Marriage — Spouse standard residence track

Escenarios de ejemplo

• Eligible on the GENERAL 7-year track (GR-MAR-02), not via any marriage fast-track. Must pass the ΠΕΓΠ exam, meet the full Art 5A substantive bar, pay €550, and swear the oath within 1 year of the ΦΕΚ decision.

  Because the marriage is childless, the reduced 3-year track (Art 5(1)(δ) 3rd subpara) does not apply; the applicant naturalises under the general 7-year requirement of Code Art 5(1)(δ). The 8 years of continuous lawful residence on a definitive title satisfy the clock; marriage operates only as Art 5A(1)(b) integration evidence. Marriage is nationality-neutral (Art 31).

• NOT yet eligible. The childless spouse cannot use the 3-year reduced track and has not yet reached 7 continuous years of lawful residence, so no naturalisation track is open at this point.

  The reduced 3-year continuous-residence track is reserved for spouses of a Greek WITH a child of the marriage (plus EU citizens, parental-carers of a Greek child, and stateless persons) under Art 5(1)(δ) 3rd subpara (L.4674/2020). A childless spouse falls outside it and remains on the general 7-year requirement of Art 5(1)(δ); she must accrue four more years before filing.

• Migrates OUT of GR-MAR-02 into GR-MAR-01: now eligible on the reduced 3-year track because a child of the marriage exists. Still subject to the full Art 5A bar and the ΠΕΓΠ exam.

  Once a child of the marriage exists, the reduced 3-year continuous-residence track of Art 5(1)(δ) 3rd subpara becomes available (GR-MAR-01). The childless characterisation (GR-MAR-02) no longer governs. The substantive Art 5A conditions and ΠΕΓΠ remain mandatory regardless of track.

• Eligible on the reduced 3-year track by virtue of EU citizenship, NOT by virtue of the marriage. GR-MAR-02's childless-spouse 7-year characterisation is displaced by the EU-citizen limb of Art 5(1)(δ) 3rd subpara.

  The reduced 3-year continuous-residence track expressly includes EU-citizenship holders (Art 5(1)(δ) 3rd subpara, L.4674/2020). The applicant qualifies on that independent ground even though the marriage is childless; the marriage itself adds only Art 5A(1)(b) integration evidence. This shows the childless-spouse 7-year rule binds only where no other reduced-track limb applies.

• Likely ALREADY Greek by the obsolete pre-1984 jus-matrimonii rule — a historical automatic acquisition, NOT this route. She should verify her status (and any Art 21/Art 22 legacy declaration), not apply under GR-MAR-02.

  Before 8 May 1984 a foreign woman marrying a Greek man acquired Greek citizenship automatically by marriage; L.1438/1984 ended this prospectively from 8 May 1984 but did not strip those already acquired. Her acquisition predates the reform, so GR-MAR-02 (the modern childless-spouse naturalisation characterisation) does not apply; legacy loss/reacquisition-by-declaration provisions (Arts 21/22) may instead be relevant.