Health insurance for residence permit in Cyprus: what each route needs

If your permit does not let you work in Cyprus, you need a private health insurance certificate that the Migration Department calls Plan A: it covers inpatient and outpatient care and the transportation of remains (repatriation of the body), and it renews automatically. This applies to visitor permits on form MVIS8, their dependent spouses and children, and students.

If you work for a Cyprus employer, you pay into GESY, the public health system, and are covered by it. Families joining a worker under family reunification can use GESY registration plus a smaller private policy for repatriation of remains. Requirements differ by route, so check the table before you buy.

Applicants for an immigration permit, such as Category F, also bring original medical tests done abroad, legalised, from 1 September 2026, unless they already hold a temporary permit with medical documents on file.

The Department's lists use the same wording for visitors, dependants and students: a certificate of health insurance for medical care that covers inpatient and outpatient care and transportation of corpse (Plan A). Read it as three tests:

• Inpatient: hospital stays and surgery.
• Outpatient: doctor visits, tests and treatment without a hospital stay. A hospital-only policy is not enough.
• Transportation of remains: the cost of returning the body to the home country.

The visitor list also asks for the policy to be automatically renewable. Ask the insurer for a certificate in English that repeats these words and states the cover period, and keep it valid for the whole permit: you show it again at every renewal. The bank guarantee for repatriation that visitors also give is a separate document and does not replace the insurance.

Route by route, the wording shifts slightly:

• Visitors and their dependants: Plan A for each person, at the first permit and at every renewal. A spouse or child on a dependant visitor permit files their own application, with a certificate that covers them by name.
• Family reunification: Plan A for the sponsor and the family members, automatically renewable, or a GESY registration certificate plus private insurance for transportation of remains.
• Students: Plan A for the permit period. Students coming under an EU mobility programme show insurance for all the risks normally covered for Cypriot nationals.

The Health Insurance Organisation lists who is a GESY beneficiary. Non-EU citizens who live in Cyprus qualify if they hold a permanent residence permit or have the right of equal treatment in social insurance, which in practice means people who work here and pay contributions. Their dependants who live in Cyprus are covered too. EU citizens qualify if they work here, have permanent residence, are family members of a beneficiary or are insured in another EU country.

Contributions are 2.65% of salary for employees, 4% for the self-employed and 2.65% of pensions, rents, interest and dividends, up to €180,000 of income a year. To enrol you must already be registered with the Migration Department, Civil Registry or Social Insurance, then you choose a personal doctor; children under 15 go on a children's doctor's list. If you start work on a single permit, your family on dependant permits is covered once they are registered as your dependants; until then, keep any private policy running so there is no gap. See GESY and health insurance.

EU citizens who register for a Yellow Slip on sufficient funds, without working, must show comprehensive sickness insurance cover in Cyprus.

The Category F permanent residence route needs a secured income from abroad of at least €9,568 a year, plus €4,613 for each dependant. Its current document list does not name a health insurance policy, but it asks for medical test results done abroad showing that you do not have HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B or C or tuberculosis (chest X-ray), duly certified. Until the permit is granted you still hold your temporary permit, usually a visitor permit, so keep its Plan A policy valid. Once permanent residence is granted, you can enrol in GESY. See Category F and permanent residence.

The EU long-term resident status (form MLT3) is different: the form says that in all cases the application must come with sickness insurance. See long-term resident.

We do not publish premium ranges: we found no official or independent source for them, and quotes depend on age, the excess, pre-existing conditions and whether outpatient care has a cap. Compare at least two quotes that meet the Plan A wording, and check that the policy is valid from the day you file. Common reasons for a returned file are a hospital-only policy, no repatriation cover, or a policy that ends before the permit period.

Plan the dates: the policy must already be valid when you file, and the visitor and student lists ask for it again at renewal, so a policy that lapses between renewals leaves you without proof. If your status changes, for example from visitor to employee, check whether you now qualify for GESY before you renew the private policy, but keep it until GESY registration is confirmed.

We confirm which route you are on and which cover it needs; as Cyprus law requires, a licensed insurance intermediary advises on policies with the right wording. The same plan covers the rest of the file: see Pink Slip and family permits.