Market is happy with startup attraction

Greek companies are giving positive feedback to the tech visa, a new national entry visa valid for one year, which provides the possibility for highly skilled people to work in Greece for startups on the national register of startups (Elevate Greece) – i.e. for technology companies based or present in this country.

If until now Greece has attracted digital nomads – citizens of third countries who take their laptop and remotely provide their services to employers outside Greek territory – now, with the tech visa, it also invites company founders and employees of high specialization to work at Elevate Greece businesses and quickly obtain a residence permit in the country. More than 800 startups have already registered with Elevate Greece.

“The ecosystem does not evolve if it does not have access to people coming from different markets, with different knowledge and hiring. At the same time, for 40-50% of the jobs that startups open in Greece, they don't find staff,” Panagiotis Karabinis, managing director of Endeavor Greece, the organization that proposed the establishment of the tech visa, tells Kathimerini.

“Startups, due to their outward character, need executives from many industries with international experience. However, the Greek ecosystem, even if it has improved, is not as mature as that of other countries, the population is still shrinking, while there is a gap between the labor market and the education system. This is especially the case in the technology industry, where new programming languages are being developed and artificial intelligence requires the cultivation of new skills.”

He is seeing increased interest from Endeavor member companies in bringing staff to Greece from countries outside the EU, estimating that “in third countries there are opportunities either because there are ecosystems that are not doing very well, or because there is an abundance of talent in countries like India, or because, for various reasons, there can also be a talent drain (e.g. Turkey, Egypt).”

The tech visa can be extended to immediate family members, while shortly before its expiration one can apply for a blue card, a residence permit that is valid for two years.