There is no bigger integration course than going through the process of getting all the documents needed to officially live in Greece. The Greek bureaucracy you face while moving to Greece, will teach you the meaning of siga siga, the use of the word “malaka“, and the value of a husband in Greek culture. Most importantly, you will learn that some things are only solved with money or a night of drinking tsipouro with the right person. By the time you get your papers though, you’re more than ready to live in this country like a local. And if you don’t, well then it’s better that you got out!

The experience

Before moving to Greece, my friends had warned me about the bureaucracy in their country. However, being a positive person, I kind of ignored their concerns and figured that things would work out for me. How difficult could it be to obtain the things I needed to officially move to Greece when I had all the needed documents with me? I never expected the worst, but then the worst happened.

This article will explain the challenges I faced while moving to Greece. Although I truly hope that I was just unlucky in this process, I do believe that you will face at least some ridicule when interacting with the Greek government and I simply want to prepare you for that. Besides my strange or frustrating story, I have also added information about the documents you need to arrange certain things and the problems you might face. Enjoy the read, and if you are facing similar challenges, don’t hesitate to contact me or leave a comment below!

House and AFM

To live in Greece, the first thing you need is a house. In order to rent a house, you need a Greek tax number, the AFM. However, to get an AFM, you need an address. So immediately in the first step of moving to Greece, the fun of Greek bureaucracy starts. It’s like the chicken-and-the-egg dilemma that can only be solved by the most important thing in Greek culture: a husband. 

It seems almost as if the Greeks are simply not prepared for a woman alone to move to their country. What the system expects of a foreigner, is to have a host who can provide the address needed to get the tax number. This host is often assumed to be the husband. Every time I went to the municipal offices, the first question was: Where is your husband?

I don’t have a husband was a shocking answer for many of them. Without one they didn’t know how to help me. I think many didn’t even believe that I was going to live and work here. As I moved to the most non-touristic and unattractive town in Greece, Argos. 

The tools you need: money & a Host

In the beginning, I felt stuck. I found the house I wanted to rent, but the owner couldn’t lease it to me because I did not have my AFM. At the same time, the municipality did not want to give me my AFM because I wasn’t renting a house and did not have a host.

At this point, I started channeling my inner Greek. If they tell me malakies, I will use my inner malaka to get what I need. I told the owner of my house to rent it without registration for a couple of weeks, giving him a fair amount of cash to prove that I would stay as a long-term renter after I had sorted things out. In the meantime, I went to an accountant, to whom I again gave a reasonable amount of money, to be my host and get me the tax number, immediately. It cost some money and I made myself very angry at both parties. I believe I even cried when the accountant tried to send me away with a form to sign and a waiting time of one month. But it worked, two weeks later, I got everything I needed. I was now legally living in my house in Greece.

AMKA and AMA

After the AFM, however, things did not get easier as there were many other things to arrange. I now had what I needed to live in Greece but to work here, I needed two more numbers, AMKA and AMA. AMKA is the Social Security Registration Number, and AMA the National Insurance Number. You can not work legally in the country without these two, but again Greek bureaucracy makes it extremely hard to get them.

When I entered EFKA for the first time, the organisation behind social security in Greece, again I got sent away because I did not bring my husband. The man at the door told me that my husband had to call to make an appointment for me, as only people with an AMKA can make an appointment to get an AMKA. Again!

I asked a friend to call for me to make this appointment, and he got me one the next day, however, without using his own AMKA. On the phone, we asked the employee what I would need to bring to get my numbers, and we came up with a list of documents that I gathered that day. However, when I showed up at my appointment in EFKA, the lady who helped me said I brought the wrong documents. As she said “The lady on the phone knows nothing. I decide what you need.” And this is exactly the mentality at EFKA.

The tools you need: Persistency & Time

After this day, I visited the Greek National Social Security Fund almost daily for a week. But every day I faced a different employee, and every day I was sent away, being told I was missing one thing. I remember at one of the appointments I had a 30-minute long discussion about whether or not I needed a residence permit. As I am from the Netherlands, the answer is no. But since the employee refused to understand the meaning of being a European citizen, I decided to leave. Now that I think about all my EFKA visits, it might have just been because my Greek isn’t great. Maybe they simply didn’t want to help me as it would be more complicated than their usual job. In the end, however, I decided to make an appointment in the nearby and more touristic town of Nafplio. Here, the employee actually spoke English and seemed to want to help me and my (by then) giant pile of documents. She did not use half of the files I brought, but I did walk out with the numbers I needed!

Bank account

Getting a bank account was the hardest part of bureaucracy I had to go through after moving to Greece. It was the part where I was ready to give up and move back to the Netherlands. The most difficult thing about getting a Greek bank account is the fact that they require a Greek tax return from the previous year, which of course you will not have. The banks will tell you to get your tax return from your former country translated by a lawyer. However, finding a lawyer who speaks Dutch as a second language in Greece is both difficult and costly. My accountant told me it wasn’t worth it and that I should find another way to get my account. However, when your taxes are in English, I would suggest getting them translated into Greek and stamped by a lawyer to save yourself from a difficult process. 

What happened for me, is that it turned out that the heads of the banks in Argos had decided to not allow any bank account to open in English, nor with any English documents. I and my paperwork had to be in Greek. Which we are clearly not. I had to collect different notes from the Dutch Embassy, stating that f.e. my birth certificate was not available in Greek but instead in English. And even with proof of these documents not being available in Greek, the banks told me to make them Greek. 

The tool you need: Tsipouro & Patience

And of course also at the banks, they kept referring to my husband, as he could make this whole process much easier for me.

I visited 5 banks in 5 days without any success. I tried to open accounts online as well, to avoid the Argos ban on English. However, they kept sending me back to the physical bank. Nothing worked and I was stuck. To blow off some steam, I went out with a friend for some tsipouro. Here is where the magic happened. 

That night, the former head of economics of the town joined us for a drink. I spoke to him about the ridiculous system of all Greek bureaucracy for a foreigner in Argos. He agreed with me, it shouldn’t be as hard as they were making it for me. My new friend told me that he would visit the bank for me. He would make me an appointment, and tell them to stop being malakas and create an account. 

And it worked. A week later, I went to the appointment the guy had made me at the bank. Suddenly, there were no more questions about my husband or extra documents. I walked out with a new debit card from my Greek bank. Just in time to receive my first Greek salary!

Is it just my experience?

Although my first experience with bureaucracy after moving to Greece was a terrible one, I do not want to discourage anyone from moving to this beautiful country. What I want to believe is that I have chosen the worst place in Greece. I believe that in f.e. Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, or even Ioannina, the Greek municipalities are much more used to foreigners moving in. I believe the process will be much easier than the one I have gone through, basically anywhere in the country. Please let me know if this is true in the comments below! I’m curious to learn about your experiences.

Useful Information

What documents to take with you when you’re planning on moving to Greece?

When you are planning to move to Greece there are a couple of things you will always need to be able to obtain your tax number, house, bank account, and social security numbers. Make sure to gather these before you leave to move to Greece.

• A valid passport.
• A birth certificate. In Greece, the name of your father becomes very important as they use it to identify a person. You need a document that clearly states the name of your parents to arrange anything in Greece.
• Proof of address in your former country.

AMKA & AMA.

The documents you need.

The documents I needed in the end to get these numbers were the following:

• My AFM from gov.gr
• A proof of address from gov.gr
• A certificate of employment
• My birth certificate
• A residence permit for people who come from outside of Europe

Tip:

Make an appointment at EFKA and bring these documents. Don’t meet them on Mondays or straight after a national holiday (this is a general tip for anything that has to do with bureaucracy and moving to Greece). Don’t be too early in the morning or within two hours before closing time. If they reject you and say that you don’t have the documents needed, try to argue with them. If they still don’t accept you, make a new appointment and hope for another person who is in a better mood. Keep trying. 

Again, it is a good idea to bring a Greek accountant or friend (if you have this option) as the employees are much more willing to help in their own language.

Bank account.

The documents you need.

To get a bank account in Greece you will need the following documents:

• The AFM from gov.gr
• Your tax number from your previous country. For me, this was on my passport. In case your country does not do this, you will have to find a legal document with this number.
• A proof of address from gov.gr
• A certificate of employment. Preferably accompanied by a letter from your employer stating that he needs you to have an account at the bank you are visiting
• A Greek phone number and proof that it is in your name, the provider can provide this document for you
• A birth certificate
• A residence permit for people who come from outside of Europe
• If possible, your tax returns of the previous year, translated into Greek.

Tip:

There are a couple of things able to help you get a bank account when you just moved to Greece. 

• The first is having a good employee who can write a Greek letter to the bank saying they are working with this bank and need you to have an account to pay your salary. If this company is big enough and works with a select amount of banks, they will have to give you an account.
• If you work or are going to work, with a smaller company, you will still need a letter from your employer. However, the bank might be a bit more hesitant to provide you with an account. In this case, bring someone who speaks Greek and preferably knows the bank. Have all the documents you need with you, and take the taxes from your former country (even if not translated). Let the Greek person speak for you and be very strict about having everything they need. When they tell you they don’t have something, tell them where the information they need is. Never take no for an answer. You might spend 3 hours at the bank, but you will walk out with a card.
• If you decide to get the taxes from your former country translated into Greek, it becomes much easier to get a bank account. Still, you will spend a lot of time at the bank, and still, they will ask you for a different document. Pay attention to the conversation to know what they want and where they can find it, preferably taking a translator to help you with this.