Cyprus-Forum.com

[repat]

Hi everyone,

I hope you're well. I'm a Cypriot through my dad, I gained citizenship a few years ago but I've only ever spent holidays in Cyprus. The situation in my home country is getting more and more dire so I'm looking at "repatriating" to Cyprus. I am hoping to arrive in the next two weeks to do my military service as a potential long-term economic opportunity has presented itself. I'm 26 so I qualify for a short stint. I've got all the documents together and am just waiting for a response from the authorities. I figure it'll make it easier for me to be a citizen in good standing, work and buy property in the country; and it's the law and the right thing to do. I really don't want to be a dodger and I would've done this years ago if I'd been able to do so. I'm fit and healthy, but my spoken Greek could be better (to my shame). I read and write pretty well and I can understand a lot better than I can speak. Thankfully there are some Greeks in a nearby town so I do get to use the language from time to time.

My question is: I'm obviously going to have to deal with a fair amount of flack for not speaking perfect Greek and all that, but from what I've described above could someone advise me on anything I might have overlooked? Is there any language test involved? It's going to cost me a lot of money to get this done so I just want to have as much information as I can get. The consulate in this part of the world is overstretched and understaffed so I have not had much luck getting information that way.

Also, am I likely to encounter others in my position, i.e repatriate or Cypriot-descended people?
\

[Get Real!]

Most of us in here did our service decades ago so we’re not exactly up to date. When I was doing mine in the mid 80s I couldn’t write/spell Greek so I just jotted everything down in Latin characters. My Greek listening skills were very good though so that worked for me.

During basic training there was a lot theory involved so we were expected to write a lot of things down but things may have changed now so you need to have a chat with a younger crowd who are more up to date.