The formalities take an afternoon and almost nothing about them is difficult. What takes thought is the two things a Cyprus will cannot do, because those are decided before you write a word of it.
Under the Wills and Succession Law, Cap 195. Miss one and the will can be set aside entirely, which is the most avoidable way an estate goes wrong.
Article 23 sets the capacity test: adult, and of sound mind at the moment of signing. Capacity is judged at that moment rather than generally, which is why a will made during a lucid period can stand even where capacity later fails.
CapacityNo oral wills. Language is not the constraint: a will in English is valid, and foreign nationals may make a Cyprus will on the same terms as citizens.
FormNot the top, not the margin, and not only on the pages that matter to you. The signature goes at the end of the document.
SignatureBoth must be there together when you sign. Signing in front of one, then catching the other later in the week, is the single most common way a homemade will fails.
WitnessingAll three of you in one room, at one time. Choose witnesses who take nothing under the will and are not married to anybody who does, and choose people younger than you.
AttestationIt cannot direct the statutory portion. Cyprus is a forced heirship jurisdiction. Where you leave a spouse and children, three quarters of the estate is reserved by law and your will directs the remaining quarter. Writing a will that purports to give everything to one person does not achieve that; it simply gets cut back to the disposable portion. The forced heirship page works through the shares.
It cannot make itself valid abroad. A Cyprus will governs what a Cyprus court will act on. Your home country applies its own rules to assets there, and to inheritance tax, which Cyprus does not charge but plenty of other countries do.
What a will can do, and this is the part people undervalue, is carry an Article 22 election under the EU Succession Regulation for the law of your nationality to govern your succession. For someone from a jurisdiction with full testamentary freedom, that election is the mechanism for stepping outside forced heirship altogether. It has to be made expressly. It is never implied.
People who own property in more than one country ask this constantly, and the honest answer is that it depends on how the two documents are drafted rather than on a rule.
A single will covering worldwide assets can work. So can separate wills for separate jurisdictions, which is often faster to administer because each can be produced to its own court without waiting on the other. The danger with two is a revocation clause in the later one quietly cancelling the earlier, which happens more often than it should and is entirely preventable by saying so expressly.
Whichever route you take, tell each adviser about the other document. Most of the trouble in cross-border estates comes from two competent wills drafted by two competent lawyers who did not know the other existed.
That last line matters more than it looks. Section 42 of Cap 195 gave many British owners full testamentary freedom until it was repealed with effect from 3 July 2015. A will drafted on the old basis may distribute an estate the law will no longer allow. See what the repeal changed, and if you have no will at all, what happens instead.
Tell us who is in the family and what you own here, and we will set out what the statutory portion takes, what is left for you to direct, and whether an Article 22 election is open to you.
Request a consultationChecked against primary legislation and official publications on 5 August 2026.
We have deliberately not stated where a will must be deposited or what one costs, because practice varies and we would rather say nothing than say something you might rely on. Whether one worldwide will or separate wills per jurisdiction suits you is a drafting judgement on your actual assets rather than a rule. This page is general information, not tax, legal, immigration or investment advice, and individual circumstances change the answer.