# Moving to Greece



## srider (May 5, 2011)

Hi there, I have been 'volunteerting' on a greek island on and off for 2 years due to only being on a tourist visa of 90 days each stay. I am now back in my home country, NZ, and I am wanting to head back to Greece. I only want to be in greece for maybe 2 years but it seems almost impossible to get a work permit. I have a willing sponsor in Greece but was told that the visa application takes 12 months to complete and even then, its rather possible that the application will be declined due to me being non eu. I am an unskilled labourer - working with horses. 

Is there any advice that anyone can give me on how to get back to my life in Greece ASAP?? Is it a viable option to do 'visa runs' every 3 months to a non schengen country and back?

Any thoughts would be great


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## parosred (Nov 18, 2010)

*living in Greece*



srider said:


> Hi there, I have been 'volunteerting' on a greek island on and off for 2 years due to only being on a tourist visa of 90 days each stay. I am now back in my home country, NZ, and I am wanting to head back to Greece. I only want to be in greece for maybe 2 years but it seems almost impossible to get a work permit. I have a willing sponsor in Greece but was told that the visa application takes 12 months to complete and even then, its rather possible that the application will be declined due to me being non eu. I am an unskilled labourer - working with horses.
> 
> Is there any advice that anyone can give me on how to get back to my life in Greece ASAP?? Is it a viable option to do 'visa runs' every 3 months to a non schengen country and back?
> 
> Any thoughts would be great


You should not have been volunteering, this can be considered working, stay home is your best choice if you dont want to be in jail. Visit for 3 months at a time, for renewing visas you have to leave the EU, they will soon caught onto that. The govt here is doing everything possible to show IMF and ECB they are making a effort to get their fiscal house in order. The police are sweeping up illegals everywhere, you were lucky.


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## srider (May 5, 2011)

parosred said:


> You should not have been volunteering, this can be considered working, stay home is your best choice if you dont want to be in jail. Visit for 3 months at a time, for renewing visas you have to leave the EU, they will soon caught onto that. The govt here is doing everything possible to show IMF and ECB they are making a effort to get their fiscal house in order. The police are sweeping up illegals everywhere, you were lucky.


Yes I understand that this looked dodgy and like I was an illiegal immigrant, however I am trying to understand as best as I can so that I am able to legally return to Greece. 

I speak a little greek and am more than willing to learn the full language-well, as much as possible. I have spoken to the Greek Embassy both in Greece and in New Zealand who say'get the employeer to meet with the Greek Government to start the work permit visa process'. Does this mean that I should be dealing with the Greek goverment instead? As far as I am aware I need to obtain an AFM tax number, have a letter of employment from my employeer and have proof of health insurance?? 

Is there any eligibility of IKA?

Any info is appreciated


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## parosred (Nov 18, 2010)

Talk to the Greek Cosulate.


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

The residence permit may take a year (or more) to be APPROVED (or denied) but it does NOT take that long to file the application (which is all that matters to you). In fact it only takes a few weeks. While your properly *completed* application is being considered, you can live in Greece - even if declined, you still got a year+ in Greece, and I believe (please do not take this as gospel) that you would be working legally, because I think it's legal to work while your application is being considered (what I DO know is that it's legal to work while at least some types of these applications are being considered - what I don't know is which categories that applies to - so you'll want to check on that). You could be unlucky and have your application go through very quickly and get turned down, but making a ONE YEAR application may be less likely to be turned down (you can then get it renewed for one year after that) than a 5 yr application.

About IKA - you don't want IKA if you're only going to work for 2 years. IKA retirement doesn't kick in until you've been working for a number of years - so that is of no concern to you, unless you think you'll eventually work long enough here to qualify for retirement in Greece. However, that said, yes, your employer should pay your IKA contribution in any case, even though you will likely never qualify for it. Your health insurance should be your own private health insurance, since you will need that anyway to qualify for a residence permit. The most important thing is to make sure that your health insurance will pay for helicopter transfer to the mainland for medical emergencies (which is how medical emergencies are dealt with on small islands - sorry but I'm not sure how big your island is since you don't name it).


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## parosred (Nov 18, 2010)

wka said:


> The residence permit may take a year (or more) to be APPROVED (or denied) but it does NOT take that long to file the application (which is all that matters to you). In fact it only takes a few weeks. While your properly *completed* application is being considered, you can live in Greece - even if declined, you still got a year+ in Greece, and I believe (please do not take this as gospel) that you would be working legally, because I think it's legal to work while your application is being considered (what I DO know is that it's legal to work while at least some types of these applications are being considered - what I don't know is which categories that applies to - so you'll want to check on that). You could be unlucky and have your application go through very quickly and get turned down, but making a ONE YEAR application may be less likely to be turned down (you can then get it renewed for one year after that) than a 5 yr application.
> 
> About IKA - you don't want IKA if you're only going to work for 2 years. IKA retirement doesn't kick in until you've been working for a number of years - so that is of no concern to you, unless you think you'll eventually work long enough here to qualify for retirement in Greece. However, that said, yes, your employer should pay your IKA contribution in any case, even though you will likely never qualify for it. Your health insurance should be your own private health insurance, since you will need that anyway to qualify for a residence permit. The most important thing is to make sure that your health insurance will pay for helicopter transfer to the mainland for medical emergencies (which is how medical emergencies are dealt with on small islands - sorry but I'm not sure how big your island is since you don't name it).


To get IKA you need a tax number, to get a tax number you need a residence permit, best you go through your Greek Consulate in your country to get the facts.


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

You may not need a residence permit to get a tax number. I got mine without having one. Unfortunately, you will often find that Greek embassies and consulates are either not forthcoming or not up to date on how things work here in Greece.


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## tpebop (Nov 2, 2009)

We obtained our Greek Tax number a year before moving to Rhodes. So you dont even have to reside in Greece to get it


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