The relocation certificate is what makes duty and tax relief real. Without it there is nothing to present at the customs office, whatever your circumstances. With it, a clock starts, and everything else in your move has to fit inside that clock.
It is issued by the Greek consular authority for the place where you habitually live. The date it is issued is treated as the date your habitual abode transferred to Greece. It stays valid for twelve months, which is why knowing your destination area matters before you apply, and within that window your belongings can be cleared in one go or in instalments.
That single paragraph explains why so many Greek moves go wrong on timing. People arrange the shipping first and the certificate second, when the certificate is what the shipping ought to be planned around.
The application goes to the Greek consular authority covering your current place of habitual abode, not to an office in Greece and not to whichever consulate is most convenient. If you are in Manchester, that is the consular post covering Manchester. If you are in Chicago, the one covering Chicago.
You submit an application for a Certificate of Transfer of Habitual Abode to Greece, together with the documents that establish you meet the conditions. The consulate assesses whether you qualify. Your moving company does not, and neither do we.
If you have already arrived in Greece without one, you are not stuck. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens can issue the certificate on submission of the supporting documents. That route exists precisely because people move first and discover the process afterwards.
Alongside the customs document itself, two things go in digitally:
Keep copies of everything. The supporting file does not stop being relevant once the certificate exists.
The underlying question is simple: was your real life genuinely lived somewhere other than Greece for at least two years, and are you now genuinely moving it here? The documents all serve that one point.
The document that decides your timetable, explained plainly.
The Greek consular authority covering the place where you habitually live. Not an office in Greece, and not whichever consulate is most convenient. You apply for a Certificate of Transfer of Habitual Abode to Greece and submit the documents establishing that you meet the conditions.
Twelve months from the date it is issued. Within that window your personal belongings can be cleared in a single consignment or in instalments. Anything still uncleared when the window closes falls outside the relief, so a move split over a longer period needs rethinking.
Because the date of issue is treated as the date your habitual abode transferred to Greece. It is not an administrative formality, it is the anchor for the whole process. That is also why applying long before you are ready to ship is a mistake, since it simply spends part of your twelve months.
No. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens can issue the certificate if you are already in the country and submit the supporting documents. Separately, the exemption can be granted to someone in Greece who declares an intention to transfer their habitual abode within twenty four months of arriving, or thirty six months if they are retiring.
Tell us where you are moving from, your Greek address and your intended dates. A vetted moving company from our network can survey the goods and build the inventory your application needs, then plan clearance inside the twelve months.
Get your free quoteWe are a free enquiry service and a Working Member of AGM Group. We connect people relocating to Greece with vetted international moving companies from that network. We are not a consular service or a customs broker, and we do not carry out removals ourselves.
Apply through your Greek consulate and confirm your own position with them. This page is preparation, not a substitute for their assessment.
Written by Darren Benjamin, Founder, International Removals Companies.