Since the beginning of June 2010 the Migration Department is applying the new/amended Law on Family Reunification to all the members of the family of third country nationals who are already employed in Cyprus.  All the traditional applications for the renewal of the visitor permits (the “pink form”) for such family members are being rejected.  This new procedure causes serious difficulties in cases where these family members are residing already on the island.

Our 17th Annual General Meeting took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Limassol on Wednesday 26th May 2010.  Read here a brief report and the full text of the speech of our President, Mr. Frixos Savvides.  A photo gallery is included.

We refer to our circular 2009/12 dated 11 December 2009 in which we outlined the current practices and procedures to clear a duty free car belonging to staff members of an International Business Company.  One of our members has followed the  advise given in this circular  and received a few days ago a letter from the Department of Customs and Excise, agreeing to reduce the customs value of his car with 87,24% for clearing purposes.

We share on a regular basis in the worries and the agonies which our members are confronted with when applying for the renewal of the temporary residence permits of their third country national managers or key-staff.  The procedure remains very complicated and the lack of one single document can block it indefinitely while the validity of the eventually issued permit will depend on many things.  There is however a way to avoid the regularly returning agony of rooting through the complicated pink form renewal procedures.  Managers and key-staff members  of international business companies can apply for an Immigration Permit.  In the “Circulars/Downloads” section of this website our members will find our new circular number 2010/07 which gives full details about the application procedure, the documents to be submitted and other specifications.

The Association of Russian Businessmen in Cyprus celebrated its 15th anniversary with a cocktail reception held on 9th April 2010 at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Nicosia in the presence of the President of the Republic of Cyprus Mr. Dimitris Christofias, the Minister of Finance Mr. Charilaos Stavrakis, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation Mr. Vyacheslav D. Shumskiy, the Director of the Moscow House of Compatriots Mr. Yuri Kaplun and a large number of Cypriot and Russian dignitaries and businessmen and a small CIBA-delegation.

On 23 February 2010 all CIBA members were invited to attend a presentation, brought by the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA) on the subject of the World Bank’s "Doing Business Report - 2010 -  Reforming through difficult times"  and the global position of the Republic of Cyprus in this report.

We have the pleasure to announce that the Director/Publisher of the Financial Mirror, Mr. Massis der Parthogh, has kindly allowed us to offer to all CIBA members a free subscription on the electronic (PDF) version of the weekly newspaper until the end of 2010.

In its session of 10 December 2009 the Parliament has  passed the Aliens and Immigration (Amending) Law of 2009.  According to our information the sections amending the Family Reunification Law and the Law on the Long Term Resident Permit have been approved by a majority of the House of Representatives.

A number of years ago, most International Business Companies active in Cyprus were obliged to register for VAT.  The majority of these IBC’s had/have no output-VAT to declare, since they have their business mainly outside Cyprus and even outside the European Union.  On the other hand, they paid/pay VAT on their local purchases (stationary, supplies, service fees, etc…).   The result of the foregoing is that a lot of IBC’s slowly and steadily built up a balance in their favour and at some point they apply to the VAT Department to have this balance actually refunded.

The Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs invited a delegation of CIBA to express our views on two bills currently under discussion: (1)  The Third Country National and Migration (Amendment 2) Law of 2009 and (2)  The Bill amending the Municipalities’ Law.