Newsroom
Marrying someone who became a Cypriot citizen through an application process known as registration does not give a foreign spouse the right to obtain citizenship through the same route, a Cyprus appeal court has ruled.
The decision affects cases where a person becomes a Cypriot citizen through that process and later marries a foreign national, according to an announcement by the Legal Service.
The Administrative Court of Appeal issued its ruling on Oct. 15, upholding a lower court’s rejection of an appeal by a foreign national whose citizenship application had not been granted by the Interior Ministry.
What does it mean?
Some people can apply for Cypriot citizenship through registration based on their family ties to a Cypriot, including through descent or marriage, if they meet the legal requirements.
According to the Legal Service, the court found that someone who became Cypriot through this process cannot then give a person they marry later the right to apply through the same route.
The court said the law must be applied consistently and that applications must stay within the limits set by lawmakers, the Legal Service said.
It added that the interpretation supported the law’s aim of preventing people from getting around the rules through successive marriages or by seeking citizenship for a child who was not the child of the spouse through whom citizenship was acquired. The announcement did not say that abuse had been established in this case.
The ruling concerns this particular route to citizenship. The information provided does not say whether a spouse affected by the decision could qualify through another route.
