Greece

Greece has three long-stay routes that matter to people choosing where to base themselves. Which one fits depends on where the money comes from.

• Remote workers: the digital nomad visa is for people employed by, or working for clients of, businesses outside Greece. It starts with a national visa of up to 12 months and can continue as a residence permit. Since February 2026, the application must start at a Greek consulate abroad.
• People living on pensions or investments: the residence permit for people with sufficient resources, still widely called the financially independent person visa, suits those who don't need to work. It rules out any work in Greece, including remote work for Greek clients.
• Property buyers: the golden visa for real estate investors gives residence to people who buy qualifying property. It doesn't allow work.

How the routes compare in practice

• Work: only the digital nomad route allows work at all, and only for employers and clients outside Greece.
• Family: both income-based routes let a spouse and children come, with a higher income threshold for each. Golden visa family rules are worth confirming with the Ministry of Migration and Asylum.
• Where to apply: the two income-based routes start with a visa from a consulate; the golden visa is filed in Greece after a lawful entry.

Visits without a permit

Greece is in the Schengen area, so nationals of visa-exempt countries can stay 90 days in any 180-day period, and that allowance is shared across every Schengen country rather than counted per country. Days on a residence permit or long-stay visa don't count toward it.

The EU's Entry/Exit System has registered short-stay visitors at external borders since Oct. 12, 2025, taking fingerprints and a facial image. On ETIAS, the travel authorization planned for visa-exempt visitors, the official position is this: Not yet operating and no official start date. The EU says it will announce the date several months before launch. The earlier official target, the last quarter of 2026, was removed from the official ETIAS website on July 14-17, 2026.

Greece uses the euro. In Numbeo's crowd-sourced prices for September 2026, a single person's monthly spending excluding rent was about €750 to €840 in the four cities below, so rent decides most of the difference.

Each total adds the average one-bedroom rent, outside the center and in it, to Numbeo's estimate of a single person's other monthly costs. The figures are averages of user reports, not official statistics. Island rents, including Crete in summer, rise sharply in the tourist season, and short-term lets cost more than the long-term leases these averages describe.

A realistic monthly budget for one remote worker renting a one-bedroom apartment is therefore about €1,100 to €1,200 in Patras, €1,250 to €1,400 in Thessaloniki or Heraklion and €1,400 to €1,500 in Athens. The digital nomad visa's income floor sits well above every total in the table.

Most long-stay remote workers choose between the capital, the north and Crete.

• Athens: the most complete base, with the widest choice of coworking spaces, housing and international flights, and the government offices that handle residence paperwork. It's also the most expensive city in the table above.
• Thessaloniki: Greece's second city, a university town on the sea with a big food scene and noticeably lower rents than Athens. It suits people who want city life without the capital's scale.
• Heraklion: Crete's largest city and main airport, a practical year-round base on an island where many places shut in winter.
• Chania: western Crete's harbor town, popular with long-stay visitors for its old town and beaches, though summer brings crowds and seasonal rents.
• Patras: the budget pick on the mainland, a port with ferries to Italy and the lowest rents in the table.

City guides also cover Corfu Town, Rhodes Town, Nafplio, Ioannina and Ermoupoli on Syros, which work better as seasonal bases than year-round ones.

Greece is unusual in Europe: mobile data is faster than fixed broadband. Speedtest's Global Index put the median mobile download speed at 201.3 Mbps in August 2026, against 175.36 Mbps for fixed broadband. A local SIM with a large data allowance is a realistic backup, or even a main connection, in cities with good coverage.

Connections on smaller islands and in older buildings can fall well below the median, so a rental's speed is worth testing before a long booking.

Athens has the largest choice of coworking spaces, followed by Thessaloniki. On Crete, Heraklion and Chania have smaller scenes. Elsewhere on the islands, dedicated spaces are few and some open only in the tourist season, so many remote workers rely on home connections and cafes.

EU roaming rules let a SIM from another EU country work in Greece without extra charges on trips, but not for permanent use, so long stays call for a Greek plan.

None of Greece's residence routes sets a tax treatment of its own. Tax follows the ordinary residence rules, which AADE summarizes from Article 4 of the Income Tax Code:

• Day count: presence in Greece for more than 183 days in total in any 12-month period makes a person tax-resident from the first day of presence.
• Ties: a permanent residence, habitual abode or center of vital interests (personal and economic relations) in Greece also makes a person resident.
• Exception: the day count doesn't apply to stays of up to a year made purely for tourism, medical or similar private reasons.

Residents are taxed on worldwide income. That usually includes the foreign salary of a digital nomad who spends most of the year in Greece, and the pension or investment income of a financially independent resident.

What to check before moving

• How the home country taxes the same income after the move, and whether a tax treaty with Greece decides which country taxes first.
• Whether any Greek tax incentive for new residents applies. These are claimed under the tax rules, not through the residence permit, and have their own conditions.
• Social security for remote workers, which the visa rules don't settle.
• For property buyers, the taxes on buying, owning and renting out property, which apply whether or not the owner lives in Greece.

• Health insurance: the residence routes require private cover. The digital nomad visa asks for travel insurance, and the residence permit checklists ask for a policy from a private insurer, so buying one that meets both stages avoids buying twice.
• Documents: criminal record certificates, civil status papers and other foreign documents may need legalization and a Greek translation. Ordering them before leaving home saves time.
• Phone and data: a Greek prepaid SIM or eSIM gives a local number for banks and delivery apps, and mobile data is fast in the cities. EU roaming covers trips, not permanent use.
• Emergencies: 112 reaches police, fire and ambulance services free of charge, as everywhere in the EU.
• Seasons: island life slows sharply from November to April, when ferries run less often and many businesses close. Summer brings heat, crowds and higher rents, so many long-stay visitors arrive in spring or autumn.
• Getting around: ferries connect the mainland to the islands, and Athens and Thessaloniki have metro systems. Island stays without a car or scooter can be limiting outside the main towns.