North Cyprus government approves new Amnesty law for foreigners

Cyprus: The North Cyprus Ministry of Interior Affairs has approved an amnesty package for those fined for illegal residence and those under sanction status abroad. According to reports from Cyprus Gazette, the Minister of Interior Affairs, Kutlu Evren stated that those that have migrated and are working without work permit can also benefit from the Amnesty by paying a specific fee lower than the actual fine adding that a lot of people have been waiting for the approval of the Amnesty.


The Amnesty stipulates that foreign students who have over stayed their residence in Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) can benefit from the Amnesty without having to exit the country.

Those that wish to benefit from the Amnesty can apply to the Resident Office within a period of three months and will be required to to pay a minimum fee of 1500-2100 Turkish Lira (TL), with an extra 250TL.

For those who wish to benefit from the accessibility to work permit, before exit from the country, will be granted a post-work permit notice.

Evren also said that according to the current law, if a foreign National overstays his/her residence permit and refuses to pay the specified fine, he/she will be completely unable to ever enter the TRNC.

However that has now change in the new law, as foreign Nationals who are unable to pay the specified fine will not be allowed to come into TRNC for a specific period of time but after exhausting the specified period, they could return to TRNC without having to make any payment.

In the instance, where the foreign National falls into the same situation, his/her violation will be double counted making it two counts of violations.