Foreign residents wait up to five years for citizenship

Foreign permanent residents and their children who were born and raised in Greece have to wait at least four to five years in order to obtain Greek citizenship, according to a survey conducted by the organization Generation 2.0 for Rights, Equality & Diversity (Generation 2.0 RED).

The authors of the report said that the survey showed this as the average amount of time required for applications submitted by interested parties to the Citizenship Directorate of the Interior Ministry to be processed. 

The main causes of these delays, the report stressed, were bureaucratic obstacles, time-consuming procedures and mismanagement from the moment an application is handed in.

These problems persist, the report also noted, despite the existence of an adequate legal framework. Accordingly, citizenship should, in theory, be granted to second-generation minors within six months and to adults within a year.