American marrying a Greek in Greece

[tortuga76]

Hi! Thank you SO much for all this information. I am hoping you might be able to answer a few questions I have about marrying a Greek here in Greece, or atleast be able to point me in the direction of someone who can help. My situation is that I am here as a tourist right now, which means I can only stay for 3 months. My fiance & I want to get married b/4 that 3 months expires, so my question is, do you know if you can get married here to a Greek if you don't have a residency permit? Alternatively, how did you get your residency permit? I do not fall under any of the categories of either being a) a student, b) a sponsored worker, c) a retired person, or d) having Greek heritage. So until I get married, I have no way of staying here legally. Except for the residency permit, I have all the other paperwork from the US that I think I need to get the marriage license. Anyway, any info. you might have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for writing all that you did!

-Anna

Originally Posted by wka

I'm going to post another update. Anyone else in a similar situation (American marrying a Greek in Greece) will probably want to know WHAT NEXT!?!?! And since there is OH so much more lovely paperwork to file... here's the followup!

After we got married in April, we got a bunch of original marriage certificates (απόσπασμα ληξιαρχειακής πράξης γάμου). Get a bunch. You will go through them like mad.

The first thing we had to do was to open an oikogeneiaki merida (οικογενειακή μερίδα). The oikogeneiaki merida is basically a bureaucratic designation of family. Until my husband and I got married, he "belonged" (since birth) to the oikogeneiaki merida that included his parents and his younger (unmarried) brother. Now that we're married, he officially has left his parents'/brother's oikogeneiaki merida and has started his own, which now includes himself and me, and if we ever have children, they'll get stuck in there too until they get married. People are legally required to do this when they get married. So first step after getting your marriage certificates is to "open an oikogeneiaki merida." You do it in the place where you are a "dimotis" (or rather, where your Greek spouse is a dimotis), meaning, most likely where their parents' oikogeneiaki merida is also, or wherever they vote/file taxes/etc. For us, that was the city of Alexandroupoli. We live absolutely nowhere near Alexandroupoli, but that's where his parents live and where he pays taxes, and so that's where we opened ours.

He faxed our marriage certificate directly to the Alexandroupoli dimarxeio through our local KEP. The idea was for them to do the necessary paperwork and mail the "certificate of familial status" (πιστοποιητικό οικογενειακής κατάστασης) which is the proof of having opened a new oikogeneiaki merida, to us.

Which, of course, they did, twelve days later. And, sadly, it showed that my husband was married to himself. This was not really what we had in mind. Very luckily for us, his mom was available to go to the mayor's office and berate them into changing it and then she mailed the papers to us herself. So we got them 2 days later, much faster, so no harm done really. But if she hadn't been able to do that, we would have bumped up against the deadline for filing other paperwork which I'll get to in a second.

So, just over 2 weeks after the wedding, we had several ORIGINALS (again, important) of the πιστοποιητικό οικογενειακής κατάστασης. You'll need these for various things so it's good to have them.

Next, as a foreigner living in Greece, I was obligated by law to file a "change in personal status" with the government. ALL foreigners are obligated to do this whenever you change marital status or even change your address. I don't believe everyone does it every time they move, but you're supposed to. For marriage, you definitely have to! So, for this, I needed:

- an original copy of our marriage certificate
- an original copy of our certificate of familial status
- a copy of my passport ID page that had been notarized by a lawyer (MUST be by a lawyer)
- a copy of my residence permit (in my case, the blue paper [βεβαίωση κατάθεσης αίτησης άδειας διαμονής] that shows that I've applied for a residence permit) that has been notarized (this does NOT have to be by a lawyer - KEP is fine for this one)
- some ID-size photographs

I gave all of this stuff to the Liksiarxeio in Athens and they kept all of it. Could I have gone with less and still been okay? Who knows. But they kept whatever I gave them. NOTE: You must do this within 30 DAYS of the wedding!! I got very nervous when our certificate of familial status was wrong and had to be redone, as things like that will NOT win you an extension. Luckily it was resolved by my husband's mother but if you're not so lucky... well just be aware that you need to get on this immediately as anything can happen. IF you miss the 30 day deadline there is a fine of several hundred euros!! (I'm not sure of the exact amount.)

When you submit this paperwork, at the same time they give you a little slip of paper with a stamp on it with your "protocol number." You must NEVER EVER lose this little slip of paper. Like all other pieces of paper the government gives you.

At the same time that all of this was happening, we were also getting me added to his health insurance. This is necessary because my travel health insurance that I bought in the US is horrible and doesn't actually pay claims, and anyway, you want to get on local insurance as soon as possible. As his wife, I am "under his protection" legally so I can be added to his insurance at no expense. It may be that different insurance programs in Greece work differently; his is the "Dimosio" so I really don't know about the others.

For that one, I don't know all the details because he did it himself but suffice it to say it was a horrible headache that took days of traveling around between THREE different islands and tons of stamps and signatures in various offices but within only a few weeks, I have my vivliario ygeias and syntagologio, which are how insurance claims are paid in Greece. For this he needed a bunch of photos of me as well as our certificate of familial status. I gave him copies of my passport and res. permit and I have no idea if he used them. Just be prepared for a huge huge headache. It doesn't cost anything (except in his case, multiple hotels and ferries), and he got the whole thing done in a very short time.

So where do I stand now?

I have obtained a marriage license in Athens, been legally married in a civil ceremony on a Greek island, opened an oikogeneiaki merida in the city where my husband is a citizen, made an official change of personal status with the government in Athens, and been added to my husband's public health insurance policy. Separately from that, on May 12, I took the state Greek language proficiency exam (level 4) and the certificate from this will be added to my file for work privileges and eventual citizenship application.

Still to do is to apply for my residence permit on the basis of being the spouse of an EU citizen. This is a 5 year residence permit that will give me the right to live in, work in, and travel freely into and out of Greece for the next 5 years. I cannot apply for this until TWO MONTHS before the EXPIRATION of my previous residence permit.

My previous residence permit application (applied in September) has not been approved yet - but in any case, I can't apply until two months before it expires, which will be in July. So between now and July, there's nothing more I can or have to do.

When July rolls around, I will need to produce:

- certificate of familial status
- copy of my passport ID page AND residence permit page (notarized by a lawyer)
- my vivliario ygeias
- copy of my husband's state ID (notarized by a notary public/KEP)
- 4 passport photos
- filled out application for a residence permit

I think that's all - and there's no fee to apply. I will of course post more as the process evolves.

I really do hope that someone out there finds this useful. I don't know if all of this is detailed anywhere online - I've looked and never found it anywhere.

[wka]

Hi! Thank you SO much for all this information. I am hoping you might be able to answer a few questions I have about marrying a Greek here in Greece, or atleast be able to point me in the direction of someone who can help. My situation is that I am here as a tourist right now, which means I can only stay for 3 months. My fiance & I want to get married b/4 that 3 months expires, so my question is, do you know if you can get married here to a Greek if you don't have a residency permit? Alternatively, how did you get your residency permit? I do not fall under any of the categories of either being a) a student, b) a sponsored worker, c) a retired person, or d) having Greek heritage. So until I get married, I have no way of staying here legally. Except for the residency permit, I have all the other paperwork from the US that I think I need to get the marriage license. Anyway, any info. you might have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for writing all that you did!

Hi Anna,
If I'm understanding correctly, you are intending to marry your Greek fiance in Greece, but you don't have in your hands an AMERICAN marriage license - and you want to get a GREEK marriage license in order to move forward. I think this is where you will run into problems. To my knowledge (which, again, is based PURELY on personal experience!!), you cannot get a Greek marriage license if you are not a legal resident in Greece, and, as a tourist, you are not. When I got my Greek (Deme of Athens) marriage license, I was a legal resident of Athens, and I had to prove that. You prove that by showing a rental agreement in your name, or an electric bill in your name, or, in my case, getting a signed affidavit from my employer since I was living in housing provided by my employer and therefore had nothing house-related in my own name. The problem is that marriage licenses are issued by each Demos, and they want proof that you are a resident of their demos before they will issue one. There are a bunch of other things you have to do too, like get an advertisement printed in a newspaper, and so on. The easiest thing to do, I hate to say it, will probably be to fly back to the US, get a valid marriage license (they're usually good for several months), and then fly back to Greece and get married using it.

Before you do that, though, where does your fiance live? If he lives in a very small community where they know him very well, they may issue you a marriage license without all the documents. I say this again based on personal experience. Although my marriage license was issued through the Deme of Athens with 46 supporting documents, my then-fiance's was issued by a community with around 200 residents (at the time it wasn't even a deme, now, as of Jan 1, it is one) and they didn't ask him for most of the paperwork that I had to present. For example, the newspaper announcement isn't made here (in the tiny community which is also where I'm typing from) as there are no local newspapers, instead they post a piece of paper in the town square IF they feel like it. So my point is, if your fiance is from Ano Traganoplagia or whatever tiny little village they might just give it to you.

Otherwise, I think you may need to return to the US to procure the license and then get married here. Once you are married, you follow the same course I did and you should have no problem getting your 5 year residence permit application in and, with that, you get to stay here and even work legally while they ponder whether to accept the application.

Always remember during this process that while you, as an American, may not have "rights", your fiance does. He has the right to have his spouse live with him in Greece, so it is very difficult for them to kick you out once you are married.

By the way, to answer your question about how I got my original residence permit (pre-marriage), it was because I fall into one of the "Special Exception" career categories, of which there are a handful (including some rare ones like star athletes).

[jacquest]

Originally Posted by wka

Hi Anna,
If I'm understanding correctly, you are intending to marry your Greek fiance in Greece, but you don't have in your hands an AMERICAN marriage license - and you want to get a GREEK marriage license in order to move forward. I think this is where you will run into problems. To my knowledge (which, again, is based PURELY on personal experience!!), you cannot get a Greek marriage license if you are not a legal resident in Greece, and, as a tourist, you are not.

Hi Anna and wka,

As a foreign national, I got married in Athens *as a tourist*. My wife (then my fiancée) did all the "paperwork" (I sent her all my relevant documents -passport, ID card, baptism certificate, etc.), published the ad in Kathimerini, etc., and I arrived in Athens 5 days before the marriage.

As wka said, this is personal experience, but done in Athens (not a small community) without any special "acquaintance", simple "citizens".

jacques.

[amavrides]

Originally Posted by wka

Another update to the long saga of me getting married to a Greek citizen.

Today I started the application for my 5 year Residence Permit with permission to work.

Today I just went to the office to double-check the paperwork we needed. It was a good thing too, because it was slightly different than what I had been told at the Ministry of the Interior.

So you do this at the Demos (Dimarxeio).

You need:

- 5 small color photographs (ask for the size for an ID card, not for a passport)
- photocopies of every single page in your passport, including the cover and blank pages, and you need 2 sets of these.
- 2 sets of photocopies of your vivliario ygeias: the front two ID pages, and the most recent page that has the year on it (2010) - should just be the last written-on page in your little book.
- 2 photocopies of your spouse's police ID
- 2 photocopies of your marriage certificate (lhxiarxikh praksh gamou)
- 2 copies of your pistopoihtiko oikogeneiakhs katastashs.

I will go back tomorrow and fill out the application and let you know how it goes! By the way, we are using the Dimarxeio in the city where my husband is a dimotis.

Hope this helps someone!

Hello,

I am going to be in a similar situation very soon... I am Greek American but will be marrying a Greek... I am also already here in Greece.... any way to contact you to discuss your experiences...... Thank you...

[wanderlusting]

Originally Posted by tortuga76

Hi! Thank you SO much for all this information. I am hoping you might be able to answer a few questions I have about marrying a Greek here in Greece, or atleast be able to point me in the direction of someone who can help. My situation is that I am here as a tourist right now, which means I can only stay for 3 months. My fiance & I want to get married b/4 that 3 months expires, so my question is, do you know if you can get married here to a Greek if you don't have a residency permit? Alternatively, how did you get your residency permit? I do not fall under any of the categories of either being a) a student, b) a sponsored worker, c) a retired person, or d) having Greek heritage. So until I get married, I have no way of staying here legally. Except for the residency permit, I have all the other paperwork from the US that I think I need to get the marriage license. Anyway, any info. you might have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for writing all that you did!

-Anna

I got my marriage license from the central office in Athens and there was never any question or discussion of my residency. I was here on my three-month visa free tourist stay. Once you have your marriage license, you can apply to stay as a resident since you are the spouse of an EU citizen.

[wanderlusting]

Yay Seattle!

I didn't change my family name - in my experience it's not that uncommon to keep your name (my mother-in-law, many professionals I have met, etc). I know that back in the US and if/when we have children this will make things interesting, but since countries like the US are more familiar with the practice of keeping names it shouldn't be a reason to do it. If you do decide to take a new name, I believe you can handle these affairs at the US embassy - you will need to get a new passport I believe.

I came to Athens with all the paperwork I needed from home, and then got my insurance here, made the marriage announcement here, and filed for the marriage license.

After you apply for a residence permit you will get a blue piece of paper that is your proof of an accepted application. With this paper you cannot travel freely in/out of Greece (for 2011 you are allowed to travel to/from your home country only - nowhere else) but you are legally allowed to stay in Greece and work. As a spouse the EU states that a permit MUST be received within six months (which is what you can expect) but it could take longer, too.

Originally Posted by soryps

Thanks



Since you got married on a tourist visa and resided in Greece immediately after, what did you do about your name on your passport, ID etc? For example, if you get married then want to travel back to the US a few months, a year later, two years later and your passport still has your maiden name, does that pose a problem? Is it possible to get that stuff changed in Greece or do you have to be in the US for it?



This information is really helpful! Did you get all your stuff done in Athens?



So after I submit my application, it will presumably not be approved for a few months, and my tourist visa will have expired, but that's ok as long as I have my application in and everything submitted, correct? I was worried that during the waiting time for the decision of the residence permit I would be staying illegally in Greece

And I also see you're from Seattle too?

[chrisrobert]

Dear users

I reall all above replies and i am so confused...PLEASE ANYONE HELP ME in my request.

I am planning to get married in Greece next month and i will tavel on a visa tourist , we will get married at the Church , i want to know what are the steps after to get the residence since my fiancee can not get all the information.
Simply , after the wedding how many days is waiting to get the BLUE CARD ( residence ) and what are the documents required to have it , i think as far as i read in this topic is the wedding certificate and passport copies and photo copies , and i will be added on the insurance of my wife book since she is Greek
Also , do i need to present any other documents to receive the blue card , health certificate is required or not as here no one mentioned it is a must.
How long waiting till i take the resisdence for 5 years.
Is there an interview for me and my wife.

Simply , anyone went through this write me his experience in details since i will have only a visa valid for 30 days and i am scared that something they request and i can not present it

Your immediate reply is highly appreicated

Please reply to me asap

Thanks in advance

Chris Robert

[chrisrobert]

Dear users

Add to below they ask me today for CERTIFICATE OF HEALTH ...what kind of analysis they do in the hospital for that

I reall all above replies and i am so confused...PLEASE ANYONE HELP ME in my request.

I am planning to get married in Greece next month and i will tavel on a visa tourist , we will get married at the Church , i want to know what are the steps after to get the residence since my fiancee can not get all the information.
Simply , after the wedding how many days is waiting to get the BLUE CARD ( residence ) and what are the documents required to have it , i think as far as i read in this topic is the wedding certificate and passport copies and photo copies , and i will be added on the insurance of my wife book since she is Greek
Also , do i need to present any other documents to receive the blue card , health certificate is required or not as here no one mentioned it is a must.
How long waiting till i take the resisdence for 5 years.
Is there an interview for me and my wife.



Simply , anyone went through this write me his experience in details since i will have only a visa valid for 30 days and i am scared that something they request and i can not present it

Your immediate reply is highly appreicated

Please reply to me asap

Thanks in advance

Chris Robert

[wka]

Just a brief update as the topic came up again:

If you recall, I got my βεβαίωση for my 5 yr permit in mid-August, 2010. It's now late July, 2011. I still have not received a request for the interview, which is necessary for the decision and the issuing of the residence permit. That means that for the past 11 months, I have been unable to leave Greece legally.

We called the Demos here where my husband is a dimotis and were told the following:

"Your paperwork left the Demos last year and is now at the Perifereia. Call them."

We called the Perifereia. They told us:

"The last application that we were able to interview was in July, 2010. We have stopped doing interviews, reviewing applications, and issuing residence permits since that time. We are awaiting the issuance of a new law this week or next week that should enable us to continue. At that time, we will start with last July's applications."

The insinuation was that it should not be that much longer before we get a call for the interview. Luckily, we have moved and will be living half an hour away from the Perifereia, rather than a 9 hour drive + 9 hour ferry that we used to live!!

Since I applied for my residence permit, I have not had any emergencies making it necessary for me to leave Greece, so I cannot comment on any potential procedure for getting around this rule. I have also not investigated amnesties if they exist because I haven't needed them, but if you are in this situation and need an amnesty don't take my post to mean you can't get one, as I simply don't know.

[wka]

Okay so now we have a date for our interview - in less than two weeks!

I hope it is not too intimidating (or too nosy!)... I will let you know what it's like and how it goes....