Administrative Recourse Proceedings

Our firm represents a group of 300 high-net-worth investors in 86 separate administrative recourse proceedings before the Administrative Court of Cyprus, challenging the rejection of their applications under the now-defunct Citizenship by Investment Scheme. Each applicant had fulfilled the statutory minimum investment requirement of €2,000,000. However, the applications were rejected by the Council of Ministers without adequate justification or transparent assessment criteria.

The legal issue centered on whether the rejection of a citizenship application is subject to judicial review or merely an unchallengeable executive act. The Republic of Cyprus raised a preliminary jurisdictional objection, asserting that such decisions fall outside the court’s competence and can only be challenged through civil damages claims. Our firm successfully argued for a consolidated jurisdictional hearing before the Plenary of the Administrative Court, which ruled in September 2024 that the court does, in fact, have jurisdiction to review the lawfulness of the rejection decisions.

This landmark ruling not only permitted our 86 client cases to proceed, but also set a precedent for dozens of other pending or future investment-based administrative disputes. Each of the cases is now progressing to the merits phase before the Administrative Court, with trials scheduled throughout 2024 and 2025.