Greece reduces Golden Visa backlog by 7% in two months

Greece’s Golden Visa scheme, which grants renewable residence permits to non‑EU investors and their families, saw its pending applications fall from 35,669 at the end of March 2026 to 33,051 by the end of May 2026 – a 7.3% reduction. The May 2026 legal‑migration report recorded 9,210 pending permanent‑investor files and 23,841 family‑member files, both down from March (investor files fell by 822, family files by 1,796). Family applications still made up about 72% of the total queue, and most pending cases were recent, with two‑thirds submitted in 2024‑2025. Authorities issued nearly 3,000 investor decisions over March‑May 2026 (1,446 in March, 882 in April, 659 in May). New investor applications have declined, with 9,382 initial filings in 2024 and 7,025 in 2025, a 25.1% annual drop. In the first five months of 2026, 2,137 initial applications were filed, of which 250 were granted, two rejected, and 1,885 remained pending.