If UK Leaves EU How Will This Affect Expats In Unified Cyprus

If UK Leaves EU How Will This Affect Expats In Unified CyprusThis is probably the year in which referendums in Cyprus and the UK will seal the fate of expats living in Cyprus, both north and south.

Well, the first thing to realise will be that Brits will become immigrants with no automatic right to live in Cyprus if UK leaves the EU and Cyprus unification happens. With this comes the status that many legal immigrants in the UK have. As long as they have money then they will be readily accepted until that runs out. Britain has been keen on freezing pensions in order to save money, for example in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. If this were to happen then pensions would gradually lose there value and entitlements to local benefits would be uncertain.

On top of this, employment rights would be severely affected as would be the right to start and run a business. Worse still, if expats in great numbers decide to return to the UK then they will likely to have lost their automatic right to benefits there and will overrun the system meaning they may be without money for several weeks. Of course, if they owned a property then they could sell that, along with many others, but if not then problems could arise.

2016 looks like being an interesting year for expats.

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2 comments to If UK Leaves EU How Will This Affect Expats In Unified Cyprus

  • Polly Marples

    I lived in the south for five years before it was an EU member, so I guess it will be back to having a yearly visa, although you could apply for citizenship then

  • AM

    If the UK vote out (and I really hope they do) the EU will implode and be finished within a few years and Cyprus will have bigger things to worry about if that happens.