What is provided by the new law?
This first provision, however, referred only to those who were born until 1945 and are alive today and not their descendants. Thus, it was addressed to a very limited number of interested people. Due to a new provision of last year (2017), it is now possible for the descendants of these Greeks of Jewish religion to regain Greek citizenship. This possibility is given even if this origin is only from one of the two parents of the applicant and regardless of his / her current nationality. This new legal provision was introduced to restore a historical and legal injustice and also to make the former law applicable.
The required documents:
Only at the beginning of 2018, the relevant circular of the Ministry of the Interior was published. This circular, which is in our possession, provides the necessary documents to be submitted at the competent Consular Offices of Greece. Today, therefore, this law has become fully active. The documents required refer to the Greek nationality of the applicant’s ancestor, as well as to his / her current country of residence and his /her relationship with the former.
The procedure:
Our firm is already processing a request from an Israeli, who is interested in acquiring Greek citizenship that his father lost when he moved from Greece to Tel Aviv, after the Holocaust. This application will most likely be the first to be filed under this new law. After our meeting with the competent department of the Ministry of Interior in Athens, we were informed that this procedure would be much faster than the procedure followed for naturalization cases. The estimated time for the processing of applications is expected to be 1 to 1,5 years from their filing.
