Greece
Greece Visa from the UK: The Complete Guide for Non-UK Nationals
If you live in Britain on a visa or with settled status and you are travelling to Greece, this is what the application asks for, what it costs, where you go, and the two things about Greek trips that catch people out.
Written and kept current by a UK consultancy that prepares Schengen applications every week.
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Independent consultancy. Not affiliated with any government, embassy, consulate, or with Global Visa Center World, who operate Greece's visa application centres in the UK. Official fees are paid directly to the relevant authority.
Who this is for
Do you actually need a Greek visa?
If you hold a British passport, no. You can travel to Greece and the rest of the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any 180-day period without a visa. This page is not for you. From October 2026 you will need an ETIAS travel authorisation, which is applied for online and is not a visa.
If you are a non-UK national living in Britain, it depends on your passport, not your UK status. If your nationality requires a Schengen visa, you need one, and indefinite leave to remain, a work visa, a student visa or an eVisa does not exempt you.
What your UK status does decide is where you apply. Because you live here, you apply from here.
One more distinction. Everything below concerns the short-stay Schengen visa, up to 90 days. If you are moving to Greece to work, study, retire or join family, that is a Greek national visa, a different application under different rules, and not what we handle.
Three separate costs
What a Greece visa costs from the UK
The official Schengen visa fee is EUR 90 for an adult and EUR 45 for a child aged six to eleven. Children under six are free. The fee is set by the European Union, is the same for every Schengen country including Greece, and is not refunded if your application is refused.
| What it is | Who you pay | How much |
|---|---|---|
| Official Schengen visa fee | The consulate, via the centre, on the day | EUR 90 adult · EUR 45 child aged six to eleven · free under six |
| GVCW service fee | GVCW, on the day | Set and published by GVCW; check their current figure when you book |
| Our consultancy fee, if you use us | Flypass Holidays | From £95, confirmed in writing before any work begins |
We never collect, handle or forward official fees.
The GVCW route
How a Greek application works
Greece handles UK applications through Global Visa Center World, usually shortened to GVCW. They are not the decision-maker. They collect your file and your biometrics and pass them to the Greek authorities, who decide.
1. Confirm Greece is the right country.
This matters more for Greek trips than for most, and the two sections below explain why.
2. Complete the online application and gather your documents.
GVCW publishes its own required-documents list for Greece in the UK. Use that one.
3. Attend your appointment in person.
You give fingerprints and a photograph and hand over your file. Nobody can attend in your place.
4. The decision is made, and your passport is returned.
GVCW provides tracking once your application is submitted.
You may apply up to six months before you travel. Applying early is the most useful thing you can do about your timeline and it costs nothing.
GVCW publishes the current centre locations, addresses and opening hours, along with periodic notices about appointment availability, so check their pages close to your date. Use the required-documents list published for the centre you will actually attend, rather than a generic Schengen list from elsewhere.
Information gain one
Island hopping, ferries and why Greek files are different
This is the part no other guide covers properly, and it is where Greek applications most often come apart.
Most Schengen trips are one country, one or two hotels, a flight in and a flight out. A Greek holiday is frequently Athens plus two or three islands, connected by ferries booked separately, sometimes weeks apart, sometimes not yet booked at all.
Every night needs accommodation evidence. Not most nights. If your itinerary shows you on Santorini on the 14th and your bookings do not, that gap is visible and it invites a question about whether the trip you have described is the trip you are actually taking.
Ferries are travel evidence and should be treated as such. Domestic Greek ferry routes are part of your itinerary and reservations for them belong in the file alongside your flights. Booking them late is common and understandable. Submitting a file that does not account for how you get from one island to the next is a different matter.
Your itinerary has to survive being read alongside your bookings. Dates, islands and the order you visit them should agree. This is straightforward when you write the itinerary from the bookings. It goes wrong when someone writes an appealing itinerary first and books afterwards.
If your island plans are not fixed yet, say so and we will structure the file so it holds together anyway.
Information gain two
The Turkey problem
If your trip includes a day out to Turkey, read this before you apply.
Several Greek islands sit within sight of the Turkish coast, and day trips from Rhodes, Kos, Samos and Lesvos to Bodrum, Marmaris and Kusadasi are popular and easy to book once you are there.
Turkey is not in the Schengen area. Leaving Greece for Turkey means leaving Schengen. Coming back means entering Schengen again.
If you hold a single-entry Schengen visa, that is a one-way trip. Your visa is used up the moment you leave. You will not be readmitted to Greece on it, and you will be stranded outside the Schengen area with your return flight on the wrong side of a border.
And Turkey has its own entry requirements, which depend on your nationality and are entirely separate from your Schengen visa.
If a Turkish day trip is part of your plan, or might become part of it, that has to be built into the application from the start. A multiple-entry request has to be justified when you apply, not improvised at a ferry terminal.
The main destination rule
Applying to Greece when your trip covers more than one country
Apply to Greece only if Greece is your main destination, meaning where you will spend the most nights. If more nights fall in Italy or elsewhere in the Schengen area, the application goes to that country instead, even if you fly into Athens first. Where nights are split equally between two countries, it goes to the one you will enter first.
Two Greek-specific notes.
- Cyprus is not in the Schengen area. Nights spent there do not count toward your Greek total in the way people assume, and Cyprus has its own entry rules.
- Time in Turkey is not Schengen time either. See above.
Count your Schengen nights, country by country, before you do anything else. Applying to the wrong consulate can have a file refused before anyone reads it properly, and that refusal stays on your record.
Casework patterns
Where Greek applications run into trouble
- Gaps in accommodation across islands. The most common Greek-specific problem, covered above.
- A single-entry visa on a trip that leaves Schengen. The Turkey problem, and it is entirely avoidable if it is raised before you apply.
- Financial evidence that does not support the trip. Not whether you have money, but whether the holiday you have described fits the financial picture your statements show. Island trips with several flights and ferries read as more expensive than a single-hotel week, and the file needs to account for that.
- A stated purpose the documents do not match.
- The wrong consulate. Covered above.
- A previous refusal that has not been addressed. Refusals are recorded and visible to every Schengen consulate. The notice states the grounds, and those grounds tell you what has to be answered rather than repeated.
- Applying too late. Appointment availability, not the decision itself, is usually the binding constraint. We set out the full picture on our Schengen visa processing time page.
Honest service
How we can help, and what we cannot do
What we cannot do. We cannot issue a visa, influence a decision, or obtain or accelerate an appointment. Anyone who tells you otherwise is describing something they do not control.
What we do. We confirm Greece is the correct country before you spend anything. We build your document set around your actual status in the UK and check it against GVCW's current list. We draft your cover letter and itinerary so they reconcile with your bookings, island by island. We flag the Turkey question before it becomes a problem. We read your financial evidence the way a consular officer will. And we audit the complete file before you attend. This is what we prepare.
Abdul Mateen, who founded the practice, reads the cases himself. Our fee starts from £95, confirmed in writing before any work begins.
And when you do not need us, we say so. A single-island trip, settled finances and time in hand is a straightforward application and plenty of people make it alone.
What travellers say
Reviews from people who sat where you are sitting
Rated 4.5 out of 5 based on 27 reviews
- September 2026
Lalian Sen
My Schengen visa just got approved. The agent helped me throughout the process. Just respond with the info they ask and they’ll sort out everything else for you in no time!
Verified Trustpilot review - August 2026
Mahesh Patil
Excellent and prompt service! Very efficient team with quick responses, smooth booking, and all documents handled professionally. Really pleased with the overall service.
Verified Trustpilot review - July 2026
Nayya Hassan
It was my first time applying for a Schengen visa and Fly Pass Holidays made the process so easy and seamless. I got a multiple entry Italy visa for 4 months within just two weeks of application. Highly recommend their services!
Verified Trustpilot review
Straight answers
Greece visa questions, answered plainly
Official references: EU Home Affairs, Schengen visa policy · Companies House, Flypass Holidays Limited
No. Flypass Holidays Limited is a private consultancy registered in England and Wales, company number 16891200. We are not affiliated with any government, embassy or consulate, nor with VFS Global, TLScontact, BLS International or Global Visa Center World. We cannot issue a visa and we cannot influence a decision.
If you hold a British passport, no, not for stays up to 90 days in any 180-day period. From October 2026 you will need an ETIAS authorisation, which is not a visa. If you are a non-UK national living in Britain, it depends on your nationality, not on your UK status.
Yes, if your passport requires one. A UK biometric residence permit proves your right to live in Britain. It is not a Schengen visa and it does not permit entry to Greece. BRPs have also been replaced by the online eVisa, so you will usually prove your UK status with a share code rather than a card.
Yes, if your passport requires one. Indefinite leave to remain is UK immigration status and it does not change what the Schengen area asks of your nationality. It does strengthen the application, because it is strong evidence that you will return.
The official Schengen visa fee is EUR 90 for an adult and EUR 45 for a child aged six to eleven, free under six. GVCW charges its own service fee on the day. If you use a consultancy that is a third and separate cost. Ours starts from £95.
Through Global Visa Center World, GVCW, who operate the Visa Application Centre for Greece in the United Kingdom. You attend in person to give your fingerprints and photograph.
Only carefully. Turkey is outside the Schengen area, so a day trip from Rhodes or Kos means leaving Schengen and re-entering. On a single-entry visa you will not be readmitted. If a Turkish day trip is part of your plan, it has to be built into the application before you submit it.
You need accommodation evidence covering every night of your stay, wherever you are. Island trips fragment into several bookings and any uncovered night is visible. Ferry reservations between islands belong in the file alongside your flights.
Cyprus is not in the Schengen area, so nights there are not Schengen nights and do not count when you are working out your main destination. Cyprus also has its own entry rules, separate from your Schengen visa.
The decision follows the standard Schengen timeframe, and the appointment you attend beforehand is usually the longer wait. We set out the full timeline on our Schengen visa processing time page.
Yes. You need cover valid across the Schengen area for the whole of your stay, with a minimum of EUR 30,000. It is checked when you submit.
Yes. A previous refusal makes preparation more important, not less. The refusal notice states the grounds. We read those grounds, work out what was doubted, and rebuild the application to answer it rather than resubmitting the same file.
No, and no honest agency can. Decisions are made solely by the Greek authorities. What we control is the quality of what reaches them.
Ready when you are.
Tell us where in Greece you are going and when, including any islands and any plans that cross a border. You will get a straight answer the same working day about whether Greece is the right country to apply to, whether your timeline works, and whether your case needs us at all.
Flypass Holidays Limited · 50 Princes Street, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 1RJ · [email protected]