Greek citizenship by descent

A passport is a right, not a favour. If you receive it through your origins, you buy nothing and ask for nothing: you have the state confirm what has been yours since birth. Which countries open this route and how far back they reach is set out in the overview of citizenship by descent. Greece is among the generous ones: it opens the door through grandparents and great-grandparents too, but it wants a line of descent documented without a single gap.

Who is entitled to Greek citizenship?

The principle sits in Art. 1(1) of the Greek Citizenship Code, Law 3284/2004: a child of a Greek father or a Greek mother acquires Greek citizenship at birth. Where you were born makes no difference. Whether you came into the world in Stuttgart, Melbourne or Thessaloniki, all that matters is that your father or your mother was Greek on that day.

Two details decide which route applies to you:

• Greek mother: whether your parents were married does not decide the registration. Your mother just has to be entered in the municipal register herself.
• Greek father: the procedure requires that you were born within a marriage, religious or civil, or within a registered civil partnership. For children the father has acknowledged, the Ministry of the Interior runs a separate procedure based on that acknowledgement.

Older generations are a special case, because Greek law only put the children of Greek mothers and civil marriages on an equal footing in the 1980s. They have a route of their own, by declaration. Here is how to place your situation:

The Dimotologio: no municipal register, no Greek passport

This is where most families get stuck. Greek citizenship arises by law at birth. The state only recognises it, however, once you are entered in the Dimotologio, the citizens' register of a Greek municipality. That entry is the official proof of your citizenship. A Greek birth certificate alone does not prove it, because being born in Greece does not make anyone Greek.

Every family has its own family page there, the Oikogeniaki Merida. You are entered on the family page of your Greek parent. That sets a fixed order:

1. Your parent is in the Dimotologio. Without that entry, the first link in the chain is missing.
2. Your parents' marriage is registered in Greece. If your parents are married and have no shared family page, the marriage must be entered: at the local registry office if they married in Greece, through the consulate or the Special Registry Office in Athens if they married abroad.
3. Your birth is registered. A birth abroad is transcribed through the consulate or the Special Registry Office.
4. You are entered on the family page. Only now are you Greek in the eyes of the Greek state.

The consulates do not decide anything themselves. They advise, check the documents, sometimes hold an interview and forward the file to Greece. The decision lies with the municipalities and the Ministry of the Interior.

How to apply for Greek citizenship, step by step

The first step always leads to the Greek consulate responsible for where you live. It works out which category your case falls into and needs precise details about you and your Greek ancestor to do so. The better prepared you are, the faster it goes.

Step 1: Find your parent's registration

Start by asking in which municipality your father or mother is registered. An old Greek passport, a family record book or a letter from a Greek municipality often helps. With that information the authority can pull up the family page itself; in Greece, the family status certificate no longer has to be issued separately for administrative procedures.

Step 2: Register the missing events

If your parents have no shared family page, their marriage is registered first and only then your birth. Foreign birth and marriage certificates need an apostille or legalisation and an official translation.

Step 3: Apply for entry in the Dimotologio

For a minor child, the Greek parent files the application; if the parents live apart, the parent with custody does, and with joint custody both together. If the Greek parent lives abroad, the application goes to the consulate, which forwards it through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the competent municipality. It ends with a decision by the mayor and the entry on the family page.

The procedure itself is free of charge; the consulate may charge consular fees. The Greek register of administrative procedures, MITOS, gives a processing time of three days to two months, with about one more month through a consulate. If you are already an adult, the route starts at the consulate in exactly the same way.

Born before 1982 or 1984: the declaration route

Many children of Greek families who came to Germany as guest workers were born before the reforms of the 1980s. For them the law provides a route of its own in Art. 14, with no deadline and no residence in Greece required.

Children of Greek mothers: if you were born before 8 May 1984 within a valid marriage between a Greek woman and a foreign man, you can acquire citizenship by declaration. Your mother must have been Greek at your birth or at the time of the marriage. Civil marriages count as valid from 18 July 1982.

Children of Greek fathers: if you were born before 18 July 1982 from the civil marriage of a Greek father and a foreign mother, the same route is open to you. Your father must have been Greek when you were born.

For both declarations:

• You make it in person, at the Greek consulate for where you live or at the regional directorate for citizenship. A power of attorney is not enough.
• You submit your birth certificate with apostille and translation, the certificate of your Greek parent's registration, your parents' marriage certificate and a certified copy of your passport.
• The consulate charges fees of 140 to 240 euros.
• According to MITOS, processing takes about 18 months.
• Citizenship applies from the day of your declaration. Your minor, unmarried children become Greek automatically on the same day.

That last point is what makes the declaration so valuable for families: a single appointment at the consulate brings two generations back into the Greek registers.

Through your grandparents: case-by-case review and naturalisation as an Omogenis

Many descendants have no registered parent but Greek grandparents or great-grandparents. The logic stays the same: if your grandfather was Greek, your father often was too from birth, and then so are you. The chain simply has to be entered in the register generation by generation.

If an ancestor's registration cannot be shown directly, the authorities can look at other official evidence: the Mitroo Arrenon, the register of male citizens, civil status records, older Greek passports or other documents showing that your ancestor was Greek. The Greek authorities review these cases one by one. Where to find such records and how to document a family chain without gaps is covered in the article on genealogy for your passport.

Naturalisation as an Omogenis through the consulate

If the chain does not reach all the way to you, a second route remains: Art. 10 of Law 3284/2004 allows foreign nationals of Greek origin who live abroad to naturalise through the consulate for where they live. Greece calls these people Omogeneis.

• Origin: you prove your Greek descent, for example with your ancestors' entries in old municipal registers, family papers, consular registers, old passports or the citizenship of your blood relatives.
• Ties: in an interview, the consul assesses whether you see yourself as Greek, asking among other things about the language, history, geography and institutions of Greece.
• Requirements: you are of age and have no final conviction for certain intentional offences in the past ten years.
• Declaration: you sign the naturalisation declaration in person before the consul, with two Greek citizens as witnesses.
• Cost and time: a fee of 100 euros plus 30 euros in consular fees; about 18 months according to MITOS.
• Oath: once the decision is published in the Government Gazette, you have one year to take the oath. Your minor, unmarried children also become Greek with your oath.

Greek citizenship through marriage or residence

Marrying a Greek man or woman does not automatically make you Greek. It does, however, shorten the path to naturalisation, which Greece calls Politografisi. The standard case requires seven years of legal, permanent residence in Greece before you apply. Three uninterrupted years are enough:

• for citizens of a member state of the European Union,
• for spouses of a Greek citizen who have a child together,
• for parents with custody of a Greek child born in Greece,
• for stateless persons.

For you as a German, that means you do not need a Greek spouse to apply after three years in Greece. On top of that come the certificate of adequate knowledge for naturalisation, which Greece awards through written exams twice a year, proof of your economic integration and a fee of 100 euros for EU citizens. According to MITOS, processing takes about one year, followed by the oath. How marriage shortens the route to a passport in other countries is covered in the article on naturalisation through marriage. How to register as a German in Greece and which residence permits exist is explained in the guide to entry and residence in Greece (in German).

Buying Greek citizenship: what Greece offers

Many people look for a way to buy Greek citizenship. Among its routes to citizenship, the Greek Ministry of the Interior lists the naturalisation of foreign nationals and of people of Greek origin, acquisition through birth and schooling in Greece, confirmation and reacquisition, but no acquisition through investment. The well-known Golden Visa is a residence permit. What it requires and which stay rules apply is set out on the page on the Greece Golden Visa (in German). The difference between the two worlds is explained in the article second passport or Golden Visa.

If you have no Greek roots and do not want to spend years living in Greece, the faster route to a second passport is citizenship by investment in another country. Which programmes are open today and what they cost is shown in the overview of programmes and in the comparison. Whether an EU passport can be obtained this way at all is answered in the article buying an EU passport.

Benefits of Greek citizenship

With a Greek passport you are a citizen of the European Union. Art. 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ties EU citizenship to the nationality of a member state and gives every EU citizen the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the member states. As a German, you already have that right. The real value lies elsewhere.

• A second passport that does not depend on a single authority. If your German passport is withheld, lost or stuck in a visa procedure, you have a second one that stands on its own legal footing. Why that matters is shown by the eight reasons under why a second passport.
• A passport you pass on. Under Art. 1 of Law 3284/2004, your children are Greek from birth if you are Greek when they are born, and registering them in the municipal register is free. How to hand a citizenship cleanly on to the next generation is covered under passing on citizenship; what it means for your family is shown on the family page.
• A passport that stays. Greece does not take your citizenship away because you are also German; you can only give it up with the approval of the Minister of the Interior.
• A home in the south. As a Greek citizen you live in Greece without any residence permit. What the move means for your taxes is explained in the overview of living and paying tax in Greece (in German).

If you also have roots in Italy, it is worth comparing with Italian citizenship by descent: sometimes the other grandparent is the shorter route.

Dual citizenship: Greece and Germany

On the German side, things have never been clearer. Since 27 June 2024, acquiring a foreign citizenship on application no longer costs you your German one. When you register by descent, you are not acquiring anything new in any case; you are only having the state confirm what has applied since your birth. The details are in the article on dual citizenship for Germans.

Greece does not require you to give up your German passport either. Nor do you lose Greek citizenship automatically just because you hold a second one. Under Art. 16 of Law 3284/2004 you can only give it up on application and with the approval of the Minister of the Interior. If you want to, for instance because another country allows only one citizenship, you must:

• be of age and live permanently abroad,
• hold another citizenship or be acquiring one voluntarily,
• not be facing pending criminal proceedings for a felony or misdemeanour,
• as a man, have no outstanding military obligations, unless exempt as a Greek living abroad or because of studies.

The application is made in person through the consulate, costs 30 euros in consular fees and, according to MITOS, takes about six months.

Military service in Greece: what male descendants need to know

For men, this is the most important question. Greek citizens between 19 and 45 are liable for military service. If you live permanently outside Greece, however, you can defer your service for as long as that status lasts, and you are exempt for good at 45. The deferral comes with a certificate as a permanent resident abroad, which only the Greek consulates issue.

Three groups count as permanent residents abroad: at least eleven years of residence abroad immediately beforehand, at least seven years of work and residence abroad, or residence abroad since birth. Since 10 January 2026, military service law 5265/2026 has applied, tightening these rules:

• Permanent-resident-abroad status requires that you lived abroad at least from 1 January of the year you turn 16 until 31 December of the year you turn 18.
• The certificate must be renewed every three years. If you can no longer prove the requirements, you lose the deferral and are called up with the next intake.
• Until 31 December 2028, the previous requirements continue to apply as a transition.
• If you live abroad without this status and are therefore listed as a draft evader abroad, you may now spend only 15 days a year in Greece without consequences instead of 30; the transition period runs until 31 December 2027.

For most descendants who grew up in Germany, this is easy to resolve: you have spent your life abroad and can prove it. Even so, clarify your status before you register as an adult man, and only travel to Greece once you have the certificate. How German conscription applies when you live abroad is covered in the article on military service and a second passport.

Your route to a Greek passport

For many descendants, Greek citizenship is not a distant goal but a right that is only waiting to be registered. The work lies in the certificates: your parent's registration, your parents' marriage, your birth, in exactly that order. If you were born before 1984, a single declaration in person brings your own children into the register with you.

And if the chain is too long, a certificate is missing or 18 months is too long to wait? Then the same holds as for every claim by descent and every naturalisation: the free route is the better one in the end, but it takes time. Citizenship by investment buys you that time. You can pursue both in parallel, as the article on CBI and naturalisation shows.

Frequently asked questions