If you’ve ever wished to infinitely prolong your Greek vacation, there’s a new choice for entrepreneurs to turn into authorized residents of the Mediterranean nation.
Greece now provides a new five-year golden visa for overseas traders, creating one other engaging relocation choice for Americans interested in moving abroad.
Through the brand new program, non-European Union residents can make investments a minimal of 250,000 euros (about $291,120) in a start-up listed on the nationwide registry, Elevate Greece, throughout industries reminiscent of journey, actual property, protection, and monetary know-how. In alternate, they’ll obtain a five-year Greek residence allow, based on Global Citizen Solutions (GCS), a residency-by-investment consulting agency. Greece launched this system beneath Law 5187/2024 and included it in its draft 2025 fiscal plan, submitted to the European Commission in October. The program formally launched in November 2025, based on Fragomen, a world legislation agency that makes a speciality of immigration.
The golden visa will probably be granted for one yr however might be renewed each different yr for the five-year period, offered the applicant meets sure necessities. For instance, they will’t maintain greater than 33% of the start-up’s shares or voting rights, based on Global Citizen Solutions. The firm should additionally generate at the very least two new jobs in its first yr post-investment after which preserve these positions for a minimal of 5 years, per GCS. If you are capable of prolong your residency allow for one more two years after that (through alternate applications), visa holders in Greece can apply for everlasting citizenship after seven years of permanent and legal residence.
Interested traders should submit their application in individual at a Greek consulate (appointments might be made on-line), the Consulate General of Greece in New York tells CNT. However, Marios Rafail, a Greece program specialist at investment-by-consulting agency Henley and Partners, says the visa is “not yet fully active or pursued in significant numbers.”
This isn’t Greece’s first residency-by-investment alternative. Quite the alternative—it’ll assist diversify the nation’s golden visa portfolio, which at the moment solely contains a actual property initiative. That program, considered one of many most affordable golden visas in Europe, has the identical entry-level value requirement: €250,000 to transform a business constructing into a residential one, or to revive a choose constructing. Or, traders should buy a €400,000 (about $465,970) property that’s at the very least 1,292 sq. toes, or a €800,000 (about $931,940) unit in Athens, Thessaloniki, or on a Greek island with greater than 3,100 folks. It’s often known as one of many world’s most tasty golden visa applications resulting from Schengen area journey privileges.
However, golden visas, particularly these primarily based on the acquisition of actual property, have turn into a level of controversy in Europe. The EU expressed considerations about residence-by-investment applications in 2022, saying that they “raise inherent security, money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption risks.” And in Greece, the actual property visa initiative has been criticized for contributing to rising housing prices throughout the nation’s widespread cities and islands.
“The objective behind creating the start-up investment option is to diversify investment away from real estate and direct capital into business creation and local job growth in Greece,” Adalberto Pucca, the top of world mobility options at Global Citizen Solutions, tells Condé Nast Traveler. “This addresses concerns about the original real estate golden visa contributing to rising property prices.”
Countries reminiscent of Malaysia and New Zealand have just lately introduced comparable “investor passes” designed to learn native companies. In Malaysia, this system provides a year-long residency for “senior decision-makers” in sectors reminiscent of manufacturing, schooling, and hospitality. And in New Zealand, traders who contribute at the very least $1 million New Zealand Dollars (about $567,300) to a native enterprise might be positioned on a three-year work-to-residency monitor.