The work and life of an IT specialist in Cyprus - the pros and cons
Cyprus is a small country in southeastern Europe. Located on the third largest island of the Mediterranean Sea. The country is part of the European Union, but not part of the Schengen agreement.
Among Russians, Cyprus is firmly associated with offshore companies and the tax haven, although in reality this is not entirely true. The island has developed infrastructure, excellent roads, it is easy to conduct your business on it. The most attractive sectors 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 suit me. Under the cut - how to find a job, get a residence permit, well, a couple of life hacks for those who are already here.
Few words about myself. I’ve been in IT for a long time, I started my career as a 2nd year student of the institute. He was a programmer (C ++ / MFC), a web admin (ASP.NET) and a devops. Gradually I realized that it was more interesting for me to engage not in the development itself, but in communicating with people and solving problems. I’ve been working in support L2 / L3 for 20 years already.
At one time he traveled to Europe, somewhere he even lived for a year and a half, but then he had to return to his homeland. I began to think about Cyprus three years ago. I sent a resume to a couple of offices, as a result I had a personal interview with my future boss and forgot about him, however, six months later they called me and pretty soon I received a job offer 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 an easy flora of nonsense and generally optimistic attitude to life. It is enough to smile or exchange a couple of on-duty phrases - and you are always welcome. There is no such negative attitude towards foreigners as for example in Austria. Another attitude to the Russians is influenced by the fact that even the Cypriot church is autocephalous, but also Orthodox, and they consider us brothers in faith.
Cyprus is not as noisy and "narrow" as Holland. There are places where you can relax from the crowds, a tent, barbecue, mountain trails, sea grottoes - all this is in a relatively pristine condition. In winter, if nostalgia is tormenting, you can ski, and, having left the mountains, take a swim right there, looking at the melting snowman.
There are several dozens of IT companies on the market, mainly trading finance, but there are tanks and application software as well. From the tools, everything is the same - Java, .NET, kubernetes, Node.js, unlike 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 interethnic communication is English, and the Cypriots speak perfectly and clearly, there will be no problems.
The disadvantages are mainly of the everyday plan, there's nothing to be done, 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 optionalness of local residents, some provincialism and parochialism, isolation from the "culture". The first year and a half will have to be ill with local sores such as SARS.
In this I was not original - hhru and linkedin. Filtered by country and started looking for suitable vacancies. Usually, the name of the office is written in aggregators, so after I found a vacancy that interested me, Google helped me with the company’s website, and then the Career and HR contact section. Nothing complicated, the main thing is to create the right resume. Perhaps the personnel officers in Cyprus pay attention not so much to projects and experience, but to formal signs - a programming language, general experience, operating system and all that.
The interview was conducted on Skype, they didn’t ask anything technically complicated (and what can I ask there with 20 years of experience). Trite motivation, a bit on ITIL, why Cyprus.
Unlike many other EU countries, you will already receive a residence permit while on the island. A criminal record, a birth certificate and a document of education are required from the documents. There is no need to translate anything - firstly, the translation may not be accepted locally, and secondly, Cyprus recognizes Russian official documents.
Directly for arrival, either a standard tourist visa (issued at the Consulate of Cyprus) or an open Schengen of any EU country is required. It is possible for Russians to get a so-called pro-visa (an application on the consulate’s website, in a couple of hours a letter that needs to be printed out and kept at the airport), but it has its own limitations, for example, it is necessary to fly only from Russia. So if you can get Schengen, it’s better for him. Schengen days are not reduced, the standard 90 days stay in Cyprus.
At the airport, upon arrival, they may ask for a hotel voucher, one must be prepared for this. The hotel should naturally be in 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 you do not ask, do not say anything, ask - a tourist. It’s not that there was a special filter, there’s just some chance that they will set the stay exactly on the date of reservation of the hotel, but this may not be enough to submit documents.
The employer is likely to provide you with a transfer and hotel for the first time. After you sign a contract, you need to do a rental car and apartment.
In Cyprus, the English colonial legal system. In particular, this means that the contract is indestructible (until the parties agree on it). The contract, of course, cannot contradict the legislation of Cyprus, but nevertheless it makes sense to subtract everything and delve into the details, so that later it will not be excruciatingly painful. As a rule, employers make concessions if they are interested in you as a professional. The main things that you need to pay attention to are 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 amount of your salary on hand, Google will help you, there are online calculators, for example, on the Deloitte website. There are compulsory payments in social services and, more recently, in the healthcare system (percent of 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-St. Petersburg. For the employer, payroll expenses are moderate to about 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 be sent to officials, so be sure to sign at least three copies. Do not give your copy to anyone, let them embroider and copy if necessary.
After completing 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 to do fluorography. In addition, a certificate, diploma and birth certificate will be transferred to the state office. With a set of documents, you will come to the local department of the immigration service, where you will be photographed, fingerprinted and, most importantly, issued a receipt. This receipt gives you the right to live indefinitely in Cyprus until you receive an answer from the department of migration and repeated border crossing. Formally, at this moment you can legally start working. 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 photograph, which will be your main document on the island.
A work permit for IT specialists - citizens of third countries 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 ones. In any case, if the company hires foreigners, then there is permission and there is no need to worry about it.
Temporary residence permits do not give the right to visit EU countries, be careful. Therefore, I recommend still at home to get a long Schengen - so you kill two birds with one stone - you will enter Cyprus and go on vacation.
For family members, a residence permit is obtained after obtaining their own residence permit. Relatives go by trailer and will not receive a work permit. There is a requirement for the amount of income, but for IT people there will not be problems, as a rule, enough for a wife-children and even a grandmother.
After 5 years on the island, you can apply for a permanent (unlimited) European residence permit for all family members (they will get the right to work). After seven years - on citizenship.
There are 2.5 cities in Cyprus, the main places of work are Nicosia and Limassol. Best with work in Limassol. The cost of renting decent housing starts from 800 euros, for the money you will get an apartment with ancient decoration and furniture by the sea or decent housing such as a small villa in a village closer to the mountains. The utility bill depends on the availability of the pool, the main payments (water, electricity) will average 100-200 euros per month. There is almost no heating anywhere, in the winter they are heated by air conditioners or kerosene stoves, if you are very lucky, then the floor is warm.
The Internet is both ancient ADSL, and quite decent optics or a TV cable, in almost every apartment building, the villa will most likely have a digital telephone line. 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 gigs will cost 15 euros per month, unlimited are not common. Calls, on the contrary, are cheap, including to Russia. There is pan-European free roaming.
There is a bus network in Limassol, it’s easy to go to the mountains or to neighboring cities, even there are minibuses arriving on call to the address. Intercity public transport runs on schedule, but unfortunately most routes finish by 5-6 pm.
You can do without a car if you live in the center next to work and a supermarket. But it’s better to have a driver’s license. Renting 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 obtaining a temporary residence permit. The market is full of cars of different years, including dense, to find a stool under the booty for 500-1500 euros in fair 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 under foreign rights, you need to change them to Cyprus. This is done easily - a questionnaire from the site and 40 euros. Old rights are taken away.
The roads are very decent, even rural. They are fined for speed, but there are no 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 smaller than Moscow, sometimes compared. But the quality is definitely incomparable - fruits directly from the gardens, vegetables from the beds, cheese from the cow. The European Union controls indicators, water and products are clean and healthy. You can drink from the tap (though the water is hard and tasteless).
A part of Cyprus has been occupied by a neighboring country since 1974, respectively, a demarcation line controlled by the UN goes across the entire island. You can go to the other side, but it is advisable not to stay there for the night, and even more so not to buy housing and smuggling there, there may be problems. The situation is gradually improving, but the final consensus is to wait 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 the bases themselves), you can completely freely slide into English territory, if you wish.
It is quite simple to find work in Cyprus, but you do not need to rely on the German salary level. But you get summer all year round, fresh food and the sea to boot. There is everything for an active lifestyle. Virtually no problems with crime and interethnic relations.
Among Russians, Cyprus is firmly associated with offshore companies and the tax haven, although in reality this is not entirely true. The island has developed infrastructure, excellent roads, it is easy to conduct your business on it. The most attractive sectors 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 suit me. Under the cut - how to find a job, get a residence permit, well, a couple of life hacks for those who are already here.
Few words about myself. I’ve been in IT for a long time, I started my career as a 2nd year student of the institute. He was a programmer (C ++ / MFC), a web admin (ASP.NET) and a devops. Gradually I realized that it was more interesting for me to engage not in the development itself, but in communicating with people and solving problems. I’ve been working in support L2 / L3 for 20 years already.
At one time he traveled to Europe, somewhere he even lived for a year and a half, but then he had to return to his homeland. I began to think about Cyprus three years ago. I sent a resume to a couple of offices, as a result I had a personal interview with my future boss and forgot about him, however, six months later they called me and pretty soon I received a job offer 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 an easy flora of nonsense and generally optimistic attitude to life. It is enough to smile or exchange a couple of on-duty phrases - and you are always welcome. There is no such negative attitude towards foreigners as for example in Austria. Another attitude to the Russians is influenced by the fact that even the Cypriot church is autocephalous, but also Orthodox, and they consider us brothers in faith.
Cyprus is not as noisy and "narrow" as Holland. There are places where you can relax from the crowds, a tent, barbecue, mountain trails, sea grottoes - all this is in a relatively pristine condition. In winter, if nostalgia is tormenting, you can ski, and, having left the mountains, take a swim right there, looking at the melting snowman.
There are several dozens of IT companies on the market, mainly trading finance, but there are tanks and application software as well. From the tools, everything is the same - Java, .NET, kubernetes, Node.js, unlike 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 interethnic communication is English, and the Cypriots speak perfectly and clearly, there will be no problems.
The disadvantages are mainly of the everyday plan, there's nothing to be done, 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 optionalness of local residents, some provincialism and parochialism, isolation from the "culture". The first year and a half will have to be ill with local sores such as SARS.
Work searches
In this I was not original - hhru and linkedin. Filtered by country and started looking for suitable vacancies. Usually, the name of the office is written in aggregators, so after I found a vacancy that interested me, Google helped me with the company’s website, and then the Career and HR contact section. Nothing complicated, the main thing is to create the right resume. Perhaps the personnel officers in Cyprus pay attention not so much to projects and experience, but to formal signs - a programming language, general experience, operating system and all that.
The interview was conducted on Skype, they didn’t ask anything technically complicated (and what can I ask there with 20 years of experience). Trite motivation, a bit on ITIL, why Cyprus.
Arrival
Unlike many other EU countries, you will already receive a residence permit while on the island. A criminal record, a birth certificate and a document of education are required from the documents. There is no need to translate anything - firstly, the translation may not be accepted locally, and secondly, Cyprus recognizes Russian official documents.
Directly for arrival, either a standard tourist visa (issued at the Consulate of Cyprus) or an open Schengen of any EU country is required. It is possible for Russians to get a so-called pro-visa (an application on the consulate’s website, in a couple of hours a letter that needs to be printed out and kept at the airport), but it has its own limitations, for example, it is necessary to fly only from Russia. So if you can get Schengen, it’s better for him. Schengen days are not reduced, the standard 90 days stay in Cyprus.
At the airport, upon arrival, they may ask for a hotel voucher, one must be prepared for this. The hotel should naturally be in 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 you do not ask, do not say anything, ask - a tourist. It’s not that there was a special filter, there’s just some chance that they will set the stay exactly on the date of reservation of the hotel, but this may not be enough to submit documents.
The employer is likely to provide you with a transfer and hotel for the first time. After you sign a contract, you need to do a rental car and apartment.
the contract
In Cyprus, the English colonial legal system. In particular, this means that the contract is indestructible (until the parties agree on it). The contract, of course, cannot contradict the legislation of Cyprus, but nevertheless it makes sense to subtract everything and delve into the details, so that later it will not be excruciatingly painful. As a rule, employers make concessions if they are interested in you as a professional. The main things that you need to pay attention to are 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 amount of your salary on hand, Google will help you, there are online calculators, for example, on the Deloitte website. There are compulsory payments in social services and, more recently, in the healthcare system (percent of 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-St. Petersburg. For the employer, payroll expenses are moderate to about 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 be sent to officials, so be sure to sign at least three copies. Do not give your copy to anyone, let them embroider and copy if necessary.
Residence
After completing 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 to do fluorography. In addition, a certificate, diploma and birth certificate will be transferred to the state office. With a set of documents, you will come to the local department of the immigration service, where you will be photographed, fingerprinted and, most importantly, issued a receipt. This receipt gives you the right to live indefinitely in Cyprus until you receive an answer from the department of migration and repeated border crossing. Formally, at this moment you can legally start working. 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 photograph, which will be your main document on the island.
A work permit for IT specialists - citizens of third countries 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 ones. In any case, if the company hires foreigners, then there is permission and there is no need to worry about it.
Temporary residence permits do not give the right to visit EU countries, be careful. Therefore, I recommend still at home to get a long Schengen - so you kill two birds with one stone - you will enter Cyprus and go on vacation.
For family members, a residence permit is obtained after obtaining their own residence permit. Relatives go by trailer and will not receive a work permit. There is a requirement for the amount of income, but for IT people there will not be problems, as a rule, enough for a wife-children and even a grandmother.
After 5 years on the island, you can apply for a permanent (unlimited) European residence permit for all family members (they will get the right to work). After seven years - on citizenship.
Housing and infrastructure
There are 2.5 cities in Cyprus, the main places of work are Nicosia and Limassol. Best with work in Limassol. The cost of renting decent housing starts from 800 euros, for the money you will get an apartment with ancient decoration and furniture by the sea or decent housing such as a small villa in a village closer to the mountains. The utility bill depends on the availability of the pool, the main payments (water, electricity) will average 100-200 euros per month. There is almost no heating anywhere, in the winter they are heated by air conditioners or kerosene stoves, if you are very lucky, then the floor is warm.
The Internet is both ancient ADSL, and quite decent optics or a TV cable, in almost every apartment building, the villa will most likely have a digital telephone line. 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 gigs will cost 15 euros per month, unlimited are not common. Calls, on the contrary, are cheap, including to Russia. There is pan-European free roaming.
There is a bus network in Limassol, it’s easy to go to the mountains or to neighboring cities, even there are minibuses arriving on call to the address. Intercity public transport runs on schedule, but unfortunately most routes finish by 5-6 pm.
You can do without a car if you live in the center next to work and a supermarket. But it’s better to have a driver’s license. Renting 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 obtaining a temporary residence permit. The market is full of cars of different years, including dense, to find a stool under the booty for 500-1500 euros in fair 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 under foreign rights, you need to change them to Cyprus. This is done easily - a questionnaire from the site and 40 euros. Old rights are taken away.
The roads are very decent, even rural. They are fined for speed, but there are no 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 smaller than Moscow, sometimes compared. But the quality is definitely incomparable - fruits directly from the gardens, vegetables from the beds, cheese from the cow. The European Union controls indicators, water and products are clean and healthy. You can drink from the tap (though the water is hard and tasteless).
Political situation
A part of Cyprus has been occupied by a neighboring country since 1974, respectively, a demarcation line controlled by the UN goes across the entire island. You can go to the other side, but it is advisable not to stay there for the night, and even more so not to buy housing and smuggling there, there may be problems. The situation is gradually improving, but the final consensus is to wait 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 the bases themselves), you can completely freely slide into English territory, if you wish.
Conclusion
It is quite simple to find work in Cyprus, but you do not need to rely on the German salary level. But you get summer all year round, fresh food and the sea to boot. There is everything for an active lifestyle. Virtually no problems with crime and interethnic relations.
