Many foreign clients of our Law Office, who wish to stay in Greece or to travel in Europe need our legal advice regarding the procedure of obtaining a residence permit. Our Law Office is specialized in Golden Visa Law, which is a type of residence permit for real estate owners.
Golden Visa gives the possibility of granting residency permits to third country nationals and to the members of their families, who proceed to purchase of real estate property in Greece of a value exceeding €250,000.
Golden visa can be renewed every five (5) years indefinitely, as long as the real estate property remains entirely at the ownership of the main applicant. Periods of absence from the country do not constitute reason for refusal.
The property owner may be accompanied by the members of his/her family. Family members may be granted a personal residence permit that is renewed and/or expires concurrently with the residence permit of the investor (property owner). Family members are considered the following: spouse, unmarried children up to 21 years of age (initially the age of a child shouldn’t exceed 21, then she/he can extend till the 24th year of age), applicant’s parents, spouse’s parents.
When obtaining the “Golden Visa” residence permit, the investor and his/her family members have the right to live freely in Greece or continue to live in their home country and use the permit whenever they need. They also have access to healthcare system and public education, equally to Greeks. “Golden Visa” residence permit enables visa-free travels to all countries of the Schengen zone, for up to 90 days in each 6 months period.
About the procedure
Firstly, the potential investor must locate the real estate he intends to purchase. Our Law Office provides the support in deciding by suggesting trusted real estate agencies as well as private owners in the regions of Athens, Corfu and Paxos.
Following the identification of the potential real estate our legal office provides the necessary support to the investor/buyer by conducting all the required and essential real estate controls to the Land registry, the Mortgage Registry as well as investigating the validity of the property titles.
Our law office provides support to the potential investor both in the required issuance of a Greek tax number and the opening of a Greek bank account.
As soon as, the acquisition contract before the notary is completed, we provide with an official and legal translated copy, and we clarify all the conditions and legal obligations. The amount of money for the purchase is paid either through a) a bank transfer from any bank account the investors owns, regardless of the country in which the account is being held, to the seller’s bank account in a Greek bank or b) a crossed bank check (the investor must deposit the amount of money required in his Greek bank account and then request the issue of the check). The price must be paid in full before applying for the Residence Permit.
The procedure is drawn to an end by applying for the Residence Permit before the public authority. The procedure described is available to be carried out in its entirety by our law office using a power of attorney from the buyer – investor. Τhe physical presence of the investor in Greece is required only in the following stages: a) when he will need to give fingerprints to the competent authorities for the issuance of the residence permit and b) if the investor chooses to open a bank account (the bank requests his physical presence to open an account).
Τhe required documents
- Power of attorney. In the first stage you will need to send us a power of attorney to represent you. It must be signed in the Greek consulate of your Country or in a Notary here in Greece.
- Visa D or C for Greece
- True copy of a valid passport
- Four recent color passport-type photos
- Stamp duty of €2,000 for the main investor
- Stamp duty of €150 for each adult applicant
- Stamp duty of €16 for each applicant
- Certification by an insurance agency for the cost of hospitalization and medical care. To certify that this condition is fulfilled, the following documents are accepted: a) Insurance contracts which have been concluded in Greece or b) insurance contracts which have been concluded outside Greece, provided that they explicitly mention that they cover the interested party for the duration of their stay in Greece
- A notarized copy of the deed regarding the purchase. The payment must be made with transfer from the buyer’s account to the seller’s account in Greece or with a bank check
- Proof of title transfer from the responsible Land Registry
- Certificate of non-existence of claims against the property
- Notary certification about the contract
- For Family Members: apart from the above documents, a recent birth and family certificate, issued by the competent foreign authorities, duly apostilled, is required.
For a detailed breakdown of the property acquisition closing costs, legal fees, government fees and other required fees, please contact us.
