• For the acquisition or renewal of the special residence permit for specific humanitarian reasons, all interested individuals can submit a request in a form of an open letter, to the Civil Registry and Migration Department, where they must specify all the reasons why they are requesting the special permit and attach all the supporting documentation.
•  In case the application is rejected, the applicant will receive a letter informing them of the rejection reasons.
• In case the application is approved, the applicant will receive a letter notifying them on how to proceed with the submission of the relevant application (MSPE) within the given timeframe. Along with the application, individuals must submit all the required supporting documents that are listed on the letter of Approval.
• There is no fee for applying
• Applications can be submitted to the appropriate Office of the Aliens and Immigration Unit of the Police of the district where the beneficiary resides or to the Civil Registry and Migration Department (only for beneficiaries residing in Nicosia). To find out whether an appointment is needed follow this link.
• Applications that are not accompanied by all the required documents will not be accepted for consideration.
• Any change in the applicant's data during the examination of the application should be notified immediately to the Department.
• During the submission of the application, and in cases where there is no previous registration, a first registration shall be made in the Aliens Registry and an Alien Registration Card (ARC) will be issued.
• For the issuance of the temporary special permit capturing biometric data (photo and fingerprints) and the signature of the third country national is necessary, which is done with the presentation of the application submission receipt and a valid travel document. The biometric data can be captured at the same time or after the application submission, at the offices of the Department in Nicosia or the district unit of the Aliens and Immigration Service of the Police of the district of residence of the third country national. For persons who have not reached the age of six years at the time of applying only the photo is captured. This data is also captured for the renewal of the temporary residence permit.

Examination time
All applications are examined on a strict priority basis based on the date of submission.

Duration of special residence permit
1 year.

Access to the labour market and health care
Holders of the special residence permit on humanitarian grounds are granted access to the labour market only after the relevant approval by the Department of Labor and given that the residence permit has been issued as a special permit for employment.
Holders of the special residence permit are entitled to free medical care in public medical institutions, covering at a minimum emergency health care and essential treatment of illnesses.