The EU Blue Card in Greece and its salary threshold for highly qualified work

The EU Blue Card in Greece, the E.1 residence permit under article 31 of Law 5038/2023, requires a gross annual salary equal to 1.6 times the average gross annual salary in the country. The European Commission's EU Immigration Portal records that figure at 31,918.83 euros, with a 150 euro fee and a decision within 90 days.

The threshold is one of two filters. The other is qualification. A post that pays above the figure but does not correspond to a tertiary degree or equivalent experience does not qualify, and the reverse holds just as firmly.

How the figure is calculated and what it means

The 1.6 multiplier applies to the average gross annual salary in Greece, not to the minimum. That means the threshold moves whenever the average is updated, so a file prepared against last year's figure can be submitted below the current one.

The order of magnitude shows which market the card is aimed at. With the statutory minimum wage at 920 euros per month from 1 April 2026, the annual minimum across fourteen payments comes to 12,880 euros. The Blue Card threshold is roughly two and a half times that. No entry level production, warehouse, agricultural or hospitality post comes close.

Directive (EU) 2021/1883 permits an employment contract of at least six months, down from the previous twelve month floor. Qualification is evidenced either by a tertiary degree relevant to the post, officially certified and translated, or by five years of professional experience at an equivalent level, documented through employer letters describing the role and the period. Regulated professions additionally require recognition under Presidential Decree 38/2010.

Validity, cost and timing

Initial validity is two years. Where the contract is shorter, the permit is issued for the contract duration plus three months, without exceeding two years. Renewal also costs 150 euros and replacing a lost document costs 100 euros, according to the European Commission's record of the Greek route.

The Greek threshold is among the lowest in the Union in absolute terms, because it is calculated on a lower average salary. That does not make it easier for an employer comparing against local labour cost: the threshold is low relative to Germany and high relative to the Greek wage reality of the sector.

The card also carries rights the national permits do not. Directive (EU) 2021/1883 provides for intra-EU mobility: after twelve months of lawful employment as a Blue Card holder in one member state, the worker can move to a second member state under a simplified procedure. It also provides for easier family reunification than the general rule and allows periods of residence in more than one member state to be aggregated towards long-term resident status. For a business with sites in two or three member states, those features matter more than the difference in fees.

When the card is the wrong route

The most common error in businesses with mixed workforces is trying to route technical roles through the Blue Card because the process looks cleaner. A certified welder with fifteen years of experience has no tertiary degree, and the pay rarely reaches 31,918.83 euros a year in Greece. The file is refused and the employer has lost three months, which would already have been spent on the correct route.

For those posts the route is the dependent employment metaklisi, with its steps and fees in the E.4 metaklisi procedure and the full calendar in cost and timeline for hiring a third country worker. The European framework of the card, including mobility between member states, is set out in Directive 2021/1883.

The Blue Card belongs in a file of engineers, developers or production managers holding a university degree. For the rest of a factory's or a hotel's workforce, the 31,918.83 euro threshold rules it out before qualifications are even examined. The employers page describes how Werklist sorts posts by route before a file is opened.