Translation of Residence and Family Documents for Greece

The visa file sits at the consulate, the residence card in the country

Family reunification in Greece proceeds in two separate places. The family member living in Türkiye applies to the Greek mission for a national visa, while the party lawfully resident in Greece submits a file to the local immigration office for approval of the reunification. No visa is issued until that approval comes through. Once the applicant has entered the country, the residence card application is made, and until the card is printed the application receipt serves as a temporary document. Finding out in advance what that receipt means for leaving and returning to the country prevents difficulties with unplanned travel.

Marriage to a Greek citizen brings a separate card regime, and the process is quicker than the family reunification procedure. The distinction has a large effect on the set of documents: on the first route the examination of income and housing weighs heaviest, whereas on the second it is the validity and registration of the marriage that comes to the fore.

Who does the translating has changed

The most striking feature of Greece is that authority over official translation has changed hands over time. After the translation service within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs closed, the authority to approve passed largely to lawyers and authorised translators. This means that a translation made in Türkiye may not be accepted directly in Greece; in many procedures the translation is required to be approved by a lawyer in Greece. Asking the receiving office which form will be wanted while you are still assembling the file saves you a needless second translation.

Stage	Who you deal with	Form the document takes
Reunification approval	Local immigration office	Apostilled original and certified translation
National visa	Greek mission	Approval letter and personal documents
Residence card	Local immigration office	Biometric enrolment and the file

Where files most often come back

The problem met with most often is a translation that does not carry an accepted form of approval. Second come gaps in the evidence of income and health insurance; in Greece the type of residence held by the person making the reunification application also counts, and short-term permits may not carry the right to bring family. The third frequent problem is documents submitted without an apostille. Beyond that, the way forenames and surnames on civil status documents from Türkiye are rendered in the Greek alphabet can itself become a matter of dispute, and showing the transliteration together with the Latin-script spelling in the passport is the safe course.

The order of apostille and translation

The right order is to obtain the document with a current date, complete the apostille formality in Türkiye, and have the translation done last. The apostille is itself part of the text to be translated. It is worth establishing at the outset which procedures in Greece accept a translation made in Türkiye and which call for local approval. For the level of approval each document needs, see our documents page; to compare practice in neighbouring countries, our country guide.

Children, schooling and the chain of registrations

Where children are being brought to Greece, the birth certificate and the custody position are examined together. A parent arriving alone is asked for the other parent’s consent or for the court judgment settling custody. Court judgments are expected to be rendered in full, and a judgment without the annotation confirming it is final counts as incomplete. These documents must be submitted with a certified translation, and the form of approval is subject to the same rule as the other documents.

School registration runs as a chain of its own. To decide which year group a child will be placed in, Greek schools ask for previous school records and the birth certificate, and no placement is made until those have been translated into Greek. Since enrolment periods open on set dates, it is sensible to prepare these documents at the same time as the immigration file.

Reporting children born in Greece, and marriages solemnised there, to the Turkish civil registry is a further obligation in its own right. That notification requires the Greek document to be translated into Turkish, so the direction is reversed. When the notification is late, the child’s Turkish identity card and passport formalities are held up too.

It is worth keeping in mind that these three chains advance on different calendars: the immigration file, the school registration and the notification to Türkiye do not wait for one another. Preparing the documents in one go and in more than one copy makes it possible to run all three at the same time. Otherwise the same document sits waiting at one institution while its validity expires at another, and it has to be obtained afresh.

Marrying in Greece

A Turkish citizen about to marry in Greece is asked for a document showing that there is no impediment to the marriage, along with a birth record. The municipality may also require the marriage banns to be published. After the ceremony the marriage has to be entered in the municipal register; without that entry it becomes difficult to rely on the marriage in a residence application.

It should be added that practice in island and rural municipalities can differ from that in the large cities; the list of documents required varies from office to office within the same country. Before assembling the file, then, the soundest method is to obtain the list held by the particular municipality or immigration office. To upload the documents you have and work out together which of them need translating, you can request a quote, and you can see the cost per page on our pricing page.

The information on this page sets out the general framework; the authority receiving the application may ask for further documents or a different format. Because practice can change, go by the requirement in force at the moment you apply.