Time to get a Cyprus passport

Cyprus authorities plan to speed up the process of issuing citizenships for investors in 2020

Since its launch in 2013, the investment program has brought about 6.6 billion euros to the Cyprus economy. And although these investments constitute only 1.2% of the GDP, they have a significant positive effect on the island’s economy.

The influx of investments is largely due to the favourable conditions of the program, and even though in 2019 the conditions became more strict, it didn’t reduce the number of people wishing to obtain Cyprus citizenship. It should be noted that these changes, involving more thorough due diligence procedures, additional property related documents, longer investment exit period and alternative investment options, gave investors extra security and additional income opportunities on the one hand, but slowed down the applications review timeline on the other.

The government recently announced the intention to speed up the process of obtaining a Cyprus passport, and in this case 2020 may be a record year for the number of issued passports, and the number of applications will exceed the annual quote. This is a serious reason not to delay the decision to obtain alternative citizenship. According to the terms of the naturalization program, only 700 investors per year can get a passport.