Residency Issues

Hi there,
I am an Australian who moved to Paphos in 2020 and have been trying to secure residency for my family since. My residency was approved in September 2020, however my wife and son’s application remained unresolved. It seems we managed to pick the worst lawyer in Cyprus, and despite what seems to have been a relatively straight-forward process, after five appointments and multiple mistakes by the lawyer my wife and son had their residency denied. I was out of the country working overseas for most of this period.

The lawyer then failed for some weeks to convey this information along with the fact that my wife and son were then deemed to be living in the country illegally. Once we realized this, we made arrangements for them to leave the country and they are staying in another country at the moment. On departing Cyprus, it was frustratingly difficult to get an answer from the immigration officials at the airport as to whether they would be placed on the “Stop” list and therefore be banned from re-entering Cyprus, but it seems from what we were told it is likely that they have been placed on this list. We still have a house rented, car, furniture, my son in school etc in Cyprus.

We have engaged a new lawyer, who seems to be just as non-responsive and hopeless as the previous one and does not seem to be able to advise if they will be able to re-enter the country. This seems to me like it should be something relatively easy to find out from Immigration. It has been suggested that if they are NOT on the list that after an absence of more than 90 days from the country, they can re-enter the country and apply again for residency.

Does anyone have any information or advice about this? And apologies for the long post. Thanks.

Pete