Visa information

Greece offers three named routes in the 2026 guide: a Digital Nomad visa for remote workers, the Financially Independent Person (FIP) visa on passive income, and a Golden Visa via property with higher thresholds in Athens and the islands. The guide scores Greece 58/100 for visa and bureaucracy — workable, not fast — and the paperwork stage is measured in weeks, not days, on every plan tier.

The three routes the guide names

Digital Nomad visa — described in the guide as the route for remote workers above an income threshold (the figure is given in the next section).

Financially Independent Person (FIP) visa — the route on passive income, and the guide's retirement route as well (see the Retirement page for the retiree-specific costs and the 7% pensioner tax regime that pairs with it).

Golden Visa — still a property route in Greece, unlike some countries in this series: the guide lists it as via property, with higher thresholds in Athens and the islands. It does not print those thresholds anywhere, so this page states none.

The income tests — what the sources actually say

For the Digital Nomad visa, the guide's remote-work section gives the figure: about $3,800 per month of income. The site data carries the identical line. The same section notes a 50% income-tax break for relocating workers (see Tax & Legal for the fuller scheme line).

For the FIP visa, the guide prints no income threshold at all — “on passive income” is the whole test as stated — and for the Golden Visa it says only that thresholds are higher in Athens and the islands, without printing a single property figure. This page does not invent figures for either route. At the guide's exchange rate of $1 ≈ €0.86, any euro figure you are quoted converts at roughly that rate for planning — and confirm the current thresholds with the consulate before filing.

What the paperwork costs — plan budgets, not government fees

The guide does not list individual government visa fees. What it gives is a bundled “Visa, permits & translations” budget line in each move plan — described in the plans as covering government fees, apostilles and translations — and those lines are the only sourced cost figures for the application itself:

• $850 — Affordable plan (you file yourself)
• $1,200 — Mid-range and Retirement plans
• $2,900 — Luxury plan (the plan notes the luxury tier adds an immigration lawyer)

The Retirement plan carries one further, separate line: $2,250 for “Retirement visa, lawyer & pension certification”, covering an immigration lawyer, apostilled pension letters, medicals and translations.

Application steps and timelines, by tier

The guide builds the application into each plan's timeline rather than printing a single step list. The common sequence across the plans and checklists is:

• Choose the route first and print its requirements; the Affordable checklist starts with “Visa route chosen and requirements printed.”
• Gather and legalise documents — apostilles and translations are named in every tier; the Retirement paperwork stage adds pension or income letters certified and apostilled, a police certificate, a medical, and birth and marriage certificates translated.
• Check your passport — the Affordable checklist requires a passport valid 18+ months.
• Arrange health insurance before you file (see the Hospitals page for the guide's first-year insurance budgets).
• File — yourself on the Affordable tier, or with a lawyer or agent on the Mid-range, Luxury and Retirement tiers.

Paperwork-stage durations in the guide: ~10 weeks filing yourself (Affordable), ~8 weeks with a lawyer or agent filing (Mid-range), ~6 weeks with a lawyer filing everything (Luxury), and ~14 weeks for the Retirement paperwork stage. After the move, the settle stage includes registering your address and opening a bank account.

Renewals and the path to residency — the honest limit of the guide

Neither the guide nor the site data gives renewal intervals, years to permanent residency or citizenship, or absence limits for any of the three Greek routes, so this page does not state them. What the sources do confirm is the shape of the routes themselves — a passive-income route (FIP), a remote-work route with a stated income figure, and a property route with higher thresholds in Athens and the islands. Treat the timetables as something to confirm with an immigration lawyer or the consulate before you rely on them — the Retirement plan's lawyer line exists for exactly this kind of question.

Frequently asked questions