Visa for Greece & Residence permit

Visa for Greece and Residence permits to Third-Country (non-EU) Citizens

The recent Law “Creation of a Development Friendly Environment for Strategic and Private Investments” (4.146/2013) of the Greek Ministry for Development, Competitiveness, Infrastructure, Transport and Networks, facilitates the residence of investors in Greece through the granting of residence permits for executives of Strategic Investment projects.

In addition, third-country citizens (citizens outside EU) and their family members, who buy property in Greece, the assessed value of which (tax value) exceeds €250,000, may obtain residence permits.

The allowance for these types of residence permits have been integrated into the existing Law 3386/2005 “Entry, residence and social integration of third-country nationals in Greece”.

A) Residence Permits for Strategic Investments

In the case of investments classified as Strategic Investments, under a decision of the Interministerial Committee for Strategic Investments for the inclusion in the process of Law 3894/2010 (Hellenic Government Gazette Issue Α 204/2010), residence permits may be issued to a legal representative of the investor and to up to 10 additional persons, for whom a residence permit is a prerequisite for the unimpeded implementation of an investment plan.

Such persons may be accompanied by members of their families, as specified under paragraph 1 of article 54 of Law 3386/2005, as well as by domestic workers, provided that an applicant has disabilities necessitating personal assistance.

Upon their own request, applicants may be granted a personal residence permit that is renewed or/and expires concurrently with the residence permit of the sponsor (the legal representative).

The Minister of Interior decides on the approval of the issuance of the residence permit, which may be valid for a period of up to ten (10) years.

Requests for these residence permits (pertaining to investments included in the procedures under Law 3894/2010) shall be reviewed by all competent authorities as a matter of absolute priority.

B) Residence Permits for Real Estate Owners in Greece

By decision of the General Secretary of Decentralised Administration, a residence permit for five (5) years is issued to a third-country citizen, if he/she has obtained a visa, if required, and legally owns, either personally or through a legal entity whose shares are wholly owned by him/her, property in Greece, or has, at minimum, a ten-year time-sharing contract under Law 1652/1986: "Time-Sharing and Regulations on Related Issues" (A’ 167) as applicable, or a 10-year lease of hotel accommodations or furnished tourist accommodation (houses) in tourist accommodation complexes according to Article 8, par. 2 of Law 4002/2011 (A’ 180).

The aforementioned residence permit may be renewed for the same duration (five years), if the property remains unchanged in its legal ownership status as described above and the contracts of ownership remain in effect, and other statutory conditions detailed above are met.

The minimum value of the property and the contract price of the time-share leases and the leases for hotel accommodations or tourist furnished accommodations (houses) in tourist accommodation complexes, according to this Article, shall be two hundred fifty thousand (250,000) Euro.

By joint decision of the Ministers of Interior and Finance, the value of the above-mentioned property may increase or decrease, and will be determined in accordance with the stated prices of the sale documents of the properties, or leases as per their contracts, or as determined by ministerial objective values.

The period of residence, under these specific conditions, is not taken into account in cases of granting citizenship to said residents.

The aforementioned third-country citizen (property owner) may be accompanied by the members of his/her family, as specified under paragraph 1 of Article 54 of Law 3386/2005. Upon their own request, family members may be granted a personal residence permit that is renewed and/or expires concurrently with the residence permit of the sponsor (property owner).

In any case, the residence permits do not allow a right to employment of any type.

You can download a Brief Guide to Residence Permits for real estate owners in Greece in the following languages: English, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.

C) Other types of granting Residence Permits in Greece

Please download here Law 3386/2005 “Entry, residence and social integration of third-country nationals in Greece” (in Greek), which includes all the other types of residence permits.

Our company is experienced on legal and administrative issues concerning real estate property transactions taxation and the new investment law on issuing of residence permits for real estate owners and investors in Greece (250.000 euros of value and up).