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In February 2026 Greece launched two new national visas: the Tech Visa for startup hires and the Talent Visa for recent top-university graduates. Here is who qualifies, what each lets you do, the costs, and how to apply.
Greece just opened two doors that didn’t exist before. In February 2026 the country passed a sweeping new immigration law and created the Tech Visa and the Talent Visa, two national visas aimed squarely at skilled non-EU workers and recent graduates. If you work in tech for a Greek startup, or you finished a Master’s, PhD, or postdoc at a well-ranked university in the last few years, one of these is probably the fastest legal route into Greece.
Both are for people who want to work inside Greece, which is what separates them from the Digital Nomad Visa and its remote workers billing clients abroad. They’re also brand new, so the rules are fresh, the coverage is thin, and some of the fine print is still being written.
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Key Takeaways
- Greece’s Law 5275/2026 created two new 12-month national visas in February 2026: the Tech Visa and the Talent Visa.
- The Tech Visa is for non-EU workers hired by a Greek startup registered on Elevate Greece, needs a gross salary of at least 1.6 times the national average (about €32,000 a year as of the latest figure), and locks you to that one employer.
- The Talent Visa is for recent Master’s, PhD, or postdoc graduates of a top-ranked university, and uniquely requires no job offer to apply.
- Both are separate from the Digital Nomad Visa, which is for remote workers with clients abroad.
- Government fees are modest (around €150 for the national visa plus about €16 for the residence card), but insurance, translations, and apostilles add up.
- You apply for the Type D national visa at a Greek consulate, then convert to a residence permit inside Greece.
- The Talent Visa’s qualifying ranking lists and financial threshold depend on a ministerial decision that was still pending in mid-2026, so confirm current status before applying.
What Are the Tech Visa and Talent Visa
Both visas come from Law 5275/2026, which took effect on 6 February 2026 and overhauled large parts of the Greek Immigration Code. Each is a national long-stay visa valid for 12 months, and each targets a different kind of applicant.
- The Tech Visa (residence category Z.13A) is for a non-EU national coming to work for a Greek startup that is registered on the national startup registry, Elevate Greece.
- The Talent Visa (residence category Z.15) is for a recent graduate of a top-ranked university who wants to come to Greece to look for work or start a business, with no job offer required up front.
The distinction matters because it decides which visa you can even apply for. The Tech Visa needs a job at a specific type of company before you move. The Talent Visa needs a qualifying degree and lets you find the job after you arrive.
Good to Know: These visas are separate from the Greece Digital Nomad Visa. If you work remotely for companies outside Greece rather than for a Greek employer, the Digital Nomad Visa is your route, not these two.
What Each Visa Lets You Do
Both visas give you 12 months of legal residence in Greece, but what you’re allowed to do during those 12 months differs.
Tech Visa
You can live in Greece and work for the Elevate Greece company named in your employment contract. You can’t switch to a different employer during the visa’s validity, because the visa is tied exclusively to that one company. Toward the end of the 12 months, you move onto a longer-term work or residence permit to keep going.
Talent Visa
You can enter Greece and spend the 12 months looking for a job or setting up a business, without needing an offer in hand when you arrive. This is the visa’s headline advantage. Once you secure employment, you convert to the appropriate work or residence permit before the visa expires.
Who Qualifies
The eligibility rules are where these two visas diverge most sharply. Read the one that applies to you.
Tech Visa Requirements
- A job with an Elevate Greece company: you need a valid employment contract with a company registered on the Elevate Greece national startup registry. This is the core requirement, and it’s non-negotiable.
- A 12-month contract: the employment contract must run for at least 12 months.
- A gross salary of at least 1.6 times the national average, roughly €32,000 a year: your gross annual salary must be at least 1.6 times the average gross annual salary in Greece. The government’s most recent published figure for this same 1.6x threshold (used for the EU Blue Card) is €31,918.83 gross per year. That works out to about €2,660 a month over 12 months, or roughly €2,280 a month if you’re paid across Greece’s usual 14 salary installments
- High professional qualifications: you must show evidence of high-level skills, usually a higher education degree or equivalent professional experience.
Using the current €31,918.83 floor, here’s how three realistic offers land:
- €40,000 gross (a senior developer offer): clears the floor by about €8,000. Comfortable, with margin to spare even if the threshold ticks up next year. Qualifies.
- €33,000 gross (a mid-level offer): clears it, but only by about €1,100. It qualifies today, but you’re one annual revision of the average salary away from slipping under. Ask the employer whether there’s room to move it up.
- €28,000 gross (a junior or early-career offer): fails. It sits about €4,000 below the floor, and no amount of strong qualifications or a great company fixes that. The application is rejected on salary alone.
The number is your first filter, not your last. A €28,000 offer from a perfect Elevate Greece startup doesn’t get you a Tech Visa, but a €35,000 offer from the same company does. Negotiate the gross figure into qualifying range before you sign, because the salary written into the contract is the one the consulate reads.
Tip: The floor is 1.6 times a national-average figure that Greece revises over time, so treat €31,918.83 as this year’s number rather than a permanent one. Before you count on qualifying, confirm the current figure and check your actual gross contract salary against it, ideally with a few thousand euros of headroom.
Talent Visa Requirements
- An advanced degree from a top-ranked university: a Master’s, PhD, or postdoctoral qualification from an institution that appears on at least two international university ranking lists.
- A recent degree: the qualification must have been completed within the last five years from the date you apply.
- Proof of funds: you must show sufficient financial means to support yourself for the full 12 months, typically via bank statements.
- No job offer needed: unlike almost every other work-linked visa, you don’t need employment lined up to apply.
On the funds question, the law says “sufficient means” but the exact euro figure is one of the details still pending a ministerial decision (see the caveat further down). Until it’s published, use Greece’s other self-funded routes as a yardstick: the Digital Nomad Visa asks for about €3,500 a month in income, and everyday living costs outside central Athens run roughly €800 to €1,200 a month for one person.
To make the Talent Visa concrete: a 29-year-old who finished a PhD in machine learning at a university that sits on the QS and Times Higher Education lists two years ago, with €18,000 saved, fits the profile cleanly. She applies with no job offer, lands in Athens, and has 12 months to turn interviews into a contract or a registered business before converting to a residence permit.
The same person eight years past graduation would fail the five-year recency rule, and the same person with a degree from an unranked institution would fail the ranking test, no matter how strong the CV.
Required Documents
Exact document checklists come from the Greek consulate handling your application, but the core paperwork breaks down by visa.
For the Tech Visa
- Valid passport
- The signed 12-month employment contract with the Elevate Greece company
- Proof the employer is registered on Elevate Greece
- Evidence your salary meets the 1.6 times threshold
- Proof of your professional qualifications (degree or equivalent)
- Private health insurance
- Clean criminal record certificate
For the Talent Visa
- Valid passport
- Your Master’s, PhD, or postdoc certificate, with transcripts
- Evidence the awarding university appears on at least two international ranking lists
- Bank statements proving sufficient funds
- Private health insurance
- Clean criminal record certificate
Foreign documents will generally need to be officially translated into Greek and legalized with an apostille. Build time for that into your plan, because it’s a common cause of delay.
The Tech and Talent visas are too new for much lived experience to have accumulated, but the two-stage structure they use is the same one Greece’s other national visas run on, and the expat forums have plenty to say about that. The consistent advice is to get translations done by translators who are also attorneys, since a document rejected on its translation costs you a consular appointment rather than a correction.
The other recurring warning is about what the D visa actually is: forum regulars keep having to explain that it exists to get you into Greece so you can complete the residence permit procedure, and that without completing that second step you have no basis to stay past 90 days. Treat the 12-month visa as the start of the process rather than the result.
Costs and Fees
The government fees themselves are modest. It’s the paperwork around them that costs real money. Here’s a realistic breakdown for one applicant:
| Item | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| National (Type D) visa fee | ~€150 | Paid at the consulate |
| Residence permit card | ~€16 | Issued after you convert inside Greece |
| Private health insurance (12 months) | €350–€900 | Expat policies; price rises with age and coverage |
| Certified translations into Greek | €30–€60 per document | Contract, degree, criminal record, and so on |
| Apostille / legalization | €10–€30 per document | On top of the translation |
| Criminal record certificate | €10–€40 | Varies by home country |
| Immigration lawyer (optional) | €800–€2,500 | Not required, but common for a first application |
So the pure government cost is under €170, but a realistic all-in figure once you add insurance, four or five translated-and-apostilled documents, and no lawyer is closer to €700 to €1,300. Bring in a lawyer and you’re in the €1,500 to €3,500 range. The translations and apostilles are the sneaky line item, because each document carries both a translation fee and a legalization fee, and they multiply fast.
How to Apply
The path runs in two stages: get the national entry visa first, then move onto a residence permit inside Greece.
- Apply for the national visa at a Greek consulate: you file for the Type D national visa at the Greek embassy or consulate in your home country, with the document set for your visa type.
- Enter Greece on the 12-month visa: once granted, the visa lets you enter and reside for 12 months.
- Convert to a residence permit: before the visa runs out, you apply for the residence permit that fits your situation. For a Tech Visa holder that follows your ongoing employment; for a Talent Visa holder it follows the job or business you found.
Under the new law, a complete single-permit application is reviewed within 90 days, and the resulting permit combines residence and labor-market access without a separate work permit. Apply well before your current status lapses, since translation and consular scheduling eat into the timeline.
Common Rejection Reasons and How to Avoid Them
Because these visas are new, the most common problems are avoidable ones: applying against the wrong criteria, or with paperwork that doesn’t prove what the law requires.
The Employer Is Not Actually on Elevate Greece
A Tech Visa stands or falls on the employer being a registered Elevate Greece company. Confirm the company’s registration directly before you sign anything. A great job offer from a company that isn’t on the registry doesn’t qualify.
The Salary Falls Below the 1.6 Times Floor
If your gross annual salary comes in under 1.6 times the national average, currently about €31,900 a year, the application fails on a hard legal criterion. An offer of €30,000 misses it; €35,000 clears it. Check the current threshold and confirm your contract clears it with room to spare, since the figure creeps up as Greek wages rise.
The University Is Not on Two Ranking Lists
For the Talent Visa, your degree must come from an institution on at least two international ranking lists, and the specific lists that count are set by the Greek authorities. A strong university that doesn’t appear on the qualifying lists won’t pass. Verify your institution against the current lists before applying.
The Degree Is Older Than Five Years
The Talent Visa is aimed at recent graduates. A qualification completed more than five years before your application date doesn’t meet the recency rule.
Incomplete or Un-apostilled Documents
Missing translations, missing apostilles, or an expired criminal record certificate are the routine paperwork failures. Assemble the full set, properly legalized, before you file.
Pre-Application Checklist
Before you submit, confirm you can answer yes to the checklist for your visa:
- Tech Visa: employer verified on Elevate Greece, 12-month contract signed, gross salary confirmed at or above the 1.6x floor (about €31,900/year), qualifications documented, insurance and clean record in hand.
- Talent Visa: degree is a Master’s, PhD, or postdoc, university confirmed on at least two qualifying ranking lists, degree completed within five years, funds proven, insurance and clean record in hand.
A Big Caveat: The Rules Are Still Being Finalized
Here’s the part most write-ups skip. Law 5275/2026 created these visas, but several of the operational details depend on a separate ministerial decision that fills in the specifics. For the Talent Visa, that decision defines which university ranking lists count and sets the exact financial-means threshold. As of mid-2026 that implementing decision had not been published.
In practice, that means the Talent Visa in particular may not be fully processable until the ministerial decision lands, and the qualifying ranking lists and money threshold can be pinned down only once it does. Before you commit to this route, check the current status with a Greek consulate or an immigration lawyer. Don’t assume the fine print is settled just because the law exists.
After You Arrive: Renewal and Next Steps
Neither visa is meant to be a dead end at 12 months. Both are designed to feed into a longer-term residence and work permit once you’re established.
For a Tech Visa holder, that transition follows your continued employment with the same company or a new permit category. For a Talent Visa holder, it follows whatever you build during your 12 months: a job, which converts you to a work permit, or a business, which routes you to the matching residence permit. Time spent legally resident in Greece also starts to build toward the longer-term residence status that eventually opens the door to permanent residence, so getting on and staying on a legal permit is what compounds.
Tech Visa vs Talent Visa vs Digital Nomad Visa
If you’re not sure which of Greece’s routes fits you, this is the quick way to self-select.
| Factor | Tech Visa | Talent Visa | Digital Nomad Visa |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it’s for | Non-EU worker hired by a Greek startup | Recent Master’s/PhD/postdoc grad | Remote worker with clients or employer abroad |
| Job offer needed? | Yes, before you apply | No | No |
| Employer tie | Locked to one Elevate Greece company | None | None (works for foreign clients) |
| Key financial test | Salary at least 1.6x national average (~€31,900/yr) | Proof of sufficient funds (figure pending) | Minimum monthly foreign income (~€3,500/mo) |
| Work inside Greece? | Yes, for the sponsor | Yes, once you find work | No, foreign income only |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I change employers on the Tech Visa?
No. During the 12-month Tech Visa the law ties you exclusively to the Elevate Greece company in your contract. A change of employer means a new application under whatever category then fits.
Can my family come with me?
Greece’s immigration framework provides for family reunification on residence permits, but the exact terms for these new categories can depend on the implementing rules. Confirm the current family-reunification conditions for your specific visa with a consulate or lawyer before you plan the move.
Does time on these visas count toward permanent residence?
Legal residence in Greece builds toward the longer-term and permanent residence statuses over the qualifying period. Staying continuously on valid permits is what accumulates that time, so converting cleanly from the 12-month visa to a residence permit matters.
What happens if I lose my job on the Tech Visa?
Because the Tech Visa is bound to a single employer, losing that job undermines the basis of the visa. Get legal advice immediately if this happens, rather than waiting for the visa to lapse.
Can I apply from inside Greece?
The entry route is the national Type D visa obtained from a Greek consulate before you travel. Under the new law, single-permit applications can be filed from inside or outside Greece in some cases, but for these entry visas plan on applying from your home country unless a consulate or lawyer confirms otherwise for your situation.
Is It Worth It?
For the right applicant these are among the most attractive routes into Greece right now. The Tech Visa gives a startup hire a clean, fast entry, and the Talent Visa offers something rare: legal entry to look for work with no job offer required. The catch is timing. The law is live, but the implementing detail is still settling, so the smart move is to confirm the current status before you build a plan around either one.
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