"How getting an Irish passport was our ‘golden ticket’ to Cyprus"
Paul and Lizzie from Leamington Spa dreamt of moving to Cyprus. The semi-retired couple who met in a bar felt they were ready for a new adventure and settled on the Paphos area in the west of the island, with their budget of £130,000 to buy a home.
Considering areas that would be suitable for a full-time move, the couple ended up buying a three-bedroom home in Prodromi in 2022 for £121k. Their search was featured on A Place in the Sun TV Show this summer but they’ve since managed to get their paperwork sorted and move out to the island. Read more about their episode here.
Says Lizzie, 58, who ran a cleaning business in the UK: “Getting my Irish passport was our golden ticket. The solicitor helping us with the sale told us that it would be really helpful, and because I have Irish parents I was able to apply for one. It took only two months.” Getting a visa is a much more lengthy process that takes many months, and also requires more stringent criteria.
The couple – who have five children and 10 grand children between them - headed out to Cyprus in November and sorted out the ‘Yellow Slip’ - the Registration Certificate available to all European Union citizens wishing to settle and work in Cyprus permanently.
Paul, as Lizzie’s spouse, was able to piggyback on her residency. “It was pretty easy,” she says, adding that they got Paphos Relocation Services to help them. “We needed a Cypriot bank account, ID and to show that we had €20,000 in a bank account.” They also had to take out private health insurance. “That cost €180 for a year for both of us. But I am also in the process of getting registered for the General Healthcare System, or GESY.”
Paul, a former roofer, builder and one-time bar tender, has done a swimming pool cleaning course and is hoping to put this to good work on the island. However, the sporty 62-year-old ruptured his Achilles tendon playing pickle ball (the latest racquet sport trend following padel tennis) so has been laid up for three or four months – and can attest to the good healthcare system.
The couple have found it’s almost cheaper to eat out than buy food in supermarkets – it’s certainly a lot more affordable than the UK at around €30 for the pair of them to eat out. “Petrol is much cheaper [than the UK] but cars are very expensive to import so we bought one out here,” adds Paul.
Of the whole process of moving Lizzie says it’s been surprisingly painless and would advise anyone to ‘do it now’. Their journey started at A Place in the Sun show at London Olympia in 2022 where they did a screentest “for a laugh”. “Little did we realise that only two weeks’ later we’d be flying out to Cyprus,” laughs Paul who suggested it.
“The TV programme introduced us to a new area of Cyprus we hadn’t considered, away from the busy town of Paphos. It’s a very relaxed feel and we’ve made lots of friends,” says Lizzie, who loves swimming and enjoys the communal pool. Just this week they adopted an abandoned puppy who’s keeping them busy.
“Something we have learnt is that many homes here are built to be summer holiday homes – they get quite cold in the winter. If they are poorly insulated you can get air con that doubles as heating. We still end up wearing shorts on winter days, though.”
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