Greek Citizenship for Children Who Were Born or Attended School in Greece

The Law Office of Mrs Svetlana Kasatkina-Kouskou provides services for foreign nationals regarding the submission of the full set of documents required for acquisition of the Greek citizenship. The range of such services comprise the qualified support when gathering all prescribed documentation including obtaining of general certificate of education (Βεβαίωση Σπουδών).

There are a large number of foreign nationals who developed the particularly strong ties with the Country during their residence in Greece having created families and having their children attending Greek schools. Children, attaining their education in Greece, fluently speak the language, comprehend the basics of Greek culture, history and traditions and as a result become fully integrated into the local society, considering themselves finally to be Greek citizens. For the benefit of such foreign nationals the law 4332/2015 was enacted with a view to amend the Greek Citizenship code and to solve the issues with the Greek citizenship acquisition.

The general requirement for the Greek citizenship acquisition is an active residence permit. After that, the successful completion of nine classes of primary and secondary school or six classes of secondary school follows. The period of the kindergarten preschool is not taken into consideration. The above-mentioned successful completion of the required studies should be confirmed by the education certificate issued by the relevant service of the Ministry of Education.

A foreign national after reaching the age of majority still has the right to apply for the Greek citizenship if he or she permanently and legally resides in Greece and is the Greek higher (ΑΕΙ) or vocational (ΤΕΙ) school graduate, as long as the certificate of general secondary education issued by the Greek school will be also submitted.

A minor third-country national, who was born in Greece, according to the law 4332/2015, is entitled to become a Greek citizen if the following conditions are met:

• if the child is enrolled in the first class of the Greek primary school and attends it properly at the time of application,

• provided at list one of the child’s parents had legally resided in Greece for five years prior to the child’s birth (if the child has been born before the expiry of the aforementioned 5-year period, the right to apply for the Greek citizenship shall be granted after one of the parents completes 10 years of the legal residence in the Country),

• if one of the parents resides in Greece legally and his or her residence permit refers to one of the categories: long-term residence permit, 10-year residence permit, recognized political refugee or subsidiary protection status residence permit, second generation residence permit, expatriate ID card (ΕΔΤΟ), EU-national ID card, Greek citizen or EU citizen family member permanent resident card.