Just hours after the Deputy Ministry announced the mid-October IT blackout, the Civil Registry & Migration Department said it would halt same-day passport and ID-card processing from 13:00 on 17 October. Cyprus Mail reported queues forming before dawn as foreign residents and business travellers attempted to beat the deadline.
The crush was particularly acute for third-country nationals needing emergency travel documents to attend conferences later in the month. According to travel-management company BCD Cyprus, at least 40 passengers re-ticketed flights, paying average change penalties of €320.
The shutdown highlights a familiar bottleneck in Cyprus’ mobility ecosystem: although the government has digitised birth and marriage certificates, passport issuance still relies on a legacy photo-capture workstation available only at the Nicosia headquarters. Officials say the upgrade will decentralise that function to police district offices by Q3 2026.
In the meantime, relocation advisers recommend filing renewal requests at least six weeks before expiry and flagging high-priority cases through the ministry’s corporate liaison desk. Multinationals should also maintain a ‘shadow passport’ inventory—blank travel documents stored at embassies—to mitigate future disruptions.
The crush was particularly acute for third-country nationals needing emergency travel documents to attend conferences later in the month. According to travel-management company BCD Cyprus, at least 40 passengers re-ticketed flights, paying average change penalties of €320.
The shutdown highlights a familiar bottleneck in Cyprus’ mobility ecosystem: although the government has digitised birth and marriage certificates, passport issuance still relies on a legacy photo-capture workstation available only at the Nicosia headquarters. Officials say the upgrade will decentralise that function to police district offices by Q3 2026.
In the meantime, relocation advisers recommend filing renewal requests at least six weeks before expiry and flagging high-priority cases through the ministry’s corporate liaison desk. Multinationals should also maintain a ‘shadow passport’ inventory—blank travel documents stored at embassies—to mitigate future disruptions.
