Greece FIP visa: the paperwork in order

The Financially Independent Person route is Greece’s path for people moving on income or savings rather than employment — retirees and the independently funded, primarily. Applicants skew older than on the nomad route, which affects both pricing and the age limits that apply to new policies.

It is applied for from your home country as a national (type D) visa. See the FIP insurance guide and retiring in Greece.

The core of a FIP file is documented, stable income that does not depend on working in Greece, supported by accommodation evidence and health insurance meeting the published national-visa rule.

Greece is more transparent than most destinations about the insurance element, which is genuinely helpful: you can verify compliance yourself before spending anything, rather than guessing at an officer’s interpretation.

Sequence matters here as much as the documents themselves, and Greece asks for the same category of evidence twice — once for the visa, once for the permit.

Assemble income evidence first; it is the backbone of the application, the slowest thing to produce in the form an authority accepts, and it is tested again at the permit stage against the published €3,500-a-month benchmark. Accommodation next. Then insurance, checked against the four visa conditions below before you pay for anything.

Arrange the policy late among your documents rather than early — timed close to your appointment rather than bought months ahead and left to go stale. Certificates carry dates, and cover whose validity starts before your intended entry, or expires inside your stated stay, fails on timing rather than on cover. But buy it in a shape that survives past the visa year, because you will be showing insurance again in Greece.

Greek national (type D) visas require travel medical insurance with minimum cover of €30,000, valid for the whole Schengen area and the full duration of stay, covering emergency care, hospitalisation, and repatriation.

That single sentence contains four separate tests, and a policy can satisfy three and fail the fourth. The figure (€30,000). The territory — the whole Schengen area, not Greece alone, which catches people who sensibly bought "insurance for Greece". The duration — your full stay. And the scope — all three of emergency care, hospitalisation and repatriation, with repatriation the condition most often missing from otherwise generous policies. See why Greek files get refused and what your certificate must say.

The visa is the entry step, not the destination. Once in Greece you apply for the residence permit itself, and this is a second, separate file rather than a formality.

The Financially Independent Person permit is issued under Article 163(8) of Law 5038/2023, and its supporting documents include an insurance policy from a private insurance company — insurance is asked for again, at the permit stage, on top of what satisfied the consulate. The published income test is a stable annual income of around €3,500 per month, increased by 20% for a spouse and 15% for each child.

Applications are handled by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum’s Directorate of Residence Permits, submitted through the ministry’s electronic platform, and the permit that results is an electronic residence card carrying biometric data rather than a stamp in a passport. Budget for the official charges as well: the published fees for this category are an electronic fee of €1,000 plus a €16 card fee.

The practical consequence for your cover: a policy bought purely to clear the consulate, expiring at the end of the visa year, is the wrong shape. Cover that renews at each anniversary means the permit file can be assembled without re-shopping under time pressure. Note too that offices vary in how they read a file, so treat this stage as one to prepare for rather than assume. See how Greek healthcare fits together.

The one part of this file you can lock in before anything else is the cost of the insurance itself. On the 2026 rate card, Essential cover starts from $392 per adult per year and children age 0 to 17 sit at a flat $308 per year. Prices are per person per year on annual billing; your exact rate depends on age and cover level. Age limits matter more on this route than most: new-applicant caps are 80 for Essential and 70 for the other levels.

Remember what you are leaving: US and UK domestic plans are generally not structured to cover treatment abroad for residents, so this is replacement cover rather than a top-up. Cover can start the same day with no medical exam, and there is a 14-day cooling-off period. Pre-existing conditions are excluded, including ones you did not know about, and cover is worldwide but excludes treatment in the United States.

Covered Abroad is an introducer, not the insurer. A person checks your certificate wording against the current published rule before you buy, and calls you with a quote with no obligation. See real Greece prices by age, compare levels at pricing, or run an existing policy through the free policy check.