How to Immigrate to Greece
In Greece migration, this is for EU and non-EU citizens and residence permits for independent persons.
There is another that is passive residence permit in Greece. That's a residence permit aimed at people with income from abroad.
Then we're going to discuss about a digital Nomad visa which was recently launched just last year.
Moving on to the Greek, Golden Visa is one of the most popular options in Greece for investors.
If you living in Greece for a number of years, you can get permanent residency in Greece and finally Greek citizenship.
At last advantages & disadvantages of living in Greece will be discussed.
Have a look on our journey in Greece
Greece
Greece is a southern European country, which is among the most demanded destinations among retirees tourists and more recently digital Nomads Visa holders.
Greece is a member of the European Union, thus, a part of the European free movement area and uses euro as its currency.
Greece has from one side all these stability that anyone would want when choosing a place to live coupled with some of the most beautiful beaches in Islands on the Asian and iranian sea, but of course Greece is also famous for its stagnant economy and frustrating bureaucracy. So considering that we have to discover more about Greece, specially how you can move to Greece and if it is a good idea at all to move to the country according to your needs and expectations.
European citizens
A residence permit in Greece if you are any new citizen in EU is very easy. If you are any new citizen in EU, you can just come to Greece without much hassle but if you want to stay more than three months in the country, you need to register your state. You will need an address to register your state, but this is a pretty straightforward process as a new citizen. You will not have to deal with the Greek Embassy in your country of residence before coming to Greece.
For example, if you are from France, you can just go to Greece, get a place to stay and arrange all the paperwork in the country without having to do any prior arrangement in France.
Non European citizens
Getting a residence permit in Greece if you're a non EU citizen is not easy. In this case this is like you are entering in any new country. It is much harder to actually get residency. But Greece does offer some interesting options for Non EU citizens, specially for digital Nomads retirees and investors. The most common types of residence permitting Greece are for:
-employment
-studies and
-family members of Greek citizens
-EU citizens living in Greece as usual.
D-type Visa for Greece
If you are an independent businessman and investor, a digital Nomad, or if you want to live a passive life and retire in Greece, in those cases if you're a non EU citizen who is planning to move to Greece, you have to deal with the Greek Embassy or Consulate of your jurisdiction and apply for a D-type Visa. Once in Greece, you will change this visa for a residence permit.
Digital Nomad Visa for Greece
Greece was one of the first countries in the European Union to make a digital Nomad. These are available for non-EU citizens. If you're already work remotely and you have a decent income, you can work from Greece and enjoy the benefits of living in the country. The financial requirements for the digital Nomad Visa in Greece are the following:
- You must have a remote income of at least 3,500 years per month. However, this financial requirement is pretty high as you can easily get a residence permit in the neighboring country of Albania even earning half of this.
The digital Nomad Visa can be issues for up to two years.
One of the main advantages of the digital Nomad is in Greece is that you have tax breaks for a limited number of years. You'll be eligible to pay just 50% of income tax that it would normally pay if you were an average Greek resident, but of course, it is important to remember that Greece is an ultra-high tax country. So even at 50% of the normal taxes, it is not an amazing deal.
Temporary Residence Permit for Greece
The next option is a temporary residence permit for financially independent persons. In this category, you need to learn 2,000 euros per month and this money cannot be earning in Greece actually with this residence permit. You are not even allowed to work in Greece.
This Visa is also for up to two years.
So it's quite similar to the digital Nomad in Greece but you have a lower financial requirement.
Golden Visa for Greece
The nice option is for the wealthy. If you're wealthy and don't want to deal with a lot of bureaucracy. You may just wanting invest in Greece and get a golden Visa in the country that has a lot of advantageous compared to the normal residence permit such as allowing the holder to stay in Greece minimally during the year and still be able to renew it. The normal residence permits on the other hand it require a stay of more than six months per year in order for a renewal
There are many categories of investment for the Golden Visa in Greece which is one of the main advantages of the quick Golden Visa compared to some other European investment visas. Greece also has some of the lowest investment requirements among European countries offering similar options. The cheapest option to obtain the Greek Golden Visa is to make an investment of 250,000 euros in real estate in the country. There are other interesting options as well. If you deposit 400,000 euros in a Greek Bank, you'll be also eligible for the Greek Golden Visa. This option is especially good if you don't want to deal with real estate.
There are a few other options to get a great Golden Visa, but these two are the best options. There isn't any good in Visa winning investment below 200,000 years either and if you live a number of years in Greece, you may want to apply for permanent residency. Usually permanent residents in Greece is granted for those who live consecutively for five years temporary permit. This applies that one cannot be outside a country for more than 10 months during the five years prior to the application, but in any case if you are a new citizen, you will also have to spend most of the time in Greece to be able to get permanent residency, and you have to integrate in Society for getting Greek citizenship. If you want to acquire Greek citizenship, you have to residing the country for at least seven years before it can apply, and Greece allows citizenship.
So as long as you have citizenship of a EU country, it also allows to get Greek citizenship. You'll be able to be a citizen of Greece and other countries at the same time since Greece is part of the European Union. If you become a Greek citizen, you can obviously live in an European Union country even in Spain.
Advantages of living in Greece
The first obvious advantage of living in Greece is its excellent weather. There is a mild winter everywhere in Greece, the sea beaches in most of the country, so compared to other countries in Europe, Greece has some of the best average temperatures.
The second advantage of living in Greece is it is in the European Union and uses the euro. This brings a lot of financial stability to the country even during the Greek crisis, if you had your money in a Greek bank account, any amount up to 100,000 euros was secured. There is a deposit protection mechanisms in any Bank in the European Union. So up to 100,000 euros in any Greek Bank, even if the bank goes bankrupt, your deposit will be safe. And obviously the fact that Greece uses the Euro, & this prevents the country from inflation, for example, it is not impossible but a country which uses the euro currency is much less likely to experience hybrid inflation than a country which doesn't, for example, the neighboring country of Turkey.
Greece also is part of the Schengen area. The next advantage in the Schengen area, in normal circumstances, there is freedom of movement. You can travel around without any passport control from Greece to Italy to Germany to Spain to all the countries which are part Schengen area.
The next advantage is the low cost of living since Greece is not extremely inexpensive but considering only countries that use the euro as currency, Greece is one of the most affordable ones. Real estate in Greece is quite inexpensive, even if you compared Greece with other Southern European countries, like Spain or Portugal, currently Greece has much lower prices per square meter than all of these countries.
Another advantage of Greece is that it has good permanent residence options as we have discussed the residence permit for financial independent persons, the digital nomad visa and the Golden Visa starting at 250,000 euros
The final advantage of moving to Greece is that it has a low foreign investment tax. This is rather recent, but any for investment is taxed at a flat rate of 7%.
Disadvantages of living in Greece
The first disadvantage is it is the Greek tax system and it's high level of bureaucracy regarding taxes. 44% is the highest personal income tax bracket in Greece corporate.
Prices are also not low in Greece, but they are not at high compared to other European countries. Bureaucracy in Greece makes it one of the most complicated countries. In terms of bureaucracy if you take the ease of doing business, rank of Greece has a pretty low rank below Peru and Tunisia for example.
Another disadvantage of Greece is its stagnant economy obviously with high taxes and high bureaucracy. You could not expect that Greek economy would be doing good. And actually it is doing pretty bad. There are very few sectors in a Greek economy, which are doing well, for example, building ships and it tourism sector that's it.
Now in the comments section, you can write your opinions.
If you like to come to Greece, or if you like the living in Greece to see the Greek culture or if you want to travel, you have to look to Deal Finders.
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