25 February 2026, 17:04

25

Russian tour operators: visas to Cyprus are issued very, very slowly

Russian tour operators: visas to Cyprus are issued very, very slowly

Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR)

reports

about problems when obtaining visas to Cyprus. After

openings

in December 2025, visa centers of the Republic of Cyprus in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don and Novosibirsk will provide clients of travel agencies with Cyprus visas on a general basis. Meanwhile, visa centers are working in a white-hot mode.

The official processing time for a Cyprus visa in Russia ranges from 15 to 45 days. In practice, applicants receive visas within two to three weeks. But this is now, in the low season, tour operators emphasize. With the same leisurely organization of the visa process on the eve of summer, these deadlines will obviously increase. 

There is a shortage of slots at visa centers. At best, you can sign up for a regular gym in Moscow in about two weeks. You won’t even be able to get into the premium lounge at an earlier date with an additional payment of about 15 thousand rubles. Tourists complain about the slow work of visa centers and requests for documents not from the official list.

— Today, only the option of personal submission of documents with biometrics is available. The Cypriot consulate does not react in any way to the current problem. When there are no free windows for upcoming dates, even in the off-season, we assume that in the high season it will be even more difficult to obtain a visa within a reasonable time frame,” said one of the travel agencies.

Recommended flight options

FlyOne (with a connection in Yerevan) Georgian Airways (via Tbilisi) Emirates (connection in Dubai) Qatar Airways (connection in Doha)

Experts call the Armenian carrier FlyOne the most budget option: a round-trip ticket from Moscow will cost about 60 thousand rubles per person (without luggage). Tickets for connecting flights on Qatar Airways (with luggage) will cost a little more, about 75 thousand rubles, but tourists will receive a higher level of service.

According to the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Cyprus, in 2025 the country was visited by 63.8 thousand citizens of the Russian Federation (+30.9% by 2024). Compared to the pre-COVID 2019 (almost 782 thousand arrivals), the Russian tourist flow to Cyprus decreased by 12.2 times.

Photo

:freepik

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