to live. Property ownership is required.
• The applicant has to have a documented regular income.
• The applicant has to be retired.

ALSANCAK - 4 BED VILLA, North Cyprus	YESILTEPE - 3 BED VILLA, North Cyprus	ESENTEPE - 3 BED VILLA, North Cyprus
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