Greece national entry visa type D: the consular half of the metaklisi

The national visa type D is granted for stays of more than 91 and up to 365 days and is issued by the Greek consular authority in whose district the third-country national legally resides, under ministerial decision 22343/2024 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is the second leg of the metaklisi, never the first.

The order matters for planning. The employment approval is decided by the Decentralised Administration in Greece, and only once it is issued can the worker book a consular appointment. The E.4 metaklisi procedure describes the first leg.

Which authority decides, and on what grounds

The competent post is the Greek consulate covering the applicant's place of legal residence, not the consulate of his nationality. A Nepali worker legally resident in the United Arab Emirates files with the Greek consular authority covering the Emirates. If that residence has expired, the file is returned and the application goes to Kathmandu instead, with a new appointment and a new waiting period.

Ministerial decision 22343/2024 sets the general documents and the procedure for granting long-stay national visas. Circular 225679 of 4 September 2024 from the Ministry of Migration and Asylum governs specific questions on the national entry visa and is the text the services fall back on when a case is disputed.

A grant is assessed on public policy, security and public health grounds, as Law 5038/2023 provides. The consular authority therefore retains discretion even with a complete file and an approved metaklisi. The employment approval does not bind the consulate.

Where each office's competence stops

The table below shows who decides what, so the company knows which door to knock on when a file stalls.

That split explains the most common employer complaint. When the consulate asks for an extra document, the Greek office that issued the approval cannot intervene. These are two separate files in two ministries, sharing only the worker's identity data and the occupation.

Timeline, cost and the points that lose weeks

The consular fee for the type D visa is set by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is paid at filing and is not refunded on refusal, while the 200 euro fee for the employment approval has already been paid at the earlier stage. On top of those come sworn translation, the Hague apostille or consular certification of the civil documents, and in several jurisdictions the cost of the medical certificate. The full sum per worker is broken down in the cost of hiring a third-country worker.

Time is not counted from the day of filing. It is counted from the day an appointment slot opens. At high-load posts such as New Delhi and Cairo, the wait for an appointment often exceeds the examination time of the file itself. An employer who budgets only the examination time produces a start date that was never real.

Three points recur in refusals. First, passport validity: if it does not cover the requested visa period with the required margin, the file is not even accepted. Second, a criminal record certificate issued by the wrong country, that of nationality rather than the country where the worker actually lived in recent years. Third, the occupation: the visa must carry the same occupation as the employment approval, and any divergence stops the residence permit later. How category and occupation have to match is set out in the Migration Code 5038/2023.

The type D visa allows entry and work until the residence permit is issued, not beyond it. The permit application is filed while the visa is still valid, and that date is the next critical link after arrival. The employers page shows how we track the two legs in parallel.