Retire in Greece: the retirement visa is the FIP permit, €3,500 a month, and the 7% pension tax

Greece is one of the few countries in Europe where a retiree from the United States, the United Kingdom or anywhere else outside the EU can settle on income alone, without buying anything. The route has two halves that every guide runs together, and they are filed with two different authorities. The residence permit comes from the Decentralised Administration and asks whether you have enough to live on. The 7% tax rate comes from the tax office and asks where you were tax resident before. You can hold either without the other.

Everything below is taken from the instrument that sets it: Law 5038/2023, the migration code; ministerial decision 225679/2024 on the amount; ministerial decision 95391/2024 on the documents and fees, in its consolidated text updated on 12 November 2025; and article 5B of the income tax code. Where something could not be established at source, the guide says so.

Greece retirement visa: what the permit is actually called

There is no Greek instrument called a retirement visa. What people searching for one need is the residence permit for third-country nationals with sufficient resources, type Ι.8, set out in article 163 §8 of Law 5038/2023. The market calls it the FIP visa, for financially independent person.

The statute grants it to a person who has «επαρκείς πόρους, σε επίπεδο σταθερού ετήσιου εισοδήματος» — sufficient resources at the level of a stable annual income — to cover living costs. It runs three years and renews for the same period. It is not limited to retirees: anyone living on a pension, rental income, dividends or savings can use it. What it excludes is work, which is why it suits retirement so well.

Greece retirement visa requirements: €3,500 a month and who it covers

The statute names no amount. The amount is in ministerial decision 225679/2024, Government Gazette Β΄ 5223 of 17 September 2024, article 1 §1(ι): «κατ' ελάχιστο τρεισήμισι χιλιάδες (3.500) ευρώ μηνιαίως», increased «κατά 20% για τη σύζυγο και κατά 15% για κάθε τέκνο».

The family members receive permits of their own that end on the same day as the sponsor's. Article 163 §8(β) lets the resources test be met by each family member individually or by the family cumulatively, so a couple's two pensions can be added together.

Can you retire in Greece on savings instead of a pension?

Yes. The decision accepts proof «από σύνταξη του εξωτερικού, τραπεζικό λογαριασμό ή αποδεικτικά στοιχεία ότι διαθέτουν εξ ιδίων ικανά οικονομικά μέσα» of lawful origin — a foreign pension, a bank account, or other evidence of your own sufficient means.

It also says how the figure is tested, and this settles a question most pages leave open. The assessment is made «σε μηνιαία βάση» for periodic income such as a pension, and «σε ετήσια βάση σε περίπτωση εισοδημάτων από άλλες πηγές (όπως τραπεζικές καταθέσεις)» — on an annual basis where the money comes from other sources, such as bank deposits. So the €42,000 a year printed everywhere is not only arithmetic: for an applicant living on deposits, the annual test is how the decision itself reads. What the decision does not state is a single lump sum that counts as enough for the whole three-year term, and no such figure appears on this page.

Greece FIP visa cost: €180, then €1,000 every three years

The fees are in article 66 of ministerial decision 95391/2024, the document list for every Greek residence permit, in its consolidated text:

Each family member files an application of their own; the decision does not set a reduced fee for dependants under article 66, and whether one applies was not established.

Private health insurance is a document, not advice. The same article lists «ασφαλιστήριο συμβόλαιο ιδιωτικού φορέα ασφάλισης» — a private insurance contract — for the first permit and again for every renewal. The decision does not set a minimum cover, so the policy is judged by the authority that receives it.

Retirees on a Greek state pension renew for €150 without any income test. Under article 163 §8(δ), a person already lawfully resident who draws a pension from a Greek public insurance fund, of any amount, renews without meeting the €3,500 requirement. Article 67 of the same decision sets the fee at €150 and asks for proof that the pension is still paid and that the holder is insured.

How to apply for the Greece retirement visa, step by step

1. National type D visa at a Greek consulate, before you travel. Article 163 §1 grants the permit to a person «που έχει λάβει θεώρηση εισόδου για έναν από τους λόγους του παρόντος άρθρου» — who has obtained an entry visa for that purpose. The consulate takes the proof of resources, the general documents and the €180 fee.
2. Residence permit in Greece, from the Decentralised Administration of the region where you live, with a certified copy of the passport bearing the visa, the proof of resources, the private insurance contract and the €1,000 fee. Fingerprints and photographs are taken in person, which is when the €16 printing fee is paid.
3. Renewal every three years, with fresh proof of resources, insurance and the fee.

What the permit forbids is set out in article 163 §8(γ): «δεν παρέχει δικαίωμα εξαρτημένης εργασίας ή ανεξάρτητης οικονομικής δραστηριότητας οιασδήποτε μορφής στην Ελλάδα» — no employed or self-employed activity of any form in Greece, for the holder, the spouse or partner and the family. Whether remote work for a foreign client falls inside those words depends on the arrangement and is a question for a licensed adviser; if remote work is the plan, Greece has a separate digital nomad permit built for it.

Greece 7% tax on foreign pensions: article 5B, applied for separately

The residence permit does not change your tax. The flat rate does, and it has its own conditions under article 5B of Law 4172/2013:

• you were not tax resident in Greece for five of the last six years;
• you move your tax residence to Greece from a state that has an agreement on administrative cooperation in tax matters with Greece;
• you receive a pension from abroad.

The rate is 7% «για το σύνολο του εισοδήματός του που αποκτήθηκε στην αλλοδαπή» — on the whole of the income acquired abroad, not only the pension. Dividends, interest and rent from abroad fall under the same 7% for as long as the regime lasts, which is fifteen tax years, starting with the year after the one you applied in.

The application goes to the tax office by 31 March, a date set by decision Α.1217/2020, article 4 §1, which gives the administration sixty days to decide. The tax is paid in one instalment by the last working day of December, and paying it settles the tax on that income. Miss a year's payment in full and the regime ends from that year, with ordinary Greek taxation on worldwide income from then on.

Two things the 7% does not do. It does not touch Greek-source income, which is taxed under the general rules. And it does not decide what your home country does with the same pension: an American is taxed by the United States on citizenship whatever Greece charges, and a British pension is governed by the UK–Greece double taxation convention. Those are separate pages, linked below.

How much money do you need to retire in Greece?

The legal floor is the €3,500 a month above. What life costs is a different number, and the Greek state publishes it. The Hellenic Statistical Authority's 2024 Household Budget Survey puts average household spending at €1,724.54 a month nationally, €2,030.27 in Attica and €1,184.58 in Sterea Ellada, the cheapest region. Rents from signed leases average €9.2 per square metre in Attica and €7.7 in Thessaloniki. The detail, region by region, is in the guide to living in Greece.

The two numbers sit far apart, and that is the point of the permit's design: the state asks for roughly twice what an average Greek household spends, so a retiree who qualifies is not expected to be tight on money. Add the private insurance premium and the €1,000 renewal every three years, about €28 a month, to your own budget.

After the Greece retirement visa: permanent residence and citizenship

The permit renews every three years without limit. Two longer statuses sit beyond it.

EU long-term residence (Μ.1) after five years of lawful and continuous residence immediately before applying, under article 144 of Law 5038/2023. Absences must each stay under six consecutive months and under ten months in total across the five years. The income test is the annual minimum wage plus 10% for all dependants together, which a FIP holder already exceeds. Greek is required at B1, or A2 with a certificate in history and culture, or, since Law 5275/2026, twelve consecutive years of lawful residence instead. Article 143 §2 lists who is excluded from long-term residence, and the type Ι.8 permit is not on that list; no official text was found that confirms it counts expressly, and none that says it does not.

The national ten-year permit (Μ.2) after ten years of continuous residence on definitive titles, under article 161, with no absence of two consecutive years.

Greek citizenship after seven years of residence under the citizenship code, Law 3284/2004, with an examination in Greek and in history and culture. When each clock starts, and what it counts, is worked through in the naturalisation clock.

Greece retirement visa or golden visa: which suits a retiree

For most retirees the income permit is the cheaper of the two by a wide margin, because it immobilises nothing. The golden visa makes sense when the property is wanted anyway, or when income is irregular and capital is not. Both are compared in full, with the thresholds by area, in the Greek residence guide.

Frequently asked questions

Where this sits in the rest of the site

How the income permit compares with the investor permit, the family rules and the other two Greek tax regimes are in the Greek residence guide. What life costs region by region is in the guide to living in Greece. How an American pension and Social Security are treated, and why the 1950 treaty matters, is in living in Greece as an American; the British side is in living in Greece from the UK. Every figure on this page is traced to its instrument on the sources page. How this route compares with five other countries, on income, cost, term and pension tax, is in countries with a retirement visa.

If Greece is where you plan to retire

We do not sell property and we do not give legal or tax advice. What we do is put a person who knows what they are asking in front of a licensed adviser in Greece. The questions that decide this route are rarely the €3,500. They are whether your income is documented in a form a Greek consulate accepts, and whether you file the 7% application in the first March after you move or lose a year of the regime. Send them through the enquiry form. We take no part in the fee.

Sources: where each figure comes from

• The permit, its three-year term, the family rule, the ban on work and the Greek-pension exemption: Law 5038/2023, article 163 §8, read on 25 October 2026 in its current text.
• The €3,500 a month, the 20% and 15% uplifts, the accepted forms of proof and the monthly or annual assessment: ministerial decision 225679/2024, Government Gazette Β΄ 5223 of 17 September 2024, article 1 §1(ι).
• The €180 consular fee, the €1,000 fee for the first permit and each renewal, the private insurance contract, the €150 renewal for Greek state pensioners and the €16 printing fee: ministerial decision 95391/2024, articles 2, 66 and 67, consolidated text updated on 12 November 2025.
• The 7% regime: Law 4172/2013, article 5B, and decision Α.1217/2020, article 4 §1, for the 31 March deadline, as recorded in our verification file for Greece of 28 August 2026.
• Permanent residence: Law 5038/2023, articles 143, 144 and 161, with article 37 of Law 5275/2026; household spending: ELSTAT's Household Budget Survey 2024; rents: RE/MAX Greece's figures from concluded leases. All as recorded in our Greek verification files of 28 August and 4 September 2026.
• Not published here: whether a type Ι.8 permit is expressly confirmed to count towards long-term residence; whether a reduced fee applies to family members; and any minimum level of health insurance cover. None was found stated at source.