The MEU1 and the yellow slip: registering in Cyprus

Cyprus doesn't ask EU citizens for a permit, but it does ask for a registration — and that has a nickname everyone on the island knows: the yellow slip. This article sets out the application, with the one Cypriot peculiarity that almost every foreign site skips.

The clock: four months

Up to three months' stay nothing is needed. Whoever stays longer applies within four months of arrival for the registration certificate with form MEU1, at the immigration office (CRMD) of the district where you live — Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos or Famagusta district. The application is made in person and by appointment, and costs € 20 per person, per family member too. Registering late can lead to a fine; the slip itself never expires after that and doesn't need renewing.

First the stamp, then the appointment

The proof of address is where applications founder. A rental contract only counts at the immigration office once it has been stamped at the tax office — a counter visit that costs little but that you have to have done before your MEU1 appointment. Whoever turns up with an unstamped contract gets the file back and may make a new appointment. So the order is: sign for the home, have the contract stamped, book the appointment. A title deed works too, of course.

What has to come along per category

Besides passport or ID with copies and two passport photos, the office wants to see something different per category. Employees: the employment contract or an employer's statement. Self-employed: proof of the business registration or activity. Economically self-sufficient — pensioners, people of means — show sufficient means (pension statements, bank statements) plus comprehensive health insurance; for whoever brings a Dutch pension, the S1 form from the CAK fulfils that insurance requirement. Students show their enrolment plus means and insurance.

Family members from outside the EU: the MEU2

A partner or family member without EU nationality follows the MEU2 route: a residence card as family member of an EU citizen, likewise within four months, at the same offices. The family documents come with that — marriage or birth certificate, legalised or with apostille, and translated. Plan that legalisation before you leave; from Cyprus it is a paper chain through two countries.

After the slip

With the yellow slip you exist for the island: the tax number via Tax For All, the GeSY healthcare registration, the bank and the car registration all ask for it. Keep it with your passport — and remember that after five years of uninterrupted residence the right of permanent residence opens up, with its own certificate for whoever wants that recorded.