I usually write technical articles on Habré, but not so long ago I celebrated two years of living in Cyprus and in this connection I would like to share information of a non-technical nature on how to go live and work in the European Union on an island in the Mediterranean Sea, in which companies why it is on Cyprus and whether it is worth it.
Disclaimer:In order to avoid misunderstandings, everything that will be described below is mostly about the city of
Limassol , in which I live and work. All the comparisons that I will make with Russia - mostly with St. Petersburg, in which I lived the last time. Further in the text under the "Russian" I will mean the citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other Russian-speaking. Local people do not particularly distinguish us, for them we are all Russians.

The reasons
Actually, I'll start with the answer why it is Cyprus. I wanted to live and work in a warm climate in an English-speaking environment and chose between: USA (San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego) (American English), Cyprus (Greek English), Vietnam (Vietnamese English), Thailand (Thai English).
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The United States disappeared almost immediately due to the fact that the annual number of applications exceeds the quota and the chance to get a work visa now is one of three (if not less). Because of the ghostly chance, I was not ready to pull English to the upper-intermediate level on one enthusiasm, to pass interviews, collect a bunch of pieces of paper confirming work experience and after all that did not pass the quota.
Since I did not plan to work in freelancing, and at that time there were approximately one vacancy in Vietnam, Thailand and Cyprus, I chose the vacancy I liked.
ClimateAfter living for many years in St. Petersburg, I would like to live a little where there is summer and preferably where there is no snow. In Cyprus, in rare winters, the temperature at night drops to zero. However, if you miss the snow, you can go to the mountains, there is snow there, though not every year. This winter was especially warm and I went through it almost all in lightweight sneakers.
EnglishAt school and university I studied French, so I knew no more than 100 words in English and absolutely could not understand it. In Cyprus, English is completely optional. Many Russian-language IT companies. Most realtors are Russian speakers. Half of the car rental belongs to Russian-speaking or have Russian-speaking employees. There are Russian-speaking hairdressers. Rus-market stores where you can buy familiar Russian products.
Most of the inscriptions on the shops of the central street are in Russian (for example, “furs”, “fur coats”), several in English and even I saw one sign in Greek.
The official language of Cyprus is Greek, but most of the documents (employment contract, lease, opening a bank account) are in English.
Russian-speaking (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, etc.) in Limassol comprise from 10 to 20% with a total population of 250 thousand people. You can often hear jokes about "Limassol". In tourist cities, for example, in
Ayanape, almost every restaurant has Russian-speaking waiters. Most restaurants in Limassol have a Russian-language menu.
There are Russian-language schools and gardens, pharmacies, clinics, doctors, support in the bank center, etc.
Sometimes it seems that I did not seem to go anywhere.
The number of the Russian-speaking population is sufficient for “seamless” migration from Russia, and the number of the English-speaking population is enough to learn and practice English. At work, most companies provide free English courses for employees and their spouses.
Job
There are many Russian-speaking companies in Cyprus and many Russian-language vacancies. They can be found even on the usual
headhunter ,
my lap and the
linkedin blocked in Russia.
Often, Russian-language vacancies are posted on Ukrainian and Belarusian sites for job search, and only the most popular ones duplicate on headhunter. Or even simply posted only on their sites, make a couple of reposts on the social network, and then wonder why there are so few responses.
Companies
Most IT companies work in the financial sector (Exness, FxPro, ForexTime, IronFx, Alpary, SpotOption)
There are also offices of major Russian companies from St. Petersburg, such as SEMrush, Iqoption, Embria, etc.
Prices
There is an excellent site numbeo.com, where you can easily compare prices in different cities of the planet, for example:
St. Petersburg vs Limassol and
Limassol vs San Diego .
As for wages, only those who have just moved to Cyprus are satisfied with it here. After a while, human greed takes its toll :). The average sn for the developer / tester / sysadmin / devops / designer is 2500-3500 euros after taxes.
Rent two years ago, a single apartment (one bedroom: one bedroom + room) cost 450-550 euros, now 700-900 euros. Every year more and more offices of Russian-speaking companies are opening here and prices are rising smoothly upwards.
Relocation bonuses
If you like a job in which the company does not help with relocation, then bypass this company side. Most companies offer their new employees:
- booking and payment of tickets for you and your family
- Airport pickup and transfer to your accommodation
- housing near the work for the first month, as well as a daily transfer if far away
- compensation of the cost of processing certificates required for employment
- visa for your family
- I saw one company, which also gives 10k euros for start-up costs
Who moves to Cyprus, why for how long?
Someone because of the climate, someone because of the money. Most often, people go just to try - like / dislike. Many people I know return to Russia in a year or two or continue their journey further - European countries, States, etc.
If you are without children and doubt to go / not to go, then definitely worth a try. If with children, then the most frequent problems that they complain about are the cost of the kindergarten and that there are no grandparents around who can give their children away for the weekend.
Unusual things that remind me that I am not in Russia
BanksVery short working day, something like 14:00.
After signing a contract with you to open an account, they do not give you a copy. The original is kept by them.
But once a month they send by mail a list of all transactions for the month (you can and should unsubscribe from this free service).
The card and pincode are mailed at intervals of two days.
In a branch of more than 2k euros, putting it on your account can be problematic, a statement is needed explaining the source of income and the papers confirming this (“saved up and saved up” not to go). Once upon a time it is not necessary - someone put 3k euros into the account without any questions, and someone already from 50 euros makes a phone call and is interested in the reasons for the transfer.
ATMs that accept cash and put into your account are rare and they work like this: press a button — an envelope leaves, write how much money on a piece of paper, put money and a piece of paper in an envelope, envelope into an ATM, and then wait while you manually process your operation.
To take a mortgage - you need two local guarantors, housing is not necessary for banks as collateral.
PharmaciesThere are no round-the-clock pharmacies, there are on-duty pharmacies (in order to understand which pharmacy is working today at night, you need to go to the nearest one and look at the schedule on it).
Almost all tablets require a prescription. At the same time, they can sell without a prescription even what they don’t buy in Russia and with a prescription. All pills are completely different - you need to independently study foreign analogues, or buy only in Russian-speaking pharmacies.
Prices in all pharmacies are the
same .
TransportBuses run very rarely, with air conditioning and without Wi-Fi, often almost empty.
Cars are parked everywhere on the sidewalks, they only get around on the roadway.
The amount of alcohol allowed in the blood is one that most people cannot drink. To get a penalty for drunk driving you need to really try.
Many British pensioners on steep wheelbarrows, and just old people behind the wheel (rights are given for life).
Uber is not here - you have to call a taxi, if you don’t answer, it means that you are unlucky, and if the taxi driver answered, but he is already tired, he can send his wife or son instead.
Navigator in google maps instead of “turn into Anexartisias street” sounds like “turn into hey-ni-epsilon-xi-alpha-ro-tao-and-sigma-iota-alpha-sigma” (Ανεξαρτησίας).
Left side traffic.
You can ride on Russian rights. After six months of residence in Cyprus, you can take on the local law.
Also, according to Russian car rights, you can rent a boat.
Gay menHere you can officially legalize your relationship with a partner of any gender. After that, at your work they help to arrange a spouse visa for your partner.
Wednesday, Friday and SundayIn Cyprus, Wednesday is the second Friday, all stores close very early. Much earlier than your work day ends.
On Sunday, almost all the shops are closed, if you want to go shopping, make a haircut, etc., then for this - Saturday.
On holidays, nothing works at all, if you lose sight of the upcoming holidays, you will have to eat either in a cafe or pasture from the nearest minimarket.
the Internet9-12 megabits - 25-35 euros. Connection fee. Periodic cliffs.
Connect via wi-fi (set up a wi-fi antenna on the balcony / roof) or using ADSL.
Local sites look as if they were created at the beginning of the two thousandth.
For torrents - do not penalize, as in Germany and do not disconnect from the Internet, as in Britain.
Of the blocked sites - just a couple of some casinos.
Global Topographical CretinismThe addresses are used only by mail employees and not always. Nobody uses cards. Taxi drivers do not use navigators, even if they have them, but will try to find out what is nearby.
If you call any organization and inquire about its address, instead of “Saripola 37” there’s something like “if you go from the center of Athanasiou Street, then you need a third exit on the ring, then after a few blocks on the right side there will be McDonald's, so after it our office will be on the left side behind the blue tall building ”. You ask to duplicate by SMS the address - you receive again the same “sheet”.
If you order a pizza and leave your address, then at the appointed hour you will be called back and told the name of the store / cafe with which the delivery man is located, so that you can orient him where to go next, and woe to you if you do not know the store.
Conferences / seminarsLast year there were only two conferences: one for testers, and the second for designers. Since I am a backend developer and far from design, I attended a conference for testers.
Trade marksLocal companies were not at a loss and literally registered all known brands and use them as they like. As a result, everything is completely confused, the cafes have the names of a clothing brand, a clothing store - a shoe brand, etc. It is worse only when a local store with products of not very good quality uses the world famous brand correctly.
PeopleThe locals are very welcoming and friendly. Complete strangers willingly go to help, even if you have not yet had time to ask her. If you still know a few words in Greek, then they are generally delighted.
At night, you can safely walk in almost any area.
If you heard drunken cries somewhere at night, you can be sure that they are Russians :) The only exception is the area in which the building of the local football club is located, it’s quite noisy at night.
SchengenCyprus is part of the European Union, but not part of the Schengen zone. This means that you cannot go to Europe anywhere with your work visa. In St. Petersburg, you could quickly and easily get a Finnish Schengen for a year, and then for two. Here they often issue a visa only for specific dates of travel and at the same time require a lot of certificates, and the embassy is located in another city. Nevertheless, if you have a Schengen, then by it you can fly into Cyprus if you suddenly do not have time to issue a "pro-visa" necessary for tourists.
Taxes and feesTax on income of legal entities is 12.5% - the lowest tax in the European Union.
For individuals - a progressive tax, for a salary of 3,000 euros is about 10%.
The first 19,500 euros per year are not taxed, the following 8499 - 20%, 8299 - 25%, the next 23699 - 30%, all that is higher - 35%.
So with a salary of 3,000 per month and a corresponding annual income of 36,000, we get:
20000 * 0 + 8499 * 0.2 + 7501 * 0.25 = 3575.05 per year, i.e. about 300 euros per month.
Usually the employer calculates and pays for it.
When buying goods via the Internet with delivery from outside the European Union (for example, Aliexpress) you will have to pay customs duty of 0-17% of the value of the goods (if the price is more than 150 euros) and sales tax - 18% of the total cost (goods + delivery + insurance) (if the total cost is more than 17 euros). To avoid these taxes, there are schemes with shipment across the UK.
Russian servicesAlmost all music on VKontakte and all in Yandex does not work for free, we need a subscription.
Rutracker on the contrary is available without workarounds.
Yandex.Money cannot be replenished with a Cyprus card.
Things to do before leaving Russia:
- Buy the most essential medicines.
- Buy a block of cigarettes - they are 5 times more expensive here.
- Issue Schengen for as long as possible.
- Issue a bank card, which will be able to send you a new abroad if it expires. And also solves all problems remotely without trips to the department. And it allows you to replenish it from the Cyprus Bank.
- Drink enough kefir. Here it is only one type - a bottle with the inscription "kefir".
Few links for the first time
Internet providers: alphanet ,
dragonnet ,
primetel ,
cablenet (eng) and
cyta (eng)Property rental: bazaraki (eng)Transportation: Schedules and routes in Limassol and around the island ,
Bus "Airport in Larnaca - Limassol" (eng) ,
routes in Limassol (eng) ,
taxi (eng, web, android, ios)Pharmacies: state price for all medicines (eng) ,
pharmacies on duty (eng)News: cyprusnews (telegram) ,
Herald of Cyprus and
Russian Cyprus .
Local YouTube: Mile and
Ekaterina Repina (six months ago, she went to
St. Petersburg a few years later in Cyprus).
Communities: Book of Complaints and Suggestions (group on Facebook) ,
Russians in Cyprus ,
Russian Forum in Cyprus and
Russian Forum of Cyprus .
PS: the article was compiled from notes for the last two years and something could have changed, but this is not accurate.
Update:There are no age restrictions by the state. The only restriction is the availability of higher education (this is a requirement for obtaining a work visa)
The level of competition is lower than in our capitals.
Freelancers and business owners can get a visa, which gives the right to reside in Cyprus, but does not give the right to work for Cyprus companies.
I think that those who are interested in moving to Cyprus can unsubscribe about it here in the comments, describing that they can and indicating in your profile a link to your resume / linkedin - so it will be much easier for eychara to find the right people.
Specialties are claimed completely different (mainly it and tourism). I gave the links to the vacancies above, visit them once a week and check for new ones or subscribe to the newsletter by email. At the moment (according to the links above) vacancies are open:
PHP Developer
DevOps Engineer
Golang developer
Senior Backend Developer
Android application developer
IOS application developer
Leading Front-End Developer
C ++ Developer
Lead C + + Developer
Senior QA Engineer
QA Automation Engineer
QA Engineer (Manual + Automation)
Senior Media Buyer / Senior Traffic Manager
HR- assistant business owner
IT is a business owner's assistant with analytics functions.
Leading / Leading Karaoke (DJ)
Scrum master
IFRS Accountant
… and many others. Every week vacancies change
Update 2:I do not respond to messages in a personal / social network / telegram / sms / call. If you have a question, then ask it in the comments, I do not need to write:
“Hello, Vladimir. I read your article on Hyktimes about Cyprus and relocation. Sorry to bother you this way, I did not find your other contacts in the article. ”
Update 3:Today there was
another article about Cyprus in Habré.
It has something I forgot to write about: an electric blanket, deposits, mold ...
After a couple of months,
another article about Cyprus was published on Habré with a description of the same time interval 20016-2018.