Yes, Cyprus allows dual and multiple citizenship. Nothing in the Civil Registry Law, Law 141(I)/2002, asks you to surrender a British, Russian or Australian passport before you take a Cypriot one, and no Cypriot loses citizenship by naturalising elsewhere. The statute deals only with the reverse case, giving adults who already hold a foreign nationality a way to renounce Cypriot citizenship if they want to. The real complications for dual nationals sit elsewhere: the National Guard, and a deprivation rule that catches naturalised citizens who move away.
The permission comes from an absence
Countries that forbid dual nationality say so in their nationality statute, usually by stripping citizenship from anyone who voluntarily acquires another. The Civil Registry Law contains no such provision. It sets out how citizenship is acquired by birth, descent, registration and naturalisation, how it is given up, and how it can be taken away, and none of those turns on what other passport you hold. There is also no duty to report a foreign nationality you pick up later.
Section 112 makes the position plain. A citizen of the Republic who is an adult, of full capacity, and who also holds the nationality of a foreign country may file a declaration renouncing Cypriot citizenship. Once the Minister registers the declaration, that person stops being a citizen. The section only makes sense in a system that expects people to hold two passports at once.
The UK side is equally relaxed. Gov.uk states that dual citizenship is allowed and that there is no application to make: you simply hold both. The one thing you give up is British consular protection while you are in Cyprus, because Cyprus treats you as its own national there. That matters more than it sounds, for reasons the next section explains.
The routes in, and what each costs
Most British Cypriots arrive at the second passport through descent rather than residence, and the Civil Registry and Migration Department runs a separate form for each situation.
Form M121 covers people born abroad after 16 August 1960 with at least one parent who was a Cypriot citizen at the time of the birth. The fee is €20 plus an €8.54 stamp, and approval produces a consular birth certificate. Where the applicant is a minor, the Cypriot parent submits it.
Form M123 is the one for grandchildren. It is open to adults born on or after 16 August 1960 who descend from a person who either became a British subject under the Annexation of Cyprus Orders of 1914 to 1943, or was born in Cyprus between 5 November 1914 and 16 August 1960 while their parents were habitually resident on the island. The fee is €50 plus two €8.54 stamps, and there is no requirement to live in Cyprus.
Form M124 looks similar but carries a condition that catches people out. It is for adults of Cypriot origin who are citizens of the United Kingdom and its former colonies or of a Commonwealth country, and the applicant must either be habitually resident in Cyprus or have lived here for twelve continuous months before applying, with the intention of staying. That one costs €80 plus two €8.54 stamps.
A minor child of a Cypriot citizen is registered on form M126. Marriage to a Cypriot runs through form M125, and the seven-year residence route through form M127, both covered in our guide to citizenship by naturalisation.
The National Guard catches more dual nationals than anything else
Military service in Cyprus is governed by the National Guard Law, Law 19(I)/2011, and it applies to male citizens of the Republic. It does not care that you also hold a British passport, or that you have never lived here. Under section 20(1) the obligation runs until you complete your forty-fifth year, so a man who acquires Cypriot citizenship at 30 acquires a service liability with it, while one who does so at 50 does not.
The law sets full service at 24 months, with reduced terms of 18, 14, 6 and 3 months for the categories listed in section 21. The Council of Ministers can shorten the full term and has done so, so ask the Ministry of Defence what conscripts are actually serving this year rather than reading 24 months off the page.
For naturalised citizens whose parents are not of Cypriot origin, section 21 sets the reduced terms by the age at which citizenship was acquired. Someone who becomes Cypriot before 18 serves 14 months, provided he enlists straight after finishing secondary school or within a year of acquiring citizenship. Naturalisation between 18 and 26 brings it down to 6 months, and after 26 to 3 months, in both cases if he enlists within two years. Miss that two-year window and two extra months are added to whatever he owes.
Two exemptions do real work here. Section 23(1)(ι) exempts people who are not of Cypriot origin and who completed military service in their country of origin, without buying their way out, before they were naturalised. Section 23(1)(η) covers former permanent residents abroad who served at least six months in the armed forces of another country whose nationality they also held.
"Permanent resident abroad" is a defined status, not a description
The exemption most diaspora families rely on is section 23(1)(δ), for permanent residents abroad. The definition in section 2(2) is narrower than the phrase suggests. It means a person whose main and permanent establishment is abroad, or who has established a livelihood and lived abroad, in one or more countries, for at least ten consecutive years. For someone born abroad and raised there by his family, the ten years run from birth.
Losing the status is easier than acquiring it. It goes if the person settles permanently in the Republic, or simply stays in Cyprus for more than twelve months. A single stay of up to twelve months followed by a move back abroad does not break the ten-year count, which gives a gap year or a stint of work in Limassol some room, but not an open-ended one.
The exemption is granted by the Minister of Defence on application, supported by a certificate of permanent residence abroad from a Cyprus embassy, high commission or consulate. The High Commission in London charges £9 for that certificate and quotes around twenty working days, and it is the document a young dual national should carry when visiting.
Families who move to Cyprus rather than visit fall into the reduced tiers instead: arrival for permanent settlement between the ages of 10 and 13 brings 18 months, between 13 and 18 brings 14 months, between 18 and 26 brings 6 months, and after 26 it is 3 months, the last two subject to enlisting within two years of arrival.
The rule that can cost a naturalised citizen the passport
Section 113(4) of the Civil Registry Law is rarely mentioned in the sales material for residency schemes. The Council of Ministers may deprive a naturalised citizen of citizenship if satisfied that the person has been ordinarily resident in foreign countries for seven continuous years, unless during that time they either served the Republic or an international organisation of which it is a member, or notified a Cyprus consulate each year, in the prescribed manner, of their intention to retain citizenship.
The other grounds are what you would expect: obtaining registration or naturalisation by fraud, false representation or concealment of a material fact; disloyalty to the Republic; conduct amounting to acceptance of the illegal administration in the areas not under government control, including occupying or damaging property there that belongs to another lawful owner; a conviction within ten years carrying five years' imprisonment or more; being wanted by Europol or Interpol; or appearing on a sanctions list. Anyone facing an order must be told in writing and has 60 days to put their case to the Independent Committee for the Examination of Deprivation of Citizenship, chaired by a representative of the Law Office. None of section 113 reaches citizens by birth or descent.
What the second passport does not change
Tax is the common misunderstanding. Cyprus taxes people on residence, not on nationality, so a Cypriot passport held by someone living in Manchester produces no Cyprus income tax bill on its own. What brings you into the Cyprus system is time and ties, through the 183-day count or the 60-day route, both set out in our guide to tax residency and non-dom status. The non-dom checker runs your own dates against the tests.
Succession is the other one. Forced heirship under the Wills and Succession Law, Cap. 195, attaches to immovable property in Cyprus whoever owns it, so a British passport does not release a Cyprus flat from the statutory shares, as our guide to wills and inheritance explains.
What does change is the range of places you can live. A Cypriot passport is an EU passport, which restores free movement across the Union to British nationals who lost it after Brexit, and it passes to your children born abroad through the same M121 form you may have used yourself.
Sorting out a claim to Cypriot citizenship, or a military service question for a dual national son? Browse the directory for an immigration lawyer who handles citizenship files, and confirm the current position with the Civil Registry and Migration Department before you book flights.