Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to take up a position to work in Switzerland. For me and my family this was a big decision to make but it also provided an opportunity to experience living and working in Europe and to be close to our relatives and place of origin in Greece.
In order to make the move I could either relocate on my Australian Passport or via my Greek heritage through what is known as the Schengen agreement.
To relocate to Switzerland on an Australian passport is very limited as working visas are issued on a quota basis and your employer needs to submit a case stating that there is no one in Switzerland able to do your job. The visa issued to Australians is only for 1 year and has a number of restrictions, whereas permits issued under the Schengen agreement have fewer restrictions and last for 5 years. With that in mind we opted to go down the track of obtaining my Greek passport.
This is where the fun started. My first stop was the Greek Consulate in Sydney who were very quick to tell me that the process for obtaining a passport would take no less than two years. In saying that I was given the information that for anyone not born in Australia it would take five years to get an Australian passport.
Nevertheless, I started looking for another solution and after consulting some friends who already had their Greek passports it was clear that the process could be made much shorter if you either employ a Greek lawyer to do it for you or if you want to do it yourself. With that in mind I decided to proceed with doing it myself, with the help of friends and relatives in Greece.
Following is a summary of the process, however, please note that this is subject to change and you should consult the Greek consulate for further information
For the person applying you need the following:
- Australian Birth and Marriage Certificate. If you do not have these, then a copy can be reissued from the Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages (www.bdm.nsw.gov.au)
- Baptism Certificate and Marriage Certificate from the Greek Orthodox Church. If you do not possess these certificates then you can have copies reissued at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in Redfern.
- Current valid Australian passport
- From the local Greek Consulate you require the following
• Pistopitiko Kathorismou Ilikias (for males only)
• Pistopitiko Monimou Katikias
You then need to prove your ancestry to Greece
- Birth Certificate of parents born in Greece from the local council of the area they were born. The Demos in Hora are able to re-issue birth certificates for persons born in Kythera and note that you will need to have a current certificate that is not more than six months old.
- Wedding Certificate of parents if they were married in Australia.
- Greek Wedding Certificate of parents
The documents you then need to authorised
The Greek Consulate can arrange to have documents authorised or you can have them apostilled at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade located Level 7, 26 Lee Street Sydney (http://www.dfat.gov.au/sydney/authentications.html)
After you obtain these document the remaining process needs to happen in Greece.
Registering Greek Church Documents in Greece.
You need to take documents issued by the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia to the Petraki Monastery in Athens and have them stamped in order to certify they have been acknowledged by the Greek Orthodox Church in Greece. The Petraki Monastery is located at I.Gennadiou 14, Athens 11521. To get there:
• Take the metro to Evangelismos Station.
• Exit the station on the Evangelismos Hospital side.
• Proceed in the direction the stairs spit you out (that would be east) along Vas. Sofias Street.
• Go left on Ioanni Gennadiou.
• The monastery will be on your right after about two minutes, between Iasiou and Evzonon. For purposes of clarity, this means you do not have to go down any side streets, despite how it looks on the map. Just stay on Gennadiou. If you reach the Gennadius Library, you’ve gone a block too far.
Registering Births and Marriages in Greece
You need to take all documents to the Athens Central Registry where they will issue Lixiarchis Praxis Gennisis and Lixiarchis Praxis Gamos.
The office located at Level 5, Mitropeleos 60, Athens (near Monasteraki)
This means that births and marriages are registered in Greece.
Registration at Local Council in Kythera
You need the documents issued from the Athens Central Registry together with those from the Greek Consulate in Sydney.
They create a family register (Meritha) for you at the local council. In my case this was in Kythera as it needs to be where your father is born and registered. From here your application goes to the next level of government (regional general secretary) for assessing after which two birth certificates are issued.
One for applying for a Greek ID (“Tautotito”) and one for applying for a Greek Passport. Note that you require the Tautotito to be issued before you can apply the Greek Passport
From here the process is straight forward in issuing the Tautotito which can usually be done on the same day and then applying for the passport. Both of these are issued by the Police. Processing of passport applications from Kythera take 10 days as they need to go to Athens for processing. For all processes you need passport photos and for the Tautotito they need to be in “black and white”.
Needless to say, the process is quite long and I recommend you need a lot of patience. It is also best to do all family members at the same time.
However, it was a very special day for me and my family when we received our Greek Passports. Although I have never lived in Greece I now feel that I am Greek and that this has now enabled me to live and work in Europe.
A very good reference site which I used was:
Spiro Coolentianos
