EU long term resident status in Greece and what changes for the employer

In the fifth year of lawful residence a third country worker can apply for EU long term resident status, under Directive 2003/109/EC and Law 5038/2023. Once it is issued he no longer depends on a named employer, he reaches the labour market on equal terms, and the employer loses the permit as a retention lever.

The conditions as the law sets them

The basis is Directive 2003/109/EC on the status of third country nationals who are long term residents, as published on EUR-Lex. Greece applies it through the Migration Code, Law 5038/2023, which succeeded article 90 of Law 4251/2014, and the files are handled by the Aliens and Migration Directorates of the Decentralised Administrations under the Ministry of Migration and Asylum.

Three conditions apply together. First, five years of lawful and uninterrupted residence in Greece immediately before the application. Second, income at least equal to the annual earnings of the minimum wage, increased by ten percent for each dependent family member. Third, the income must not come from recourse to the social assistance system. Health insurance is required as well, along with proof of sufficient knowledge of Greek and of elements of Greek history and culture, as the Code sets out.

What matters to the employer is that the ten percent uplift is per dependent. A worker with a spouse and two children needs thirty percent above the annual earnings of the minimum wage. A salary sitting on the line, with a large share of earnings paid as undeclared overtime, kills the application in year five, and the worker finds out then rather than earlier.

What changes, in Greece and in a second member state

Until the status is granted, a residence permit for work ties the worker to the employer who filed the metaklisi. Changing employer runs through a procedure, with time and a state fee attached. Long term resident status ends that dependence. Directive 2003/109/EC guarantees access to employed and self employed activity on terms equal to nationals, with limited exceptions for activities connected to the exercise of public authority.

In practice the worker can resign on Monday and start with a competitor the following week, with nobody's permission. Companies that built a staffing plan on the assumption that the permit keeps people in place treat year five as a loss point. Retention becomes a question of pay, accommodation and progression, as it is for any Greek employee.

The status also reaches past Greece. Directive 2003/109/EC gives the holder a right to reside in a second member state subject to conditions, for work, study or other reasons, on a separate application to that state. It is not free movement equivalent to that of an EU citizen, but for a group with plants in Greece, Italy and Romania it is a real tool for moving staff without restarting the procedure from zero.

The same right works inbound. A worker who obtained long term resident status in another member state can come to Greece on a route different from the metaklisi under the Migration Code, and without depending on the change of employer procedure that governs ordinary permits. Greek companies use it less than they could, compared with the better known single permit.

What the employer does before year five

Two actions pay off. The first is payroll honesty from year one: declared earnings that clear the statutory line including the uplifts for dependents, so the file holds when the time comes. The second is support with the language requirement, because Greek language certification takes months of preparation and cannot be arranged in the final month.

The arithmetic is simple. A worker who reaches the status and stays is cheaper than a fresh metaklisi with fees, travel, training and months of waiting. The conversation about the terms of staying belongs in year four, not year six. Route detail and timelines per case sit on the employers page.