In the past it was possible for Russian and Ukrainian citizens to obtain a Cypriot tourist visa in the airport upon arrival. As of January 1st this is no longer the case. Citizens of these countries (and I assume many other FSU countries) must apply for this visa in their country of residence. Also, there are more qualifications for receiving this visa than previously. In the past it was mainly a formality. Anyway, I thought I would relate my experience with this process.
Lena and I will be traveling to Cyprus this May. She lives in Kiev and applied for her visa there. I will be flying to Kiev and Lena and I will then fly to Larnaca via Aerosvit Airlines several days later.
To apply for a visa a Ukrainian citizen must provide a completed application, passport type photos, evidence of roundtrip transportation to and from Cyprus, a voucher which is issued by the hotel in which you will be staying, along with $50.00 (application fee and a medical insurance policy.
I purchased our tickets from aerosvit's New York office via the internet. I made reservations for lodging at a small inn located in Tochni. The airline ticket was in her name of course, while the reservation at the inn was in both of our names. I have also made reservations for a rental car in my name.
I sent Lena (via email) a scanned copy of her airline ticket, the email receipt for our reservations at the inn, and a copy of the rental car reservation. The receipt for lodging was nothing more then a typed email.
She submitted these things along with everything else mentioned above and one week later received her visa.
There is one other requirement. She is supposed to have on her person at the time of entry into Cyprus $80.00 for each day she will be spending there. Presumably they could check this when you arrive and deny you entry into the country if you do not meet this requiirement. We will see how closely this is checked.
I do not know if our experience is typical or not. Lena has traveled to Western Europe in the past. I suppose this could have had an influence on the issuing of her visa.
If they would have denied her a visa and I would have had to cancel our tickets and reservations. I would have been out 10% of the price of our tickets and the same on our lodging, that is all. So if any one else does this, make sure your airline tickets are refundable and look into the cancelation policies on all of your reservations.
