Northern Cyprus Residency

Permit and Driving Licence

update – May 2015

 

By Chris Elliott…….

I wrote an article recently click here that gave examples of statements by Citizens Advice Cyprus  and the British Residents’ Society which advised whether it is necessary for expatriates of over 60 years of age to obtain a residency permit, or not, when you want to stay in Northern Cyprus.

In this article I also explained how on returning from the UK I discovered at Ercan immigration that my residency permit had expired but was told that as I was over 60 years of age I did not need a residency permit and my passport was stamped for a 90 day stay so I decided I wanted to continue to have a temporary residency permit and visited the Lefkosa office and completed my application and had my passport brought up to date with a new permit.

Interestingly friends have recently needed to have their permits renewed and have sent the following explanation of what they experienced so that other readers can be aware of the current situation and should make their own choices to renew, or not, their temporary residency permit.

“Hi Chris,

Don’t know if this is of any interest to you but Roy and I went to Lefkosa this week to renew our residency. For 2 years, for 2 people, the cost is now 1064tl and the stamp is 10.5tl each.

However, we did ask the lady at the residency desk if we needed to renew our residency as we are both over 60 years of age. She said that no, we didn’t need to but that the onus was really on us. If we opted out of renewing our residency but  still wished to have a Turkish driving licence (which we do) then we could, instead, obtain a letter from the village Muhtar where his signature would require 2 further witnesses at that time. We would then have to produce that letter when applying for driving licence renewal in the office above the residency office (same building); this applies only if we did not have a residency stamp in our passports.

In other words, when applying for a Turkish Cypriot driving licence without a residency stamp then alternative evidence of address in the TRNC is required.

So, it looks as though this issue still remains ‘up in the air’ and we decided not to take the risk but to get another 2 years stamped in our passports – to save any arguments at the border etc.  Wouldn’t Government clarification be marvellous??  None of us really know what to do and most of us don’t want a lot of hassle in our older years so we opt for ‘safety’!!

Best wishes,

Gloria”