How much does a Greece visa cost in 2026: consular fee, service fee, insurance, residence permit

The main thing in numbers: what a Greece visa's price is actually made up of

Let's start with a picture, so there are no surprises later. When a person asks how much a Greece visa costs, they usually only have one figure in mind - the consular fee. In reality the final amount is made up of at least five to six items, and each adds to the bill.

Here's the full list of what the applicant actually pays for:

• The consular fee- a fixed fee for visa review, uniform across all of Schengen.
• Service fee- a fee to the visa center for accepting documents (if you don't file directly at the consulate).
• Medical insurance- a mandatory condition, without a policy you won't get the visa.
• Translation and certification of documents- translations, sometimes a notary and apostille.
• Photographsfor the visa to the ICAO standard.
• Additionally- courier passport delivery, SMS notifications, application form filling services, if you order them.

A tourist visa (category C Schengen) and a relocation visa (national category D) are two completely different stories price-wise. A tourist Schengen visa costs a bit over a hundred euros with all extras. The national D visa and the subsequent residence card are a whole different order of amounts, and we'll talk about that separately. If your goal isn't a one-off trip but living in the country, it's more logical to look right away towardthe Greece Golden Visa, where you get a residence permit for a real estate investment instead of a chain of visas.

The consular fee: those very 90 euros (and who pays less)

The consular fee is the basic, mandatory and non-refundable charge for reviewing a Schengen visa application. It's the same across all 27 Schengen countries, and Greece is no exception here. In 2026 the rates are as follows:

A few important points that save nerves and money:

• The fee isn't refunded.Even if the visa is refused, you won't get the 90 euros back - it's a fee for the review procedure itself, not for the outcome.
• Payment in rubles at the day's exchange rate.At Russian visa centers the fee is accepted in rubles, converted at the internal exchange rate on the day of payment, so the ruble amount is slightly different each time.
• There are discounted categories.Exemptions from the fee may apply, for example, to close relatives of EU citizens, schoolchildren and students on educational trips, and researchers - but these are narrow cases that need to be confirmed with documents.

Remember the main thing: 90 euros is a floor, not a ceiling. It's just the starting, unavoidable part of the budget, to which the service fee and insurance are almost always added.

The visa center's service fee: what this extra charge is for

Greece, like most Schengen countries, doesn't accept visa documents directly at the consulate, but through accredited visa centers. For accepting the application, biometrics, and passing the package on to the consulate, these centers charge a separate fee - the service fee. This is exactly the extra charge people often don't budget for and then are surprised by the final receipt.

The approximate service fee in 2026 is around 20-40 euros per person (in Russia, the ruble equivalent at the day's exchange rate, which converts to a few thousand rubles). The exact figure depends on the country of filing and the specific visa center operator.

What's important to understand about the service fee:

• It's separate from the consular fee.You pay both 90 euros to the consulate and a service fee to the visa center - these are two different line items on the receipt.
• Charged to every applicant.For a family of four the service fee is multiplied by four.
• Paid options may be offered on top.Courier passport delivery, SMS status updates, help filling in the application form, a premium lounge - all of these are optional add-ons, without which the visa is arranged just fine. Don't agree to them automatically.

Advice from practitioners: read carefully exactly what you're paying for at the visa center's checkout. The basic service fee is mandatory, but options imposed on top aren't. For a family this difference can add up to a noticeable amount.

Medical insurance: a mandatory condition and its real price

Without medical insurance you won't be issued a Schengen visa for Greece - this is a hard requirement enshrined in the EU visa code. The policy must cover the entire trip and meet the minimum parameters.

Insurance requirements in 2026:

• Minimum coverage - 30,000 euros.This is the Schengen-set threshold for medical expenses and emergency care.
• Valid across the entire Schengen territory.The policy must work in all countries in the zone, not just Greece.
• Coverage for emergency hospitalization and medical evacuation- treatment, emergency care, transportation.

How much does this cost in practice? A basic policy with 30,000-euro coverage costs roughly from 1-2 euros a day per person for short trips. So for a two-week vacation insurance will come to a modest few dozen euros. The price depends on the tourist's age, trip length, coverage amount, and additional options (sports, COVID, extended coverage).

With insurance you shouldn't skimp indecently (get a reliable insurer whose policy the consulate will definitely accept), nor overpay for excessive coverage in the millions if you're just going to the beach. The optimum is a policy for 30,000-50,000 euros from a proven company. For long-term visas and residence permits, insurance requirements are higher, and it costs correspondingly more.

Translation, apostille and certification of documents

This is the expense item most often forgotten, and it can quietly add a noticeable sum to the budget - especially for the national visa and residence permit. Some documents from Russia need to be translated for the Greek consulate, and sometimes legalized.

What these expenses are made up of:

• Document translation.Employment certificates, bank statements, birth and marriage certificates may require translation into Greek or English. The price is per page, and for a large package this is noticeable.
• Notarial certification.Some translations need to be notarized - a separate fee for each document.
• Apostille.For long-term visas and residence permits, a number of documents (e.g. a police clearance certificate, civil registry certificates) require an apostille - a stamp confirming authenticity for use abroad. The apostille is affixed through specialized authorities and also costs money.

For an ordinary tourist visa the volume of translations is usually small, and this item stays modest. But for those arranging a national D visa for relocation, translation, notary and apostille for the full document package can become one of the noticeable budget items. Plan for this item in advance and check the current list on the official Greek government portalgov.gr.

Photos, courier and other small items that add up

Besides the big items, the Greece visa budget includes small but mandatory or almost mandatory expenses. Individually they look tiny, but together for a family they add up to a noticeable amount.

What this includes:

• Visa photos.You need photos strictly to standard (size, background, no smiling, no glasses). They're printed at the visa center or a photo studio - inexpensive, but paid, and for each family member.
• Courier passport delivery.If you don't want to go pick up your passport in person, the visa center will offer delivery - convenient, but a paid option.
• SMS status notifications.A small paid service that's easy to do without by checking status on the website for free.
• Help filling in the application form.Visa centers often offer to fill in the application form for you for a fee. If the documents are simple, this is an unnecessary expense - the form can be filled in yourself.

The main principle here: only the photo is mandatory. Everything else is a convenience service. If budget matters, feel free to decline the add-ons: it doesn't affect the visa at all.

How much does a Greece visa cost: economy and realistic budgets

Let's bring all the items together into two budgets. The first - economy: you file yourself, take basic insurance, decline all add-ons. The second - realistic: with an average service fee, decent insurance and a couple of convenient options. The figures are approximate and given for one adult applicant for a tourist Schengen visa (category C).

As you can see, the real cost of a Greece visa for a tourist isn't 90 euros, but closer to 130-200 euros with all extras per person. For a family of four the sum is multiplied, adjusted for child discounts on the consular fee. This is the price for a one-off tourist trip. If you're planning to live in Greece, move on to the next sections - there the price looks completely different.

The national D visa: how much a visa for relocation costs, not a holiday

This is where the main dividing line lies. Category C Schengen is a short tourist visa for up to 90 days per six months. But if you're going to Greece to live, study or work, you need a national category D visa - long-term, for a specific purpose of stay. And its price is structured differently.

What's important to know about the national D visa:

• This is a visa for a specific status.Student, work, for financially independent persons (FIP), for digital nomads, for family reunification, and so on. Each has its own document package and its own fee.
• Fees noticeably higher than tourist ones.For some categories the national visa fee is modest (roughly from 90-180 euros for students), and for others it's very high. For example, for the digital nomad visa the fee roughly reaches up to 1,000 euros for the main applicant plus a separate fee for each family member.
• The D visa is only the entry point.It gives the right to enter the country and then arrange the residence permit itself. So after the visa there's one more expense item waiting - the residence card.

In other words, the national visa isn't the final point, but an entry ticket, after which arranging the full resident status begins. And the budget needs to be calculated accounting for all subsequent steps, not just the consular fee.

The residence card after entry: the final step and its price

Having obtained the national D visa and entered Greece, you then arrange the residence permit itself - the plastic resident card. This is a separate stage with its own fees, which many don't account for, thinking the visa is everything.

What the residence permit's cost is made up of:

• The state fee for residence status.Depends on the residency category and the permit's validity period. It's higher for investment and wealth-based categories, lower for student ones.
• Fee for issuing the plastic card.Roughly about 16 euros for the resident card itself - this is a technical fee for producing the document.
• Stamp and related duties.Small administrative fees at filing.

For a family, each member is counted separately - both for the D visa and the residence card. So when planning a relocation, calculate the budget for everyone at once, not just the main applicant. We keep a detailed breakdown of how the documents and procedure work in the articles ondocuments for a Greece visaand abouthow to get a Greece visastep by step.

Golden Visa: when it's cheaper to just buy a residence permit through investment

There's a path that for a wealthy family often turns out more logical and cost-effective than a chain of visas and renewals - Greece's Golden Visa, a residence permit for a real estate investment. You invest funds in a house or apartment and get a residence permit for the whole family right away for five years, renewable.

How the Golden Visa fundamentally differs from the tourist visa and the national D visa:

• This is a residence permit right away, not an entry visa.You get a full resident status, not a temporary permit for a single purpose.
• Minimal presence is barely required.You don't need to live in the country full-time to keep the status.
• The whole family at once.Spouse, children, and in some cases parents - everyone gets a residence permit from a single investment.
• You're left with an asset.You're not paying a fee “into thin air”, you're buying real estate that stays yours and can grow in value.

The real estate investment thresholds are 250,000 euros (only for converting a commercial property to residential or restoring a landmark), 400,000 euros in most regions, and 800,000 euros in premium zones (Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini and islands with a population over 3,100). An important caveat: short-term rental of a GV property (through Airbnb and similar) is prohibited under threat of residence permit revocation and a fine. If your goal is specifically life in Greece and an EU passport down the road, be sure to studythe conditions of Greece's Golden Visa- for many, this is the optimal answer to the question of how to establish yourself in the country.

Greece visa for Russians: no visa-free entry, what this means financially

Let's say it directly and : there's no visa-free entry to Greece for Russian citizens. Greece is a Schengen country, and a Russian needs a visa for any trip. This affects the cost, the timeline, and the very likelihood of getting one.

What's important for Russians to keep in mind in 2026:

• For a tourist trip you need a category C Schengen visa.Visas are issued to Russians, but the procedure is stricter after 2022: documents, the purpose of travel and financial solvency are checked more thoroughly.
• Multiple-entry visas are issued on a limited basis.A visa is more often issued for the trip's duration or a short window, and long multiple-entry visas for several years are harder to get than before.
• For residence - the national D visa.A Schengen tourist can't live in the country; relocation requires specifically a long-term national visa for a specific status.
• The Golden Visa is available to Russians.The program is open, but with enhanced compliance: the source of funds is checked especially thoroughly, and we work strictly within the law, with no sanctions circumvention.

Financially, for a Russian the basic tourist visa budget is the same as for everyone else (a 90-euro consular fee plus extras), but there's the added factor of paying in rubles at the day's exchange rate and a higher likelihood of having to prove purpose and finances. For those seriously thinking about relocating, it's smarter not to accumulate a history of tourist visas, but to build the path through a residence permit right away.

How not to overpay for a Greece visa: a breakdown of unnecessary expenses

The price of a Greece visa is largely about what you agree to at the visa center's counter. The basic fees can't be avoided, but on add-ons it's easy to overpay by double. Let's break down where saving is real and where it isn't.

Where you DON'T need to overpay:

• Help filling in the application form.If the documents are simple, the application form can be filled in yourself for free.
• SMS notifications.Visa status is checked on the visa center's website for free.
• Premium lounges and VIP service.They don't affect the visa decision at all.
• Excessive insurance for millionsfor a two-week beach holiday - overpaying for unnecessary coverage.

Where it's NOT worth saving:

• On insurance from an unreliable company- the consulate may not accept a dubious policy, and you'll lose time and money reissuing it.
• On document accuracy- errors and missing papers lead to refusal, and the consular fee isn't refunded.
• On translations where they're mandatory- skimping on certification can get you refused.

The main conclusion: the consular fee, insurance and basic service fee are mandatory. Everything offered on top is at your discretion. And if you need many Greece visas regularly, calculate whether it's cheaper to arrange a residence permit once.

An expert's view: what people most often lose money on

Over years of practice I see the same mistakes people lose money on when arranging a Greece visa. Let me break them down so you don't step on the same rake.

The most common one - people count only the consular fee and don't budget for the rest, and then the final bill for the family turns out two to three times bigger than expected. Second - overpaying for imposed add-ons at the visa center that don't affect the visa at all. Third and most costly - refusal due to a small document error or weak insurance: the consular fee isn't refunded on refusal, and the whole budget has to be paid again. And fourth - a strategic mistake made by those aiming for Greece long-term but who keep paying for tourist visas over and over instead of arranging a residence permit. If you travel to the country often or plan to relocate, calculate the total cost of tourist visas over several years - very often it turns out an investment residence permit is both more cost-effective, calmer, and gives you an asset in the form of real estate.

Bottom line: the real price of a Greece visa and what to choose

Let's draw the line. How much a Greece visa costs in 2026 depends on exactly what you need:

• Tourist Schengen (category C)- realistically about 125-150 euros in the economy version and 180-240 euros in the realistic one per adult, with all extras. The basic 90-euro consular fee is only part of the total.
• The national D visa for relocation- a fee ranging from modest (students) to very high (roughly up to 1,000 euros for digital nomads), plus a separate residence card after entry and translations with apostilles.
• Golden Visa- not about a fee “into thin air”, but about a real estate investment from 250,000 euros that gives the whole family a residence permit and remains your asset.

If you're going for a holiday - budget not only for the consular fee, but for the service fee, insurance, translations and small items too, and don't overpay for unnecessary options. If you're going to live there - don't accumulate tourist visas, build the path through a residence permit right away. We keep a step-by-step instruction in the article abouthow to get a Greece visa, and the general overview is on the page abouta Greece visa. Always check current fees and document lists on the official portalgov.gr.