Vanuatu passports and Greek residence: a 20-year-old daughter and a university in Thessaloniki

A family from Yekaterinburg and a letter from the university

This is a composite example: the story is built from typical family enquiries, and no real client is described; the names are invented. Oleg is 49, Natalya 47, their daughter Polina 20. All three are Russian citizens living in Yekaterinburg. Oleg co-owns a company that designs and installs ventilation systems; Natalya runs its finances.

Polina had spent two years preparing to study abroad: English, Greek classes, a folder of certificates. She chose the university in Thessaloniki herself after visiting with her mother during the spring break.

The email arrived at eight in the morning; Polina opened it on the bus to her language class and called her mother from there. That evening the father took out a notebook and started writing: the cost of a year of tuition, of housing, of flights. The programme was not yet part of the conversation - it appeared a week later, when the mother asked how they themselves would be visiting her.

She could have studied on a student visa, with no programme at all. But the parents wanted more: the right to visit whenever they liked rather than on a two-week visa, and a property in the country where their daughter Polina would spend four years.

The father had already learned the restriction before calling us, from an article: since 2022 Greece has not accepted Golden Visa applications from Russian citizens. So a second citizenship had to come first.

In this story the key figure was not the budget but a date: Polina’s twenty-first birthday.

Darya MelnikSenior Investment Programs Advisor

Why everything was counted back from the daughter’s birthday

The Greek programme includes spouses and children under 21. In March Polina was 20 years and 4 months old, so the family had about eight months to file while she still counted as Oleg’s child.

The lawyer worked the calendar backwards from her birthday. Vanuatu citizenship takes 3-4 months, a Schengen visa another month, checking and buying a flat another month and a half to two. There was a margin, but a small one, and any pause on the family’s side would eat it.

The lawyer also explained something the family had not considered. Being in the application does not last forever: after 21 Polina needs her own basis for staying in Greece, and for a student that is her studies. Such a permit is arranged separately, and universities are used to it.

So the family decided: the parents go through the programme, while documents for the student permit are prepared for Polina in parallel. The two routes do not conflict and they insure the family.

A donation for three and one delay in the documents

For a family of three the donation is USD 170,000 including the due diligence fee. The coconut oil fund costs 165,000 for a family of up to four, with 50,000 returned after five years, but it is paid at filing. The family chose the donation: the money for the Greek flat had to stay free until the deal.

Income was evidenced through the company: Oleg’s dividends, both spouses’ salaries, and the sale of a share in a small warehouse three years earlier. For Polina they gathered a birth certificate, a university letter and a police certificate - issued from the age of 18.

The delay came from an unexpected place. The mother’s patronymic was misspelled in Polina’s birth certificate, and the document had to be reissued by the registry office in Yekaterinburg. That took three weeks out of the margin. Translation and apostille for the corrected document took four days.

Only the main applicant went through due diligence. There was one question: about the warehouse share sold in 2023. The answer came from the contract, a statement and a bank letter. Approval arrived in June, the family gave biometrics in Moscow, and the passports came two weeks later. How the two programmes work is set out in donation or fund.

Polina joined the paperwork herself: she ordered the police certificate online, asked the university for a letter in English and found old photographs for the forms in her cloud. Her father later said she had worked faster than anyone else in the family.

A flat by the university for 800,000 or 40 minutes away for 400,000

Here came the main choice. Thessaloniki belongs to the expensive zone of the programme, with a threshold of EUR 800,000. Outside Attica, Thessaloniki and the large islands, EUR 400,000 is enough provided main living space is at least 120 square metres.

Buying next to the university for 800,000 was neither possible nor wanted. The lawyer suggested Katerini, a coastal town 40 minutes from Thessaloniki by train. There they found a 128-square-metre flat in a 2009 building for EUR 405,000, with a view of Mount Olympus from the kitchen window.

In July the father and daughter travelled the route themselves: they took the train from Thessaloniki and stepped out in Katerini forty minutes later. It is a fifteen-minute walk from the station to the sea, with a market and a swimming school nearby. Polina said friends could come for winter weekends, and the question of the town was settled.

At the family meeting Polina said she had no intention of living with her parents 40 minutes from campus anyway, and asked for a room near the university. That is what they agreed: the Katerini flat as the family home and the basis for the programme, a room in Thessaloniki for term time.

How the zones and thresholds work is set out in Golden Visa zones.

What was checked in the flat before the deposit

The Greek lawyer checked title and encumbrances; the engineer compared the area against the cadastre and the building permit. Main living space in the documents was 128 square metres, comfortably above the 120 threshold.

One detail turned up. Previous owners had merged the kitchen with the living room without recording the change in the plans. Within two weeks the seller had the alteration certified by an engineer and obtained a new plan: otherwise the flat would have gone into the deal with documents that did not match reality.

The family paid a deposit only after the agreement stated that the money would be returned if the checks came back negative. The lawyer asked them not to rush even with the calendar burning: filing with a problem property costs more than a month of waiting.

An August deal and filing a week before classes

Entering Greece on a Vanuatu passport requires a Schengen visa. The family obtained one in July and flew to Thessaloniki for ten days.

Part of the work was done in advance under a power of attorney: the lawyer obtained Greek tax numbers for all three, without which you can neither buy a flat nor open an account. So in Greece only what requires personal presence was left.

During the trip they signed at the notary, paid the transfer tax and opened a Greek bank account. The lawyer filed the residence application through the electronic platform, and all three gave biometrics. Polina was then 20 years and 10 months old.

The bank took half a day. The clerk was seeing Vanuatu passports for the first time and copied the details by hand, then asked how a family from Russia came to hold citizenship of a Pacific country. The lawyer had prepared a letter describing the programme with a copy of the notification to the Interior Ministry, and no questions arose about the source of funds.

Three days after filing the family received the blue certificate. It confirms lawful stay in Greece during the review but gives no Schengen travel. Outside Attica the review usually takes 6-12 months.

What happens to the daughter after twenty-one

This was the question the family asked most often. While she is under 21 Polina is in her parents’ application. After that she needs her own basis for staying, and for a student that is her studies.

So the student permit documents were prepared in parallel: the enrolment letter, proof of tuition payment, medical insurance, proof of funds. The university issues such letters itself, and its international office explains the filing procedure.

For the parents their daughter Polina’s age changes nothing: their right to residence rests on the flat, not on the children. Cards are renewed for as long as the property is owned.

The lawyer also flagged the tax side. If Polina spends more than 183 days a year in Greece she becomes a tax resident there, which matters once she starts working. While a student has no income, the question does not arise.

How it ended for the family

In this scenario the Vanuatu Commission approved the application, and the Greek application was filed before Polina’s birthday. The family expect their cards in 6-12 months. In a real application decisions and timelines depend on the Vanuatu Commission and the Greek migration service.

All three kept their Russian citizenship: Russia allows a second one. The parents notified the Interior Ministry about Vanuatu; Polina will do so on her next trip home.

Classes started in October. Her room in Thessaloniki came through the university noticeboard, and her parents’ flat is 40 minutes away by train.

For the first month the mother stayed with her daughter in Katerini: buying kitchenware, sorting out the internet, visiting the clinic for an insurance number. In mid-October the parents flew home and their daughter Polina was alone in a new town - but with a card in her wallet and a lawyer in her contacts.

Renting the Katerini flat through short-term rental platforms is not allowed: the fine is EUR 50,000. The parents have no such plan: in winter their daughter Polina stays there with friends during the breaks, and in summer the whole family comes.

Every year the flat carries Greece’s property ownership tax. It is calculated on properties held on 1 January and does not depend on days spent in the country. The lawyer sends the family the calculation in advance.

When a family has a child close to twenty-one, the programme is timed by the calendar, not by the budget.

Darya MelnikSenior Investment Programs Advisor

Who this route suits

Families with children aged 18-20 heading to university in Europe: while a child is under 21 they are included in the parents’ application, which costs noticeably less than a separate basis for each person.

Russian citizens who cannot apply to the Greek programme in their own right: second citizenship first, then the purchase and the filing.

Anyone for whom the programme threshold matters more than an address next to campus: a town 40 minutes from Thessaloniki already sits in the EUR 400,000 zone.

Similar stories: checking a house in Volos and a family of four moving to Athens. Programme terms are on the Vanuatu citizenship page.

Composite example: the story is built from typical enquiries and no real clients are described. Figures as of September 2026. Decisions rest with the Vanuatu Citizenship Commission and the Greek migration service.