Greece opens expedited processing to citizenship-by-descent applicants for the first time

What changed

Greece has extended its priority-examination procedure to every legal basis for acquiring Greek citizenship, including citizenship by descent. The instrument is Egkyklios 13/2026 (protocol no. 40705, 21 July 2026), issued by the Secretary General for Citizenship and published by the Ministry of Interior as a three-page circular.

Until now, priority examination was available only for naturalisation and for cases under articles 1A and 1B of the Greek Nationality Code, under a 2018 circular. Descent applicants had no route to ask for their file to be moved up the queue at all.

Who can ask, and on what grounds

Files are still examined in the order they were submitted. Priority is an exception and the circular requires a specially reasoned request supported by reliable, verifiable evidence. It lists four grounds, expressly as examples rather than a closed list:

• Health reasons affecting the applicant, their spouse, or their children, including an adult child with a serious physical, intellectual, psychiatric or sensory disability.

• Study reasons, where holding Greek citizenship by a fixed date is a formal prerequisite for postgraduate or doctoral study abroad, or for a university mobility programme.

• Professional reasons, where citizenship by a fixed date is a formal prerequisite for a Greek public recruitment competition, entry to a Greek military academy, or an athlete joining a Greek national team.

• Humanitarian reasons, covering stateless applicants, certified disability, persons under judicial support, victims of domestic or gender-based violence, elderly applicants with self-care difficulties, and single parents raising minor children.

Other reasons of comparable gravity may be accepted if fully proven.

How the decision is made

The request is logged in the citizenship information system under one of four categories. The citizenship service may ask for further documents and may check the authenticity of what is filed. The head of the relevant Citizenship Directorate then makes a written, reasoned recommendation to the Secretary General for Citizenship, who approves or rejects it, and the applicant is notified. A citizenship service can also prioritise a file on its own initiative if the file itself shows one of the grounds.

The circular was notified to Greek consular authorities through the Directorate of Consular Affairs, so it reaches applicants abroad. It replaces the 2018 circular so far as that circular dealt with expedition.

What it does not change

This is a queue-management measure, not a change to eligibility. Nothing about who qualifies for Greek citizenship by descent is altered: the article 1 automatic route, the article 14 declaration windows and the article 26 determination procedure all keep exactly the conditions they had before. It affects only the order and speed in which applications are examined.

General guidance, not legal advice. Check the circular and the responsible Greek authority before relying on it.