- A little about the country
- Where to begin?
- Legal ways to move to Greece for permanent residence
- All works are good
- Business people
- You will be declared husband and wife
- Think for yourself, decide for yourself
Fans of a comfortable Mediterranean climate and decent service are accustomed to rest in Greece. The local beaches have been awarded Blue Flag certificates for their cleanliness, and the local cuisine brings a flood of pleasant memories to everyone who has ever visited the Balkans. The Greeks are hospitable and attentive, and therefore foreigners always feel better on the land of ancient Hellas than at home. For Russian citizens, the question of how to move to Greece has become especially relevant in recent years. Wealthy compatriots seek to buy real estate on the Balkan Peninsula, while everyone else is looking for any legal opportunity to stay longer in the land of the hot sun and olive groves.
A little about the country
Like other EU member states, Greece offers tremendous opportunities for its citizens and permanent residents. The country regularly pays pensions, benefits for the birth of a child or disability. Greek citizens can travel within the EU without a visa, and travel to the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia using a simplified travel permit program. Greek citizens are entitled to receive education and medical care at the European level.
Where to begin?
The process of emigration to Greece should start with obtaining a visa. For a Russian citizen traveling to a country for tourist purposes, the usual Schengen is enough, but for a longer stay, you will have to apply for a national visa of a special category. She gives the right to stay in Greece for more than three months.
Be careful! A note in the passport about visiting Northern Cyprus can become an obstacle to obtaining a Greek long-term visa.
To obtain a residence permit, a potential immigrant will have to provide the authorities with a lease agreement for real estate or a certificate of its sale and purchase, data of a completed medical examination, a certificate of no criminal record.
The first temporary residence permit is issued for a period of one year, after which, if there are legal grounds, it can be extended.
Legal ways to move to Greece for permanent residence
To get a long-term visa, and then a residence permit in Greece, you need good reasons. The grounds for obtaining a residence permit may be various circumstances, which will have to be notified to the consulate by submitting evidence:
- Family reunification. If your next of kin already has Greek citizenship or resident status, you can obtain a visa and residence permit based on the desire to reunite with them.
- Marriage with a citizen or citizen of the country allows a foreigner to obtain permanent resident status faster than under other circumstances.
- Employment in Greece. A work visa is issued after the permission of the Ministry of Labor of the Republic.
- The start-up capital for opening your own company in Greece is very small, and therefore a sufficient number of foreigners receive a residence permit in the process of business immigration every year.
- Greek roots allow foreign immigrants to come to the country and receive permanent residence, bypassing a temporary residence permit.
- Investing in the Greek economy means automatically obtaining a residence permit and the ability to legally reside in the European Union.
- If a foreigner can prove that he is being persecuted at home for religious, political, social and other reasons, the Greek government will grant him refugee status and a temporary, and subsequently permanent residence permit in Greece.
Another legal way to obtain a residence permit in the Hellenic Republic is a stable financial income at home. If you receive at least 24,000 euros annually and can confirm the legality of the origin of these funds, a residence permit in Greece will be yours without any problems.
Young people receive a residence permit in Greece on the basis of a study contract. The duration of the student residence permit depends on the duration of the study.
All works are good
Like other countries of the European Union, Greece, when hiring foreigners, is guided by the law on the preferential rights of its own citizens. In other words, an employer must first offer any vacancy to a Greek, then to residents of other EU countries, and only then to other foreigners.
And yet, active citizens of Russia have every chance of finding a job in Greece. You should start your job search on specialized sites. If the employer is satisfied with all the parameters of the foreigner - diploma, age, work experience and knowledge of the language - he sends a request to the Ministry of Labor of Greece. An approved application becomes the basis for a work visa for a foreigner. As a result, a potential immigrant will receive a residence permit, which will have to be renewed as it expires.
After five years in temporary status, the immigrant has the right to apply for a permanent residence permit. In the status of a permanent resident, he can work in Greece for as long as he wants, or after another five years, apply for the citizenship of the country.
Business people
The amount of the minimum investment in the country's economy, allowing you to obtain a residence permit in Greece, is 300 thousand euros. In the status of a residence permit, a foreigner will have to live for five years, after which he receives a permanent residence.
You will be declared husband and wife
Russian citizens who have married Greek nationals have a chance to obtain citizenship much faster than all other applicants. After the wedding, the spouses will have to submit documents to the local internal affairs bodies and, having received a residence permit, live in this status for only three years. During this period, the spouses will have to collect evidence of the truth of their intentions, which the migration services may ask to provide during the interview. Such evidence can be joint photos and tickets from trips to relatives, a common bank account from which loans or mortgages are paid, a foreign spouse's driver's license obtained in Greece. Children born in wedlock will greatly simplify the process of obtaining citizenship.
Think for yourself, decide for yourself
The Greek migration authorities are quite loyal to foreigners and it is somewhat easier to obtain Greek citizenship than to become a citizen of many other European countries. Children born to Greek parents or Greek mothers are automatically citizens of the country.
Foreigners can get the coveted passport by going through the naturalization procedure and fulfilling a number of specific requirements for this:
- Ethnic Greeks, for example, are required to prove their origin and confirm the fact of baptism in the Orthodox Church.
- Citizens who marry Greek nationals must live in the country for three years and demonstrate to the authorities the truth of their intentions.
- When purchasing real estate on the territory of the republic, wealthy applicants for Greek citizenship must spend at least 250 thousand euros and spend at least 7 years here with a residence permit. Only then can they apply for citizenship.
The knowledge of the language, laws and culture of the country of applicants for citizenship is checked during the exam.
In Greece, it is not forbidden to have dual citizenship, and therefore, when obtaining a local passport, you will not have to give up your existing one.
