![With Cyprus's investment programme due to end on November 1, investors will likely look to other golden passport schemes in Malta or Bulgaria [Petros Karadjias/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/AP_100914121593-1.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Powerful lobby and the prize of foreign investment casts doubt on a lasting end to citizenship-by-investment.
Investigations
![[Illustration: Edib Agagjyshi/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/cyprus-paper-landscape3x2.png?resize=570%2C380)
I went under cover to expose high-ranking Cypriot politicians willing to help a convicted criminal get a passport.
Demetris Syllouris was one of two politicians implicated in Al Jazeera’s investigation into a...
![The protesters in Nicosia called for resignations and an end to corruption [Jason Gwynne/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_5058.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
The protests followed repeated calls for Cyprus’s second in command Demetris Syllouris to step down.
The Cyprus Papers
![With Cyprus's investment programme due to end on November 1, investors will likely look to other golden passport schemes in Malta or Bulgaria [Petros Karadjias/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/AP_100914121593-1.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
![The protesters in Nicosia called for resignations and an end to corruption [Jason Gwynne/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_5058.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
![[Illustration: Edib Agagjyshi/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/cyprus-paper-landscape3x2.png?resize=270%2C180)
![Christakis Giovanis announced his resignation after Cyprus said it would abolish its controversial citizenship through investment scheme [Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Screenshot-2020-10-13-at-13.57.08.png?resize=270%2C180)
![A person holds an image of a passport during a protest against corruption outside the Filoxenia Conference Center, currently hosting Cyprus parliament, in Nicosia, Cyprus October 14, 2020. [Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/RTX829JT.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
‘Investment programmes’ that tie the granting of citizenship to money can never be truly free of corruption.
![Under Cyprus's golden passport scheme, anyone who could afford to invest $2.5m was able to obtain a Cypriot passport [Cyprus Papers Undercover/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/1000-2.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Move follows Al Jazeera investigation revealing how politicians were willing to help criminals obtain passports.
Al Jazeera reveals how Cypriot officials discussed finding ways to provide citizenship to a convicted criminal.
![About 100 men have come forward in the last few years who say they were abused by Bennell [Football's Wall of Silence/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/75f5c39898f74c138866ea06ea957155_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Barry Bennell, featured in an Al Jazeera investigation, was already serving a 30-year sentence for child abuse.
Leaked documents show Cyprus passport scheme allowed political figures ‘vulnerable to corruption’ to buy EU citizenship.
See the faces behind the stories and explore data proving Cyprus sold passports to criminals and high-ranking officials.
EU commissioner for justice calls for changes to citizenship-through-investment scheme after Al Jazeera investigation.
The Cyprus Papers reveal 500 Chinese and more than 350 Arabs bought Cypriot passports, granting them EU access.
Our investigative podcast dives into a document leak.
The Cyprus Papers reveal that in just two years, 1,000 wealthy Russians bought ‘golden passports’ from Cyprus.