Most Cyprus guides stop at year one. This one runs to year twenty: Non-Dom, permanent residence at five, the passport at eight, and the new year-17 choice.
Status as of 11 October 2026: based on the Cyprus Income Tax Law and the Special Defence Contribution Law as amended by the tax reform in force from 1 January 2026, Tax Department Circular 2/2026 on the extension of non-domicile treatment, Law 7(I)/2007 on the free movement of EU citizens, the Civil Registry Law as amended by Law 149(I)/2023 on naturalisation, the Migration Department's Regulation 6(2) policy for investors, and the nationality rules of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and Romania. We will update this guide when the rules change.
Almost everything written about Cyprus, including most of what we have written, is about the first year: which day to land, which lease to sign, which form goes where. Our guide to relocating to Cyprus puts those steps in order, our Non-Dom explainer says who the regime suits, and our piece on Cyprus as your EU base next to a Plan B shows how the island works with a second residence outside the EU.
This article starts where those stop. Suppose the move works. The children settle, the company grows, the Greek improves. What happens in year five, in year eight, in year seventeen? Which doors open along the way, which close, and which decisions have to be made years before they look urgent?
Our cover shows the Church of Saint Lazarus in Larnaca. According to the Orthodox tradition, Lazarus, raised by Christ at Bethany, came to Kition, today's Larnaca, and served as its bishop for thirty years before he died a second time. His tomb was found in 890, and the church above it was built soon after on the orders of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI. It is a fitting image for this piece: a second life, lived properly, over decades, in one place.
Why think in decades
A move abroad is usually sold as an escape. We see it differently. A family that leaves a high-tax state to build its life somewhere freer is not running away from anything; it is choosing where its work, its savings and its children will grow. That choice deserves a twenty-year plan, not a twenty-day one.
Three reasons make the long view essential in Cyprus.
The benefits are front-loaded, the obligations are not. Non-Dom status works from your first year of tax residence, but it is time-limited. Permanent residence and citizenship arrive only after years of unbroken life on the island.
Several clocks run at once, and they do not count the same way. Immigration law counts years of residence and months of absence. Tax law counts calendar years of tax residence. Your old country keeps its own clocks running after you leave.
The rules move. Cyprus has changed its tax law, its banking rules and its passport policy within living memory, sometimes overnight. A plan that only works under today's rules is not a plan.
Freedom, in our view, is the condition in which a family can plan for the long term without asking permission at every step.
An island that has been taken many times
Few places in Europe have changed hands as often as Cyprus. Phoenicians and Greeks settled its coasts; Rome governed it; Byzantium held it for most of a thousand years. Richard the Lionheart took it in 1191 on his way to the Holy Land and sold it on; the French Lusignan dynasty ruled it for three centuries, Venice for eighty years, the Ottomans from 1571, and Britain from 1878. Cyprus became an independent republic in 1960, with Archbishop Makarios III as its first president. Since the Turkish invasion of 1974 the island has been divided, and the Republic's law applies in practice only in the areas under its control. Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004 and adopted the euro in 2008.
A people ruled from Constantinople, Paris, Venice, Istanbul and London learns to keep its family close, its church closer and its own counsel. That instinct, more than any tax rate, is why many families who move here feel at home.
The same history holds a lesson for newcomers: the ground moves. Three recent episodes show how.
Three times the rules moved
2013: the depositors paid
In March 2013 the two largest Cypriot banks, weighed down by Greek government bonds, were close to collapse. Under the rescue agreed with the eurozone and the IMF, Laiki Bank was wound down, its insured deposits up to €100,000 moved to Bank of Cyprus, and its uninsured deposits stayed behind in a legacy bank. At Bank of Cyprus itself, 47.5% of deposits above €100,000 were converted into shares. Capital controls followed, with caps on transfers abroad, and the last of them were lifted only on 6 April 2015.
For anyone who believes that savings belong to the saver, it was a hard lesson, and not only for Cyprus: the EU's bank resolution rules now make that kind of bail-in a standard tool. The practical conclusion is not fear but structure. Keep operating money in Cyprus and long-term savings spread across institutions and countries, and do not let any single bank, in any state, hold everything you own.
2020: the passport stopped being for sale
For years Cyprus sold citizenship to investors, in its final form for a minimum investment of €2 million. In 2020 an Al Jazeera investigation, the "Cyprus Papers", showed passports granted to people who should never have received them. The government closed the programme on 1 November 2020.
Since then there is one road to a Cypriot passport for a newcomer: years of lawful residence, a language exam and a civics test. We think that is the right road. A passport bought in a hurry is only as solid as the political mood that sold it; one earned by living somewhere is much harder to take away.
2026: the reform that lowered the cliff
The tax reform in force from 1 January 2026 raised corporate tax to 15%, abolished the deemed dividend distribution on profits from 2026, simplified the 60-day rule and widened the personal income tax bands, with the first €22,000 of chargeable income now taxed at 0%. Two less discussed changes matter even more for a long stay. Special Defence Contribution (SDC) on dividends for individuals who are domiciled in Cyprus fell from 17% to 5% for profits from 2026 onwards, and those who become domiciled after 17 years can now extend their Non-Dom treatment for a fixed payment. We come back to both below; together they change what year seventeen looks like.
The three clocks
The most useful idea for a long stay in Cyprus: three clocks start when you arrive, and you need to watch all of them.
The immigration clock. It counts years of lawful residence and measures your absences. At five years it can give you permanent residence; at eight years, counted in a specific way, it lets you apply for citizenship. It is sensitive to time abroad.
The tax clock. It counts calendar years in which you are Cyprus tax resident. For up to seventeen of them, Non-Dom status gives you 0% SDC on dividends and interest. It does not care about absences as such, only about whether you pass the 183-day or the 60-day test each year.
Your old country's clock. Leaving does not switch off every rule at home. Some countries keep taxing estates or gifts for years after you leave, some tax latent gains on your shares when you go, and some take away your nationality if you take another one.
The clocks do not run in step. A year spent largely abroad may still count for tax under the 60-day rule and yet break the continuity your permanent residence needs. A year of perfect presence in Cyprus may still sit inside your old country's ten-year shadow. The rest of this guide is about reading all three at once.
Year 0 to 1: lay the foundations
Our relocation guide covers the first year; here is what matters for the long run.
Register from the start. EU citizens staying longer than three months apply for the registration certificate, the Yellow Slip (MEU1), within four months of arrival; the fee is €20. Your residence clock is much easier to prove later if it starts on paper on day one.
Keep a day log and a document file from the first week. Flight records, lease, utility bills, school letters. In year eight someone will ask you to prove year two.
Declare Non-Dom from the first tax year. The status works only in years in which you are Cyprus tax resident, and the tax clock starts with your first year of residence, whether or not you use the status.
Get into GESY properly. The 2.65% contribution on dividends and other income, capped at €180,000 of income a year, does not by itself make you a beneficiary. As an EU citizen you are covered once you work in Cyprus, for example through a salary from your own company. Permanent residence later becomes a second route.
Years 1 to 5: protect continuity
For EU citizens, Law 7(I)/2007 grants permanent residence after five years of continuous legal residence. Continuity is not broken by absences of up to six months a year in total, by compulsory military service, or by one absence of up to twelve consecutive months for important reasons such as pregnancy, serious illness, study or a posting abroad.
This is where the Plan B readers of our series need to pay attention. Three months each winter in Paraguay, six weeks in Georgia and a month at home with your parents add up faster than you think. Six months a year is generous, but it is a limit, and it is counted by the Migration Department, not by your tax adviser.
What permanent residence (MEU3) gives you: a status that no longer depends on your income or your health insurance, that is lost only after more than two consecutive years away, and that opens the public health system to you in its own right. For many families it is the real finish line, and for some it is the right place to stop, as we will see.
Non-EU readers are on a different track. British citizens who were not living in Cyprus before the end of 2020 need a residence permit, not a Yellow Slip. The routes that matter most for founders are employment with a company registered under the Business Facilitation Unit, which brings in foreign-owned businesses with real substance, and the Regulation 6(2) policy, which grants permanent residence for an investment of at least €300,000, for example a first-sale home from a developer, together with a secure annual income of €50,000 from abroad, plus €15,000 for a spouse and €10,000 for each child.
Year 8: the passport question
Since 19 December 2023 naturalisation follows Law 149(I)/2023. An adult applicant must meet all of these:
Twelve months of legal and continuous residence immediately before applying, with absences of no more than 90 days in total;
at least seven years of legal residence in the ten years before that twelve-month period, counted as time physically spent in Cyprus, so eight years at the earliest;
Greek at level B1, proven by a written exam;
a certificate of knowledge of contemporary Cypriot political and social life, passed in a separate test;
good character, suitable accommodation and stable, regular means for you and your family;
an intention to live in the Republic.
There is a faster track for highly skilled employees of companies approved under the Business Facilitation Unit: after the twelve months, three years of residence with Greek at B1 or four years with A2, so four or five years in total. You must have worked for such a company for at least two years and still work there when you apply.
Three things about this route deserve emphasis.
First, the twelve months before you apply are strict. Ninety days of absence in a whole year leaves room for a summer at home and a short trip, not for a Plan B winter. If citizenship is your goal, put your Plan B trips before that last year, not inside it.
Second, the language test is real. B1 means you can follow a conversation at the municipality and write a short letter, in a language with its own alphabet. Families who start lessons in year one find it ordinary by year seven; those who start in year seven rarely make it by year eight.
Third, Cyprus allows dual citizenship, but your own country may not. This is where the EU passport question becomes national:
The Netherlands: an adult who voluntarily acquires another nationality loses Dutch nationality automatically. The main exception that could apply here is acquiring the nationality of a spouse or registered partner.
Germany: since 27 June 2024 Germans can keep their German citizenship when they take another one.
Austria: Austrians lose their citizenship on acquiring another one unless they obtain permission to keep it beforehand.
The United Kingdom, Ireland and Romania generally allow dual nationality.
So what does a Cypriot passport add? For a citizen of another EU state, free movement already exists. What changes is the right to vote in national elections, a second EU passport issued by a second state with its own consulates, and a hedge against your first state's policy, whatever it becomes. For a Briton, it is something larger: the way back into the European Union's single market for themselves and their children.
A note of realism: Turkey does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus, and its rules for Cypriot passport holders differ from those for other EU citizens; our episode on Turkey as a Plan B covers the Cyprus side. Keep your first passport if your law allows it.
Years 1 to 17: what Non-Dom does, and does not do
While the immigration clock is ticking, the tax clock gives you the reason many families came. Here is the regime as it stands in 2026, stated precisely.
What Non-Dom covers. A Cyprus tax resident who is not domiciled in Cyprus pays 0% SDC on dividends and interest. Dividends are not taxed under ordinary personal income tax either, so SDC is the relevant layer, and Non-Dom answers it. Before 2026, rent also carried SDC for domiciled residents; that charge was abolished for everyone from 2026.
What still applies.
Corporate tax of 15% on your company's profit, whoever owns it.
The GESY contribution of 2.65% on dividends, interest and rent, with total income capped at €180,000 a year, so at most €4,770.
Personal income tax on salary and business income, at 0% up to €22,000, then 20%, 25%, 30% and 35% above €72,000. New arrivals may qualify for a 50% exemption on employment income above €55,000 for up to 17 years, or a 20% exemption capped at €8,550 a year for seven years, each with its own conditions.
Capital gains tax of 20%, but only on Cyprus property and on shares in companies holding it; gains on other shares are outside Cyprus personal income tax. From 2026 the lifetime exemption for selling your main home rose to €150,000.
8% on crypto gains, a new flat rate from 2026.
What does not exist. Cyprus has no inheritance, estate or gift tax, and has levied no annual immovable property tax since 2017. For a family planning across generations, that matters as much as any rate on income.
What Non-Dom cannot do. It does not touch your company's tax. It does not end your old country's claims. And it gives nothing in a year in which you fail both residence tests: a year spent mostly elsewhere is a lost year of benefit, though not a lost year on the domicile count, which only counts years in which you were resident.
Year 17: deemed domicile, the 5% rule and the €250,000 option
A person without a Cypriot domicile of origin becomes deemed domiciled for SDC once they have been Cyprus tax resident for at least 17 of the 20 tax years before the year in question. A family that becomes tax resident in 2026 and stays without a break is therefore Non-Dom for the tax years 2026 to 2042 and deemed domiciled from 2043.
Before 2026, that was a cliff: dividends went from 0% to 17% SDC overnight. Today it is a step. For a deemed-domiciled individual:
dividends from profits of 2026 onwards carry 5% SDC, while dividends paid out of older profits still carry 17%;
interest carries 17% SDC, with 3% on certain government and listed bonds.
The reform also created a way to keep the old treatment. Under Article 3D of the SDC Law, explained in Tax Department Circular 2/2026, an individual without a Cypriot domicile of origin who becomes deemed domiciled can pay a lump sum of €250,000 for a five-year period, during which they are treated as not domiciled. A second five-year period, following straight on, is available on the same terms, so up to ten more years. The election is irrevocable, the payment is not refundable and cannot be offset, and it must be paid by the end of the month after the Tax Department accepts it. The first period must start in the tax year in which you first become deemed domiciled; it cannot be taken up later. The application is due by 30 June of that year and may be filed up to two years in advance.
The arithmetic most commentary skips: €250,000 over five years is €50,000 a year. At 5% SDC, you pay €50,000 a year only on dividends of €1,000,000 a year. At 17% on interest, the break-even is about €294,000 of interest a year. Below those levels, paying the lump sum costs more than the SDC it replaces.
So for most founders and families the right answer in year seventeen is simple: let the status lapse and pay 5% on dividends, or arrange your affairs so that dividends come from post-2026 profits. The €250,000 option is for the few with very large distributions or a large interest-bearing portfolio.
One more effect of the 20-year window: years spent tax resident elsewhere slow the count. Someone who spends four years based in another country in the middle of their stay takes longer to reach seventeen.
Year 20 and beyond: retirement, estate and the next generation
A long stay eventually becomes a question of retirement and inheritance.
Pensions. A foreign pension for work done outside Cyprus is taxed at a flat 5% on the amount above €5,000 a year, unless you elect, year by year, the normal rates. Civil service pensions may follow different treaty rules.
Estates. With no inheritance tax in Cyprus, the question becomes which country's succession law applies. Cyprus is bound by the EU Succession Regulation: unless you choose otherwise, the law of your last habitual residence applies, which for a long-time resident means Cypriot law and its reserved shares for spouse and children. A will can choose the law of your nationality instead. For a family with a clear view of who inherits what, a will made in Cyprus, in the right form, is part of the plan, not an afterthought.
Your old country's estate clock. The Netherlands treats a Dutch national who dies or makes a gift within ten years of emigrating as still resident for inheritance and gift tax. Germany keeps German nationals within its inheritance tax for five years after they leave.
The next generation. Minor children can usually be registered as citizens together with a parent who naturalises; adult children decide for themselves, and the Greek they learned at school is the hardest part already done.
Faith, family and an Orthodox island
Cyprus took Christianity from the apostles themselves. The Acts of the Apostles records that Barnabas, a Levite born on the island, came back with Paul around the year 45, and that at Paphos the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus believed. The Church of Cyprus has governed itself since the Council of Ephesus confirmed its independence in 431; after Barnabas's tomb was found near Salamis in the late fifth century, Emperor Zeno granted its archbishop privileges he still uses, among them signing in red ink.
That inheritance is not museum material. On Lazarus Saturday, eight days before Easter, the saint's icon is carried through Larnaca. Name days are celebrated like birthdays, families still gather three generations around a Sunday table, and the parish is where newcomers meet the people who will help them for the next twenty years. Catholics find the Latin parishes long served by Franciscans; Protestants and others find their own congregations. A society that keeps its families and churches strong needs less from the state, and Cyprus, for all its bureaucracy, still runs on that older order.
Law and morality are not the same thing, here or anywhere. We describe what Cypriot law requires; what a good life on the island looks like is for you and your family to decide.
Two worked examples (illustrative, not clients)
Joris and Femke: the Dutch family who stop at year five. Joris, 44, and Femke, 41, moved from Utrecht to Larnaca in January 2026 with their two daughters, 9 and 12. Joris runs a software consultancy through his own Cyprus company; Femke teaches part-time. They go to Mass at the Latin parish and the girls are in a bilingual school.
Residence. Yellow Slips in March 2026, a day log from the first week, and no more than about ten weeks a year away. MEU3 becomes possible in 2031.
Tax. Cyprus tax resident on the 183-day route from 2026, Non-Dom declared. The company makes about €260,000 a year; Joris takes a €40,000 salary and distributes the rest after 15% corporate tax, about €187,000 in dividends with 0% SDC. GESY is capped per person: at most €4,770 for Joris.
The passport. Naturalisation would cost Joris and Femke their Dutch nationality, so they plan to stop at permanent residence. Their daughters may decide for themselves as adults.
The Dutch clock. Until January 2036, the Netherlands would still levy inheritance and gift tax as if they lived there. Their wills, made in Cyprus, choose Dutch law for their estates, and gifts to the children wait until the ten years are up.
Year 17. From 2043 Joris would pay 5% SDC on dividends from post-2026 profits, about €9,350 a year at today's level. The €250,000 option would cost five times as much. They will let the status lapse.
Daniel: the British engineer who goes all the way. Daniel, 34, is British and single. In 2025 he moved from Manchester to Limassol as head of engineering for a software company registered under the Business Facilitation Unit, on a salary of €95,000.
Residence. A residence and work permit through his employer, since he arrived after Brexit and cannot use the Yellow Slip.
Tax. He had never lived or worked in Cyprus, so half of his salary is exempt for up to 17 years; income tax on the rest is roughly €6,150 a year before deductions, plus social insurance and GESY. As Non-Dom, his dividends and interest carry 0% SDC.
Greek. Two evenings a week from his first month. He passes B1 in his third year.
The passport. As a highly skilled employee of a Business Facilitation Unit company, he can apply after three years of residence plus twelve continuous months, so in his fifth year, if he keeps his absences under 90 days in that last year. The United Kingdom allows dual nationality. For Daniel, a Cypriot passport is the way back into the EU.
Who the long run in Cyprus suits
Families who want to put down roots in an EU country with a living Christian culture and a predictable tax frame;
founders and investors whose income is mainly dividends and interest, who will use Non-Dom for many years and can live with 5% on dividends afterwards;
people prepared to learn Greek if they want the passport, and to keep a day log and a document file for a decade;
Britons who want to regain an EU passport through work and residence, not through money.
Who it does not suit
Anyone who wants a passport quickly or for money. That door closed in 2020, and the remaining road takes eight years and a language exam;
Dutch and Austrian citizens who will not give up their nationality, if a Cypriot passport is the goal; for them, permanent residence is the realistic end point;
people who plan to spend half of every year elsewhere and still expect permanent residence or citizenship on schedule;
anyone who sees Cyprus only as a tax address. The benefits of a long stay come from living here, and the clocks can tell the difference.
How it fits your Plan B
Our series on a second residence outside the EU now covers Mexico, Paraguay, the UAE, Panama, Georgia, the Philippines, Montenegro and Turkey. Over a twenty-year horizon, the pairing works like this: Cyprus is the house, the Plan B is the door. Use the early years, while you build continuity, to set up the door; keep your absences inside six months a year until permanent residence; and keep your last twelve months before a citizenship application almost entirely on the island. Our notes on the Cyprus 60-day rule, the common relocation myths and offshore banking in practice fill in the details. All English articles are in the blog.
FAQ
How long does Cyprus Non-Dom status last?
Until you have been Cyprus tax resident for 17 of the previous 20 tax years. Someone resident without a break from 2026 is Non-Dom for 2026 to 2042. After that, a lump sum of €250,000 can extend the treatment for five years, twice at most, starting in the year you become deemed domiciled.
What happens to my dividends after 17 years in Cyprus?
You become deemed domiciled. Dividends from profits earned from 2026 onwards then carry 5% SDC, dividends from older profits 17%, and interest generally 17%. The GESY contribution of 2.65%, capped at €180,000 of income, applies before and after.
When can I get permanent residence in Cyprus?
EU citizens can apply for permanent residence (MEU3) after five years of continuous legal residence. Absences of up to six months a year in total, or one absence of up to twelve months for important reasons, do not break continuity.
Can I become a Cypriot citizen, and do I need to speak Greek?
Yes, by naturalisation: twelve months of continuous residence before applying plus seven years in the ten years before that, Greek at level B1, a civics test, good character and adequate means. Highly skilled employees of approved companies can apply after four or five years.
Is the €250,000 Non-Dom extension worth it?
Only for large incomes. The payment equals €50,000 a year, which matches 5% SDC on about €1 million of dividends a year, or 17% on about €294,000 of interest. Below those levels, paying the normal SDC costs less.
Sources
PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Cyprus, taxes on personal income (2026 bands, SDC rates, domicile and the 17 of 20 rule): https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/cyprus/individual/taxes-on-personal-income
PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Cyprus, income determination (exemptions, pensions, crypto, rental income): https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/cyprus/individual/income-determination
PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Cyprus, other taxes (GESY rates and cap, capital gains tax, immovable property tax): https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/cyprus/individual/other-taxes
PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Cyprus, individual residence (183 and 60-day rules): https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/cyprus/individual/residence
KPMG Cyprus, Circular 2/2026, extension of the non-dom regime: https://kpmg.com/cy/en/insights/tax-alerts/circular-2-2026-extensions-of-the-non-dom-regime.html
Sagehill Partners, Circular 2/2026, alternative method of taxation for SDC: https://sagehillpartners.co/circular-2-2026-alternative-method-of-taxation-for-special-contribution-for-the-defence/
Health Insurance Organisation, GESY contributions: https://www.gesy.org.cy/en-us/hiofinancing
Cyprus Migration Department, permanent residence of EU citizens (MEU3): https://www.gov.cy/mip-md/en/documents/permanent-residence-of-e-u-e-e-a-citizens-and-members-of-their-families-who-are-also-e-u-e-e-a-citizens-meu3/
Cyprus Ministry of Interior, residence cards and permanent residence: https://www.gov.cy/moi/en/residence-cards/
Cyprus Ministry of Interior, naturalisation due to years of residence (form M127): https://www.gov.cy/moi/en/documents/acquisition-of-cypriot-citizenship-by-naturalization-due-to-years-of-residence-form-m127/
Civil Registry (Amendment) Law 149(I)/2023: https://www.cylaw.org/nomoi/arith/2023_1_149.pdf
Regulation 6(2), revised criteria for investors (Mondaq): https://www.mondaq.com/cyprus/general-immigration/1322450/new-revised-criteria-for-granting-immigration-permits-to-investors-under-reg-62-of-the-aliens-and-immigration-regulations
Government of the Netherlands, automatic loss of Dutch citizenship: https://www.government.nl/themes/migration-and-travel/dutch-citizenship/loss-of-dutch-citizenship/automatic-loss-of-dutch-citizenship
Successiewet 1956, Article 3 (ten-year rule for Dutch nationals): https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0002226/2026-01-01
German Federal Foreign Office, FAQ on the nationality law in force since 27 June 2024 (multiple citizenship): https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/2664214-2664214
Austrian government portal, loss of citizenship and permission to retain it: https://www.oesterreich.gv.at/de/themen/menschen_aus_anderen_staaten/staatsbuergerschaft/Verlust_Entziehung_Verzicht_Staatsbuergerschaft
German Inheritance and Gift Tax Act, section 2 (five-year rule for German nationals): https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/erbstg_1974/__2.html
ESM, FAQ on the Cyprus programme (bail-in, 47.5%): https://www.esm.europa.eu/system/files/document/faq_cyprus_18092013_archived.pdf
Central Bank of Cyprus, resolution measures at Bank of Cyprus and Laiki, 30 March 2013: https://www.centralbank.cy/en/announcements/30032013-1
BBC News, Cyprus lifts all capital controls, April 2015: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32194092
Al Jazeera, Cyprus abolishes citizenship through investment programme, October 2020: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/13/cyprus-abolishes-citizenship-through-investment-programme
Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca (Wikimedia Commons description): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Lazarus_Church,Larnaca,_Cyprus(39979638895).jpg
If you want a second pair of eyes on a twenty-year plan for your family in Cyprus, you can write to us.
General information, not tax, legal or immigration advice. Cypriot authorities decide every application, and your home country applies its own rules.
Cover photo: Mike McBey, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, cropped.
