Cyprus Aims to Join Schengen Visa-Free Area in 2025

On 10 January 2025, the president of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, announced that Cyprus will be aiming to join the Schengen visa-free travel zone by the end of the year. By joining the Schengen area, Cyprus hopes to boost tourism and investment in the country.

The Schengen visa-free travel zone, allowing travelers to enter countries without passing through border control or needing a visa within the European Union, currently encompasses 29 European countries. After Romania and Bulgaria became members of the zone on 1 January 2025, Cyprus and Ireland are the only remaining EU states outside the zone.

To join the Schengen zone, Cyprus will need to resolve numerous technical details.

Cyprus has famously been divided, with the island split between the Republic of Cyprus in the south and the Turkish-occupied north, since 1974. To join the Schengen visa-free area, Cyprus will need to resolve this division, the buffer zone known as the ‘Green Line.’ The situation requires careful management to ensure compliance with Schengen regulations. This will ensure that the Schengen area avoids creating a hard external border along the division, which could potentially increase tensions between parties.

There is currently no official timeline for Cyprus to join the Schengen visa-free travel zone, however, a spokesperson for the European Commission told reporters that the “first-time Schengen evaluation of Cyprus is still ongoing” and that they’ll continue to visit the country in 2025 to assess if they’ve met the technical requirements for joining the area.