Keeping and Renewing Your Greek Golden Visa

How a Greek Golden Visa is kept and renewed: five-year terms, no minimum stay, the property and insurance you must maintain, and how renewals are filed in 2026.

10/18/20264 min read

Whitewashed houses and a twin-belfry church along the waterfront of Naoussa on Paros
Whitewashed houses and a twin-belfry church along the waterfront of Naoussa on Paros

General information only, not legal, tax or investment advice.

Getting the first Golden Visa card is a milestone, and it is natural to want to put the paperwork away for a few years. The permit is designed to be low-maintenance, yet it does depend on a handful of conditions staying true throughout its life. This article explains what Greek law and the Ministry of Migration and Asylum's current guidance say about keeping the permit and renewing it.

How long the permit lasts

Article 100(4) of the Migration Code (Law 5038/2023), as replaced by Article 64 of Law 5100/2024, sets the validity of the investor permit at five years. It can be renewed for further periods of the same length, provided the qualifying property remains in your ownership and possession. The Ministry's Circular 6 of June 2024 describes investor permits in the same way, as five-year permits renewable for equal periods.

Family members' permits run alongside the investor's and expire with it, so the renewal of the main permit carries the family's position forward as well.

No minimum stay

One of the features people value most is that you do not have to live in Greece to keep the permit. The same paragraph of Article 100 states that periods of absence from the country are not an obstacle to renewal. You can visit as often or as rarely as suits your life, and the permit still renews if the other conditions are met.

It is worth keeping in mind that time spent outside Greece does matter for other goals, especially citizenship, which requires years of actual residence. We cover that in our article on residency, citizenship and Schengen travel.

What has to stay in place

The property

The core condition is that you keep the qualifying property for the whole life of the permit. If you sell it to another non-EU national, Article 100 provides that the right to apply passes to the buyer and the seller's permit is revoked. If you would like to swap one property for another, the Ministry's Circular 1 of 21 April 2026 (Clarification 11) sets out the order that protects your permit: complete the purchase of the new qualifying property first, notify the one-stop migration office so it can confirm the new property qualifies, and only then sell the original one. If the old property is sold before the new one is bought, the circular explains that the permit is partially revoked and a fresh initial application would be needed after re-entering Greece.

Renovating or extending the same property is generally fine, according to the same clarification, although you should let the migration office know about changes, especially if they affect the floor area and therefore the value.

How the property is used

You can live in the property or let it on a long-term basis. Article 100(7A), added by Law 5100/2024, prohibits short-term letting through sharing-economy platforms for property used for a Golden Visa, and breaches can lead to the permit being revoked or not renewed, along with administrative fines. If you are thinking about rental income, have counsel check the contract type before you sign anything.

Health insurance

Clarification 19 of the 2026 circular reminds offices that valid health insurance must be submitted at both the first application and each renewal. This can be a Greek private policy or cover from abroad that explicitly includes Greece, either by naming it or through worldwide cover. If the insurance is missing, the office will issue a request with a strict 30-day deadline, and the application is rejected if it is not supplied in time. Diarising your policy renewal alongside your permit renewal is a simple way to avoid trouble.

For listed buildings

If your permit is based on a listed building under the EUR 250,000 restoration route, Article 100(2) requires the full restoration to be completed before you apply for your first renewal, and the 2026 circular repeats this point.

How renewal works in practice

The 2026 circular explains that a renewal application can be filed either by you in person, provided you are in Greece when it is submitted, or by a lawyer holding your power of attorney, through the official lawyers' portal. The circular sets out which documents prove the lawyer's authority, including when a power of attorney used for the first application can be relied on again, so this is a point to settle with your lawyer early.

As evidence that you still own the property, Clarification 16 explains that a recent copy of your property declaration (form E9) or a recent cadastral extract is enough, in line with Joint Ministerial Decision 214926/2025 on supporting documents.

Greek procedural law also sets rules on when a renewal must be filed. We have not quoted a filing window here because we have not been able to confirm the current timing from an official source after the 2026 procedural changes. Please treat this as a point to confirm with counsel well before your card's expiry date. The 2026 circular (Clarification 6) shows why it matters: investors who missed renewal deadlines have had to return as initial applicants, which can be harder if their purchase was made under thresholds that no longer apply.

If you bought under earlier rules

Law 5100/2024 (Article 64(3)) allows permits granted under earlier thresholds to keep renewing, provided the conditions that applied when they were granted are still met. For many owners who bought at EUR 250,000, keeping that permit continuously renewed is therefore especially valuable.

Staying on track

A short checklist kept with your property documents, covering the expiry date, the insurance policy, any letting arrangements and your lawyer's authority, goes a long way. If you would like us to help you think through your own renewal, please reach out through our enquiry form, or see how we support clients on our services page.

Sources

Not legal advice. Rules change; confirm current requirements with licensed Greek counsel.

Cover photo by AXP Photography on Pexels, used under the Pexels License. Cropped to 16:9.

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