How to get legal status TRNC
How to get legal status you are planning to move to Northern Cyprus, you need to know on what basis you can stay here for a long time.
For your first visit, you will be able to enter by obtaining a tourist visa on arrival, which does not need to be applied for in advance – you will receive it either at the Ercan airport, or at the seaport of Kyrenia, or if you arrived in South Cyprus at Larnaca or Paphos airport and crossed the land border, at one of the checkpoints. A tourist visa is usually issued for 30 days.
Then you will either have to leave the island, or start the process of obtaining a residence permit (hereinafter, a residence permit).
It is quite simple to issue a residence permit on the basis of a real estate purchase and sale agreement or a lease agreement.
The procedure for obtaining a residence permit takes place online, for this you need to register on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) www.icisleri.gov.ct.tr and provide a package of requested documents.
List of documents for residency:
- Certificate of confirmation of residence from the local headman (in Turkish, Mukhtar), which you can get if you have a passport and a real estate purchase agreement or lease agreement. It should be noted that the sale and purchase agreement must be registered with the Land Department (TAPU), and the lease agreement must be registered with the tax office.
- A contract for the sale of real estate or a lease agreement.
Enter the amount of money in your account. Important note: if you have your own real estate, the amount on your account must be equal to one minimum wage set by the state, multiplied by 12. Currently, the minimum wage is 9.885 Turkish liras. This means that your account must have an amount of at least 118.620 Turkish liras, which is approximately 6,500 dollars per person. At the same time, if you apply for a residence permit on the basis of a lease agreement, then the amount on your account should be 3 times more – 3 minimum wages multiplied by 12 - Passport
Marriage certificate translated into Turkish and notarized (if you are married)
Birth certificate of the child translated into Turkish and notarized (if you have children). - We can assist with officially recognised translators in most languages, we can also advise on notary services.
Children under 18 receive a residence permit automatically from their parents.
As soon as you fill out the online form, you will receive a message on your phone with the date and time when you will need to come to the local police station at the migration office.
All of these documents will need to be on hand, plus a 3×4 photo (just in case, have 2), a bank statement indicating the amount of money and stamps that can be purchased at any local post office or in a cafe that is located next to the police station Kyrenia precinct or in the police building itself in Iskele.
If you have funds in your country’s bank account, you can also take an up to date statement from there. Alternatively, pensioners can provide a bank statement that shows the monthly receipt of pension payments.
After submitting your documents package to the police station, you will be sent to a hospital where you will need to be tested for the absence of diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis. The results will be given to you in a sealed envelope, this must be delivered unopened to the police station dealing with your residency permit.
All that remains for you to do is to periodically check your personal account. You will need to pay for state health insurance using a credit card. This can be done at most branches of Koop Limassol Bankasi. This is a necessary requirement for obtaining a residence permit. We are unable to give indications for tests and insurance, as they are constantly changing.
The procedure for obtaining a residence permit may take several months, but this should not scare you – it is considered that you are legally on the northern part of the island from the moment you apply online (provided that you did not miss the date of submission of documents at the police station).
As soon as you see in the personal document that all the necessary steps have been completed, you will need to pay for the visa itself and this completes the process. You can print the residency document yourself.
Our company will be happy to help you in this process and advise you at all stages of obtaining a residence permit.
Other types of legal status for the TRNC for foreigners include a work visa and a student visa, but we will not delve into these areas, since in the first case, the employer is responsible for obtaining these visas, and the university in the second. If you have any questions about obtaining the above visas, please contact our specialists.
