My residence permit expired in 2006  - I didnt try to renew it as never use it, never asked for it etc etc etc....until now. I need it for the car....am going to police station tomorrow but has anyone renewed theirs recently and can advise what I need to take - photos for sure but not sure what else!!

Hi. If my wife and I were to retire to live on Crete, having obtained a residence permit, would we also have to have a national (Greek)I.D. card? Cheers. Phil

Hi folks. Is it a legal requirement to have a residence permit on Crete? I would have thought that with Greece being in the EU you wouldn't need one. I know you previously had to have one but why would you need one now?  You answers would be appreciated. Thanks Andy

When we first moved here 4 years ago  we had to get a residents permit, then we went a year later to get it updated.

The man told us we didn`t need to get another one  again, we did however obtain  an A.M.C.A, local offices near town halls have  an office issuing  these, you take passports, bank statements, that prove you  transfer over 10 grand a year here, anything less and the tax man will charge you.

Residents permits are not now an essential  thing here , according to our lawyer, as long as you have a bank statement for your accountant ,to prove you have  over 10 grand a year transfered to support you.

If you are renting legally, your landlord/lady will need your tax number to put on the contract as this is then filed with their tax office.

I also had to provide my tax number when I went with our landlord to DEH to get the electricity put in my name.  Same was true with OTE.  Vodafone also need the tax number if you want to get a contract phone.

Also, we were asked for tax number when we opened a Greek bank account (they also asked for residents permit but when we explained we couldn't get that until we'd been here 3 months, they were happy to accept passport).

We were recently in my husband's bank and were giving over paperwork and the teller looked at us and asked why we had residents permits as we were EU citizens!

You have to have an Affeme , this has your tax number on it and other things so I believe.

We pay tax in England as it is cheaper so far to do that. If you live here long term you have to prove to the accountant that you can support yourself, so you need to transfer about 10 grand a year to the  bank here, and get a statement from them.

HSBC as far as I know have a " fax indemnity", we have not used that  way to transfer money here to the bank. A fax indemnity  will transfer money over for about 20 quid or so.

We use currenciesdirect.com, if you transfer money over 500 quid with them  you pay no commission and get top rates and not tourist exchange.

I cannot recomment this company highly enough , as they look after you well.

I think you need to get a good accountant here to sort you out, our Greek friend sorted all this out for us.

Do you have to obtain the "residence permit" from your local police station or is there another local source?

I live about 10 miles West of Chania

cheers

Vince

I was told to go to the Tourist Police in Heraklion & went armed with all my papers, oh no!!! Even though I live in Heraklion prefecture, I come under Agios Mironas Police for the issuing of Residence Card. Not a problem I got the card 18 months ago. It should be your local Police station that you apply to.
Mine was definately NOT issued by the Tourist Police, although I am aware that in Heraklion some peoples have been.