Maria Eracleous
Deputy Minister of Innovation Kyriakos Kokkinos addressed the challenges that professionals and large technology companies face in bringing staff to Cyprus. Speaking at the Economist conference in Nicosia, he stated that the effort to digitize the visa process for foreign professionals will be completed within the next 4-6 months.
As he stated, the Business Facilitation Unit program, or one-stop shop for businesses, which is being streamlined at the Ministry of Commerce, has already been put into place. According to this plan, an investor who wants to invest in Cyprus can submit his proposal and applications to a central body, which will get in touch with all other departments and respond in a set amount of time, rather than approaching 4-5 ministries to have his requests met. The service becomes very effective and applicant-friendly in this way.
The digital nomad provision, a special clause in the law, allows people who want to work in the digital space in Cyprus to obtain a special visa to do so for a specific amount of time with specific tax benefits. This is the third step to facilitating technology companies and professionals. If they need to stay for a longer period of time, they may be able to extend their stay in Cyprus by having their tourist visa changed to a business visa.
Kokkinos was responding to remarks made by Petr Palov, the founder and CEO of Exness, who discussed the need to streamline the visa application process and reduce the turnaround time. According to him, Cyprus is at a disadvantage to other European nations for technology companies because of its bureaucratic structure.
[This article was translated from its Greek original]
