Investment immigration in Cyprus stopped.

Since its release, the Cyprus EU passport project has won the favor of global applicants with the advantage of obtaining EU passports in one step. However, the good times did not last long. Recently, such preferential passport immigration programs have been frequently reported to be tightened.

On May 2 1, the Council of Ministers of the Serbian government decided that the number of people who can obtain Cypriot passports through investment will be capped at 700 per year from May 20 18.

The meeting also decided to rename the investment naturalization plan as "Cyprus Investment Plan" and conduct stricter due diligence on the financial situation of naturalization applicants. The approval process may take up to six months.

In addition, clear laws will be formulated to improve the code of conduct of relevant enterprises and avoid excessive exaggeration and abuse of this plan. According to the data, in 20 17, the Serbian government issued 503 passports to investors and 5 10 passports to investors' families. From 20 14 to 20 16, the number of passports issued to investors and their families is 2 14 and 186, 337 and 342, 443 and 46 1 respectively. The rapidly increasing number of passport applicants has attracted great attention from the European Commission.

In March this year, the European Commission indicated that it would investigate the investment immigration plans of member States, believing that these plans are easy to be abused, which is not conducive to anti-corruption and increases the risk of cross-border money laundering. Cyprus has also been repeatedly criticized by members of the European Parliament for this plan. In this regard, the Minister of Finance said that the new plan will make the overall approval process stricter and more reliable. Cyprus encourages foreign investors and is committed to attracting investors and high-income people. However, the economic development of Cyprus does not depend on this plan. Investment plans are only a useful supplement to national development policy tools, and other EU countries have similar plans. In addition to the existing audit procedures, the government will also hire specialized foreign companies to conduct detailed due diligence on each applicant to fully understand the situation of each applicant. At the same time, the government will set up a special registration agency to strictly manage the plan. The government will also ban exaggerated advertisements and put an end to the saying that Cyprus sells passports. Like other countries in the world, Cypriot citizenship must be granted to applicants according to specific criteria.

From July 3rd1,the application of gold medal visa providers in Cyprus will only be accepted by those suppliers who have registered with the project supervisory authority and signed the Code of Conduct.

The Ministry of Finance issued a statement saying that a committee to supervise and control government citizen investment projects (golden visas) will begin to accept applications from relevant service providers and incorporate them into a special registration center. The relevant departments must submit applications in a special form on the Committee's website. Require real estate developers, law firms, accounting firms and other professionals to sign and abide by the provisions of the code of conduct, including requiring them to verify the legality of investors' funds and avoid promoting the plan as Cyprus passport sales. The Ministry of Finance of Cyprus said: "The register will be published on the websites of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of the Interior of Cyprus on July 3 1 2065438."