The Greek authorities have declared that they will no longer accept applications for digital nomad visas within the country.
The new regulations will go into effect on January 1, 2024, according to SchengenVisaInfo.com.
Applications must be submitted through Greek consular posts, which means that they must be submitted in the applicant’s nation of citizenship or place of residency, as of the same day. Each country has different requirements for documentation and processing periods.
Foreign nationals may legally reside in Greece and work from there for international clients or companies under the conditions of the digital nomad visa.
To be eligible for this type of visa, applicants must be citizens of non-EU nations and fulfill a number of requirements, including proving they are digital nomads, having a valid work contract registered outside of Greece, and making at least €3,500 per month.
In Greece, the number of digital nomads keeps rising. By 2022, 595 people had applied for this type of visa, compared to just 10 in 2021, according to Ekathimerini’s statistics.
According to the same source, 70 people submitted applications for the Digital Nomad Visa in the first two months of this year.
Russians submitted 433 out of 595 applications for this visa in 2022, which is the majority of applicants; in 2023, just 48 out of the total 70 requests were filed by Russians.
Research from the “MIT Enterprise Forum” that was released earlier this year claims that if Greece were to draw 100,000 digital nomads annually with an average stay of six months, it might profit more than €1.6 billion.
According to the report, that sum almost equals the revenue produced by 2.5 million visitors staying for a week.
Therefore, the Digital Nomads initiative was launched by Greece’s Ministry of Tourism in many locations, including Ermoupolis, Heraklion, and Kalamata, with the aim of attracting foreign visitors.
The digital nomad visa for the country is valid for one year, with a maximum extension option of three years. Persons intending to stay longer than one year must apply for a residence permit before their digital nomad visa expires.
As of right now, several nations have Digital Nomad Visa policies in place that greatly boost their economies.
These programs are available in a number of nations, including Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Malta, Romania, the Netherlands, and Norway.