The Unseen Crisis: How Cyprus Is Closing Its Doors to the Future of Tech and Startups

It saddens me to observe how Cyprus is gradually obstructing its technological and startup future. New regulations, laws, and decrees are rendering the country increasingly unappealing to students, freelancers, digital nomads, and emerging entrepreneurs – all of whom operate outside large corporations and have the potential to create and build innovative projects and attract investments to this sunny island.

For years, I have talked about, presented at conferences, and published articles about Cyprus's advantages for such individuals. Many listened actively to my words. Numerous people moved to Cyprus, established dozens of companies, launched startups, attracted investments, created jobs, and contributed taxes to the state treasury.

Regrettably, this appeal is swiftly diminishing.

There's no direct confrontation; rather, various governmental bodies are complicating matters or outright limiting the rights of students, freelancers, and digital nomads.

It's a pity that this is happening in Cyprus. I hope the government will look to the future and remove these restrictions.

Problem 1 – Potential loss of students.

Problem 2 – Expats in One Basket: Paying or Receiving, No Difference.

Problem 3 – Digital Nomad Visa: A beautiful and sad story of one innovation.

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The Unseen Crisis: How Cyprus Is Closing Its Doors to the Future of Tech and Startups

Problem 1 – Potential loss of students.

In 2024, Cyprus's private universities might lose students from expat families.

The reason behind this is the new "talent" citizenship law.
But let's take it step by step.

Picture this: You've been living in Cyprus some years. Your child is about to enter university. Choices are plentiful, the education standard is high, and there's a solid research base. You submit the paperwork, pay the fees, and the university's lawyers tell you that your child needs to switch their dependent residence permit for a student one - this is a requirement from Cyprus's migration authorities. Lawyers help with everything, your child gets in, studies, and everything is great.

But that was before 2024.
What's changed?

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The Unseen Crisis: How Cyprus Is Closing Its Doors to the Future of Tech and Startups

Problem 2 – Expats in One Basket: Paying or Receiving, No Difference.

Cyprus is gradually distancing itself from digital nomads, freelancers, and startup founders from third countries, potentially curtailing the growth of its tech and startup sectors.
These digital nomads and IT freelancers represent a rich breeding ground for innovation and can significantly attract investments.

Qualified "visitors" contribute more than €60,000 annually from abroad for their living expenses, enriching the local economy. This influx is split between government revenues through taxes and fees and local businesses through rent, shopping, education, and more.

However, the past two years have seen a worrying trend: many "visitors" who pay taxes in Cyprus, including business owners and remote company employees, face rejections when renewing their residency.
Previously, a consistent set of documents sufficed for renewal, but now, rejections have become more frequent, often occurring during the document review phase. People who have built their lives in Cyprus suddenly find themselves with a letter giving them 30 days to leave, usually received well after it was sent.

Why this change?

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The Unseen Crisis: How Cyprus Is Closing Its Doors to the Future of Tech and Startups

Problem 3 – Digital Nomad Visa: A beautiful and sad story of one innovation.

It is a story of an innovation marred by errors, miscommunication between departments, fraud, and greed.

01.06.2021: Seven months before the launch of the Digital Nomad Visa, Cyprus migration starts an online booking system for all types of residency permits.
But soon, free slots for all visa types in the online system are taken up by lawyers, agents, and software bots, becoming unavailable directly to ordinary people.
20.12.2021: Letters about problems in the online booking system are sent to ministries and agencies, detailing abuses, sale of appointments, the danger of corruption developing and creating a negative image of the whole migration system.
The information is noted but nothing changes.

17.02.2022: Cyprus migration publishes information about the launch of the Digital Nomad Visa with a limit of 100 visas.
03.03.2022: Due to high demand, the Digital Nomad Visa limit is increased to 500 visas.

13.04.2022: Offers for selling slots for Digital Nomad appear on various resources.

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