The Cypriot immigration law recognizes the possibility of obtaining the Cyprus citizenship by marriage as one of the legal pathways for citizenship in this country (others refer to naturalization, investment and being related to Cypriot nationals). If you want to obtain the citizenship by marriage with your spouse, who is a Cypriot national, please address to our team of Cyprus immigration lawyers, who can provide legal advice and representation throughout the entire procedure.
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The possibility to become a Cypriot citizen based on the fact that you have a Cypriot partner can occur in specific conditions. The basic legal requirement is to provide evidence that you have been living in Cyprus for at least two years at the moment when the application was made. Beside this, you must have been married with your spouse for three years, these two being the main conditions imposed in this case.
Please mind that there is also the possibility to acquire Cyprus citizenship by marriage simply by being married to a Cypriot national, without meeting the residency requirements, as long as you live abroad, but you are legally married to your spouse for the same period mentioned above. Here, additional steps must be concluded, which can be detailed by our immigration lawyers in Cyprus.
The procedure to obtain citizenship as a spouse of a Cypriot national is prescribed by the Civil Registry and Migration Department. In the following section, our immigration lawyers in Cyprus will describe the main aspects you should take into consideration; please mind that the process is started with the local embassy or consulate working in your region (for overseas applicants) or with the Cypriot Administration Districts in the region where the applicant lives:
The above mentioned list represents only a small part of the documents and processes the applicant must comply with. The set of documents includes the following: the birth certificate of the applicant, a clean criminal record, the marriage certificate with the Cypriot national, the birth certificate of the children of the couple – where applicable, and a copy of the passport of the Cypriot national.
In the case in which the Cypriot national has acquired the Cypriot nationality as well, the certificate attesting this fact must also be attached in the file. The applicant must add a statement regarding the welfare of the couple and that they have a harmonious family life.
The latter is obtained as a certificate issued by the Greek Orthodox Church; this must be issued with maximum one month prior to the date at which the application is made. For more details on this subject, please address to our Cyprus immigration lawyers, who can advise on other documents that may be necessary.
Please know that if you will apply in 2024 for citizenship by marriage through a consular mission of Cyprus, you may be required to pay other small fees. For instance, a revenue stamp of EUR 2 can be required when one has to provide a certification of a document.
Please know that not all documents need to be authenticated and notarized. This applies to a certain categories of documents and the rule is applicable within the EU space, in accordance with the rules of the Regulation (EU)2016/1191. These types of documents refer to papers issued by various governmental bodies.
For instance, the procedure is not necessary for administrative documents, notarial acts, diplomatic documents, documents issued by a court, consular papers. Other documents are included in this list, such as personal identification papers, for which applicants can use a multilingual standard form.
The multilingual standard form can be used and recognized only in the EU member states and the document is issued by the country that has also issued the identity document or other document concerning the civil status of a person.
If you need additional information on how to apply for citizenship by marriage or by any other legal means, our team of lawyers can provide legal representation in the process that you will initiate in 2024.
You must also consider that this procedure can be completed in a matter or months, but in most of the cases, it can more than a year, so if you initiate the procedure in 2024, it may not be completed throughout this year.
When applying for Cypriot citizenship by marriage, foreigners are required to complete the form M125, along with providing the above mentioned documents (the list of documents can be more extensive, based on the particularities of each case). The form itself represents the legal document through which the applicant expresses the intention to acquire Cypriot citizenship and therefore, the form will contain background information of the applicant and the wish to become a citizen.
As such, according to the Cypriot immigration law, the document has to contain specific information. The applicant has to clearly write the name in block letters, along with the current residential address. Then, it is necessary to offer information on the parents of the applicant – the name of the father and the mother are required, as well as the date of birth of the parents, and the place where their births took place.
Them, the spouse has to provide details on the marriage with the Cypriot national – here, it is important to present information on the date when the marriage took place, the location where the event was registered and the full name of the spouse. Please mind that a foreigner is still entitled to acquire the Cypriot citizenship by marriage even in the case in which the Cypriot spouse has passed away.
Our team of immigration lawyers in Cyprus can offer in-depth advice on the conditions the applicant has to meet in the case in which the application is made after the Cypriot spouse died, but it must be noted that the basic requirements presented at the beginning of the article will represent the basis of this procedure as well.
In the case in which the spouse has died, various documents related to this event have to be added to the file for citizenship and if you need legal counselling, you can always rely on our immigration lawyer. Regardless if the Cypriot spouse is still alive or has passed away, the application has to contain information on the father of the Cypriot spouse.
In this section, the application must reflect the name of the parent of the Cypriot spouse, the date when the person was born and the place. The same information is required for the spouse of the applicant. The applicant must then offer details on the current situation of the marriage – if the marriage is still valid, or if the relationship ended, due to various reasons, such as divorce or by the death of the spouse.
The next section of the application must provide evidence on the nationality status of the Cypriot spouse – the applicant can present details on how the spouse is a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus (by birth or other legal pathways prescribed by the Cypriot law).
In the case in which the spouse has died and did not acquire the Cypriot citizenship by that moment, the foreign spouse is still entitled to Cypriot citizenship by marriage if there is sufficient evidence on the fact that, if the spouse would not have died, by the moment of the application, the person would have received the Cypriot citizenship.
For this section, the applicant has to provide a reason on why citizenship would have occurred and of course, supporting documents must also be included in the application form. Here, the applicant can present legal reasons related to the stateless status of the spouse or other reasons that can apply; our immigration lawyer in Cyprus can provide the full legal framework related to this matter.
In the case in which the applicant is no longer married to the Cypriot national and has re-married, this detail has to be presented in the application. Also, in the case in which the applicant used to be a Cypriot national and has voluntarily renounced the citizenship, the Cypriot authorities have to be informed. The same applies if the applicant has been deprived of citizenship, which is an act that does not imply the voluntary participation of the citizenship holder.
After all this data is presented in the application for Cypriot citizenship by marriage, the applicant will express the desire to become a Cypriot national, along with a statement that the information provided is true or that the data stipulated by the applicant are known to be true by the applicant.
An affirmation of faith to the Republic of Cyprus is made by the applicant and then signed. For a successful application, the applicant must provide information on all the sections of the form, as well as other supporting papers that may be required by the immigration authorities. For other details on gaining Cypriot citizenship by marriage, our lawyer remains at your disposal.
We invite you to watch a short video on Cyprus citizenship by marriage:
In the case of applications made through consular missions and embassies, the file must also contain a declaration of the couple regarding the reasons for which they want the Cypriot citizenship for the partner who is a national of a foreign country. However, in the case in which the couple has been married for more than 5 years and the partners also have a child, this declaration is no longer required.
For overseas applications, the foreigner must present the same documents mentioned above. However, in this particular case, an official translation of the document into Greek or English is necessary. As said above, the documents for Cyprus citizenship by marriage have to bear the apostille and if this is not the case (for countries that are not part of the Hague Convention 1961), then other legal conditions must be fulfilled.
Instead, a certification of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country where the foreigner is a national will be required by the Cypriot institutions. The documents will then be verified by the embassy or consular mission of Cyprus in the said country and then by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus. For other details concerning this, please contact our immigration lawyers in Cyprus, who can help you obtain citizenship here.
If you do not qualify for Cypriot citizenship by marriage, there are other options available. The most common way to become a citizen is to apply for citizenship by naturalization.
This is procedure that can take many years, as the minimum residency imposed in this case is of 7 years. There is also the option to apply for citizenship if the foreigner has Cypriot ancestry.
Thus, applicants must meet different requirements concerning their Cypriot residence permit. The permit should be issued for the purpose of arrival in this country.
The law distinguishes between several categories of permits, mainly referring to family reunification programs, work, study and it also regulates visas for refugees, asylum seekers and other humanitarian cases.