Greece metaklisi E.4 and the procedure the employer actually follows
The E.4 metaklisi under articles 61 and 62 of Law 5038/2023 starts with the employer, costs a 200 euro fee per worker and is decided in 50 to 60 days.
The E.4 metaklisi starts with the employer, not the worker. The employer files an employment approval request under articles 61 and 62 of Law 5038/2023, pays a 200 euro fee per third-country national, and only once the approval is issued does the Greek consulate grant a national entry visa.
That sequence is why a metaklisi file does not behave like a visa application. The worker asks the Greek administration for nothing at the first stage. The company proves the post exists, that it sits inside the approved quota, and that it can pay the wage. Everything downstream, from the consular appointment to the residence permit, hangs on that first decision.
Who files and what gets examined
The competent body is the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, through the General Directorate of Migration Policy and the one-stop service covering the area where the company is registered. Filing is electronic, through portal.immigration.gov.gr, using the company's TaxisNet credentials. Legal entities must use the entity's own credentials, not the personal credentials of the director.
The request states the number of posts, the identity and nationality of the workers, the occupation, and the employment period. The file described in Joint Ministerial Decision 95931/2024 (Official Gazette B 1807/2024) contains a full-time employment contract of at least one year, a copy of the identification pages of the travel document, proof that the 200 euro fee was paid, and a tax clearance statement evidencing the employer's financial standing.
The income threshold is what rejects most small employers. Administrative practice requires gross revenue of at least 22,000 euros per post for an employer who is a natural person, and at least 60,000 euros per post for a legal entity. A company turning over 150,000 euros cannot document three simultaneous metaklisi files against that threshold. In agriculture the file adds a certificate from the Ministry of Rural Development and Food matching cultivated area or livestock to the number of workers, calculated in Human Labour Units.
The steps, with their timelines and their costs
The National Register of Administrative Procedures (mitos.gov.gr) records a processing time of 50 to 60 days for the E.4 employment approval once the file is complete, while the framework introduced by Law 5275/2026 sets a 90 day ceiling for the one-stop service, with limited extensions. Both clocks start when the file is treated as complete, not when it is first submitted.
| Step | Authority | Cost | Indicative time |
|---|---|---|---|
| E.4 employment approval | One-stop service, Ministry of Migration and Asylum | 200 euros per worker | 50 to 60 days |
| National entry visa | Greek consulate in the origin country | 180 euro consular fee | At the consular appointment |
| First residence permit | One-stop service | 150 euro fee plus 16 euros for printing | After entry and the hiring notification |
| Permit renewal | One-stop service | 150 euro fee | Before the current permit expires |
State fees for one post, from approval to the first residence permit, come to 546 euros. That is the state side only. It excludes translations, certifications, medical checks in the origin country, the flight, and accommodation. The full cost and calendar sit in the cost and timeline of hiring a third-country worker in Greece.
Three places where weeks disappear
The first is the quota. An approval is issued only if the joint ministerial decision still holds a slot for that occupation in that region. Once a sector ceiling in a region is used up, the application is refused for a reason no document can cure. The current allocation is broken down in how Greece's metaklisi positions are distributed.
The second is the occupation. The occupation written on the approval binds the contract, the visa and the residence permit. If a company seeks approval for general labour and then signs a contract for a welder, the residence permit is not issued and the file returns to the start. An occupation change cannot be patched at the end of the route.
The third is the filing system itself. The migration portal keeps each step open for 30 minutes and logs the user out automatically, accepts PDF files up to 10 MB each, and holds a saved draft for 30 days before cancelling it. A file with high resolution passport scans hits the size limit, and an application left in draft for longer than a month is lost in full.
An employer who books flights before the approval is issued pays twice, once for the ticket change and once in delayed start dates. Plan backwards from the date of the employment approval, not from the date you need the worker on shift.
Greece also decides in advance which origin countries are open, through the bilateral agreements set out in Greece's bilateral labour quotas. Werklist runs the corridor from Nepal, India and the Philippines into Greek employers and keeps the metaklisi file aligned with the occupation the worker will actually perform. The employers page sets out how that work is split between the company and us.
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