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There are two direct routes to Cyprus permanent residency. One costs at least €300,000 and the department aims to decide it in about two months. The other needs no investment at all and an income test a fraction of the size, but the department publishes no timeline for it, and it is only now examining files lodged years ago. Which one is cheaper depends on what your time is worth.
Why Category F is back in the conversation
For years, Category F was the route people asked me about and I could not recommend. The reason was not the rules. It was the queue. The Audit Office found that the department had stopped processing new applications on verbal instructions, leaving around 3,000 files waiting by July 2023, a suspension the Attorney General later called unlawful. In May 2025 the Interior Minister gave Parliament the full picture: 7,372 Category F applications in ten years, 3,642 approved, 514 rejected and 3,126 still pending. The ministry said examination had been paused from February 2021 to September 2024 while new criteria were prepared. Those criteria have still not been passed.
What is new this year is movement. The Migration Department has started examining long-pending files, reaching cases from 2020, and is writing to applicants for a fresh set of documents with a deadline. Miss it and the application can be closed. And since 1 September 2026, every new Category A to F application must include medical tests taken abroad. So the route is alive again, but it is not quick.
The two routes, side by side
| €300,000 fast track | Category F | |
|---|---|---|
| Investment | At least €300,000: a new home (plus VAT), other real estate, a Cyprus company with five staff, or a Cyprus fund | None |
| Income | €50,000 a year, plus €15,000 for a spouse and €10,000 per child under 18 | €9,568 a year from abroad, plus €4,613 per dependant |
| Work in Cyprus | No employment; director of your investee company allowed | No business, trade or profession |
| Government fee | €500 per application, plus €70 per card | €500 per application, plus €70 per card |
| Official decision time | About two months | None published |
The application fee covers the whole family. Both permits give an open-ended right to live here, but the card is reissued every ten years.
What the income test means for a family
For a couple with two children under 18, the fast track needs €85,000 a year of secured income. Category F needs €23,407. That gap is why Category F attracts retirees and people living on pensions, dividends, interest or rent. But the published figures are minimums set decades ago in Cyprus pounds. A lawyer will present your real household budget, not aim for the floor.
What the waiting really costs
Category F looks like the cheap option. Sometimes it is. But while your application is pending you can only live here on a valid temporary permit, which you must keep renewing; the submission receipt gives you no right to stay. Your documents also age. Families in the current review are being asked for new passports, updated income evidence, a fresh tenancy or title deed, a Cyprus bank statement and new criminal record certificates from two countries. Every renewal and every certificate is time and fees.
The fast track works the other way. You commit the capital up front, and the money must come from abroad, not from a Cyprus mortgage. At least €300,000 excluding VAT must be paid when you apply, and if you later sell without replacing the investment, the whole family's permit can be cancelled. In return, you get the only route with a published timetable. I explain why the word "visa" misleads in is there a Cyprus Golden Visa?, and the full criteria are on my Cyprus permanent residency page.
How I would choose
Choose the fast track if you have the capital, want a property here anyway, or need certainty for schools, banking and planning. Do it with your eyes open: the government said on 24 September that the scheme will be tightened before Schengen entry, with no new rules published yet.
Choose Category F if you will not work in Cyprus, live on stable foreign income, are already here on a temporary permit, and genuinely do not mind waiting an unknown time. File it complete, with the medical tests, and answer every letter from the department on time.
Neither route gives you Schengen travel today, and neither lets you take a job here. If you want to compare a third option, I set out the Cyprus PR versus Greece Golden Visa honestly too. Or send me your figures on WhatsApp and I will tell you which route I would use in your place.
Cheap is the route that finishes. Check the clock before you check the price.
Sources: Migration Department, Immigration Permits (Categories A to F) and the criteria for investor Immigration Permits, 4th revision in force since 2 May 2023; Migration Department notice on medical documents for applications from 1 September 2026, as summarised by info.cy (checked 23 October 2026) and GK Law Firm; Interior Ministry figures on Category F reported by Kathimerini Cyprus (KNEWS, 30 May 2025); Audit Office findings reported by Philenews; Dobdacy notice on pending Category F applications; Cyprus Mail, 24 September 2026. Checked 1 November 2026. This is general information, not legal or immigration advice; every application needs an independent Cyprus-licensed lawyer, and I coordinate licensed advisers for my clients.