General Information for obtaining the residence permit:
- By decision of the Secretary General of the Decentralized Administration, a residence permit for five years, subject to renewal, is granted in two months, to a third country national who:
- Has legally entered the country with a visa.
- Personally holds full ownership, possession and peaceful enjoyment of real estate property in Greece. In the case of jointly owned property, worth €250,000, the right of residence is granted only if the owners of the property are spouses with indivisible shares in the property. In all other cases of joint ownership, the right of residence is granted only if the joint ownership rate of each joint owner is worth €250,000.
- Has full ownership, possession and peaceful enjoyment of real estate property in Greece via a legal entity, whose shares are fully owned by him.
- Has concluded a lease agreement for at least ten years for hotel accommodation or furnished tourist residences in tourist accommodation complexes.
- Has concluded a time sharing agreement pursuant to the provisions of the Law 1652/1986 “Time sharing agreement and related issues” (Government Gazette 1, no 167), as in force.
- The minimum value of real estate property, as well as the contractual consideration of hotel accommodation or tourist residence leases of this Article, is determined at two hundred and fifty thousand euro (€250,000).
“The consideration is paid by crossed bank cheque or by deposit by bank transfer to the beneficiary’s account, which is held in a banking institution of Greece or in a credit institution under the supervision of the Bank of Greece”
By joint decision of the Ministers of Interior and Finance, the value of the above real estate property may be adjusted and shall result from the property value stated in the contracts or from the lease agreements.
- Το third country nationals, real estate property owners, the possibility of leasing that property is granted.
- The above third-country national may be accompanied by the members of his family to whom, at their request, an individual residence permit is issued, that expires together with the residence permit of the sponsor.
Family members shall mean:
A. The spouse
B. Dependent children of the spouses or either spouse, up to the age of 21 years old.
C. Parents of the spouses.
5. The above permit may be renewed for an equal duration, each time, provided that the real estate property remains in the ownership and possession of the third-country national or the agreements of paragraph 1 of this remain in force and all other requirements, provided by law, are fulfilled. Periods of absence from the country shall not disrupt the renewal of the residence permit.
“The resale of the real estate property during the period of validity of the residence permit, to another third-country national shall provide the right to granting a residence permit to the new buyer with simultaneous withdrawal of the vendor’s residence permit.”
- The applicants are required to visit Greece only once, to provide biometrics.