Unprepared for COVID, Greece last year ceded the EU golden visa status to Portugal. Now, the Greeks are back – with a vengeance<\/p>\n
Greek immigration authorities approved 193 main applicants and 1,078 of their family members for golden visas in the month of October , figures from Enterprise Greece this week show . \u00b7 ” Thanks to the Q3 sprint , Greece has approved an aggregate of 747 applications so far in 2021 , a number that for the first time this year – exceeds that of Portugal’s golden visa , which has approved 698 applications in the first ten months of this year .<\/p>\n
That makes the Greek golden visa Europe’s most popular ( again ) , and there is much to indicate the revival is still at an early stage . The 193 applications approved in October amounts to 48 approvals a week during the month , nearly twice the rate of 26 weekly approvals granted in the last reporting period , June 1st – September 30th ( where Enterprise Greece has previously only published golden visa data 3-4 times a year , this latest update comes but a month after the last one ) .<\/p>\n
Should Greece be able to continue processing at this pace , the program will see more than 1,100 main applicants receive golden visas in 2021 . It also indicates that Greece will reach its 10,000th golden visa approval sometime in Q1 next year , a milestone Portugal’s program reached this September .<\/p>\n
About one quarter ( 50 ) of investors issued golden visas in October were Chinese nationals . Russians accounted for 27 approvals , Turks for 21 , Lebanese 13 , and Egyptians 13 . Americans were the 7th biggest applicant national during the month , with six Americans approvals . On a cumulative basis , since the program’s beginning , Americans rank 9th overall , with 92 approvals . Most of these , tellingly , have been recorded in the last 18 months .<\/p>\n