With the new provision of Law 5078/2023[1], a novel type of residence permit for work purposes has been introduced for third-country nationals. Specifically, Article 193 of this law, confers  the Secretary of the Decentralized Administration the authority, to issue a residence permit with the right to access dependent employment and the provision of services or work to third-country nationals who meet the specified conditions. Specifically:

A. Conditions for granting the residence permit for employment:

• The applicant must possess a job offer declaration from an employer in Greece for employment, under a dependent employment or service/work provision status and
• The applicant must have resided in Greece until 30/11/2023, without a residence permit and
• The applicant must continue to reside in Greece and
• The applicant must have completed at least three (3) consecutive years of stay in Greece before submitting the application and
• The applicant must possess a passport, even if expired and
• No reasons of public order and security should apply and
• The applicant must pay a fee of €300 and a printing cost of the residence permit of €16 and
• The employer must submit a declaration (via gov.gr) committing to employ the applicant.

B. Application and issuance process of the residence permit:

– Electronic submission of the application to the service of a local authority of the Decentralized Administration (in the region where they will work).

– Issuance of a certificate of application submission within 40 days after submission, following a check by the competent authority.

– Electronic submission of supporting documents[2] for the start of employment within an exclusive deadline of 60 days from the receipt of the certificate of application submission, otherwise, the application is rejected.

Finally, the residence permit is granted once, with a duration of three (3) years. Upon its expiration, a change of residence permit category can be requested. The residence permit is also granted to the spouse-parent and minor children of third-country nationals, provided that the parent has obtained a residence permit, and the spouse-parent and children are in Greece until 30/11/2023.

Maria Aikaterini Papadopoulou
Lawyer
LLM in History and Theory of Law, Law School of Athens, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
LLM in Civil Law, Law School of Athens, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
LLM in Commercial Law, Law School of Democritian University of Thrace

[1] Law N. 5078/2023 (Government Gazette A 211/20.12.2023) with the title: “Reform of professional insurance, Rationalization of Insurance legislation, Pension Arrangements, Appointing and hiring system for public service educators and other provisions”

[2] Contract or hiring announcement, commencement details for the provision of services or work.