Look inside
The plan for Greece, from the inside
These are all 32 steps of the Greece journey, exactly as they appear in your personal plan — with the lead time and the costs next to them. Not a brochure: this is the file that feeds the platform. Pick another country below if you're heading elsewhere.
For which country?
Every country has its own steps, its own order and its own clocks. Switch as often as you like.
- Steps
- 32
- Phases
- 5
- Official sources
- 41
- Only for your situation
- 4
Phase 1
5 steps
Orientation
Greece asks for no permission but for an order, and the first surprise is which counter. The registration certificate comes from the police; the municipality does something quite different here than in Italy or Spain. And before everything comes a sum that's nowhere else this large: the 7% scheme for foreign pensions — if your pension qualifies for it.
- 1.1
Understand the system: the police is the gate
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 1.2
Choose your Greece: mainland or island
- Lead time
- an evening of research, and the conversation about it
- Costs
- none
- 1.3
Get a picture of what it's going to cost
- Lead time
- 1-2 hours with the calculator
- Costs
- none
- 1.4
Take the decision together
- Lead time
- no fixed one; take your time
- Costs
- none
- 1.6
Choose your target date
- Lead time
- five minutes, below
- Costs
- none
Phase 2
11 steps
Closing the Netherlands
The familiar list, with one sum that stands out and one exception that can wipe it away. The treaty with Greece allocates AOW and company pension to the state of residence, and there the 7% scheme stands ready: seven percent on all your foreign income for fifteen years. But an ABP pension stays Dutch, and the application closes on 31 March.
- 2.1
Arrange your healthcare: the basic insurance stops on the moving day
- Lead time
- start 2-3 months before departure; the CAK application takes ± 4 weeks
- Costs
- no application costs; the treaty contribution replaces your premium
1 official source
- 2.2
AOW and pension: to the state of residence — and then perhaps to 7%
- Lead time
- the report is an afternoon; the 7% application closes on 31 March
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.3
The tax wind-up: M return and the protective assessment
- Lead time
- the M return follows in the year after departure
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 2.4
Stopping allowances and child benefit
- Lead time
- an hour
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 2.5
Deregister with the municipality
- Lead time
- five working days before departure, not earlier
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 2.6
DigiD, bank and your vote: keep the lines with the Netherlands
- Lead time
- an afternoon
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.7
Documents: extracts, and the relocation certificate for the car
- Lead time
- extracts within a week; the consulate requires an appointment
- Costs
- extracts ± € 15 each
1 official source
- 2.8
Partner comes along without a job of their own
- Lead time
- an evening together, then a few things to arrange
- Costs
- none — the consequences are in the article
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.9
Living partly in the Netherlands: the eight-month rule
- Lead time
- one decision, before you commit to anything else
- Costs
- none
4 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.10
The house in the Netherlands: sell, rent out or keep
- Lead time
- one conversation with the mortgage lender and one with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advisory hours; when renting out possibly an interest surcharge from the bank
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.11
Children staying in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the house
- Lead time
- an evening, and after that one report a year
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
Phase 3
3 steps
The move
Within the EU moving is administratively nothing: no customs, no declaration. The distance is the item here — well over two thousand seven hundred kilometres by road, or the boat from Ancona or Bari. And the car deserves a decision of its own, because Greece sets one requirement that appears nowhere else on this site: below Euro 4 it doesn't get into the country.
- 3.1
Plan the journey: overland, or the boat from Italy
- Lead time
- quotes 4-6 weeks ahead; the ferry earlier in high season
- Costs
- see the cost estimate
- 3.2
The car: first the Euro standard, then the clocks
- Lead time
- the check is a quarter of an hour; the certificate costs a consulate appointment
- Costs
- see the cost estimate
1 official source
- 3.3
The pet: EU passport and a chip that can be read
- Lead time
- the vet wants two weeks' notice
- Costs
- see the cost estimate
1 official source
Phase 4
6 steps
Registration in Greece
The chain, in the only order in which it works: AFM, home with a registered contract, the certificate at the police, AMKA. Whoever turns the order around stands at the counter every time without the paper they ask for. And the AFM can nowadays be done from the Netherlands, via a video appointment — that's the biggest time saving of this whole journey.
- 4.1
The AFM: arrange it from the Netherlands, via myAADElive
- Lead time
- a video appointment of half an hour; plan it weeks ahead
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 4.2
Find your home — and have the contract registered
- Lead time
- searching 2-8 weeks; the registration is an act of the landlord
- Costs
- see the cost estimate
1 official source
- 4.3
The registration certificate: to the police, after three months
- Lead time
- the appointment is the wait; the issuing itself takes a few hours
- Costs
- € 0.50 in stamp duty
3 official sources
- 4.4
The AMKA: and for pensioners precisely not at the KEP
- Lead time
- at the KEP a quarter of an hour; via e-EFKA count on weeks
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 4.5
TaxisNet and gov.gr: the digital key
- Lead time
- an hour, as soon as you have the κλειδάριθμος
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 4.6
Bank account: with AFM and proof of address
- Lead time
- an appointment; the account is usually open the same day
- Costs
- mind the monthly charges; they're customary here
1 official source
Phase 5
7 steps
Arrival
The papers are in; now it becomes a life. The car has to be re-registered within the validity of its relocation certificate, the 7% application has one date a year, and healthcare works differently from what you're used to — with a co-payment per prescription and a distance to the hospital that suddenly counts on an island.
- 5.1
Re-registering the car: within twelve months, via customs
- Lead time
- count on a few weeks; start well within the twelve months
- Costs
- see the cost estimate
2 official sources
- 5.2
Work: the wage level, the collective agreement and e-EFKA
- Lead time
- ongoing
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 5.3
Healthcare in practice: EOPYY, the co-payment and the distance
- Lead time
- ongoing
- Costs
- co-payment per prescription; see the cost estimate
1 official source
- 5.4
Family: school, and the benefit via OPEKA
- Lead time
- enrol before the summer; the benefit per quarter
- Costs
- public education is free
2 official sources
- 5.5
Tax: the brackets, and the assessments on your home
- Lead time
- the return follows in spring
- Costs
- n/a
2 official sources
- 5.6
Learn Greek: the alphabet first
- Lead time
- ongoing; count on a year before it really starts to work
- Costs
- see the cost estimate
- 5.7
The small print: driving licence, utilities and the summer
- Lead time
- spread over the first year
- Costs
- see the cost estimate
1 official source
4 of these steps aren't always there. They appear only when your answers call them up — a pet, a car, children staying behind. That's the difference between a plan and a checklist in which you have to work out yourself what applies.
Look inside
This is what one step of your plan looks like
Not a brochure but the real thing: this is one of the steps of the Greece journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.
Step 4.3 of your plan
The registration certificate: to the police, after three months
- Lead time
- the appointment is the wait; the issuing itself takes a few hours
- Costs
- € 0.50 in stamp duty
This is the paper that arranges your stay beyond three months, and it comes from the police: the Immigration Department in Attica and Thessaloniki, and elsewhere the police station that handles aliens' affairs. There's now an electronic application via the police portal.
They accept five documents: a copy of your passport or ID, three colour photos of 4×4 cm, proof of your residential address (the registered rental contract), proof of sufficient means of subsistence, and proof of full health cover. For pensioners the S1 from step 2.1 fills in that last requirement.
Two things that come as a relief: it costs € 0.50 in stamp duty, and the certificate is valid indefinitely after that — you don't have to renew it. And one you need to know: the duty arises after the three-month period has elapsed. Knocking earlier is pointless.
This is step 4.3 of 32. The other 31 are ready for you — each with the same sources, the same counters and a planning that watches your dates.
And what you don't see here
This page shows the content. What a page can't show is the work the platform does for you afterwards:
- The clocks that start running the moment you begin, and a nudge at the moment something is asked of you — not earlier.
- Your documents in one place, with their expiry dates watched, so nothing lapses while you wait for something else.
- The ticking off, together with your partner on the same journey.
- The steps that drop out or appear based on your answers, so your plan holds only what really applies to you.
Ready to start on Greece?
All 32 steps, set to your situation and with the deadlines watched. € 199 once, no subscription.
The departure guide
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Greece: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that one question about where your plans stand, and beyond that only a short update when something in Greece really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Ready to begin?
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