Moving to Cyprus from Canada in 2027: 90 Days Visa-Free, Permits, Leaving Canadian Tax, CPP and OAS, and the Canada–Cyprus Treaty

A Canadian can fly to Cyprus without a visa and stay up to 90 days, but living there needs a permit, and leaving Canada has its own tax steps. As a Canadian citizen you are a third-country national in Cyprus: the permit routes are the pink slip (income of €24,000 a year for one person through a Cyprus bank account), Category F (€9,568 a year) and Category 6.2 (a new-build of at least €300,000 plus VAT and €50,000 of income). On the Canadian side, you stay a factual resident of Canada for tax while you keep significant residential ties, such as a home, a spouse or dependants there; once you leave, you are treated as having sold most of your property at its market value, and Form T1161 is due if that value is over CAD 25,000. The Canada–Cyprus agreement of 1991 covers CPP and OAS, and the 1984 tax treaty makes social security pensions taxable only in Canada. This guide sets out the entry rule, the permits, the departure steps, the pension rules, health cover and buying a home, from the Cyprus Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Migration Department, the Canada Revenue Agency, Service Canada and the treaty text (read on 6 November 2026).

Moving to Cyprus from Canada: 90 days visa-free, then a permit

The Cyprus Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists Canada among the countries whose nationals do not need a visa for a stay of up to 90 days, provided they are bona fide visitors. Cyprus is not in the Schengen area, so days in Cyprus do not count towards a Schengen allowance. Visa-free entry does not permit living or working there, and the 90 days is the point at which a Canadian needs a permit.

Each route has its own guide: the pink slip, Category F, Category 6.2 and the digital nomad visa. The sequence of steps and their deadlines is in the moving to Cyprus checklist, and the choice between routes in Cyprus residency for non-EU citizens.

Leaving Canada: when CRA treats you as a non-resident

The Canada Revenue Agency calls you an emigrant for income tax purposes if you leave Canada to live in another country and sever your residential ties with Canada. The ties it treats as significant are a home in Canada, a spouse or common-law partner in Canada and dependants in Canada. The secondary ties include personal property such as a car or furniture, social ties, economic ties such as Canadian bank accounts, a Canadian driver's licence or passport, and provincial or territorial health insurance. If you keep your significant ties you are usually a factual resident of Canada and stay taxable there on your worldwide income, which is the case the CRA means when it describes a Canadian who is abroad temporarily.

Your residency status changes on the latest of three dates: the day you leave Canada, the day your spouse or common-law partner and dependants leave, and the day you become a resident of your new country. You enter the departure date on page 1 of your return. The CRA also offers Form NR73, on which it gives its opinion on whether you are a factual resident, a deemed non-resident or a non-resident, and the answer under a treaty rests on the tie-breaker rules. The Canada–Cyprus treaty has them in Article 4: a person who is resident of both states is treated as resident of the state where they have a permanent home, and if they have one in both, of the state where their personal and economic relations are closer. A Canadian who sells the family home and moves with the family to a rented flat in Cyprus passes the first test; one who keeps the house in Toronto and visits Cyprus for the winter does not.

Departure tax: the deemed sale and Form T1161

When you cease to be resident you are treated as having sold certain property, such as shares, jewellery, paintings and collections, at its fair market value on the day you left and as having reacquired it for the same amount. The gain goes on your last Canadian return. Form T1161, the list of properties by an emigrant of Canada, is due if the total fair market value of the property you owned when you left was more than CAD 25,000, and it is filed with the return; the CRA's penalty for a late T1161 is CAD 25 a day, with a minimum of CAD 100 and a maximum of CAD 2,500. The TFSA can stay, with its tax exemption on investment income and withdrawals, but you cannot contribute while you are non-resident and no new room accrues. The Canada Child Benefit generally stops, and any payment received after you leave must be reported.

A worked example. A couple leave Canada with shares that cost CAD 60,000 and are worth CAD 100,000 on the day they leave. The deemed gain is CAD 100,000 − CAD 60,000 = CAD 40,000. The taxable portion of a capital gain is one half (the proposed increase was cancelled), so CAD 20,000 is added to their income for the year of departure. At an assumed combined marginal rate of 30% that is CAD 6,000 of tax, payable with the return for that year. Because the property was worth more than CAD 25,000, they also file Form T1161. Treaty Article 13(6) lets Canada keep taxing gains on property under its own law for six years after you stop being resident, so a Canadian adviser should confirm what applies to your assets.

CPP and OAS in Cyprus: the 1991 agreement

The Canada Pension Plan is payable outside Canada. Old Age Security is payable abroad if you lived in Canada for at least 20 years after the age of 18; the Guaranteed Income Supplement, by contrast, is payable abroad for six months only. The social security agreement between Canada and Cyprus has been in force since 1 May 1991 and covers the CPP and OAS. Under it, if you do not qualify for an OAS pension on your years of residence in Canada, Canada counts the periods you lived in Cyprus after the age of 18 as periods of residence in Canada, and if you do not qualify for a CPP benefit on your contributions, Canada counts your contributions to the Cypriot pension scheme. Each country pays its own benefit on its own credits.

The tax on these payments is Canadian. Service Canada says non-resident tax on OAS and CPP is 25% unless a tax treaty reduces or exempts it, and it lists reduced rates for the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany only; Cyprus is among the other countries, where the rate is 25%. The Canada–Cyprus treaty, in Article 18(5)(a), says social security pensions arising in one state and paid to a resident of the other are taxable only in the state they arise in, so Canada keeps the right to tax them and Cyprus does not. A worked example: CPP of CAD 12,000 a year is paid with CAD 3,000 withheld (25%). The treaty text gives no reduction, and a Cyprus adviser should confirm how to claim exemption for it in Cyprus.

Private and employer pensions follow Article 18(1). A pension paid to a resident of Cyprus may be taxed in Cyprus, and Canada may also tax it, but only on the part of the pension paid in a year that is above CAD 10,000, and on periodic payments the tax may not exceed the lesser of 15% of the gross amount of the payment and the rate that would apply to a Canadian resident. Cyprus, for its part, taxes a pension received from abroad at 5% on the part above €5,000 a year, or at the normal bands if you elect them, as our tax guide for individuals sets out, and Article 24 of the treaty gives credit for the tax paid in the other country. The pensions in your own plan can be taxed differently depending on whether they are RRSP or RRIF payments, a registered pension plan or a lump sum, and a Canadian and a Cyprus tax adviser should work through them before the first payment.

Health cover for Canadians in Cyprus: the provincial plan ends

Provincial health insurance is one of the secondary residential ties the CRA lists, and each province sets its own absence limit. Ontario, for example, lets an OHIP-eligible resident be away for up to seven months in any 12-month period, so a permanent move ends the cover. A Canadian in Cyprus therefore needs health cover from the day of arrival. The pink slip application asks for a health insurance certificate; GESY needs residence documents and a contribution. The Canada–Cyprus agreement covers pensions only, not health care. Health insurance in Cyprus and GESY explained set out the options and their cost.

Banking and money for Canadians moving to Cyprus

The pink slip is tested through a Cyprus bank account in your own name, so opening one is an early step; how to open a bank account in Cyprus as a foreigner lists what the banks ask, including the tax identification number of every country where you are tax resident. Cyprus reports accounts of non-residents to their countries of tax residence under the common reporting standard. Moving large sums is covered in transferring money to Cyprus.

Buying property in Cyprus as a Canadian citizen

A Canadian is a non-EU buyer and needs Council of Ministers permission under the Acquisition of Immovable Property (Aliens) Law, which your lawyer files after the contract is signed; the steps are in how to buy property in Cyprus as a foreigner. A new-build of at least €300,000 plus VAT qualifies for Category 6.2, and a second home pays 19% VAT, as our holiday home guide shows. For where to live, compare the cities in Paphos or Larnaca and Paphos vs Limassol; schools are in moving to Cyprus with school-age children. An American reader will find the equivalent US rules in moving to Cyprus from the USA. Form T1135 and the tax on a sale are in buying property in Cyprus from Canada.

Moving to Cyprus from Canada: the dates in the first two years

A couple who leave Canada on 1 March 2027 and arrive in Cyprus the same day reach the 90th day on 29 May 2027 and the 184th day in the calendar year on 31 August 2027. Their Canadian return for 2027, with the departure date and Form T1161, is due on 30 April 2028, and their first Cyprus return on 31 July 2028.

Moving to Cyprus from Canada: questions Canadians ask

Sources, all read on 6 November 2026. Cyprus Ministry of Foreign Affairs, categories of persons and countries whose nationals do not require a visa. Canada Revenue Agency: leaving Canada (emigrants); determining your residency status; dispositions of property for emigrants; Form T1161. Service Canada: lived or living outside Canada, eligibility and taxes; the Cyprus country page of the international agreements (agreement in force 1 May 1991). CRA and Department of Finance on the capital gains inclusion rate. Government of Ontario, OHIP coverage while outside Canada. Convention between Canada and the Republic of Cyprus for the avoidance of double taxation (signed 2 May 1984), Articles 4, 13, 18 and 24, in a copy published by a Cyprus firm. The Cyprus permit figures come from the Migration Department checklists as set out in our guides, and the Cyprus tax figures from our tax guide for individuals. This guide is general information and not tax advice; a Canadian and a Cyprus tax adviser should confirm your case. Cyprus VIP Estates assists investors in choosing new developments; legal and immigration advice comes from licensed professionals.