Working in Greece
The Greece Employment Visa is your employer's application, not yours
A Greek company files for you against the year's quota, the contract must run at least six months, and the pay floor is the 920 euro minimum wage. Budget three to six months door to door.
Greece's work route starts with a Greek employer, not with you. They file, the state checks the year's quota, and only then do you see a consulate. Here's what that takes in 2026, what it pays, and the tax break that makes the math work.
The sequence
Your employer files, then you fly
The Greek name for this is metaklisi, employer invitation. The order matters more than anything else on this page. Any single stage can run a couple of months. The whole sequence runs three to six.
The company goes first
Your employer files an electronic recruitment application with the Decentralized Administration for their region. They need a signed contract running at least six months, proof they can pay you, and 200 euros.
Then the consulate
Once that clears, the approval travels electronically to the Greek consulate where you live. You turn up in person for a national type D visa. Since February 2026, there's no way around that step.
Then 15 days of errands
After you land you register with the Hellenic Police within 15 days, get an AFM tax number and an AMKA social security number, and open a Greek bank account. Then, you file for the permit. You can start work on the submission certificate before the card is printed.
- Capital
- Athens
- Language
- Greek
- Population
- 10.3M
Four numbers on the paperwork
920 euros
Monthly pay floor
Greece's statutory minimum wage, gross, since 1 April 2026
6 months
Shortest contract allowed
Cut from twelve months by Law 5275/2026
200 euros
Employer's filing fee
Paid per worker by the company, not by you
3 years
How long the permit runs
Renewals then come in five-year blocks
What it pays
Greek salaries are the part Americans underestimate
Average full-time pay in Greece passed 1,500 euros a month gross in 2026, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in March. That is the average, not the floor. A job paying the legal minimum sits below what Greece's own union research institute calls a living wage for 2026, which it puts at 1,052 euros gross.
Two more figures set the scene. Eurostat counted average disposable income in Greece at 10,850 euros per person for 2025. Only about a fifth of Greek employees are covered by a collective agreement. For most people, the statutory floor really is the number on the payslip.
The other half of the trade is that Greece is affordable. Our country data puts a comfortable single budget near $1,500 a month, with a one-bedroom in a city center around $550. Greek pay and Greek prices roughly cancel out. Greek pay and American obligations don't.
Greece Employment Visa
For those employed by a Greek company. Requires a job offer and work permit.
- Processing time
- ~60 days
- Timeline
- 1 year (renewable)
- Difficulty
- Hard
Key requirements
- Job offer from a Greek employer
- Valid passport
- Clean criminal record
- Proof of health insurance
- Work permit (applied for by employer)
About that data card
Start with the phrase work permit. That document doesn't exist on its own anymore. Residence and work were merged into one single permit in February, so there's no second form for your employer to chase. Next, the five requirements listed are all true and all incomplete: nothing there mentions the annual quota, which decides whether the post exists to be filled at all, or the pay floor your contract has to clear. Also, the term is out of date. The type E.4 permit now runs three years and renews in five-year blocks, not the one year the card shows. We've passed all three to the people who maintain it.
The tax election
Half your Greek salary can skip income tax for seven years
The permit Article 5C was written for
Article 5C of the Greek Income Tax Code exempts 50 percent of employment income earned in Greece from income tax, for up to seven tax years. It was written for people moving a job onto Greek soil, which is exactly what this permit does. Remote-worker guides promise the same break to people it may never reach. An employee of a Greek company is the textbook case.
You elect it with AADE, the tax authority. The bar is your past: no Greek tax residency in five of the six years before you arrive, plus a commitment to two years in Greece. The old condition that the job be newly created was repealed in July 2025, so an existing vacancy now counts.
What it does not touch
Social security. EFKA takes 13.87 percent of your pay whatever 5C says. The 2026 scale underneath starts at 9 percent and tops out at 44 percent above 60,000 euros.
And the US still wants a return
You keep filing a 1040, an FBAR and FATCA. The American treaty with Greece dates from 1950 and carries no limitation-on-benefits article, so relief arrives through the foreign tax credit on Form 1116 rather than the treaty itself.
What the permit gets you, and what it doesn't
Family on the same file
Your spouse and minor children apply at the same consulate and get permits linked to yours.
Equal treatment at work
Pay, hours, leave and dismissal rules are the ones Greek staff get.
One card, not two
The single permit covers residence and labor market access in one document.
Travel across Schengen
Greece is fully in Schengen, so the card carries 90 days in any 180 across the area.
A five-year door
Five years of continuous legal residence can reach EU long-term resident status.
Into the public system
EFKA payroll contributions get you an AMKA and public healthcare, unlike the passive-income permits.
If the quota is the problem
The Blue Card skips the quota. Greece issued 58 in 2024.
The EU Blue Card, type E.1
Hold a degree, or five years of comparable experience, and the Blue Card is the route the quota does not apply to. It runs three years since the 2026 rewrite and costs 150 euros. The salary bar is a formula rather than a fixed figure, 1.6 times Greece's average gross annual salary, and the published number moves. The European Commission's immigration portal still lists 31,918.83 euros; a 2026 employer guide quotes 39,888. Ask the consulate what applies on the day you file. That same portal records how many Blue Cards Greece issued in all of 2024: 58. This is not a well-worn path.
Two newer doors
The Tech Visa, type Z.13A, is for staff of companies on the Elevate Greece startup registry, on a twelve-month contract paying at least 1.6 times the national average. The Talent Visa, type Z.15, gives holders of a master's, doctorate or postdoc from a highly ranked university 12 months in Greece to look for work, with no job offer needed to arrive.
The people who make this file easier
Lexidy
Greece Visa Services
The employer opens this file, not you. Lexidy works the Greek side of it and can tell you whether a prospective employer has run a metaklisi before, which is what really sets your timeline.
Legalize That Doc
Document Preparation
Your criminal record check, your degree and your marriage certificate each need an apostille and a certified translation before a Greek consulate will look at them. Legalize That Doc handles that.
MyExpatTaxes
U.S. Expat Tax Service
Article 5C halves your Greek tax bill, and that also halves the foreign tax credit you carry back to the IRS. MyExpatTaxes runs both sides of that arithmetic before you elect anything.
Questions Americans actually ask
What salary do I need for a Greek work permit?
The contract has to pay at least the statutory minimum wage, which has been 920 euros gross a month since April 2026. There's no higher bar on the standard employee route. The EU Blue Card is the version with a real salary test, set at 1.6 times the Greek average annual wage.
Can an American get a job in Greece without an employer sponsor?
Not on this route. Greek law is built around metaklisi, where a registered employer invites a named worker for a named post. Without that filing there is nothing for a consulate to act on. The Talent Visa is the narrow exception, giving some recent graduates twelve months to look.
Can my spouse work in Greece on my permit?
Family members apply alongside you at the same consulate and receive permits linked to yours. Whether those permits carry the right to work depends on the category granted, so get it confirmed in writing before anyone resigns a job at home. Equal-treatment rules exclude family benefits.
Do I need to speak Greek to work in Greece?
The permit does not test your Greek. Daily life and most workplaces do. Greece scores 65 out of 100 for English proficiency in our country data, which holds up in Athens, Thessaloniki and tourist areas and thins out in smaller towns. Naturalization later asks for B1 Greek.
Does this permit lead to permanent residency or citizenship?
Both are on the table, and both count days rather than permits. EU long-term resident status turns on five years of legal residence. Greek naturalization asks for seven, with at least 183 days physically in Greece every year, then an exam covering B1 Greek plus Greek history and institutions. Dual citizenship is allowed.
How long does a Greek work visa take from start to finish?
Plan on three to six months. The employer's authorization, the consular appointment and the permit file each take their own time, and the law gives the authorities ninety days to decide the permit. The good news is that you can legally start work the day you submit that permit file.
What happens if I lose the job?
Tell the authorities yourself. For the first six months after arriving through metaklisi you are required to notify the Directorate of Foreigners and Migration of any change, including a new employer taking you on or a contract ending. Silence is what turns a job loss into a status problem.
Is a Greek paycheck worth it?
See which countries fit your work, your budget and the people coming with you.
Why not you?