Immigration Limassol: the Limassol District Aliens and Immigration Unit

• Your Alien Registration Card (ARC).
• Your File Number (MP), if a file already exists.
• Your passport.
• Your current permit, with its expiry date to hand.
• Your Γ.Λ. 301B fee receipt, if you already hold one.
• A local telephone number the unit can reach you on.

Every item there comes up again below, where it matters. Treat it as the short version.

It is the Limassol District Aliens and Immigration Unit, a unit of the Cyprus Police rather than of the Migration Department. Gov.cy directs everyone living outside the Nicosia district to the police Aliens and Immigration Unit of their own district. For Limassol residents, that means Zakaki.

People search for this office under half a dozen names, and they all land in the same place: Limassol, Lemesos, Λεμεσός, Limassol Immigration Unit (Google's own name for it), Limassol District Aliens and Immigration Unit, DAIU, LIMASSOL ARO (the Aliens Registration Office, the label gov.cy uses on its appointment sheet), and immigration police Limassol. The police wording is accurate as far as it goes. The Aliens and Immigration Service is a service of the Cyprus Police. Since 1997 it has run independently, operationally and administratively, under the Chief of Police, under the Aliens and Immigration Law, Cap. 105 and Reg. 242/72 as amended by Law 22(1). So the police unit is the body that runs the office. That is the whole of what the phrase means here.

Hold on to that structure, because the routing rule rests on it. The headquarters of the Unit operates in Nicosia while the branches are the divisional aliens and immigration departments. From there, the Migration Department's appointments page sends district residents to their district unit. Google files the entity as a government office in Limassol, against a moi.gov.cy link that no longer resolves. Verified against the gov.cy police service page and the appointments page on 1 September 2026.

Franklin Roosevelt is a wide main road on the western side of Limassol, near the port. Signage at the building is in Greek and English. Gov.cy's English branch record gives the street, the building name, the floor and the postcode. Its Greek edition, modified three months later on 30 March 2026, publishes the identical record: Φραγκλίνου Ρούσβελτ 223, Ζακάκι, Κτίριο "D. Nikolaou", 2ος όροφος, 3046 ΛΕΜΕΣΟΣ. So the address is double sourced across two government editions, in two languages, three months apart. That is why this page states it flatly instead of telling you to check before travelling.

• The map apps disagree with the street sign. Recognise Oinouson if Waze shows it, and use Franklin Roosevelt everywhere else.
• This is the same building expat threads were describing back in 2014. One of them asked: "Is the immigration office still behind D Nicolaou in zakaki?"

Verified against both gov.cy police branch editions, English (31 December 2025) and Greek (30 March 2026), on 1 September 2026.

The two directories do not overlap at all, and neither page mentions the other. The Greek edition is the more recently maintained record, three months newer. So the English trio cannot simply be presumed current. But gov.cy nowhere says the Greek page replaces the English one. Both are live and both are primary.

Any reader who opens the Greek edition can see 25 805211 there as the only number for Limassol. Google's business panel and its AI answer both carry it, and they are entitled to: it is genuinely published. What nobody has picked up is the divergence itself, which runs across four of the five districts.

So which do you dial?

• Start with 25 805650 or 25 805210. Those two are the best supported of the four: each appears in two separate government records, the English branch directory and the appointment sheet.
• Then try 25 805212, from the English directory, and 25 805211, from the Greek one. Each of those appears in a single record.
• Call inside office hours. The lines are not staffed outside them, and the department asks callers to have their file number or ARC to hand.

Limassol is also the only one of the five districts with an email address on that page. That matters if you have been told to email the unit without ever being given the address: limetiseis@police.gov.cy.

One number not to call about a Limassol file: the Migration Department switchboard in Nicosia, 22308808. It holds no district file of yours. The next section explains why.

Verified against both gov.cy police branch editions, the appointment sheet and the Migration Department contact page on 1 September 2026.

The gap between those two rows is the whole cause of the confusion. Cyprus has two bodies with two ranges, and the wrong one has been copied onto the police unit.

Several widely read guides give 08:00 as Limassol's opening time. That is the Migration Department's range, and the Migration Department is in Nicosia. Google's own AI answer goes further and gives a 13:30 close on every phrasing of this search. One version hedges it as "or up to 14:30 for general inquiries", a distinction that appears on no government page. And on the same results page, Google's business panel for this office says it opens at 07:30.

Weekdays only, then. No weekend opening, and arrive with time in hand rather than near the close. The 08:00 error travels well: it turns up in Google's English, German and Russian summaries of this office, all tracing back to the same misapplied range.

Verified against the gov.cy submission offices page, posted 23 December 2025. It carries both ranges and the 14:00 last entry on one line. Checked against the police branch record on 1 September 2026.

That reads worse than it is. Under activity 7 of its own service description, the unit registers the applicant and transmits the application to the competent departments of the ministry. The file is built in Zakaki. The decision is taken in Nicosia. So the visit you make in Zakaki is the substantive one.

File there outside the headquarters-only categories and the same page says the application "will not be accepted" and "will be referred to the competent District Unit ... in the applicant's district of residence".

Where the headquarters actually sits is Archbishop Makarios III Avenue 90, 1077 Nicosia, switchboard 22308808. You are being pointed away from it deliberately, not out of ignorance of the address. Residents of the Nicosia district face a different arrangement, set out on the Nicosia page.

Verified against the gov.cy appointments page, the submission-offices page and the Migration Department contact page on 1 September 2026.

1. 1
   Send the email at least one month before your current permit or entry visa expires. The deadline runs from the expiry date, not from when you would like to be seen.
2. 2
   Send one request per family, not one per person. A second request for the same household slows everyone down.
3. 3
   Write every personal detail in capital letters. The sheet says so explicitly. Odd, but free to comply with.
4. 4
   Include all ten fields. Name and surname, date of birth, nationality, passport number, date of last arrival, Alien Registration Card (ARC), the expiry date of your current permit, File Number (MP), how many people the application covers, and a local telephone number.
5. 5
   Wait for the reply. The sheet commits to five working days, and asks you not to resend.

Google still offers "Immigration appointment online limassol" as a related search on both main phrasings of this query, so it is worth being precise about what the government actually announced. From 23 May 2023 an appointment could be arranged over the internet in addition to the call centre. If someone has pointed you at an older booking site, crmd.simplybook.pro, that is not the route the police publish today, but I have found no government page saying when, or whether, it was switched off, so treat any shut-off date you read for it as unconfirmed. Phone and a counter visit both work as alternatives. The appointments page also records one arrangement for anyone walking in without a booking: private individuals are served daily, first come, first served.

I am not going to tell you the mailbox is monitored quickly. Nothing published says that. Five working days is the government's written commitment, and that is the whole of it.

One month is the published minimum, not a target. I would send the request the day that window opens. The mistake applicants most often make is leaving it until the fortnight before expiry, and that leaves no room for a reply that arrives late.

Verified against the gov.cy appointment sheet and the appointments page on 1 September 2026.

A government page that turns up in no search result for this office sets out which applications go where. It uses the department's own category codes. Find your code and you know which building you are going to.

Submitted at the Limassol unit, for a Limassol-district resident:

• EU nationals and their family members (EU)
• UK nationals and family members with a right of free movement (UKW)
• domestic employment (DW)
• remunerated employment on a single permit (GEN)
• other employment cases (NSP)
• students, volunteers, school pupils, trainees and researchers applying for a residence permit (EDU, EDUM)
• visitors (VIS, the Pink Slip)
• family members of Cypriot citizens (CY)
• international protection holders (IPA)
• seasonal work (ESW)
• residence on humanitarian grounds (SPE)

Nicosia only, wherever you live:

• immigration permits
• long-term resident status
• foreign-interest and high-turnover company employment
• drilling-company employment
• the EU Blue Card
• shipping companies
• third-country family reunification
• entry-permit applications from educational institutions and research centres
• intra-corporate transfers
• the digital nomad visa
• the start-up visa
• visitors attending a programme
• travel documents for beneficiaries of international protection
• residence permits for victims of trafficking

That combined list comes from two government pages, which is worth knowing if you are checking your own category. The submission-offices page sets out which applications go to the central offices rather than a district unit. The appointments page publishes its own list of eleven categories examined only at headquarters. The two lists are not identical, and the list above merges them, so shipping companies and visitors attending a programme appear there even though no district list carries them. If your permit type is unusual, read both pages before you travel anywhere.

One distinction catches students in particular. The entry permit is a Nicosia matter; the residence permit that follows is a Limassol one.

Biometrics are the practical part. Photo, fingerprints and signature are captured at the police unit of your district of residence. For the district categories above, that happens at the same time as submission. For several Nicosia-only categories it happens either at submission in Nicosia or soon afterwards at your own district unit. A Limassol resident renewing a permit gives biometrics in Zakaki.

Permit routes and fees belong elsewhere. For registering as an EU citizen, for a non-EU visitor permit, or for help preparing the application, which is a paid service my firm reviews, start on those pages. A third-country national's renewal can now be begun through the department's online service rather than at a counter. Bring the health-insurance certificate the counter asks for, and read what GeSY covers for newcomers.

Verified against the gov.cy submission-offices page and the appointments page on 1 September 2026.

Google shows this office at 2.1 out of 5 from 216 reviews, checked on 1 September 2026. That is the lowest of the five district offices, on the second largest sample. It is also a figure that moves, so read it as a snapshot rather than a verdict. I raise it as a planning fact, not a complaint.

I have not read the reviews and I am not going to summarise them. What a low score on a district office does justify is planning for a wait.

• Go early in the 07:30 to 14:30 window rather than near the close.
• Bring everything on the checklist. A second visit is the real cost of a missing document.
• The document that sends people back most often is proof of health cover. DigiCare Insurance, the parent company of this site, writes policies that meet the permit requirement.

And the experience itself is a live question rather than an inference. A public thread on r/cyprus titled "Limassol Immigration Unit" opens with an employee whose company is renewing their residency, asking what to expect when giving biometrics. The question is the evidence. The answers under it are strangers on the internet, and I am not going to restate them as fact.

How can I check my Cyprus immigration status? By text message, without going back to the office. Here is the part almost nobody publishes: no second visit is needed to find out what happened to your file. Send the word STATUS, a space, and your application number to 1199. It costs about 3.4 cents a message. Your application number is printed on the Γ.Λ. 301B fee receipt. A third-country national's renewal can be started through the department's digital service, which skips the counter.

When you do go, remember what you are looking for. The second floor of a commercial building, not a police station front desk.

Verified against the gov.cy police service page, for the SMS service, its 3.4 cent cost and the Γ.Λ. 301B receipt code, on 1 September 2026.

Every district runs on the same pattern: a police Aliens and Immigration Unit, weekday mornings, its own appointment mailbox.

• Nicosia is the exception. Residents there deal with the Migration Department itself, and the email-appointment scheme does not cover them at all.
• The Larnaca unit works the same way as Limassol, as does the Famagusta district unit in Paralimni.
• The Paphos unit keeps to the same model, upstairs on Eleftheriou Venizelou.

All five appear in the district-by-district directory.

Passport control is a different function from residence permits, and the police operate it at Larnaca and Paphos airports only. There is none at Limassol.

If the question behind your search is really about status rather than buildings, read the permit routes in full or the 90/180 question and the wider move.

This page names two costs. One is about 3.4 cents for an SMS status message to 1199. The other is the Γ.Λ. 301B fee receipt, which is where your application number comes from. Permit fees themselves belong to the permit route pages.