Greece visa and residence permit guide

A holiday in Greece needs a Schengen C visa if your nationality is visa-required.

If you stay with relatives or friends in Greece for up to 90 days, you apply for a Schengen C visa in the family-visit category.

Travellers who cross Greece on the way to a third country, by car, coach or ferry, or who leave the airport between flights, need a Schengen C visa marked for transit.

Planned treatment in Greece of up to 90 days needs a Schengen C visa with documents from the Greek hospital or doctor and proof that you can pay.

Participants in festivals, competitions, conferences and cultural exchanges of up to 90 days apply for a Schengen C visa with the organiser’s invitation.

Meetings, negotiations, trade fairs and visits to Greek partners within 90 days need a Schengen C visa in the business category.

Besides the real-estate golden visa, the Migration Code offers investor permits for strategic investors, for shareholders who hold at least 33% of a Greek company with at least EUR 500,000 paid in cash (or EUR 500,000 in shares listed in Greece), for unpaid executives of large companies and for financial investors.

Degree students accepted by a Greek higher education institution obtain a national D visa from the Greek mission and then a study residence permit in Greece.

Researchers invited by a research organisation recognised in Greece sign a hosting agreement, obtain a national D visa and then a researcher residence permit for the length of the project.

Graduates and students who do a structured traineeship with a Greek host apply for a national D visa in the trainee category; the consulate must decide within 60 days of a complete file.

A Greek employer who wants to hire you from abroad requests an employment approval within the national admission quotas.

Highly qualified professionals with a Greek job offer of at least six months and a gross salary of at least 1.6 times the average gross annual salary in Greece can obtain the EU Blue Card (E.1).

Managers, specialists and trainee employees of a company outside the EU can be seconded to a group company in Greece.

Greek employers in agriculture, tourism and fisheries can invite seasonal workers within the admission quotas.

Remote workers employed by, or providing services to, companies outside Greece can live in Greece on a digital nomad national visa for up to 12 months.

Third-country nationals living legally in Greece can bring their spouse and minor children.

Non-EU spouses, registered partners and other family members of Greek citizens enter Greece on a Schengen visa or a visa with limited territorial validity and then receive a five-year Residence Card in Greece.

Non-EU investors who buy property in Greece can obtain a five-year investor residence permit, renewable as long as they keep it.

Retirees and others who can live in Greece on their own stable income, such as a pension, rents or investments, can obtain a national visa and then the residence permit for persons with sufficient resources.

After five years of lawful and continuous residence you can apply for EU long-term resident status (M.1), valid five years and renewable, with equal treatment in work, education and social security.