ΣΥΜΦΩΝΟ ΣΥΜΒΙΩΣΗΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ
Σύμφωνο συμβίωσης στην Ελλάδα
Έλληνα πολίτη ή πολίτη ΕΕ με αλλοδαπό πολίτη
ιθαγένειας τρίτης Χώρας
What is the difference for Hellenic citizen between concluding
a PARTNERSHIP CONVENTION or be married?
After the adoption of the amendments (Law 4356/2015) to the law of Partnership Conventions (law of 2008), the meaning of this contract is, in fact, equated to marriage (regardless of the form of the marriage civil or religious in church).
The difference between the Marriage and Partnership Convention is that to get married can only persons of the opposite sex and the norms of Greek Civil Code (Chapter of Family Law of Greece) automatically has an appliance for the spouses. While the Partnership Convention can be concluded by partners of opposite sex or the same sex and the parties are given the opportunity to leave the default effect of the family law of Greece or to settle in advance for the future personal, property and inheritance rights. Another difference between a marriage and a contract of cohabitation is the ways of their dissolution.
When a marriage is dissolved by mutual consent, it is necessary to contact the notary and each spouse must submit his or her attorney when drafting the dissolution act.
In the event of the dissolution of a marriage due to a dispute between spouses, it is necessary to apply to the court.
And in the event of termination of the Partnership Convention, the parties either mutually or unilaterally must apply only to the notary, that is, without a court.
The rest of the marriage and the Partnership Convention do not have other differences, since both spouses and parties of the contract must open a common family unit in the municipality of the place of residence and file a general tax return every year.
Note: the Partnership Convention between a citizen of Greece and a citizen (citizen of third countries) must be executed either in Greece or in the Greek Consulate.
What has changed in the position of cohabitants of the citizens of Greece?
As already mentioned above, the category of residence permit of cohabitants equated to the category of the spouse of a citizen of Greece. Accordingly, a residence permit will be issued for a period of 5 years, not 1 (one) and 2 (two) years, as it was previously provided for by the instructions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs from 2011.
In addition, filing a dossier and consideration of an application in this category from 08.22.2018 now takes place at the place of residence in the migration services, and not in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as it was before, which caused a lot of inconvenience and extra expenses to those who lived outside of Athens.
Under the new instructions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Greece dated November 6, 2018, examination of applications in this category who were submitted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs before August 22, 2017, remains under examination in the same service.
For those who are awaiting consideration of their dossier in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I recommend that both parties to the agreement visit the department of Ministry of Internal Affairs, Evangelistrias Street 2, 6th floor, Monastyrki district) - reception day only Thursday - in order to enhance your statement, mainly to prove to the employee who is examining the dossier that the union is valid. Regardless of the date of submission of the application, the residence permit will be issued for a period of 5 years.
What rights do have now those who have entered into a Partnership Convention?
It became possible to issue a residence permit in Greece to dependent family members (parents), as well as to any other relative of the cohabitant, regardless of the degree of kinship, provided that this relative is held by a Greek citizen and needs personal care from a Greek family for health reasons.
Not so long ago, for example, a citizen of Greece could get married another person without informing the partner, who as a foreigner also lost the right for a residence permit. And now how is the contract can be broken?
Previously, a Partnership Convention must be registered only at the registry office at the place where the contact was concluded, and an act of registration was issued. But from 2016, the partners, after the registering of the contract, must register it in the Municipality of their affiliation (where Greek citizen belongs), and there a common family unit opens for them. Thus, it is no longer possible to enter into a new marriage or other Partnership Convention until the existing Partnership Convention is terminated.
The contract of cohabitation can be terminated:
1) by mutual consent, if the parties are to the notary (anyone, not necessarily to the one who made out the agreement on cohabitation) and draw up an act of mutual termination of their contract or
2) unilaterally, if one party does not agree to rescission. At the same time, the interested party to the contract of cohabitation in its termination must send an invitation through the bailiff to sign an act of mutual termination of the contract to which the other party is not. We count three months from the moment of the other party’s failure to appear on the appointed day, and then it becomes possible to sign an act of termination of the contract of cohabitation unilaterally.
If the Partnership Convention is less than three years old at the time of its termination, then the party that has acquired the right to a residence permit in Greece under the Partnership Convention loses the right to further legal residence in Greece. In other words, after the expiry of the residence permit and not having a three-year contract of cohabitation, it will be impossible to renew the residence permit, except if the foreigner had a different residence permit in Greece before, to which he can return again.
How quick for the applicant of Partnership Convention the residence permit will be issued?
It depends on the overloading of each migration service at the place of residence.
Compared to the fact that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Greece has not issued such residence permits for several years, but only renewed the temporary document (μπλε βεβαίωση), now the residence permits will be issued only for the actual couples. It is possible that partners will be called for an interview, because the state has set a goal to weed out fictitious unions.
What documents does someone need to have to conclude a Partnership Convention?
Do they need a certificate from the consulate that the person is not married?
When concluding a Partnership Convention, documents are required that proving the identity of the parties to the agreement (passport and a valid visa for an alien).
When signing a Partnership Convention with a notary, the parties declare under personal responsibility that they have no obstacles to its conclusion (that is, that there is no kinship between the parties, no other marriages or Partnership Conventions).
If one of the parties, when signing a Partnership Convention, conceals one of the above facts, which will be revealed when registering an Partnership Convention in the registry office, the sanctions provided for by the law on the provision of knowingly false data may be applied to them, and the Partnership Convention will be considered invalid.
a sample of a PARTNERSHIP CONVENTION IN GREECE
N O T A R Y
NUMBER …….
PARTNERSHIP CONVENTION
In Athens today, on the ….nd of …….. of the year two thousand ……. (20…), day of the week …… and in my notary office, which is located at ……….., were presented before me, the notary and resident of ……, ………………………, with professional resident in ……. and with Greek Tax Number …………., submitted as tax payer in the competent tax office of …. Tax Office of …….., the following persons, who are not excluded by law mr & mrs: from the one side …………………., private employee, born on …/…/19…, with place of birth………, resident of……….., address: (…………….Street), possessor of police ID card with number ………../…-…-……. issued by Police Office of ………..and with Greek tax number………, issued by Tax Office of …………and with social insurance number …………….. and from the other side …………….., ………, daughter of ……and ……. ………, private employee, born in ….. on … ……. 19.., resident of………., address: (………Street), possessor of a …….passport with number…….., issued in …..on ..-..-20… and expires on ..-..-20.., with day of entrance in ….. on ..-..-20…, who is not aware enough of the Greek language, but she is perfectly aware of the Russian language, in which she can communicate, as she declared to me, escorted by the hired by her interpreter through whom all her upper statements are here registered, who is of her absolute trust and choice, Mrs …………… , and since the interpreter, after answering to my relevant question, that she is a Christian Orthodox and she prefers to give a religious oath, took the legal oath on Holly Book, that she will accurately translate everything to be said and stated of her above mentioned grantor from Russian to Greek and vice versa.
The above contracting parties, after having declared, that none of them has any legal impediment, from those referred in Article 2, paragraph 2 of Law 4356/2015, the existence of which,
results by law to the invalidity of this free partnership convention, namely that there is no marriage or free partnership convention between them or for one of them, or a blood relation
in a straight line unlimited and sideways till the fourth degree, nor a bridging bond in straight line unlimited, nor adoption among the adopter and the adopted, requested the drawn up
of the present act, with which they declare that, in order to regulate and organize their common partnership, they -through my deed- conclude a free partnership convention,
which will be governed by the provisions of Law 4356/2015 (Sheet of the Government’s Newspaper 181A’/24-12-2015) and the following specific terms and conditions, which are
mutually agreed and accepted, and the parties have also explicitly stated that there is no fictitiousness of this convention:
CONCLUSION OF THE PARTNERSHIP CONVENTION:
A) SURNAME OF THE PARTNERS: The present partnership convention does not change the surnames of the parties. Each Party has further stated that it gives his consent to the other party to use his surname in social relations or to add it to its own.
B) PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE PARTIES: In the personal relations of the parties among them, the provisions regarding the relationships of spouses from marriage are applied accordingly, unless there is a different specific regulation in Law 4356/2015 or any other law.
C) ASSOCIATED RELATIONS: During the partnership’s convention, the parties retain their own ownership on the movable and immovable assets, that they own today and on everything else, that will be acquired in the future (throughout the duration of the partnership convention) by them. Also, the parties retain, throughout the duration of the present convention, their self-sufficiency for all the financial obligations, that they have till today and for all those, which may be occurred in the future as well (till the present convention be valid) independently from the other contracting party.
The parties cannot waive the right to participate in the acquisitions before this claim is born.
D) SURNAME OF CHILDREN AND PARENTAL CUSTODY: The children, in case they are born during this convention or within three hundred days from the dissolvement or annulment of this act, it is agreed by their joint and irrevocable declaration, that they will have the surname "……………" and that the parental custody will be shared by both parents and will be jointly exercised by them, by applying the provisions of the Civil Code of Greece related to parental custody for children, resulted from marriage. If the present convention is dissolved or annulled, the Article 1513 of the Civil Code of Greece shall apply accordingly to the exercise of parental custody. The declaration of the parties concerning the surname of the children is irrevocable, that is to say, it cannot be recalled.
E) INHERITANCE RIGHTS: In regards to the inheritance rights of the parties of the present convention, the provisions of the Civil Code concerning spouses are not applied accordingly, as both parties resign today from the relative inheritance rights from today and from their right to the legal fate.
F) TERMINATION OF CIVIL PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT: This partnership convention can be terminated: (a) by a later agreement of the parties, which shall be made in person due to a notary document, (b) by uniliteral declaration of one of them via notary deed, which will be powerful, provided, that this deed will be given under notification to the other party by bailiff and three (3) months have elapsed since that notification; and (c) automatically, if a marriage is concluded among the parties. In the first two above mentioned cases, the dissolvement of the present convention shall be effected and be valid by the submitting of the relevant notary deed or the unilateral declaration to the registrar, where the convention’s establishment is registered, and in the third case it shall take place automatically.
G) ALIMONY AFTER THE TERMINATION OF THE CONVENTION: In case of dissolvement of the present convention in any way, the Parties shall waive mutually any claim for alimony or any other financial compensation from the other Party.
Nor shall any of the parties be able to claim from the other Party any other form of financial compensation and hereby waives its right to do so.
H) APPLICATION OF PROVISIONS OF LAW 4356/2015: Upon the explicit agreement of the parties, the provisions of Law 4356/2015 apply in matters not otherwise regulated in this Law, and in addition, where there is a corresponding reference to the aforementioned Law, the provisions of the Civil Code.
I) THE VALIDITY OF THE CONFIRMATION AGREEMENT: I, the notary, reminded to the parties, that the validity of this convention begins from the submitting of a copy of my present act to the Registrar of their place of residence and its registration in the Specific Book of the Registry, whilst the contracting parties have stated, that they will take care of the submitting and registration of my present act in the above-mentioned book of the Registry themselves. I, the notary, paid under consideration to the parties, in accordance with Law 4356/2015: (A) that the fictitiousness of the free partnership convention implies its invalidity, that its invalidity is declared by an irrevocable court decision, that in case of defects of will, provisions for the annulment of marriage are applied, and the relevant court decision is required to be irrevocable, that the irrevocable court decision, which invalidates the present convention, shall revoke its effects retroactively and that the annulment or of the present does not affect the paternity of the children and B) in case that the present convention of free partnership is dissolved, as mentioned above, among others, by a unilateral declaration trough a notary deed made by of one of the parties, provided that this deed has been previously notified to the other party by a bailiff and three (3) months have elapsed since this notification, the proof of notification of the invitation must be attached to the notarial deed for the unilateral solution. Lastly, I reminded to the parties, in accordance with the provisions of article 8 par. 4 of Law 344/1976, as they are in force today, that the possibility of submitting of the present convention to the competent Registry and registering this to the upper Registry has each one of the parties. The above statements of the parties were registered in this pact, written in four (4) sheets. A court duty stamp of EUR 1.00 was applied for the original and EUR 4.00 for the copies. For notary rights resulting from this deed and notary rights resulting from the issue of two (2) copies, 78,00 Euros were collected. On the collected notary rights was collected 18,72 Euros as VAT. This deed was read clearly and aloud to the parties and to the above mentioned interpreter, who translated the whole convention from Greek to Russian language, of which she is perfectly aware, according to the above and after hearing it, they confirmed it and agreed on its content, then it was signed by the parties, the above interpreter and my notary, as the law defines.
THE CONTRACTING PARTIES THE INTERPRETER
STAMP:
N O T A R Y
SIGNATURE OF THE NOTARY
APOSTILLE
Convention de la Haye du 5 Octobre (1961)
1. Country GREECE
This public document
2. signed by mr.
3. acting as a NOTARY OF ATHENS
4. Stamped be the seal of the above Notary
certified
5. in Athens 6. Date
7. by mrs. ……..- Judge
8. № …../20..
9. Seal 10. Signature ……….. - Judge
STATE STAMP HELLENIC REPUBLIC ATHENS COURT OF FIRST STAGE
Our office has many years of successful experience in legal support and support of the execution of a cohabitation agreement, with further obtaining a residence permit for a period of 5 years.
