The Greece visa from Pakistan
Greece
The short answer. Greece is a Schengen country, so the visa is the standard short stay type C and the document list is the Schengen one. Greek files are mostly island holidays, and islands make the accommodation part of the file harder than usual because every hop is another booking the consulate wants to see. What every Schengen file needs
Greece is the Schengen country people go to for the islands, and the islands are what makes the file different.
Every night has to be accounted for, and an island itinerary has many
A Schengen file has to show where you will sleep for the whole trip. On a city break that is one hotel booking. On a Greek holiday it is Athens for two nights, Santorini for three, Mykonos for three, Athens again for one, and four ferry crossings between them.
The consulate is not trying to make this difficult. It is asking the same question it always asks, which is whether this is a real trip that has been planned. An itinerary with gaps in it answers that badly: three nights unaccounted for in the middle looks like somebody has not decided, or does not intend to come back.
What that means in practice:
- Bookings for every night, named and dated, not "an island hotel".
- The ferry or domestic flight bookings between the islands, which are also
what proves the itinerary is physically possible on those dates.
- The return flight home.
This office puts the whole thing together as one itinerary rather than a folder of confirmations, because one document a consulate can read in order is worth more than six it has to assemble.
Cruises that call at Greek ports
A cruise is a different question again, and the answer depends on the ports rather than the ship. A sailing that calls at Greek islands needs the Schengen visa; one that also calls outside the Schengen Area may need more than one visa, and the rules differ for a passenger who stays aboard. We work the full list out from the itinerary before anything is paid.
If a cruise is what you are thinking about, the sailings this office books are on the cruises page.
Athens, and family visits
There is a Pakistani community in Athens, and a steady number of family visit applications with it. That file is the standard Schengen family shape: a formal invitation from the host, their residence permit, their income, their housing, and your own ties at home to answer the question an invitation cannot.
When to apply
The season is the whole story. From June to early September the islands are full, the ferries are full and the appointment calendar is full, in that order.
Three months ahead for July and August. Six to eight weeks for May, June and September, which are better months to be there anyway. Out of season, many of the island hotels and some of the ferries simply do not run, which is its own kind of problem for a file that needs bookings.
Do I need a separate booking for every island?
Yes, for every night. The file has to account for where you sleep from the day you arrive to the day you leave, and on an island trip that is several hotels plus the crossings between them. We put it together as a single itinerary so the consulate reads one document rather than sorting through six.
I am taking a cruise that stops in Greece. Is the Greek visa enough?
Only if every port on the sailing is in the Schengen Area. If the ship calls anywhere outside it, that country may want its own visa, and whether it does can depend on whether you go ashore. Send us the sailing and we will work out the full list before you pay a deposit.
Is Greece a cheaper or easier Schengen visa?
The fee is the same ninety euros everywhere, and the rules are the same rules. What is genuinely different about Greece is the season: the summer pressure on appointments is severe, and the shoulder months are much easier in every sense.
Can I island hop on a single entry visa?
Yes. The Greek islands are Greece, so moving between them is domestic travel and does not use an entry. Entries are counted when you cross into or out of the Schengen Area as a whole, which is why a trip that dips into Turkey and comes back needs a multiple entry visa, and why that is worth saying before the file is built rather than after.
Before you pay anything
Requirements change without announcement, and the arrangements for lodging an application in Pakistan change too. We confirm the current position before every submission rather than trusting any list, including this one.
Send us the islands, the dates and who is travelling. We will build the itinerary and tell you what the file needs before you spend anything.