Greeke Visa

[lambnigel]

hi every one hope i can find some info here. i want to bring my thai gf over to greece may be for a holiday or if poss to stay and work here for a while, my friend has a resturant and is interested in offering thai menue and she is a chef. . i am english but live in greece, have my own house and funds to make sure i can sponser her. has anyone had any experiance in getting a visa for a thai to come to greece.

[Thanyaburi Mac]

No experience with the Greek visa process but below some info from their www site. FYI, you can download the application at the site.

Mac

http://www.mfa.gr/www.mfa.gr/AuthoritiesAb...yBangkok/en-US/

Greek Embassy,Greece Consulate,

Embassy of Greece in Bangkok, Thailand - 21/159 South Sathorn Road, 30th floor, Thai Wah Tower II, Bangkok 10120. Tel: (00662) 6791462. Fax: 6791463

http://www.mfa.gr/www.mfa.gr/AuthoritiesAb.../Schengen+Visa/

Visa Section, Embassy of Greece in Bangkok

Monday - Friday 10.00 am – 1.00 pm

Tel. 02-6791462 Fax. 02-6791463

E-mail: [email protected] , [email protected]

Supporting documents for a visa application (plus one set copy)

1. Visa Application form

2. Two recent passport-size photos in white background

3. Passport with more than 6 months remaining validity

4. Identity Card / Work Permit / Residence Permit

5. Letter of employment or other evidence of business ownership, such as Business Registration Certificate

6. Latest-six-month bank statement or bank account booklet

7. Round-trip flight booking

8. Confirmed hotel reservation

9. Travel health insurance with minimum coverage of 30,000 Euros (more than 1.5 million baht)

10. Letter of invitation (for business meeting or persons staying in the residence of Greek citizens)

11. Parents’ consent (for persons under 21 years old)

12. Letter from school / university (for students)

13. Police Clearance Certificate and Medical Examination Certificate (for seamen and persons going to work or study in Greece)

Note that applicants may be also required to go through an interview (including those who apply as a group), or to submit additional documents.

For travelers applying as a group, an itinerary of the visit as well as a name list of all participants is required. Instead of tickets, a letter from an airline on their behalf is to be submitted. (The name list for the group, which is submitted in two sets, must include first name, last name, nationality, date of birth, place of birth, number of passport, date of issue and expiry)

Applicants must apply in person.

Application Form

[7by7]

For a holiday your girlfriend will need to apply for a Schengen visa as per the link provided by Thanyaburi Mac.

If she wishes to work in Greece then she will need to apply for a Greek work permit. I suggest that you contact the Greek embassy to ask about this.

If you were to marry, then as you are an EU national (British) exercising your right to live in another EU state (Greece) then your wife is entitled to an EEA family permit so that she can live in Greece with you. These are issued free of charge and she will be allowed to work. (Do not marry her so she can get a family permit! Only marry her if the two of you want to spend the rest of your lives together.)

Once in Greece she can apply for a residence card, and once she has been living there for 5 years she can apply for permanent residence.

The Greek embassy in Bangkok doesn't seem to give any information on this, so here is the information from the UKBA. As this is an EU regulation applying to the whole EEA the essential details are the same regardless of which country one is applying to. For how to apply to Greece I suggest that you ask the Greek embassy.

Please note that an EEA family permit issued by Greece so she can live in Greece with you would not permit her entry to another EU state, including the UK.

[gregchambers]

I thought an EEA family permit allowed travel with EU partner within in the EU - except it could be cancelled if too much time was spent outside the country for which it was initially granted.

Be interesting to know if you have to have any initial ties with the destination country to get the initial EEA family permit or if you can decide you want to live in Greece and just apply with proof of sufficient funds not to become a burden on the State (assuming you are British going somewhere outside the UK with a Thai partner).

"Please note that an EEA family permit issued by Greece so she can live in Greece with you would not permit her entry to another EU state, including the UK."

[7by7]

I thought an EEA family permit allowed travel with EU partner within in the EU - except it could be cancelled if too much time was spent outside the country for which it was initially granted.

A permanent residence card does, but the initial family permit doesn't.

Be interesting to know if you have to have any initial ties with the destination country to get the initial EEA family permit or if you can decide you want to live in Greece and just apply with proof of sufficient funds not to become a burden on the State

The EU national sponsor would need to show that they are exercising their treaty rights to live in the state concerned; either in employment, self employed, studying or self sufficient. They need to have been resident in the host state for at least three months or traveling to live there at the same time as their spouse/partner.

[gregchambers]

Thanks for the clarification, so if you have bank statements showing lots of money, marry a Thai (with proof of previous relationship) as a Brit you could turn up at the Greek embassy, say you want to live in Greece even though you have yet to arrange any accommodation or visited recently, and they would be obliged to give the Thai the family permit unless they had some proof that it was a marriage of convenience etc

[7by7]

You'd need to provide proof that you have sufficient means to support yourselves, but essentially; yes.

Not just a Brit living in or moving to Greece, but any EU national living in or moving to any EU state except the one of which they are a national; in which case that state's immigration laws would apply, not EU treaty rights. Unless they had been exercising their treaty rights in another EU state and were now returning home.

See DIRECTIVE 2004/58/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL for full details.