Long Waiting List for Greece’s Golden Visa Program

Photo source: European Parliament

Despite increases to Greece’s golden visa limits, there are currently 9,478 applications up for review, 6,228 of which submitted in 2023, according to the latest data released by the Migration & Asylum Ministry.  

More specifically, a total of 1,299 new applications for the country’s popular investor visa were submitted in the first two months of the year compared to 1,248 last January and February and 664 visas granted.

Overall, in 2023, a total of 4,444 visas were approved accounting for property sales valued at around 1.1 billion euros or more.

Considered one of the most popular visa schemes in the world, the Greek residence by investment program attracted 7,387 foreign investments which generated 4.3 billion euros in the 2021-2023 period.

Property buyers benefiting from the visa program were primarily from China, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, the UK, Egypt, the US, Israel, Russia and Ukraine.

In order to meet the demand and due to the backlog of applications still not reviewed, Greece will continue to issue golden visas through to 2027.

The Greek government recently announced changes to the country’s golden visa program increasing among others the threshold to 800,000 euros for saturated areas which include popular tourist destinations and urban centers.

According to property brokers Tranio, the recently announced increase for the acquisition of a Greek golden visa may lead to a drop in demand.