Greece entry requirements, by passport
Greece visa requirements at a glance: 93 of the 198 passports VisaRadar tracks can enter Greece without arranging a visa beforehand: visa-free, with a visa on arrival, or with an electronic travel authorisation. The other 105 must obtain a visa before they travel.
Which passport do you hold?
We'll take you straight to the entry requirements for Greece for your nationality.
What we've verified for Greece
Beyond the yes/no matrix, we've checked these against an official primary source (last checked 25 August 2026). The specifics depend on your nationality: open your passport's row in the table for the detail that applies to you.
- Consular fee: €90
- Typical processing time
- Required documents (3)
- Money you need to show on entry
- Required vaccinations
- Health-insurance rules
- Customs limits (cash, alcohol, tobacco)
- Overstay penalties
- The 90-days-in-180 stay rule
Sources: migration.gov.gr/en (Ministry of Migration and Asylum); mitos.gov.gr (Greek State's National Registry of Administrative Procedures: €600/€1,200 overstay fine, legal basis Law 3386/2005 Art. 73(5), Joint Ministerial Decision 4000/2/14-ith of 2012, and Law 5038/2023); travel-europe.europa.eu/etias (ETIAS "not operational" status) (checked 25 August 2026). europa.eu/youreurope, the European Commission's page on alcohol, tobacco and excise duties (alcohol and tobacco allowances for travellers arriving from outside the EU, minimum age of 17, and Greece among the countries applying the reduced tobacco limit to land and sea travellers); europa.eu/youreurope, the European Commission's page on taking cash into and out of the EU (€10,000 declaration threshold) (checked 29 September 2026).
Greece is part of both the Schengen Area and the European Union, with the same short-stay limit (90 days within any 180-day period) as the rest of the bloc for visa-exempt passports.
This table summarises the exact entry mechanism for every passport we track. The difference between entering visa-free, with an electronic authorisation, with an e-Visa, or with a traditional visa is explained in visa, e-Visa, and electronic authorisation: what's the difference. How we verify every row before publishing it is on methodology.
Base entry rules refreshed 2 November 2026. Published: 25 August 2026.
| Passport | Requirement | Max. stay |
|---|---|---|
| Free movement | ||
| Austria | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Belgium | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Bulgaria | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Croatia | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Cyprus | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Czech Republic | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Denmark | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Estonia | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Finland | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| France | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Germany | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Hungary | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Iceland | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Ireland | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Italy | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Latvia | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Liechtenstein | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Lithuania | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Luxembourg | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Malta | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Netherlands | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Norway | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Poland | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Portugal | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Romania | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Slovakia | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Slovenia | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Spain | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Sweden | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Switzerland | Free movement (EU/EEA/Switzerland) | No limit (tourism)* |
| Visa-free | ||
| Albania | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Andorra | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Antigua and Barbuda | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Argentina | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Australia | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Bahamas | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Barbados | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Brazil | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Brunei | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Canada | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Chile | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Colombia | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Costa Rica | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Dominica | Visa-free | 90 days |
| El Salvador | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Georgia | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Grenada | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Guatemala | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Honduras | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Hong Kong | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Israel | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Japan | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Kiribati | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Kosovo | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Macao | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Malaysia | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Marshall Islands | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Mauritius | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Mexico | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Micronesia | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Moldova | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Monaco | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Montenegro | Visa-free | 90 days |
| New Zealand | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Nicaragua | Visa-free | 90 days |
| North Macedonia | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Palau | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Panama | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Paraguay | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Peru | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Saint Lucia | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Samoa | Visa-free | 90 days |
| San Marino | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Serbia | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Seychelles | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Singapore | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Solomon Islands | Visa-free | 90 days |
| South Korea | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Taiwan | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Timor-Leste | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Tonga | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Trinidad and Tobago | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Tuvalu | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Ukraine | Visa-free | 90 days |
| United Arab Emirates | Visa-free | 90 days |
| United Kingdom | Visa-free | 90 days |
| United States | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Uruguay | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Vatican | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Venezuela | Visa-free | 90 days |
| Visa required | ||
| Afghanistan | Visa required | — |
| Algeria | Visa required | — |
| Angola | Visa required | — |
| Armenia | Visa required | — |
| Azerbaijan | Visa required | — |
| Bahrain | Visa required | — |
| Bangladesh | Visa required | — |
| Belarus | Visa required | — |
| Belize | Visa required | — |
| Benin | Visa required | — |
| Bhutan | Visa required | — |
| Bolivia | Visa required | — |
| Botswana | Visa required | — |
| Burkina Faso | Visa required | — |
| Burundi | Visa required | — |
| Cambodia | Visa required | — |
| Cameroon | Visa required | — |
| Cape Verde | Visa required | — |
| Central African Republic | Visa required | — |
| Chad | Visa required | — |
| China | Visa required | — |
| Comoros | Visa required | — |
| Cuba | Visa required | — |
| Djibouti | Visa required | — |
| Dominican Republic | Visa required | — |
| DR Congo | Visa required | — |
| Ecuador | Visa required | — |
| Egypt | Visa required | — |
| Equatorial Guinea | Visa required | — |
| Eritrea | Visa required | — |
| Eswatini | Visa required | — |
| Ethiopia | Visa required | — |
| Fiji | Visa required | — |
| Gabon | Visa required | — |
| Gambia | Visa required | — |
| Ghana | Visa required | — |
| Guinea | Visa required | — |
| Guinea-Bissau | Visa required | — |
| Guyana | Visa required | — |
| Haiti | Visa required | — |
| India | Visa required | — |
| Indonesia | Visa required | — |
| Iran | Visa required | — |
| Iraq | Visa required | — |
| Ivory Coast | Visa required | — |
| Jamaica | Visa required | — |
| Jordan | Visa required | — |
| Kazakhstan | Visa required | — |
| Kenya | Visa required | — |
| Kuwait | Visa required | — |
| Kyrgyzstan | Visa required | — |
| Laos | Visa required | — |
| Lebanon | Visa required | — |
| Lesotho | Visa required | — |
| Liberia | Visa required | — |
| Libya | Visa required | — |
| Madagascar | Visa required | — |
| Malawi | Visa required | — |
| Maldives | Visa required | — |
| Mali | Visa required | — |
| Mauritania | Visa required | — |
| Mongolia | Visa required | — |
| Morocco | Visa required | — |
| Mozambique | Visa required | — |
| Myanmar | Visa required | — |
| Namibia | Visa required | — |
| Nauru | Visa required | — |
| Nepal | Visa required | — |
| Niger | Visa required | — |
| Nigeria | Visa required | — |
| North Korea | Visa required | — |
| Oman | Visa required | — |
| Pakistan | Visa required | — |
| Palestine | Visa required | — |
| Papua New Guinea | Visa required | — |
| Philippines | Visa required | — |
| Qatar | Visa required | — |
| Republic of the Congo | Visa required | — |
| Russia | Visa required | — |
| Rwanda | Visa required | — |
| Sao Tome and Principe | Visa required | — |
| Saudi Arabia | Visa required | — |
| Senegal | Visa required | — |
| Sierra Leone | Visa required | — |
| Somalia | Visa required | — |
| South Africa | Visa required | — |
| South Sudan | Visa required | — |
| Sri Lanka | Visa required | — |
| Sudan | Visa required | — |
| Suriname | Visa required | — |
| Syria | Visa required | — |
| Tajikistan | Visa required | — |
| Tanzania | Visa required | — |
| Thailand | Visa required | — |
| Togo | Visa required | — |
| Tunisia | Visa required | — |
| Turkey | Visa required | — |
| Turkmenistan | Visa required | — |
| Uganda | Visa required | — |
| Uzbekistan | Visa required | — |
| Vanuatu | Visa required | — |
| Vietnam | Visa required | — |
| Yemen | Visa required | — |
| Zambia | Visa required | — |
| Zimbabwe | Visa required | — |
* EU/EEA/Switzerland free movement: no stay limit for tourism; after 90 days of residence you must register with the destination country's local authorities.
Staying in Greece? Work out your Schengen 90/180-day limit with our calculator →
ETIAS, the pre-travel authorisation for visa-exempt travellers, still has no start date →
Greece rules for every passport
Vaccinations, customs limits and penalties are the same for every traveller. Grounds for refusal depend on how you enter.
How much money you need to show
€50 per person per day, with a minimum of €300 for stays of up to 5 days
Minors show half. The figure is set by Joint Ministerial Decision No 3021/22/10-f of 24 December 2007.
Source: European Commission, Annex 25 to the Practical Handbook for Border Guards (reference amounts notified by each State), version of 8 June 2026. Checked on 1 November 2026.
What each Schengen country asks for →Vaccinations
- No mandatory vaccines for entry. The international vaccination certificate is asked of nobody: not the yellow fever one, and not even of travellers arriving from a country with risk of transmission. That is what the country has declared in the International Health Regulations list.
Customs limits
- Cash
- Declare to Greek Customs if entering or leaving the EU with €10,000 or more in cash (or the equivalent in another currency), an EU-harmonised regime.
- Alcohol
- Arriving from outside the EU (aged 17 or over): 1 litre of spirits over 22% vol. (vodka or gin, for example) or 2 litres of fortified wine (sherry or port) or sparkling wine, plus 4 litres of still wine and 16 litres of beer. These limits are the same by air, sea or land.
- Tobacco
- Arriving from outside the EU (aged 17 or over). By air: 200 cigarettes, or 100 cigarillos, or 50 cigars, or 250 grams of tobacco. By land or sea, Greece applies a reduced limit: 40 cigarettes, or 20 cigarillos, or 10 cigars, or 50 grams of tobacco.
Overstay penalties
Law 3386/2005 (Art. 73, paragraph 5) penalises third-country nationals who exceed their legal period of stay with an administrative fine of €600 if the overstay is up to 30 days, or €1,200 if it exceeds 30 days. An entry ban of up to 4 years from the date the fine was imposed is also applied, registered in the national database; once 4 years have elapsed, the ban is considered expired and is automatically removed. Exemptions from the fine include, among others, minors, persons of Greek origin, spouses or parents of Greek citizens, and those who miss the deadline due to force majeure if they leave the country within 30 days of that cause ceasing.
Check whether you would go over the limit →Grounds for refusal
Apply to: Visa-free
- Not presenting a valid travel document: valid for at least three months after the intended departure and issued within the previous ten years (Art. 6(1)(a)).
- Not justifying the purpose and conditions of the stay, or not showing sufficient means of subsistence for the stay and the return (Art. 6(1)(c)).
- Having already used up the 90 days within the current 180-day period (Art. 6(1)).
- Being the subject of a Schengen Information System (SIS) alert for the purpose of refusing entry (Art. 6(1)(d)).
- Being considered a threat to public policy, internal security, public health or the international relations of a Schengen State (Art. 6(1)(e)).
Source: Regulation (EU) 2016/399 (Schengen Borders Code) , Art. 6(1). A refusal is given in writing with its reasons and can be appealed (Art. 14).
Apply to: Visa required
- Producing a false or falsified travel document, or reasonable doubts arising about the authenticity of the supporting documents submitted or the truthfulness of their content (Regulation (EC) 810/2009, Art. 32(1)(a)(i) and 32(1)(b)).
- Failing to justify the purpose and conditions of the intended stay (Art. 32(1)(a)(ii); the same entry condition appears in Art. 6(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2016/399, so it is also checked at the border).
- Failing to provide proof of sufficient means of subsistence for the whole intended stay and for the return to the country of origin or residence, and not being in a position to acquire such means lawfully (Art. 32(1)(a)(iii)).
- Having already used up the 90 days of stay within the current 180-day period on the territory of the Member States (Art. 32(1)(a)(iv)).
- Being the subject of an alert in the Schengen Information System (SIS) for the purpose of refusing entry (Art. 32(1)(a)(v)).
- Being considered a threat to public policy, internal security, public health or the international relations of any Member State (Art. 32(1)(a)(vi)).
- Failing to provide proof of adequate and valid travel medical insurance, where applicable (Art. 32(1)(a)(vii)).
- Reasonable doubts arising about the reliability of the statements made or about the applicant’s intention to leave the territory of the Member States before the visa applied for expires (Art. 32(1)(b)).
Travel insurance for the Schengen area
If you need a visa, insurance is part of the application: €30,000 of medical cover across Schengen. If you enter visa-free it isn't mandatory, though it's worth having.
See IATI's international site →IATI sells its policies according to the country you live in. Where do you live?
If your country isn't listed, try IATI's international site.
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Do you need a different visa for Athens, Thessaloniki, or Santorini?
No. Greece sets the requirements, so entering through Athens asks for the same as entering through Thessaloniki or Santorini. If you're arriving overland or through a small border post, check that separately: some countries apply their own rules to specific crossings.
What does change is where you file the application when a visa is needed, and that depends on the country you live in rather than the city you're travelling to.
What draws travellers to Greece
Greece splits between the mainland and the islands. Athens concentrates the Acropolis (a World Heritage site and the country's symbol) and serves as a base for trips to Delphi and the Corinth canal. The Peloponnese, by car, links Mycenae, Epidaurus, Olympia and Nafplio. And the islands cluster by archipelago: the Cyclades (Santorini and its caldera, Mykonos, Naxos), the Dodecanese with Rhodes, and the Ionian islands to the west. Crete, the largest, is almost a country of its own: the Minoan palaces: Knossos among them, inscribed as World Heritage in 2025: mountains and beaches. Greece has 20 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Ten days cover Athens, the Peloponnese and one or two islands. May-June and September are ideal: July and August bring fierce heat, high prices and packed ferries.
Sources for this section: visitgreece.gr (Greek National Tourism Organisation, GNTO); UNESCO World Heritage List (whc.unesco.org, 20 sites in Greece); UK FCDO travel advice for Greece. Accessed 31 August 2026.
Things to see and do in Greece
Tours, skip-the-line tickets and day trips, most with free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
Seeing the featured activities here needs advertising cookies. In the meantime, you can open them directly:
Browse activities on GetYourGuide →This is an affiliate link: if you buy through it, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Where can Greece passport holders travel visa-free? →
Informational only. Always verify requirements with the official embassy or consulate before you travel.