Greek Citizenship by Naturalisation (Immigrant 7-Year Route)

Step-by-Step

1. 1

   Confirm You Are on the Immigrant Route, Not the Greek-Descent Route

   Stop here if you are claiming Greek descent — that is a different procedure with different fees and timelines that do not apply to this guide.

   1. This route is for a non-Greek-origin foreign national who has built a settled, lawful life in Greece — defined by a qualifying period of lawful residence and a pass in the ΠΕΓ knowledge exam.
   2. Greece runs separate naturalisation procedures for people of Greek origin living abroad or holding a Special Identity Card for expatriates. Those have their own lower fees, a consular pathway, and a Greek-origin proof element, and they are the procedures most visible on the official English-language registry.

   💡 Tip: Because the expatriate route is the one published in English, applicants frequently copy its lower fees, shorter timeline and consular steps into their own planning. Those figures do not transfer to the immigrant route.

2. 2

   Check Your Qualifying Period of Lawful Residence

   1. The standard requirement is seven years of lawful residence in Greece before the application is filed.
   2. This is reduced to three years for citizens of another EU member state, spouses of a Greek citizen with whom they have a child, a person with parental custody of a child who is a Greek citizen, and stateless persons.
   3. For holders of certain other valid residence permits the requirement is twelve years. A person born in Greece and continuously resident there is not required to complete a separate residence period.

   💡 Tip: The verbatim registry wording for the standard route is "7 έτη πριν την υποβολή της αίτησης" — seven years before the submission of the application.

3. 3

   Apply For and Sit the ΠΕΓ Exam

   ΠΕΓ

   You can skip the exam if you completed nine years of schooling in Greek schools or hold a Greek-language university, postgraduate or doctoral qualification — file the documentary proof instead.

   1. Apply online through the citizenship-exam platform, logging in with TAXISnet codes and an identification document. The digital application runs through ten screens, from login through fee payment, choice of examination centre, document upload and a solemn declaration to final submission.
   2. Pay the 150 € exam fee first, and allow at least two days to pass between paying it and submitting the application.
   3. Sit the written exam, which is held twice a year. It tests Greek-language ability together with Greek history, geography, culture and political institutions — the Constitution, citizens' rights and duties, the structure of Parliament, the roles of the President and Prime Minister, and Greece's EU membership.

   💡 Tip: Applicants over 62, those with a disability certificate above 67%, and those who cannot sit a written test because of a learning difficulty may take the exam orally.

   Citizenship-exam application platform (Ministry of Interior) (exetaseis-ithageneia.ypes.gr ↗)
4. 4

   Assemble Your Naturalisation Dossier

   1. Gather your passport copy, valid residence permit, the ΠΕΓ certificate (or exemption proof), a certified and translated birth certificate, your AMKA social-security number, tax clearance documents, and your economic- and social-integration evidence.
   2. Have foreign birth and marriage certificates certified (apostille where applicable) and officially translated into Greek before filing.
   3. Pay the 550 € application fee through the e-παράβολο system and keep the receipt for the dossier.

   ⚠️ Watch out: Untranslated or uncertified foreign documents are a frequent cause of an incomplete dossier. The Ministry registry states the standard application fee as "550 €" (code 2159) — do not budget for the 700 € figure that circulates in third-party summaries.

5. 5

   File With the Regional Citizenship Directorate and Wait for the Checks

   Διεύθυνση Ιθαγένειας

   1. File the full dossier with the Regional Citizenship Directorate for your place of residence; an applicant not resident in Greece files through the Greek consul abroad.
   2. The Directorate registers the application, runs a completeness and formal-requirements check, then triggers an automatic criminal-record search with the Ministry of Justice and a public-order and national-security check with the Police.
   3. It then reviews your economic and social integration substantively. The decision is signed by the Regional Director and countersigned by the General Director.

   💡 Tip: The criminal-record and security checks are triggered automatically inside the procedure — you do not obtain those clearances separately.

6. 6

   Await Publication and Take the Oath

   1. The approval decision summary is sent to the National Printing Office and published in the Government Gazette.
   2. You are then called to the oath ceremony within one year of publication; home or video-conference options exist for applicants with disabilities.
   3. Once the oath is taken, you are registered in the municipal civil registers.

   💡 Tip: Citizenship is acquired only on administration of the oath — not when the decision is published. The registry estimates the whole procedure at around one year, and the oath can fall up to a year after the Gazette publication.