POSTERN

Greece

Golden visa (real estate). Residence through Greek property investment, tiered by location since the 2024 reform: €800,000 in Athens, Thessaloniki and the larger islands; €400,000 elsewhere; €250,000 for restoring a heritage building or converting commercial space.

Free · The law behind every answer · Checked Sep 27, 2026

Golden visa (real estate)

A 5-year residence permit, renewable while the property is retained, with no minimum-stay requirement; covers spouse, children under 21, and both sets of parents.

Who qualifies

You keep your U.S. citizenship.

1

Does it fit your family?

One question, from the program’s own rules.

Savings you could move or invest?

Not legal advice.

2

What it takes.

Investment
About $440,000.
Time
4–8 months from purchase to residence-card issuance.
Cost
About $20,000–40,000 beyond the property: transfer tax (~3%), legal fees, and permit fees.
The hard part
Meeting the €800,000 tier in Athens or the larger islands, which more than doubled the old €250,000 threshold in the 2024 reform.

Dollar figures are converted from the local currency at the rate the program’s research used; the official figure is in the local currency.

3

Citizens by 2035.

If your first permit is issued in 2027 and you keep living there, this is the road.

  1. 2027
    First residence permit

    5 years, renewable for 5 years at a time.

  2. 2032
    Permanent residence

    Five years of legal, continuous residence (absences under 6 months in a row and 10 months in total are allowed), enough income, and proof of Greek language plus Greek history and culture: a B1 certificate, Greek schooling, or a special state exam.

  3. 2034
    Apply for citizenship

    With a language test and a civics test.

  4. 2035
    Citizenship
Language
Greek at about B1, tested in the written part of the naturalisation exam (the PEGP).
Civics
The PEGP exam (Certificate of Adequacy of Knowledge for Naturalisation), run twice a year: Greek language plus Greek geography, history, culture and political institutions. Pass mark 70%.
Time away
Seven years of lawful residence in a row immediately before applying. The law sets no day count, but the years must be real residence under a permit type the Citizenship Code accepts; long stays abroad can lead to refusal.
Two passports
Yes. You keep your U.S. citizenship.
  • No minimum stay keeps the permit, but naturalisation needs seven years of real residence and the PEGP exam; years spent mostly abroad do not build a case, and whether the investor permit type counts at all is disputed.
  • I could not open the official consolidated Citizenship Code (ypes.gr returned 403); the 7-year rule, shorter periods and the PEGP come from a Greek law firm's guide, not the statute.
  • Which permit types count: a 2019 legal blog lists investor permits among the permits that count; another summary says they are excluded. Not settled from an official text.
  • No reliable decision-time figure: one law firm says up to 12 months; published research describes much longer waits.
  • Dual citizenship is allowed (no renunciation asked), confirmed only by secondary sources.
  • The long-term residence language rule (B1 or special exam) comes from a law firm summary of Law 5038/2023, not the Migration Code itself.
  • Permit lengths (FIP three years, digital nomad two years, golden visa five years) and their renewal lengths come from the earlier research pass; the Migration Code text was behind a paywall today.
  • How long the decision takes isn’t published; we allow a year.
The law behind these dates
4

Living there.

Time you must spend there
No minimum-stay requirement to keep the permit.
Tax
Golden-visa holders are not automatically Greek tax residents unless they exceed 183 days/year; many hold the permit without becoming tax resident.

We never file a tax return. We tell you what applies and brief the professional who does.

5

Start today.

  1. Identify a qualifying property and file through a Greek immigration lawyer with the Ministry of Migration.Open migration.gov.gr ↗
  2. Round up the papers.
    • Proof of the funds to invest: about $440,000, and where they came from
    • Request your FBI Identity History Summary
    • Health cover for the move
    • Get the AFM (Greek tax number)
6

Or let us run it.

$900for your first year as a founding member. Then $399 a year, automatically.Standard first year: $1,200. Everyone renews at $399.One membership, the whole family. Accounts and activation included.

18 steps, from the first paper to the passport. You do 4 of them: send what we ask for, sign, and show up. We run the rest, and keep every permit renewed on time. Accounts and activation are included, whether you move now or keep the plan ready. Accounts depend on provider availability. Government, record and approved third-party charges are extra.

Run it for my family →
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ISSUED TO

YOUR FAMILY

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