Apologies ahead of time, as this post will be easier for me to type out in English than In Greek. Also TLDR at the bottom.

So essentially in 2019, I decided to get my Greek citizenship as everyone in my family has it except for me who was born in Canada and my parents finally gave up on trying to return to Greece.

After a long and exhausting process of papers, translation of official Canadian documents, money spent to correct Canadian documents due to discrepancies, and then finally after 1000 euros spent I was able to finally register my birth and become a Greek citizen.

Now comes the headache.

For the last 4 years I have been in a constant struggle to get my passport. The consular general at the time was VERY helpful, but then she returned to Greece and someone else took over, to when they started demanding a VERY different amount of papers.

They started asking for my CPP (Government Pension Plan) payments, 15 years of tax forms, university forms, letters from my employers, bank statements to see how much money I had, phone bills pretty much anything to prove that I have been living in Canada my whole life (even though I was 32 when I had applied for greek citizenship) While I have provided everything they requested they have given me 3 different answers to what I need to finally get my passport.

First they claimed I need some magical letter from the military. After waiting a year since becoming a greek citizen, they informed me that "the letter will be sent" for conscription. Hastily, I called the stratiologo in my state (peleponneso) and they have told me that I am not even in the system.

When I informed the consulate they told me to keep waiting. So I waited another year and began to get a bit impatient. I found out that all I need to get a passport was proof that I was a resident in an overseas country for over 15 years. When I told the consulate the exact specific document , they began to tell me I need something a μητρώο αρρένων.

Keep in mind that everytime I send them an email (which is the only form of communication they will accept) they will take upto a month to reply to me and usually with 1 sentence responses.

So when I finally asked how do I get the μητρώο αρρένων, they informed me that I need to figure it out with the greek social services office in Kyllini. After scouring the web and finding 10 different numbers I was finally able to get a hold of an office who told me I called the wrong service but finally gave me the right number for getting the μητρώο αρρένων.

So I call the number and the lady who was very helpful kept calling the consulate fucking stupid, and was saying they haven't given a μητρώο αρρένων since 2014 and that's not how it works anymore. She even told me to tell the consulate to call her directly if they have any issues.

After I transcribed our conversation, I wrote back to the consulate which just replied back "Please call the military and figure it out yourself). Everytime I also asked for AMKA number they have ignored me, so to this day I have no proof that I am greek.

At this point I don't know what to do. Even according to the stratiologo website they are not allowed to withhold my passport and give it to me. I have called the embassy in ottawa and they told me that I need to directly communicate with the consulate in Vancouver.

If anyone has any advice for me please let me know.

TLDR; I Became a greek citizen in 2021, but I have no proof I am a greek and the consulate refuses to give me a passport because it's asking for a number they dont give out anymore, knor does the greek military know i exist.

by PicaroKaguya

3 comments
  1. The Greek hen house oozes toxicity everywhere, I would have really given up after all this, good luck.

  2. This is Greece my friend. Tax payers’ money getting sucked into the black hole that Greek State is, siphoned into the pockets of people with no credentials or skills other than licking boots.

    I had a similar experience with the consulate in London for a different procedure and also with the Tax services in Greece. I gave up both procedures eventually. Basically my advice is, if you want the passport to relocate to another EU country, it’s worth the effort so go for it. Otherwise just forget about it. Best thing you can do is pressure the more reasonable people in Ottawa to try to make some sense to the ones in Vancouver or wait until they change. Also if you still have the contact details of that consular general who helped you before, maybe you can try getting in touch with her to explain the situation and hope she can still pull some strings.

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