Acquiring Greek Nationality: distinguishing between EU and non-EU citizens
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The process of acquiring Greek Nationality gets distinguished so, in terms of the following distinction, i.e. whether someone is a EU citizen already, or not.
Having said that, the just below article is about those individuals descending from non-EU member-states that wish to get Greek Nationality, and in a nutshell when they are allowed to proceed with such a procedure, what are the necessary supporting documents, where they should submit these documents and how long this whole procedure will more or less take in order for the applicants to have everything properly arranged, in other words to finally acquire Greek Nationality.
To begin with, please bear in mind that in case you are a third-country national you definitely need to have in place and in advance a permanent residence permit, in light of the fact that holders of a temporary one, let alone those not in possession of even a temporary one, are automatically excluded.
In addition, the same exclusion stands for all those third-country nationals who have been convicted for 6 months, or for a whole year in some other occasions, so, for better or worse, if already convicted, make sure that you check thoroughly the nature of the crime and the gravity of the punishment, because these two elements may as well exclude you undeniably from any such nationalization process with regards to the Greek legal system.
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Given that you are eligible for such an application, you then need to be aware of the fact that depending on the period of time you have spent in Greece, your application shall be acquiring different qualitative characteristics. To make a long story short, the different time periods read as follows:
- If you have been residing lawfully and already in possession of a temporary residence permit that has gottene successively renewed, you shall be able to submit your proper application after a period of seven years’ time
- On the other hand, if you have been residing lawfully for a period of a three years’ time in Greece and after that time, you have gotten married to a Greek national with whom you also have a child, you are eligible to submit your application immediately so, thus four years earlier in comparison to the just aforementioned scenario.
- If you have been residing lawfully in Greece for three years’ time and you are also the father or mother of a minor who has already acquired Greek nationality, then your application may as well be submitted only after three years’ time
- Last but not least, if you have acquired the status of refugee and you have been residing in Greece lawfully for three years, then you are also eligible for such a nationalization application and procedure
As soon as the individual is eligible to submit the relevant application form along with all its supporting documents, it needs to be specified accordingly which documents are to be coined as supporting ones. Once more the below list shall give you a brief but quite thorough idea of these certain documents:
- A necessary and ready-made Statement of Nationalization provided for by the Municipality where you have been registered as a resident
- A Nationalization Application Form
- A valid Residence Permit which has to be a match to the respective different sets of criteria already mentioned above, i.e. under “a” or “b” or “c” or “d”.
- A valid passport
- In case of someone having been born abroad, a relevant and necessary Birth Certificate issued by the foreign competent authority, signed by it and, definitely, translated in Greek in order to be properly submitted; if born here in Greece, the genuine Birth Certificate as such shall do the job
- Tax assessment/ pay slips issued by the competent tax authority of the applicant for a period of at least three years
- Social Security Register Number [in Greek it reads “A.M.K.A.”]
- As the case might be, other documents that for some reason, depending on the specifics of the case, might strike the competent Authority as definitely necessary.
Having just referred to the competent Authority, please take into consideration that this particular Authority in Greece reads Department of Civic Status [in Greek “D.A.K.”] of Decentralized Administration, and in particular, the one in which the applicant’s place of residence is located.
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As long as all of the aforementioned have been concluded properly, then, in theory and according to the officially communicated information on behalf of the Decentralized Administration, it is proclaimed that it takes a year in order to have a solid, properly justified and erga omnes decision in place with regards to the actual applicant at hand. However, truth be told, it usually takes 2-4 years in order for the competent Authority to reach its decision, and have all matters properly tackled.
After having concluded the process of individuals descending from non-EU member-state and wish to get Greek Nationality, there is also the other group of peoples who wish to get Greek nationality and they are already citizens of EU member-states. It goes without saying that this process, whose particularities will be presented just below, is an overall easier and less challenging one, however there is no room for complacency and all processes need to be followed in a correct and seamless manner.
First of all, it is only accurate to say that according to the same line of reasoning, EU citizens are eligible to submit such a nationalization application only if they are able to present written evidence proving that they are properly registered with the National Register of their EU country of origin, or at least bear any kind of certificate confirming such a relation with an EU member-state.
In addition, the same exclusion stands like in the case mentioned just above: in other words, someone is eligible to submit such an application as long as he/ she has not been convicted for 6 months, or for a whole year in some other occasions, therefore, for better or worse, if you have been already convicted, make sure that you check thoroughly the nature of the crime you have been involved and the gravity of the punishment you have received, because these two elements may as well exclude you undeniably from any such nationalization process with regards to the Greek legal system.
Furthermore, and given the most privileged status of an EU citizen, please note that someone is eligible to submit his/ her application merely after three years’ time, and the supporting documents he/she shall be in need of read as follows:
As soon as the individual is eligible to submit his/ her application along with all its supporting documents, it needs to be specified accordingly which documents are to be coined as supporting ones. Once more the below list shall give you a brief but quite thorough idea of these certain documents:
- A necessary and ready-made Statement of Nationalization provided for by the Municipality where you have been registered as a resident
- A Nationalization Application Form
- A valid Residence Permit
- A valid passport
- In case of someone having been born abroad, a relevant and necessary Birth Certificate issued by the competent authority, signed by it and, definitely, translated in Greek in order to be properly submitted; if born here in Greece, the genuine Birth Certificate as such shall do the job
- Tax assessment/ pay slips issued by the competent tax authority of the applicant for a period of at least three past years
- Social Security Register Number [in Greek it reads “A.M.K.A.”]
- As the case might be, other documents that for some reason depending on the specifics of the case, might strike the competent Authority as definitely necessary.
As it is also the case with regards to the non-EU citizens, and, once more by having just referred to the competent Authority, please take into consideration that this particular Authority in Greece reads Department of Civic Status [in Greek “D.A.K.”] of Decentralized Administration, and in particular, the one in which the applicant’s place of residence is located.
So, after all of the aforementioned necessary steps have been concluded properly, it is officially proclaimed that it takes a year in order to have a solid, properly justified and erga omnes decision in place with regards to the actual applicant at hand. However, truth be told, it usually takes 2-4 years in order for the competent Authority to reach its decision, and have all matters properly tackled.
Key Contacts

Oikonomakis Christos

Papageorgiou Zoi

Mitrogianni Aikaterini

Zgurov Dobrin
For more information on Greek Nationality issues
Please contact us on 800 11 500500 (Free Phone Number/Assignor Service – 24/7), or