Greece Schengen visa

🇬🇷 Hotel booking for a Greece Schengen visa

Yes — the Greek checklist line is "Hotel/ holiday home confirmed reservation", and it must clearly state the applicant's name and surname, the arrival and departure date, and the address of the hotel and its contact details. If the trip also covers other Schengen states, proof of accommodation is required in each of those member states, not just the Greek leg. A QR-verifiable hotel booking confirmation for your exact dates satisfies this — emailed as a PDF in under 60 seconds.

Greece does not use a single visa outsourcing partner worldwide, and assuming it does is the most common way a Greece application starts in the wrong place. In many countries — the UK and India among them — applications go to Global Visa Center World (GVCW), an Athens-based company that won a Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs tender in 2017 and began taking over Greece's visa centres in January 2018. But it is not universal. Greece's own mission page for the UAE sends applicants to VFS Global in Abu Dhabi and Dubai; the Consulate General in Istanbul collects applications through Kosmos Vize; and in the United States the Ministry's own pages describe booking directly with the Greek consulate for your state, naming no outsourced centre at all. Before you book an appointment or pay any service fee, open the page of the Greek mission that covers where you actually live.

Last updated: 29 July 2026

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Does Greece require proof of accommodation?

What the consulate expects

Global Visa Center World (GVCW), registered at 14 Alexandras Avenue, Athens, has run Greece's visa application centres in a large part of the world since January 2018, including the London, Manchester and Edinburgh centres serving UK residents and the Indian network. GVCW is not the route everywhere: the Greek Embassy in Abu Dhabi lists VFS Global's Abu Dhabi and Dubai centres for UAE residents, and the Greek Consulate General in Istanbul has outsourced collection of applications and biometrics to Kosmos Vize for the Istanbul, Trabzon, Bursa and Çanakkale areas (its page lists a service fee of €30 on top of the visa fee) while still allowing an appointment at the consulate itself on Turnacıbaşı Sok. 22, Beyoğlu. The document list below follows GVCW's UK tourism checklist for Greece; the core Schengen requirements are the same everywhere, but the local add-ons and the financial thresholds differ by country, so check your own centre's checklist.

A booking confirmation that prints the guest's name and surname, the arrival and departure dates, and the hotel's address and contact details covers the four items Greece's accommodation line names one by one — provided it is a genuine reservation the hotel can confirm if the consulate calls.

Typical documents for a Greece Schengen visa

Applications for a Greece Schengen visa commonly include:

Schengen application form, completed and signed, with details exactly as they appear in the passport — and note the condition Greece prints alongside it: the stay in Greece must be the longest of, or equal to, the stay in any other Schengen member state, and where the duration is equal, Greece must be the first state of entry
Signed, valid passport with at least two adjacent blank pages, issued within the last 10 years counting to the day you leave the Schengen area — an extended passport older than 10 years is not accepted, and you would need to apply for a new one — plus a photocopy of the bio-page (and of the signature page if the signature is not on the bio-page) and copies of any Schengen visas issued in the last three years with their stamps
Fully paid return travel tickets showing travel dates and a booking reference or e-ticket number and specifying entry to and exit from the Schengen area, submitted with a full itinerary for the whole trip and a receipt or payment confirmation stating that no outstanding balance is due — payment receipts issued by travel agents must be in English
Proof of accommodation — a confirmed hotel or holiday-home reservation clearly stating the applicant's name and surname, the arrival and departure date, and the hotel's address and contact details; if the reservation is in someone else's name, a joint-travel cover letter signed and dated by that person plus a copy of their passport is required; and if the trip also covers other Schengen states, proof of accommodation is needed in each of them
Copy of a travel medical insurance policy with minimum cover of €30,000 for repatriation, urgent medical attention, emergency hospital treatment and death, valid for all Schengen states and for the entire intended stay — if the cover comes through a bank, a bank letter of confirmation no older than 30 days is required, because a bank statement alone is not sufficient
Proof of current occupation — for employees, an employment letter no older than 90 days with an original stamp and signature from the company's HR department, addressed to the Mission and stating the date of recruitment and position, plus the last three months' payslips; self-employed applicants submit the last tax return form and an original self-employment letter from an external accountant, solicitor, bank manager or Companies House; unemployed, retired and student applicants submit a letter no older than 30 days from the Job Centre, pension service or their institution
Proof of sufficient funds — at the UK centre, personal current-account statements covering the last three months with at least 90 days of transactions, a closing balance no older than 30 days, and a minimum of GBP 40 per day of stay in the Schengen area (the daily figure and currency are set locally, so check your own country's checklist)

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How to get your Greece hotel confirmation

Search your destination and dates, pick a hotel, choose a confirmation style, and pay a small service fee. Your QR-verifiable PDF arrives in under 60 seconds — matched to your exact Greece Schengen visa dates, and verifiable by the consulate at any time. Full refund before you download.

Answers

Frequently asked questions

Which company handles Greece's visa applications — is it VFS Global?

It depends entirely on where you live, and this is the detail most guides get wrong in one direction or the other. In many countries, including the UK and India, Greece's visa application centres are run by Global Visa Center World (GVCW), an Athens company that took them over from January 2018 after a 2017 Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs tender — in the UK that replaced VFS Global, which stopped accepting Greek applications in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka in January 2018. But Greece has not moved everywhere: its own Abu Dhabi mission page directs UAE residents to VFS Global's Abu Dhabi and Dubai centres. In Turkey, the Istanbul Consulate General collects through Kosmos Vize. In the United States there is no outsourced centre in the Ministry's own instructions at all — you book with the Greek consulate covering your state and submit in person. Always check the page of the Greek mission for your country of residence rather than assuming a provider.

Greece wants my flights fully paid — does the same apply to the hotel?

The checklist treats the two documents differently. For flights it asks for fully paid return tickets plus a receipt or payment confirmation stating that no outstanding balance is due. For accommodation the wording is a "confirmed reservation", and what it must show is the applicant's name and surname, the arrival and departure date, and the hotel's address and contact details — there is no separate paid-in-full instruction on the accommodation line. That difference is about payment status, not about whether the booking is real. The reservation still has to be a genuine one the hotel will confirm; consulates do check, and a booking that cannot be verified costs you the application, with false or misleading supporting documents being a refusal ground in their own right.

I'm visiting Greece and one other Schengen country. Is one hotel booking enough?

No. Greece's checklist states that if you also travel to other Schengen states, proof of accommodation is required in each of those member states, and the same applies to proof of travel. Greece also only takes the application if your stay in Greece is the longest of the trip, or equal to the longest; where two stays are equal in length, Greece must be your first country of entry. If another country clearly gets more of your nights, that country's mission is the one you should be applying to.

What if I'm staying with a host in Greece, or arriving by yacht?

If a host in Greece is putting you up, the invitation cannot be a plain letter — the host's signature has to be attested by a competent Greek authority such as a KEP citizens' service centre or a police authority, and the letter is generally required to be recent, not older than 30 days. Greek consulates in the US word the same requirement as a letter of invitation, or affidavit, signed by the inviting person and duly notarised in Greece. If you are arriving by yacht, Greece additionally asks for a full itinerary dated and signed by the skipper, the yacht's registration, and mooring documentation for the entry ports in Greece.