Update on our Move

Yes, we set up at Chloraka branch with Hellenic bank.

I've got to pay €15000 in tomorrow but trying to find the Iban and Bic codes is proving difficult, all it will give me is the basic bank account details,  do you know where to find these on the Hellenic online App?

My Lawyer is looking into this for me tomorrow

@timhuntington  Tim, when I was at the bank they printed off the IBAN and BIC for me so I have a paper copy. Still waiting to activate the app. If I find anything I will let you know.

Yes, we set up at Chloraka branch with Hellenic bank.
I've got to pay €15000 in tomorrow but trying to find the Iban and Bic codes is proving difficult, all it will give me is the basic bank account details, do you know where to find these on the Hellenic online App?
My Lawyer is looking into this for me tomorrow
-@timhuntington

Are they not on your bank card?

They are definitely in the app....in account details usually tap.the account  and a further window opens up with the details with ability to copy

Yes, I've found it now. Press on your basic account and then the little (i) in the top right hand corner, press and all is revealed, simple when you know how!!! 😎

Next update, I went to the electricity board in Paphos to change over the names on the electricity bill. As I went with the landlord it was a painless experience and took around 15 minutes. Nice building, easy access and quick turnaround, friendly helpful staff. You need your passport and rental\sale agreement with you.

Now for the bad news, you have to pay €350 upfront which you get back when you leave the premises.

Next step - Immigration on Monday

When you eventualy buy your property it's only €75... Your lawyer will arrange the connection as part of the process and the charge will appear on the electric bill.

@Toon Thanks, I assumed it was the same when renting or buying.

Next update, went to immigration this morning with Mel Osborne could not have been smoother We now have our pink slips. Just got to wait about 6 weeks for our card.

I have to admit the location is awful and the building itself is terrible. The staff appear to be almost overwhelmed at the moment. It was not a nice experience being in that building though we were only in 10 minutes having our biometrics done.

We are now just waiting for our furniture to arrive and then we have to deal with Customs. Almost there.

@MacGeorge8035 Glad that your  pink card application process went smoothly. We are moving to Peyia on Nov 1st. Are you planning to buy property soon and apply for the category F slow track permanent residency ?

@dvb123 my wife wants to give it a year to make sure we have made the right choice we will look at buying then. If the category F route does not change too much we will look at that route at the same time otherwise we will just do temporary residency for the next 4 years and in year 5 apply for permanent residency.  We have sold our UK home and are putting that money into a UK bank.

@MacGeorge8035  We have our immigration appointment on 27th October

Good to hear that it went smoothly 😊 makes you a bit anxious waiting to see if you are expected or not!

Black hole of Calcutta hasn't changed then..

!Good one! Toon

@ricolo it always felt like that....

It was the same in 2014 when we arrived MEU1.. again in 2019 MEU3.. And was much the same if not worse earlier this year in our aborted attempt to get the new biometric card ..... Decided to leave it until forced to do it as currently it's not mandatory

Next update. Based on the original estimate our furniture was scheduled to arrive in Limmasol today. I have had a call from Peter Morton’s telling us that it will be at least a week late getting in. Then it takes 2 to 3 working days to get through Customs so furniture is now expected to be delivered the 25th or 26th of October.  As my new Cypriot friend keeps telling me, slowly, slowly.

😳😳😵‍💫😵‍💫 my stuff comes over wednesday from holland they said they will bring it IN the house. succes !!

Sega sega

@jacquelinesmolders Sadly it is more difficult for us Brits since Brexit. We have to do a whole raft of paperwork to import our furniture and avoid Customs duty etc. once that is all done our stuff will get delivered to our house.

Our immigration process is taking much longer than anyone else on this thread - we do not have an appointment until December,we are using an agency to help us with the process . We are also having problems with possessions which ahve arrived at Limassol but  the shipping agents require an endless amount of info about our residency status before they will deliver our items - small furniture,clothes.etc.

We opened an account with Hellenic last week - it took over 2 hours ,but it is all set up with 15,000 euros deposited.

Another issue we have just found is a recent change with property leases - you now have to have stamps stuck on the lease  and signed by both the tenant and owner over the stamps.This then has to be photocopied and then 2 more 1 euro stamps have to be stuck onto the photocopied lease. I believe the copy is retained by our immigration agent but the main problem is that the owner of our property is overseas . Another delay .

All, at last, the ship with our Container arrived in Limassol on Thursday the 20th exactly as planned. I was then called forward to attend the customs office in Paphos this was done on Monday the 24th. I was supported by a member of Peter Morton's team who brought with him all the paperwork. I was in the office for around 20 minutes and everything was signed off and cleared. As I have come to expect by now I needed to sign around 10 sheets of paper. Once the customs had cleared my container it was arranged for it to be collected by PMR from Limassol and delivered to my address on Wednesday 26th. I was a little disconcerted to be told that a customs agent would be in attendance, I need not have worried as all the guy did was wander around just checking what came off the container, again no dramas. But, I was presented with a €130 bill for the customs agent's attendance. So that's it for my move, I am here, I have my temporary residency, I have my bank account and all my furniture. Now just to register for GeSY.

Well done so far

Thanks for the update and very glad to hear it was smooth. PMR are collecting my house contents on the 31st Oct. They have estimated the arrival to be 2nd Dec 4.5 weeks. I know I need to be in Cyprus for the customs clearance. I am planning to fly out on the 30th Nov. Looking at your experience customs clearance will be 4 days after arrival. Was the estimated transit time from PMR accurate for you?

Our immigration appointment has been confirmed for Jan 2023. The form is in Greek but Michael at CCA has been dealing with it should be OK lol

Thanks for taking the time to post and pls keep the updates coming as they are very helpful

@phildraper PMR told me 4 to 5 weeks for the delivery. It actually took about 5 weeks 5 days door to door. The container arrived in Limassol as expected on the 20th the rest of the time was waiting for Customs to clear the container. From arrival in Limassol to delivering to my house took 4 working days that does not include the day the ship arrived.  Just make sure your paperwork is in order PMR were great at keeping me right.  As I said earlier if customs do an inspection whilst unloading it will cost you €130.

Hope things are going well for you and thanks for the update. My expected arrival date is the 2nd Dec still as it is in transit now. Our flights are booked for the 4th Dec so hope we can perform the customs shortly after. The dog is arriving on the 5th lol

We have amassed the paperwork for the TOR with loads of bank statements, council bill etc. The house in the UK has not been sold but is still on the market not that I expect much movement this time of year and with the current economic climate. When we arrive, we will be looking for a 1-year rental but not sure where yet. We have 1 month staying at a friend's apartment in Kings Palace TOTK. We will need to open a bank account. Any tips on things to watch out for like missing docs etc?

How did you pay the 130.00 customs attendance?

we have recently moved to Cyprus (28th of march 2022) and a couple of watchouts are as follows - --

make sure that you marriage certificate is apostille

bring all key documents with you when you fly over as containers can be significantly delayed (ours should have been 5 weeks but actually took 14 weeks)

get yourself a good bank account for currency transfers from pound to euro (we use starling and they are excellent and have saved us a fortune), we also have a bank of Cyprus account

make your immigration appointment ASAP (ie now) as there can be quite a wait (I had to wait 4 months)

get a Cyprus pay as you go phone number as many companies won't allow you to register a U.K. number on their websites

hope this helps

Tony

Thank you for the heads up. Much appreciated. We are not married I hope that is not an issue lol

We have an appointment with immigration booked for late Jan 2023 so that is done.

Another heads up in terms of the healthcare cover evidence make sure the healthcare cover documents are in English priced in euros per event with liability cover limits.... A friend of mine had her immigration application rejected as no event types limits and was priced in US dollars.. 

........and as a result of being away from Cyprus when the letter was sent to the property here she was time barred so has to start again

@phildraper I opened a bank account with Hellenic and I needed to provide the following:

6 months' of UK bank Statements

Proof for the Source of funds I was moving to Cyprus

UK Utility Bills

Council Tax bill for the last 2 years

Copies of Passports

Proof of Income

Our UK National Insurance details

Account Application form

Melanie Osborne gave me a contact at the bank and I emailed all the documents to them. This meant when I arrived in Cyprus all I had to do was go to the bank and show my passports and it was all very straightforward. The preparation beforehand was the key.

I am paying the customs fee via Peter Morton as they were the ones being charged.

@MacGeorge803512 I hope things are going well for you. Just thought I would post my experiences as they might help others with a move in the pipeline.

We arrived on the 4th Dec and the PMR container arrived on the 15th. Visit to customs for the car and motorcycle went without a hitch but the clearance of the goods cannot be done without a 1 year rental agreement. As we are staying at a friend’s holiday let we have not got a rental agreement yet. Not for trying. We have been out every day looking at property and visiting estate agents. I discovered the internet is not the way in Cyprus. Face to face gets results emails and contact forms just go un-noticed it seems.

We also discovered virtually every long term rental and apparently some resale property comes fully furnished. By this they mean everything including bed linen kitchen utensils, plates, towels etc. Most rentals are crammed pack full of stuff and there is no option to get even the small amount we brought with us in as well. Owner will not remove contents. Eventually we found a part furnished and we will attempt to get our stuff in after packing up the owners. So if you are thinking of relocating here think about what you bring. 

Motorcycle insurance was a challenge as well as it seems the underwriters do not like them. 3rd party is all most will offer and this was 380.00 where I paid 60.00 fully comp in the UK. Finally got Abbey Gate to get an underwriter to offer fully comp and it was 420.00. The car was about the same cost fully comp as in the UK. All this with over 9 years NCB no convictions and being an advanced qualified driver. No help here as they do not appear to even pass basic driving skills lol

Must add that Danny at Abbey Gate exceeded expectations and really did work hard to get everything arrange by the date I need to get vehicles registered with customs. He was also the best prices.

Still need to open bank account as I do not have all the docs required.

We should move into the new rental in Kamares 1st week of Jan 2023 and then we will feel more settled. We did join Paphos Int Sailing Club and had a Christmas lunch there lol

Loving the weather being a good mix of mostly sun and a little rain but not really cold and very warm in the sun.

Well done so far

@phildraper things are going really well just waiting for our new id cards. We have registered for Gesy and are in the process of sorting out our Tax residency. I had the same problem as you with rentals, nearly everything was fully furnished but my wife wanted her own stuff. We got lucky and found a landlord who was happy to rent to us unfurnished but it was not easy. I was shocked by the cost of the car insurance even though I had many years NCD. I was also taken aback by the rental costs here I was not expecting them to be as high. We have now started to look at buying something when our rental agreement ends in September. A friend who rents in Peyia suddenly found their rent shoot up by €250 a month.

It's always been one of the worries and problems with renting.... It goes with the territory... Landlords like everywhere else can get greedy when they sniff a hint of an easy financial win .. rents will rise for sure... And if you dont pay it  or can't negotiate a more reasonable rent then there is the potential for an unscrupulous landlord to make your life hell .. they have ways of making you walk.....the law used to be heavily weighted in favour of tenants but not anymore..dont be fooled by a contract, here doesn't mean a lot it's a bit of false peice of mind as many have found to their cost..

Be aware beware be wary  ...good luck