Greece Golden Visa: Requirements, Steps, Family and Renewal

The Greek Golden Visa, known officially as the residence permit for investors (άδεια διαμονής επενδυτή) and in everyday Greek as the χρυσή βίζα, allows a citizen of a country outside the European Union to live in Greece on the strength of an investment there, usually the purchase of a home. This guide is written for buyers, retirees and families who look up the Greece golden visa requirements and want to see the whole route before signing anything: what the permit gives, how the investment is chosen, how the application runs, who in the family can join and what renewal involves. It describes how the scheme usually works; the conditions for a particular case are confirmed by a lawyer.

1. GroundworkAFM, bank account, representative
2. Buy the propertyChecks, deed and registration
3. Apply for the permitFiling, proof of filing, biometrics
4. Family membersWho can join on the same investment
5. Keep and renewConditions and renewal

What the permit gives, and what it does not

The Golden Visa is a residence permit, not a passport. Its holder may live in Greece, keep a home there and move within the Schengen area under the general rules for people holding a Schengen residence permit. Unlike most Greek permits, it is not tied to spending a set part of the year in the country, which is why it appeals to people whose working life stays elsewhere.

Three points are often misunderstood:

• The permit does not, on its own, give the right to take a job in Greece as an employee; work needs another permit or status.
• It is not citizenship by investment. Greece has no such programme, and Greek citizenship follows separate rules built on real residence, the language and an exam.
• It says nothing about tax. Tax residence follows the place where a person actually lives, and someone who does move can look at the non-dom regime of Article 5A, which is a separate decision with its own conditions.

The investment, and why no amounts appear here

Most investors qualify through real estate. The law also accepts some other investments in Greece, such as capital placed in Greek companies, government bonds, bank deposits or shares in investment funds. For property, the minimum is no longer a single national figure. It depends on where the property lies, with Attica, Thessaloniki and the best-known islands set higher than the rest of the country, and on the type of property, because turning a commercial building into homes or restoring a listed building is treated differently. The thresholds were raised in recent years and the transition period has ended, so an amount copied from an older article may no longer be right.

The same reforms added conditions on the property itself, for instance on its floor area and on putting several units together to reach the required value. A Golden Visa home can generally be let to a tenant on an ordinary lease, but holiday letting of it is, as reported, no longer allowed, and a breach is said to put the permit at risk. A lawyer reads the version of the rules that applies when the deed is signed, not the one in force when the idea first came up.

Before the purchase: the groundwork

1. The tax number. Each investor obtains an ΑΦΜ (AFM), the Greek tax registration number, since no deed is signed without one; see AFM number application.
2. A Greek bank account. The price passes through a Greek bank, so that the payment can be traced to the investment the application relies on.
3. A representative. Most steps can be handled from abroad once the investor authorises a lawyer by a power of attorney (πληρεξούσιο), made at a Greek consulate or, with an apostille, before a local notary.
4. The choice of home. The investor picks the property. A lawyer does not sell real estate, but checks that the chosen one can serve for the permit in its area and category.

Buying the property

The purchase itself follows the usual Greek route for buying property, with a few points added for the permit. Before the deed, the lawyer searches the national cadastre (Κτηματολόγιο) and, where it still applies, the older mortgage registry for the seller's title, mortgages and claims. A civil engineer certifies that the building matches its permits and carries no unauthorised additions. Any tax due on the transfer is settled before signing. The notary (συμβολαιογράφος) then drafts and signs the purchase deed, which records how the price was paid, and the deed is registered with the cadastre. That registered deed is the central document of the permit file.

The application step by step

1. Lawful entry. The investor is in Greece lawfully, on a Schengen visa or visa-free where the passport allows it; a lawyer checks whether another visa suits the case better.
2. Filing. The application goes to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum (Υπουργείο Μετανάστευσης και Ασύλου) through its online system, usually filed by the lawyer for the whole family.
3. Proof of filing. Once the file is accepted, a certificate of application (βεβαίωση κατάθεσης) covers the applicant's lawful stay while the decision is pending.
4. Biometrics. Fingerprints and a photograph are taken in person in Greece; this is the one step a representative cannot do.
5. The cards. After approval, a residence card is issued to the investor and to each family member.

A checklist that lawyers commonly work through for the file:

• a valid passport for every applicant
• the AFM and bank records showing the payment
• the purchase deed and the certificate of its registration with the cadastre
• health insurance that covers Greece
• marriage and birth certificates for the family, with an apostille and an official translation into Greek
• photographs to the official standard
• receipts for the state fees

Family members on one investment

A single investment usually covers the household. The spouse or registered partner, unmarried children up to an age set by law, and the parents of both spouses can each receive a permit of their own through the investor, without investing again. These permits depend on the investor's: they are renewed together with it and can end with it. A child who passes the age limit, or a family whose situation changes after a divorce, may need another status, and it pays to look at this before the card runs out.

Family paperwork is where files most often slow down. Certificates issued abroad usually need an apostille and a translation, and a marriage never registered in the country where it took place can hold up the whole application.

Keeping the permit and renewing it

The permit is granted for several years at a time and can be renewed again and again for as long as the investment stays in the investor's hands. Renewal is requested before the card expires, with fresh proof that the property is still owned, current health insurance and the family's documents. Recent changes are reported to have altered the way the permit's period is counted, so a lawyer confirms the dates for a given card.

Owning the home brings yearly duties that a renewal can bring to light if they were missed: the annual property tax ΕΝΦΙΑ, the property declaration Ε9 and, where the home earns rent, an income tax return; the page on property tax for foreign owners explains them. If the investor sells, the permit is generally lost unless another qualifying investment takes its place, and a buyer who also wants a Golden Visa can sometimes use the same property; selling property in Greece has its own checks.

Where a lawyer usually helps

Lawyers who handle the Golden Visa in Greece often take on the whole chain: the AFM and the bank, the title search and the deed, the online file, the family's papers and later the renewals. Many investors buy in Attica or in Thessaloniki, and there are English-speaking lawyers in Athens and in Thessaloniki; a home on an island such as Corfu raises its own planning questions. A refused or stalled application is a matter for visa refusal appeals, and the other permits are gathered under Immigration.

Questions and answers

Is the Greece Golden Visa still available?

Yes. Greece has kept the scheme open but rewritten it more than once: the minimum now varies by area and type of property, and holiday letting of the home has been restricted. Only the conditions valid when the deed is signed matter.

Do I have to live in Greece to keep a Golden Visa?

No minimum stay is attached to this permit. Actually moving to Greece is a different step, with its own consequences for tax and, later, for any citizenship application.

Does a Golden Visa allow work in Greece?

Not as an employee on the strength of this permit alone. Managing one's own investment is not the same as employment, and a lawyer checks what a specific plan allows.

Does the Golden Visa lead to Greek citizenship?

Not by itself. Naturalisation rests on genuine residence, knowledge of the language and society and an exam, so years spent mostly abroad on a Golden Visa may not count towards it.

Can a Golden Visa property be rented out?

An ordinary long-term lease is generally possible. Holiday letting is, as reported, excluded for homes used for the permit; how holiday lets work in general is described under short-term rental registration.

Is there a residence permit in Greece without an investment?

Yes. Retirees and others with a steady income from abroad often consider the financially independent person visa, and remote workers at the digital nomad visa.