Work and life IT pros in Cyprus - the pros and cons
Cyprus is a small country in south-eastern Europe. Located on the third largest island in the Mediterranean. The country is part of the European Union, but not part of the Schengen agreement.
Among Russians, Cyprus is strongly associated with offshore and tax havens, although in reality this is not quite the case. The island has a developed infrastructure, excellent roads, it is easy to run your business on it. The most attractive areas of the economy are financial services, investment management, tourism, and, more recently, software development.
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I purposefully traveled to Cyprus because the climate and mentality of the local population suits me. Under the cut - how to find a job, get a residence permit, well, a couple of life hacking for those who are already here.
Something about me. I have long been in IT, I started my career while still a student in the 2nd year of college. He was a programmer (C ++ / MFC), a web admin (ASP.NET) and devops. Gradually I realized that it was more interesting for me to engage not in the actual development, but in communication with people and solving problems. For the past 20 years I have been working in support L2 / L3.
At one time I traveled around Europe, somewhere I even lived for a year and a half, but then I had to return to my homeland. About Cyprus began to think about three years ago. I sent a resume to a couple of offices, ended up having a personal interview with the future boss and forgot about him, however, six months later they called me and pretty soon I received a job offer in the position I wanted.
Eternal summer, the sea, fresh local products and the mentality of the local population. They are very similar to us in terms of easy flyu pofigizma and generally optimistic attitude to life. It is enough to smile or spread a couple of on-duty phrases - and you are always welcome. There is no such negative attitude towards foreigners as for example in Austria. The fact that the Cypriot church and the autocephalous, but also Orthodox, and they consider us brothers in the faith, also affects the attitude towards the Russians.
Cyprus is not as noisy and “narrow” as Holland. There are places where you can relax from the crowds, a tent, barbecues, mountain trails, sea grottoes - all this in a relatively pristine state. In winter, if you are tormented by nostalgia, you can go skiing, and, having moved out of the mountains, you can immediately swim, looking at the melting snowman.
There are several dozens of IT companies on the market, mostly trades and finance, but there are tanchiki and application software. From the means all the same - Java, .NET, kubernetes, Node.js, in contrast to the bloody enterprise, everything is alive and modern. The scale of the problems is certainly less, but the technology is quite modern. The language of international communication is English, and the Cypriots speak excellent and understandable, there will be no problems.
The disadvantages are mainly domestic plan, there is nothing you can do about it, either you put up with them and enjoy life, or you go somewhere else. In particular, +30 in the summer at night (air conditioning), the lack of obligation of local residents, some provincialism and local status, isolation from the "culture". The first year and a half will have to get sick with local sores like ARVI.
In this I was not original - hhru and linkedin. Filtered by country and began to view suitable vacancies. Usually, the aggregators write the name of the office, so after I found the job that interested me, Google helped me with the company's website, and then the Career section and HR contact details. Nothing complicated, the main thing is to make a correct resume. Perhaps the personnel officers in Cyprus pay attention not so much to the projects and experience, as to the formal signs - a programming language, general experience, an operating system and all that.
The interview was conducted via Skype, they did not ask anything technically complex (and what can be asked there with 20 years of experience). Trite motivation, a little ITIL, why Cyprus.
Unlike many other EU countries, you will already be on the island to receive a residence permit. The documents require a certificate of good conduct, a birth certificate and a certificate of education. There is no need to translate - firstly, the translation may not be accepted on the spot, and secondly, Cyprus recognizes Russian official documents.
Directly for arrival, you need either a standard tourist visa (issued by the consulate of Cyprus), or an open Schengen of any EU country. For Russians, it is possible to get a so-called pro-visa (application on the website of the consulate, in a couple of hours a letter that needs to be printed and be in the airport), but it has its limitations, for example, it is necessary to fly only from Russia. So if there is an opportunity to get Schengen, it is better for it. Schengen days are not reduced, standard 90 days stay in Cyprus.
At the airport upon arrival may ask for a hotel voucher, you must be ready for this. The hotel naturally should be on free Cyprus. It is not recommended to discuss the purpose of the visit with the border guard, especially if you have a pro-visa - if they do not ask, do not say anything, they will ask - a tourist. Not that there was a special filter, there is just some chance that they will put the period of stay exactly on the dates of booking the hotel, and this may not be enough to file documents.
The employer is likely to provide you with a transfer and hotel for the first time. After you sign the contract, you need to do a rental car and apartment.
In Cyprus, the English colonial legal system. This means, in particular, that the contract is inviolable (until the parties renegotiate). The contract, of course, can not contradict the legislation of Cyprus, but nevertheless it makes sense to deduct everything and get into the details, so that later it would not be excruciatingly painful. As a rule, employers make concessions if they are interested in you as a professional. The main thing that you need to pay attention to is the Renumeration (as a rule, the amount is indicated before paying your part of social insurance and income tax), opening hours, amount of leave, fines and penalties.
If you do not quite understand the size of the salary on your hands, google you to help, there are online calculators, for example, on the site Deloitte. There are obligatory payments in social insurance and, more recently, in the health care system (interest on salary), there is an income tax according to a cunning formula with steps. A minimum of about 850 euros is not taxed, then the rate increases with the amount of the annual salary.
In general, salaries correspond to Moscow and St. Petersburg. For an employer, payroll costs are moderate to around 4,000 euros per month before taxes, after which the share of taxes is already substantial and may exceed 30%.
After signing the contract, one copy will go to the officials, so make sure you sign at least three copies. Give your copy to no one, let them embroider and re-copy if necessary.
After registration of the contract, the employer prepares a set of documents for obtaining a work permit and residence permit. You will be asked to go to an accredited doctor to donate blood for AIDS and do a photofluorography. In addition, a certificate, a diploma and a birth certificate will be transferred to the state office. With a set of documents, you will come to the local immigration office, where you will be photographed, fingerprinted and most importantly will be given a receipt. This receipt gives you the right to reside permanently in Cyprus until you receive a response from the migration department and repeatedly crossing the border. Formally, at this moment you can legally begin to work. In a few weeks (3-4, sometimes more) you will be given a temporary residence permit in the form of a plastic card with a photo, which will be your main document on the island. Term - 1-2 years at the discretion of the authorities.
A work permit for IT professionals - third-country nationals can be obtained on one of two grounds: either a company with foreign capital or you are a highly qualified specialist (higher education) who could not be hired among local people. In any case, if a company hires foreigners, then there is no permission and there is no need to worry about it.
Temporary residence permit does not give the right to visit EU countries, be careful. Therefore, I recommend that you still get a long Schengen at home - so you will kill two birds with one stone - you will drive into Cyprus and go on vacation.
For family members, a residence permit is obtained after receiving their own residence permit. Relatives go to the trailer and the work permit will not receive. There is a requirement for the amount of income, but for IT people there will be no problems, usually enough for a wife-children and even a grandmother.
After 5 years of staying on the island, you can apply for a permanent (unlimited) European residence permit for yourself for all family members (they will receive the right to work). After seven years - on citizenship.
In Cyprus, 2.5 cities, the main places of work - Nicosia and Limassol. Best with work in Limassol. The cost of renting decent housing starts from 800 euros, for the money you get an apartment with ancient furnishings and furniture by the sea or decent housing such as a small villa in a village closer to the mountains. Kommunalka depends on the availability of the pool, the main payments (water, electricity) will amount to an average of 100-200 euros per month. There is almost no heating anywhere, in the winter they are heated with air conditioners or kerosene, if you are very lucky, the floor is warm.
The Internet is like an ancient ADSL, and quite a decent optics or TV cable, in almost every apartment building, there will most likely be a digital phone line in the villa. Internet prices are quite affordable, from 20 euros per month. The Internet is stable except for some wireless providers that may fail in the rain.
Mobile traffic is quite expensive - a package of 2 gigabytes will cost 15 euros per month, no limit is not common. Calls on the contrary are cheap, including to Russia. All-European free roaming is available.
In Limassol, there is a bus network, it is easy to go to the mountains or to neighboring cities, even there are minibuses that come to the address to call. Intercity public transport runs on a schedule, but unfortunately most of the routes finish at 5-6 pm.
You can do without a car if you live in the center near work and a supermarket. But it is better to have a driver's license. To rent a car will cost 200-300 euros per month during the off-season. In the season from June to October, prices rise.
You can buy a car only after receiving a temporary residence permit. The market is full of cars of different years, including the dense, to find a stool under the booty for 500-1500 euros in good condition is quite possible. Insurance will cost 100-200 euros per year depending on the length of service and engine size. Inspection once a year.
After six months of driving on foreign rights, you need to change them to Cypriot. This is done easily - the application form from the site and 40 euros. Old rights are taken.
The roads are very decent, even rural. For speed fined, but automatic cameras yet. You can have a glass of beer, but I would not play with fire.
Food prices vary greatly during the season, sometimes they are much less Moscow, sometimes they are compared. But the quality is definitely incomparable - fruits straight from the gardens, vegetables from the beds, cheese from the cow. The EU controls the indicators, water and products are clean and healthy. You can drink from the tap (although the water is tough and tasteless).
A part of Cyprus has been occupied by a neighboring country since 1974, and accordingly the UN-controlled line of demarcation runs across the island. You can drive to the other side, but it is advisable not to stay there for the night, and especially not to buy housing and smuggling there, there may be problems. The situation is gradually improving, but wait a final consensus for a long time.
In addition, as part of an agreement with England on the decolonization of the island, the Queen asked for small plots of land for military bases. In this part, everything is exactly the opposite - there are no borders (except perhaps for the bases themselves), you can completely free roll up into English territory, if that is the desire.
It is quite easy to find work in Cyprus, but you do not need to rely on the German wage level. But you get summer all year round, fresh produce and the sea to boot. There is everything for an active lifestyle. There are practically no problems with crime and interethnic relations.
Among Russians, Cyprus is strongly associated with offshore and tax havens, although in reality this is not quite the case. The island has a developed infrastructure, excellent roads, it is easy to run your business on it. The most attractive areas of the economy are financial services, investment management, tourism, and, more recently, software development.
')
I purposefully traveled to Cyprus because the climate and mentality of the local population suits me. Under the cut - how to find a job, get a residence permit, well, a couple of life hacking for those who are already here.
Something about me. I have long been in IT, I started my career while still a student in the 2nd year of college. He was a programmer (C ++ / MFC), a web admin (ASP.NET) and devops. Gradually I realized that it was more interesting for me to engage not in the actual development, but in communication with people and solving problems. For the past 20 years I have been working in support L2 / L3.
At one time I traveled around Europe, somewhere I even lived for a year and a half, but then I had to return to my homeland. About Cyprus began to think about three years ago. I sent a resume to a couple of offices, ended up having a personal interview with the future boss and forgot about him, however, six months later they called me and pretty soon I received a job offer in the position I wanted.
Why Cyprus
Eternal summer, the sea, fresh local products and the mentality of the local population. They are very similar to us in terms of easy flyu pofigizma and generally optimistic attitude to life. It is enough to smile or spread a couple of on-duty phrases - and you are always welcome. There is no such negative attitude towards foreigners as for example in Austria. The fact that the Cypriot church and the autocephalous, but also Orthodox, and they consider us brothers in the faith, also affects the attitude towards the Russians.
Cyprus is not as noisy and “narrow” as Holland. There are places where you can relax from the crowds, a tent, barbecues, mountain trails, sea grottoes - all this in a relatively pristine state. In winter, if you are tormented by nostalgia, you can go skiing, and, having moved out of the mountains, you can immediately swim, looking at the melting snowman.
There are several dozens of IT companies on the market, mostly trades and finance, but there are tanchiki and application software. From the means all the same - Java, .NET, kubernetes, Node.js, in contrast to the bloody enterprise, everything is alive and modern. The scale of the problems is certainly less, but the technology is quite modern. The language of international communication is English, and the Cypriots speak excellent and understandable, there will be no problems.
The disadvantages are mainly domestic plan, there is nothing you can do about it, either you put up with them and enjoy life, or you go somewhere else. In particular, +30 in the summer at night (air conditioning), the lack of obligation of local residents, some provincialism and local status, isolation from the "culture". The first year and a half will have to get sick with local sores like ARVI.
Work searches
In this I was not original - hhru and linkedin. Filtered by country and began to view suitable vacancies. Usually, the aggregators write the name of the office, so after I found the job that interested me, Google helped me with the company's website, and then the Career section and HR contact details. Nothing complicated, the main thing is to make a correct resume. Perhaps the personnel officers in Cyprus pay attention not so much to the projects and experience, as to the formal signs - a programming language, general experience, an operating system and all that.
The interview was conducted via Skype, they did not ask anything technically complex (and what can be asked there with 20 years of experience). Trite motivation, a little ITIL, why Cyprus.
Arrival
Unlike many other EU countries, you will already be on the island to receive a residence permit. The documents require a certificate of good conduct, a birth certificate and a certificate of education. There is no need to translate - firstly, the translation may not be accepted on the spot, and secondly, Cyprus recognizes Russian official documents.
Directly for arrival, you need either a standard tourist visa (issued by the consulate of Cyprus), or an open Schengen of any EU country. For Russians, it is possible to get a so-called pro-visa (application on the website of the consulate, in a couple of hours a letter that needs to be printed and be in the airport), but it has its limitations, for example, it is necessary to fly only from Russia. So if there is an opportunity to get Schengen, it is better for it. Schengen days are not reduced, standard 90 days stay in Cyprus.
At the airport upon arrival may ask for a hotel voucher, you must be ready for this. The hotel naturally should be on free Cyprus. It is not recommended to discuss the purpose of the visit with the border guard, especially if you have a pro-visa - if they do not ask, do not say anything, they will ask - a tourist. Not that there was a special filter, there is just some chance that they will put the period of stay exactly on the dates of booking the hotel, and this may not be enough to file documents.
The employer is likely to provide you with a transfer and hotel for the first time. After you sign the contract, you need to do a rental car and apartment.
the contract
In Cyprus, the English colonial legal system. This means, in particular, that the contract is inviolable (until the parties renegotiate). The contract, of course, can not contradict the legislation of Cyprus, but nevertheless it makes sense to deduct everything and get into the details, so that later it would not be excruciatingly painful. As a rule, employers make concessions if they are interested in you as a professional. The main thing that you need to pay attention to is the Renumeration (as a rule, the amount is indicated before paying your part of social insurance and income tax), opening hours, amount of leave, fines and penalties.
If you do not quite understand the size of the salary on your hands, google you to help, there are online calculators, for example, on the site Deloitte. There are obligatory payments in social insurance and, more recently, in the health care system (interest on salary), there is an income tax according to a cunning formula with steps. A minimum of about 850 euros is not taxed, then the rate increases with the amount of the annual salary.
In general, salaries correspond to Moscow and St. Petersburg. For an employer, payroll costs are moderate to around 4,000 euros per month before taxes, after which the share of taxes is already substantial and may exceed 30%.
After signing the contract, one copy will go to the officials, so make sure you sign at least three copies. Give your copy to no one, let them embroider and re-copy if necessary.
Residence
After registration of the contract, the employer prepares a set of documents for obtaining a work permit and residence permit. You will be asked to go to an accredited doctor to donate blood for AIDS and do a photofluorography. In addition, a certificate, a diploma and a birth certificate will be transferred to the state office. With a set of documents, you will come to the local immigration office, where you will be photographed, fingerprinted and most importantly will be given a receipt. This receipt gives you the right to reside permanently in Cyprus until you receive a response from the migration department and repeatedly crossing the border. Formally, at this moment you can legally begin to work. In a few weeks (3-4, sometimes more) you will be given a temporary residence permit in the form of a plastic card with a photo, which will be your main document on the island. Term - 1-2 years at the discretion of the authorities.
A work permit for IT professionals - third-country nationals can be obtained on one of two grounds: either a company with foreign capital or you are a highly qualified specialist (higher education) who could not be hired among local people. In any case, if a company hires foreigners, then there is no permission and there is no need to worry about it.
Temporary residence permit does not give the right to visit EU countries, be careful. Therefore, I recommend that you still get a long Schengen at home - so you will kill two birds with one stone - you will drive into Cyprus and go on vacation.
For family members, a residence permit is obtained after receiving their own residence permit. Relatives go to the trailer and the work permit will not receive. There is a requirement for the amount of income, but for IT people there will be no problems, usually enough for a wife-children and even a grandmother.
After 5 years of staying on the island, you can apply for a permanent (unlimited) European residence permit for yourself for all family members (they will receive the right to work). After seven years - on citizenship.
Housing and infrastructure
In Cyprus, 2.5 cities, the main places of work - Nicosia and Limassol. Best with work in Limassol. The cost of renting decent housing starts from 800 euros, for the money you get an apartment with ancient furnishings and furniture by the sea or decent housing such as a small villa in a village closer to the mountains. Kommunalka depends on the availability of the pool, the main payments (water, electricity) will amount to an average of 100-200 euros per month. There is almost no heating anywhere, in the winter they are heated with air conditioners or kerosene, if you are very lucky, the floor is warm.
The Internet is like an ancient ADSL, and quite a decent optics or TV cable, in almost every apartment building, there will most likely be a digital phone line in the villa. Internet prices are quite affordable, from 20 euros per month. The Internet is stable except for some wireless providers that may fail in the rain.
Mobile traffic is quite expensive - a package of 2 gigabytes will cost 15 euros per month, no limit is not common. Calls on the contrary are cheap, including to Russia. All-European free roaming is available.
In Limassol, there is a bus network, it is easy to go to the mountains or to neighboring cities, even there are minibuses that come to the address to call. Intercity public transport runs on a schedule, but unfortunately most of the routes finish at 5-6 pm.
You can do without a car if you live in the center near work and a supermarket. But it is better to have a driver's license. To rent a car will cost 200-300 euros per month during the off-season. In the season from June to October, prices rise.
You can buy a car only after receiving a temporary residence permit. The market is full of cars of different years, including the dense, to find a stool under the booty for 500-1500 euros in good condition is quite possible. Insurance will cost 100-200 euros per year depending on the length of service and engine size. Inspection once a year.
After six months of driving on foreign rights, you need to change them to Cypriot. This is done easily - the application form from the site and 40 euros. Old rights are taken.
The roads are very decent, even rural. For speed fined, but automatic cameras yet. You can have a glass of beer, but I would not play with fire.
Food prices vary greatly during the season, sometimes they are much less Moscow, sometimes they are compared. But the quality is definitely incomparable - fruits straight from the gardens, vegetables from the beds, cheese from the cow. The EU controls the indicators, water and products are clean and healthy. You can drink from the tap (although the water is tough and tasteless).
Political situation
A part of Cyprus has been occupied by a neighboring country since 1974, and accordingly the UN-controlled line of demarcation runs across the island. You can drive to the other side, but it is advisable not to stay there for the night, and especially not to buy housing and smuggling there, there may be problems. The situation is gradually improving, but wait a final consensus for a long time.
In addition, as part of an agreement with England on the decolonization of the island, the Queen asked for small plots of land for military bases. In this part, everything is exactly the opposite - there are no borders (except perhaps for the bases themselves), you can completely free roll up into English territory, if that is the desire.
Conclusion
It is quite easy to find work in Cyprus, but you do not need to rely on the German wage level. But you get summer all year round, fresh produce and the sea to boot. There is everything for an active lifestyle. There are practically no problems with crime and interethnic relations.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/454950/
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