The American Chamber of Commerce in Cyprus (AmCham Cyprus) released a policy paper on 8 October calling on Nicosia and Washington to accelerate Cyprus’ entry into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and to launch direct commercial air service between the two countries. AmCham argues that Cyprus has already met the key quantitative VWP benchmark, lowering its U.S. short-stay visa-refusal rate to 2.16 percent—below the 3 percent ceiling. Over the past two years the government has upgraded biometric passports, connected law-enforcement databases to U.S. systems and adopted new counter-terror finance rules, positioning the island to clear the Department of Homeland Security’s security audit. The Chamber wants the two governments to finalise remaining information-sharing protocols so that the State Department can formally nominate Cyprus in the next VWP intake round. Business stakes are high. Visa-free travel would slash red tape for Cypriot tech start-ups pitching to U.S. investors, for shipping executives shuttling between Limassol and New York, and for Cypriot students attending American universities. For U.S. firms, easier travel could make Cyprus—already English-speaking, euro-denominated and strategically located—a more attractive Eastern-Mediterranean hub. Direct flights are the second pillar. Cyprus’ airports currently feed U.S. traffic through European hubs, adding four to five hours each way. AmCham disclosed that preliminary talks with a U.S. carrier stalled over demand projections—industry rule-of-thumb is 500 daily passengers—but says a U.S. Customs & Border Protection pre-clearance facility at Larnaca or Paphos could tip the business case by allowing arriving travellers to be treated as domestic flyers in the United States. Finally, the paper calls for an updated double-taxation treaty and a bilateral social-security “totalisation” agreement. Both would lower assignment costs for multinationals rotating staff between Cyprus and the United States, remove dual contributions on pensions and clarify withholding rules for the digital economy. Taken together, the five proposals sketch an ambitious mobility agenda that—if realised—would transform Cyprus’ access to the world’s largest economy and cement the island’s role as a regional services platform.
Source: Cyprus Mail
