Cyprus Pink Slip (Visitor Residence Permit) in 2026: Income Test, Documents, Fees and Renewal

The pink slip is the permit most non-EU retirees and remote earners start with in Cyprus, and its income test is a bank-statement test: the Migration Department's checklist asks for foreign money to arrive in a Cyprus bank account in the applicant's name, at €2,000 a month for one person. That single line decides most files, and it is easy to miss because the Department's information page names no euro figure at all; the figure sits in the supporting-documents checklist. This guide uses both official sources (the Visitors page of 30 December 2025 and the checklist file of the application form MVIS8 dated March 2026, read on 5 November 2026), works out the income requirement for four household sizes, and sets out the documents, fees, timing and renewal. “Pink slip” is the everyday name; the official name is the visitor's temporary residence permit.

What the Cyprus pink slip is: the visitor's temporary residence permit

Under Regulation 14 of the Aliens and Immigration Regulations a visitor's permit is issued to a third-country national for short or long-term holidays, for touring, or for investigating the possibility of residing in the Republic. Holders cannot carry out an economic activity in Cyprus. The first permit is valid for one year and is renewable as long as the criteria are met. Besides the autonomous visitor, the Department issues the same type of permit to a dependent spouse, a dependent minor child and, for holders of an immigration permit, to a dependent adult child or parent. British, American, Canadian and other non-EU citizens use it when they want to live in Cyprus for most of the year without buying property or taking a job; the alternatives are compared in the permanent residency guide and, for British citizens, in moving to Cyprus from the UK. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens do not use this permit; they register with the MEU1, covered in our yellow slip guide.

Cyprus pink slip income requirement: €24,000 a year through a Cyprus bank account

The checklist asks for a detailed statement of a bank account in a financial institution in Cyprus, covering the last 12 months for a renewal or the period since the account was opened for a first permit. It must show foreign remittances in the applicant's name that total at least €2,000 per month, or €24,000 per year, for one person. The amount rises by 20% for a spouse and by 15% for each child. Transfers abroad or to third parties are not counted.

Three rules sit around the main figure. First, the sources of income the checklist accepts are salary, pension, bank deposits abroad, rent, dividends and interest on deposits; by exception it also accepts dividends from a Cypriot company (with the company accountant's certificate that the applicant receives no salary from it), rent from property in Cyprus, and income in the Cyprus account from a salary earned earlier in a company of foreign interests. Second, at the first permit a single cash transfer or deposit of at least €10,000 is also accepted, and a cash deposit has to be declared at customs. Third, when you renew, the closing balance of the account must in any case be at least €6,000, which the Department equates to three months of income whatever the size of the family. The statement is accompanied by a declaration of the number of family members you will support and a summarised statement of income.

How the monthly figure applies to the months between opening the account and filing the first application is not spelled out in the checklist; it offers the €10,000 alternative for that stage. Ask the Department or your lawyer which reading it applies to your file before you transfer money.

Documents for a Cyprus visitor permit: first permit and renewal

Dependants file their own documents in the same pattern. For a minor the medical tests come from the country of origin or residence; children under 15 take a Mantoux skin test instead of the X-ray, and children under six born in Cyprus need no medical tests. All supporting documents must be officially translated and certified, applications are submitted at the Department's application submission offices, in person or through an authorised representative, and the checklist lists the authorisation form and a declaration of mailing address.

Cyprus visitor permit fees, processing time and validity

An approval arrives as a letter telling you how to collect the card; a rejection arrives as a letter stating the reasons. The Department adds that filing an application gives no right to remain in or enter the Republic without a valid permit or visa, so keep your stay lawful while the file is examined: a British citizen on the 90-in-180 allowance has to count the days, as the worked example in the UK guide shows.

Pink slip worked example: a retired couple's first permit and renewal

A British couple, both over State Pension age, live on the pensions used in our UK guide: £12,547.60 State Pension plus £7,500 of private pension each, which at the assumed £1 = €1.15 is €23,054.74 each and €46,109 for the couple. The exchange rate and the private pension are assumptions for illustration.

The couple passes the income test with room to spare, provided the pensions are paid into, or transferred to, the Cyprus account in their own names and are not sent on to third parties. Their larger costs are the medical tests, the insurance, the translations and certifications, the bank guarantee and the rent; the Department publishes no prices for these. The couple's tax position is a separate question, covered in the UK guide's pension example and in tax residency in Cyprus.

What the Cyprus pink slip does not give

• Work. Visitors cannot carry out an economic activity. Remote work for an employer outside Cyprus is the territory of the digital nomad visa.
• Permanent residence. It is a one-year permit that has to be renewed. Permanent residence comes from the investor permit or, after five years of lawful residence, long-term resident status.
• Public health care by itself. Access to GESY depends on documented residence and on the category you fall into; a pink slip alone generally does not open it, so private insurance is both a condition of the permit and your cover. See GESY explained and health insurance in Cyprus.
• Tax residence. Where you pay tax follows the 183-day rule or the 60-day rule, not the permit.

Pink slip, Category F or the investor permit: which route fits

The pink slip asks for more income per year than Category F's published floor but starts working within months, while Category F has no stated processing time and law firms report queues of 12 to 24 months. Many retirees therefore hold a pink slip while a Category F file is examined or while they test the move. The investor route, with its worked family example, is in the permanent residency guide. Category F has its own guide with the document list and the medical-test rule: Cyprus Category F permit. Whether a UK State Pension alone meets the income test is worked out in our UK State Pension and S1 guide.

Questions about the Cyprus pink slip

Sources (read on 5 November 2026): Migration Department of the Republic of Cyprus (gov.cy/mip-md), “Visitors and family members” (posted 30 December 2025) and the application-form page “Visitors-(Forms)” with the checklists “Supporting documents – Visitor permit”, “Dependent spouse” and “Visitor dependent minor” and the application form MVIS8 (file dated 9 March 2026). Not checked and therefore left out: the amount of the bank guarantee for any country, processing times in practice, and the exact treatment of the monthly figure for the months before a first filing.

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