Problems for Americans getting residency in Greece?

[harcourtdale]

Hello everyone,
My wife and I retired 5 years ago and are presently living in Thailand. But as beautiful as it is, we still need a little "Opa" in our lives each year. We are considering buying a small condo in Greece (near Napflio?) and spending 6 months each year there. Does anyone have any information (caviats included) about Americans settling in Greece? We don't want employment and we have pensions and health insurance. Are there problems purchasing, problems with residency, problems with transferring money, all the usual suspects.
Thanks in advance,
Dale + Judy Harcourt,
Chiang Mai, Thailand

[GDE]

As Americans I believe that you will have problems obtaining a residency permit for Greece. Residency permits for EU citizens are easy to obtain. And if you had a work related reason to emigrate, that would make things simpler. But I know of no EU country where retirement permits are granted. If I am wrong, I would be pleased if someone would correct me. I would be interested to learn about it.

Alternatively, since you do not plan to live in Greece permanently, your best bet may be to stay for 3 months per year. As Americans you can do that with no visa concerns at all.

[Bevdeforges]

Not to completely throw cold water on the idea - I believe it is possible to get residence visas in the EU based on being retired. That said, I don't know if this is the case in Greece or not. Immigration is one area where the individual countries are loathe to give up their ability to call the shots.

Generally, you need to contact the consulate in the country in which you are currently resident for details. And don't be surprised if the Greek Consulate in Thailand has no clue how to deal with US citizens. They may require all sorts of "proof" of your financial means and social insurance, and even then you can be turned down for what appears to be no reason at all. But if you don't at least ask, you won't find out.
Cheers,
Bev

[GDE]

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

Not to completely throw cold water on the idea - I believe it is possible to get residence visas in the EU based on being retired. That said, I don't know if this is the case in Greece or not. Immigration is one area where the individual countries are loathe to give up their ability to call the shots.

Hi Bev

This may be an interesting topic for another string. But I once did some research on this topic and could not find any EU countries which would give a "Retirement Visa" to non-EU members. My search was not exhaustive, there are lots of EU countries. But I did check the major ones and many of the minor ones as well. I spent several days looking into this. I would be pleased if people would give a list of EU countries where they know that this is possible.

As far as calling the consulate, the last time I made a move, I did this. The only advice the consulate was willing to give me was "contact a lawyer"