Greece Nomad Visa: The €3,500 Monthly Test

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Greece's digital nomad national visa requires €3,500 a month. When that money is salary, services, or project pay, Article 68 of the Immigration Code counts it after tax in the country where the work is performed. A spouse or cohabitant raises the same bar to €4,200.

The shortcut that let people enter on a short-stay visa, or with no visa at all, and apply from inside Greece is gone. Law 5275/2026, published in the Government Gazette on 6 February 2026, abolished that paragraph. The live path is a national visa from a Greek consulate, for up to 12 months, and then a two-year residence permit filed before that visa expires.

Remote employees and freelancers paid by clients outside Greece are who the statute describes. A partner who will not have a local job still changes the euro figure, and a US passport does not turn the stay into a tax holiday. The Thailand DTV fee and stay limit is a different number, so do not copy €3,500 onto that application.

What income clears Greece's digital nomad visa?

Article 68 sets sufficient resources at €3,500 per month of stable income, so the applicant does not draw on Greek social welfare. The Ministry of Migration and Asylum text is a fixed euro amount in the code, not a multiple of the minimum wage. Law 5275/2026 did not replace that figure.

Who can use it is narrower than "anyone with savings." The visa is for third-country nationals who are self-employed, freelancers, or employees and who can do the work remotely, with information and communication technology, for employers or clients outside Greece. The consular file has to match that shape.

When the €3,500 is net, and when a bank account is the proof

If the resources come from salaried dependent work, services, or a project, the €3,500 is net income after the taxes required in the country where the work is provided. A gross contract that still has tax coming out of it is not the number the statute uses. Show the pay after that tax, not the invoice total.

The same paragraph allows two kinds of proof. Dependent work, services, or a project can be shown with the employment or project contract, or with proof of the employment relationship. The other route is a bank account. The statute still calls the standard stable income at €3,500 a month. It does not say a one-time deposit of €3,500 is enough, and it does not publish a required number of statements. Bring the contract when you have one, and statements that show the income is ongoing.

An employed applicant shows a contract, or proof of employment, with an employer established outside Greece. An open-ended contract works. A fixed-term contract works only if the remaining term covers the visa. The file also needs the company's name, seat, field, and purpose. A freelancer with more than one foreign employer shows those contracts. Someone self-employed in their own business shows their role and the same company facts, and that business has to sit outside Greece.

Every applicant also signs a solemn declaration: they intend to live in Greece on this national visa for remote work, and they will not provide work, services, or a project to an employer based in Greece.

Family add-ons are percentages of the €3,500 base, not a second wage test for the partner. The statute increases the amount by 20% for a spouse or cohabitant and by 15% for each child. Twenty percent of €3,500 is €700. Fifteen percent is €525.

Who travels	Add-on in Article 68	Monthly bar
Applicant alone	None	€3,500
Spouse or cohabitant	+20% (€700)	€4,200
One child, no spouse on the file	+15% (€525)	€4,025
Spouse plus one child	+20% and +15%	€4,725
Spouse plus two children	+20% and +15% twice	€5,250

Data note: the euro bars are Article 68(2)(e) of Law 5038/2023 as published by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. The add-on euros are 20% and 15% of €3,500. As of October 2026, Law 5275/2026 had not replaced the €3,500 figure.

Which application path still works?

The national visa comes from the Greek consulate, for up to 12 months. You may appear in person or send the file by email or registered post. The statute says the consulate must answer within 10 days of that request and finish the visa in one stop of the applicant, apart from the general documents set in a separate ministerial decision. That clock starts when the request is actually with the consulate. It is not a promise that an appointment slot exists 10 days after you start looking.

Article 68(2)(f) sets the national visa fee at €75. The Greek Embassy in the United Kingdom lists a national long-stay visa (type D) at €180, and €90 for students. Those two official numbers do not match. Budget the invoice from the consulate that will take your passport, and treat €75 as the figure written into the immigration code, not as a quote.

The in-country route closed on 6 February 2026

The 2023 code had a second door. Article 12(7) let someone who already met the Article 68 work profile enter on a uniform (Schengen) visa, or under a visa waiver, and apply for the type I.8 residence permit during that stay. That file also needed a Greek residential lease or a property purchase contract.

Law 5275/2026 rewrote Article 12 and marked paragraph 7 abolished. The law was published as FEK A 17 on 6 February 2026 and took effect on publication. The Ministry of Migration and Asylum lists that statute. US citizens, who can usually enter Greece for a short visa-free stay, cannot use that stay as the digital nomad application. The category that remains is a long-stay national visa, title Z.1, issued before you rely on this status.

After you hold the national visa, Article 68(4) is the next filing. If the paragraph 2 conditions still hold, the Secretary of the Decentralized Administration may grant a type I.8 residence permit for two years. You apply before the national visa expires, at the Aliens and Migration Directorate for the place where you live. Article 163(8)(c) then says that I.8 permit does not give you, your spouse or partner, or your family the right to dependent work or to independent economic activity in Greece.

Article 171 sets the electronic fee for an I.8 application at €1,000. It drops to €150 for someone who receives, or is entitled to, a pension from a Greek main social-insurance body. That discount is a narrow retiree exception inside the fee table. It is not a reason to use a remote-work visa for pension income.

1. Match the work to a client or employer outside Greece, and sign the declaration that you will not work for an employer based in Greece.
2. If the pay is salary, services, or project income, compute it after tax in the country where the work is provided and compare it with €3,500, or with the family line in the table.
3. Apply at a Greek consulate for the national visa. Do not plan the filing around a visa-free entry.
4. Pay the fee that consulate invoices. The code says €75. The UK national type D table says €180.
5. Before the national visa expires, file the I.8 permit where you live in Greece and budget the €1,000 electronic fee unless the Greek-pension exception applies.

Can a spouse or child come, and can they work?

Family members can receive their own visa, and it ends on the same day as the sponsor's visa. During the stay they may not take dependent work or carry on any economic activity in Greece. The income test does not create a work permit for the household.

Article 68(3) defines the family for this visa. It includes the other spouse, or the cohabitant with a cohabitation agreement. It includes unmarried common children under 18, including children adopted under a foreign judgment that is enforceable in Greece. It also includes other unmarried children under 18 of the sponsor or of the spouse or cohabitant, if custody has been legally assigned to that adult.

Children change only the income math, at €525 each, while they are the unmarried under-18 children the statute lists. They do not create a separate €3,500 test in their own name.

Do you still owe US tax if Greece gives you the visa?

Yes. A Greek residence title does not end US citizenship taxation. You still file a US return on worldwide income. For tax year 2026, the IRS foreign earned income exclusion is $132,900, up from $130,000 for 2025, and only if you qualify. The exclusion page says the excluded amount can reduce regular income tax on foreign earned self-employment income and does not reduce self-employment tax.

Self-employment tax still has a floor. An IRS practice unit states that US citizens and resident aliens who are self-employed owe it when net earnings from self-employment are at least $400, including when the work happens outside the United States. The same unit notes that a totalization agreement can take that income out of US self-employment tax when the agreement assigns it only to the other country's system.

The US-Greece totalization agreement assigns self-employed coverage by residence. Self-employed people who reside in the United States stay in the US system. Self-employed people who reside in Greece are assigned Greek coverage. If the same activity runs in both countries, coverage follows the country of residence. A self-employed person living in Greece asks the Greek fund they pay for the certificate of coverage. Get that certificate before you assume the US self-employment tax stopped.

Greece can tax you as a resident on a different clock from the visa. AADE's reading of Article 4 of the Income Tax Code treats you as a Greek tax resident if your permanent or principal home, your habitual abode, or the center of your vital interests is in Greece. Separately, more than 183 days in Greece, counted cumulatively across any 12-month period, makes you a Greek tax resident from the first day of that presence. The day-count exception is only for stays that are exclusively tourist, medical, therapeutic, or similar private reasons, and that do not exceed 365 days including short trips out. A remote-work residence is not that exception. Once Greek tax residence is in play, the income-tax regime is a different decision from the visa math, and the Greece non-dom flat tax guide is the place to run it.

Keep the dollar account you already use for client payments. Charles Schwab is one US brokerage Americans keep open for card withdrawals while a Greek permit is still in process. The immigration file cares about the euro income test, not which US institution holds the balance.

What to do before you pay the consulate

Run the net figure first. Solo applicants need €3,500 a month after the tax the statute counts. A spouse moves the line to €4,200, and each child adds €525. If the number fails, the rest of the paperwork does not repair it. If Greece drops off the list, reopen the other country thresholds under geographic arbitrage before you pay a different consulate.

Then use the consular national visa. The in-country filing from a short stay was repealed on 6 February 2026. After the visa is issued, file the two-year I.8 permit before it expires and expect a €1,000 fee unless a Greek main-insurance pension cuts that fee to €150. Keep the US return, and do not treat the foreign earned income exclusion as a substitute for self-employment tax unless the totalization certificate actually moves that coverage to Greece.

Data notes / Sources checked

• Ministry of Migration and Asylum, Law 5038/2023 (Immigration Code) — Article 68 income test, family rules, €75 visa fee, two-year I.8 path; Article 12(7) as originally printed; Article 163(8)(c); Article 171 I.8 fee.
• Ministry of Migration and Asylum, Law 5275/2026 (FEK A 17 / 6 February 2026) — listed statute that abolished Article 12(7). Gazette text checked October 2026.
• Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UK consular fees — national long-stay visa (type D) listed at €180.
• AADE, tax residence for natural persons — Article 4 of Law 4172/2013, including the 183-day rule.
• IRS, tax year 2026 inflation adjustments — foreign earned income exclusion of $132,900.
• IRS, foreign earned income exclusion — exclusion does not reduce self-employment tax.
• Social Security Administration, totalization agreement with Greece — self-employed coverage follows the country of residence.

Disclaimer: This is educational reporting on published Greek immigration rules and US tax rules, not legal, tax, or immigration advice. Consulates apply the file in front of them, and a qualified immigration lawyer or tax professional should review your contracts, family documents, and residence days before you file.