Press Releases

The Health Insurance Organization (HIO) wishes to advise the public on a number of issues which have been identified during the enrolment of beneficiaries to the General Health System (GHS) and provide relevant directions.

The issues relate to the following:

 1.                Holders of old Cypriot Identity Cards

It has been observed that holders of old Cypriot Identity Cards where their name appears only in Greek and/or have no expiration date cannot enroll. In such cases, the public is invited to try submitting their name in English (Latin characters). If enrolment is still not possible, the public is invited to contact the Citizen Service Centers or the District Administration Offices to be informed of their name’s spelling in English or to update their record to contain their name in English (Latin characters), or to issue a new identity card.

2.                Non-Cypriot citizens holding MEU1 or MEU3 permits

It appears that in some cases non-Cypriot citizens, holders of the MEU1 or MEU3 permits cannot proceed with their enrolment to the GHS. The HIO is in contact with the Civil and Migration Department and the Government Data Warehouse, from where all data related to the GHS beneficiaries is collected, to resolve the matter and will issue a relevant announcement with further information/instructions to the public within the next few days. 
It is reiterated that persons with working permits including the above, should ensure that their Social Insurance record are updated to include their Alien Registration Number (ARC). For this purpose, they may visit the Citizen Service Centers or the Social Insurance Services.

3.                Holders of Cypriot Identity Cards without Cypriot Citizenship

Holders of Cypriot Identity Cards who do not have Cypriot nationality are informed that in order to enroll in the GHS, they must either obtain Cypriot Nationality or obtain a residence permit of the type MEU1 or MEU3, by the Civil and Migration Department.

Important clarification

Persons who cannot enroll as workers or as permanent residents of Cyprus, although they meet the necessary criteria, are requested to avoid enrolling to the GHS by choosing other beneficiary categories, for example as holders of S1 document or as a family member of a beneficiary, since this will cause delays in completing their enrolment process.

In such cases, the public is invited to contact the GHS Service Center at 17000 (free call) or at info@gesy.org.cy for further investigation of the issue.

4.    Addresses not recognized by the GHS system

The public is informed that the issue of the non-recognition of the specific postal codes by the GHS system has been corrected. The affected public is kindly requested to retry enrolling to the GHS.

(ML/II)