Documents for Travelling to Greece
What you need for a trip to Greece from Serbia — passport validity, children's documents, the green card, authorisation for someone else's car and travel insurance.
The paperwork for Greece is not complicated, but a few details can ruin the trip if they surface only at the border. Go through this list a week or two before departure — roughly the time you need to fix anything that is missing.
Passport
- Serbian citizens need no visa for Greece (Schengen) for tourist stays of up to 90 days within any 180-day period.
- Your passport must be valid at least 3 months beyond your planned departure date from the Schengen area — in practice: returning at the end of August means the passport must be valid at least until the end of November. For peace of mind, many recommend 6 months.
- The passport must be no older than 10 years.
- Children must have their own passports — regardless of age; entries in a parent’s passport are long gone.
- If a child travels without one or both parents, a notarised consent from the non-travelling parent is recommended.
Car documents
| Document | When needed |
|---|---|
| Vehicle registration document | always |
| Driving licence (a Serbian licence is valid) | always |
| Green card | always for Serbian-registered vehicles — check that Greece (GR) is not crossed out on it |
| Authorisation to drive | if the car is not registered to the driver — notarised, ideally in English or bilingual |
| ”SRB” sticker / country marking | if not part of the plate |
The green card is issued by the insurer the vehicle is insured with; with most it is included or issued for a small fee. Without it, at Evzoni you may be turned back or made to buy border insurance.
Travel health insurance
- The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) does not apply to Serbian citizens — Serbia is not part of that system.
- A travel insurance policy is therefore practically mandatory: an examination or intervention in Greece without insurance is paid out of pocket and can get very expensive.
- Take a policy for every family member, for the entire trip, and check that it covers medical repatriation.
Small things that are easy to forget
- Copies/photos of documents — photograph the passports, vehicle registration and policies; if anything is lost, everything moves faster.
- The vehicle registration must not expire mid-trip — check the date.
- Pets — they need a pet passport, a microchip and a valid rabies vaccination; ask your vet at least a month ahead.
- Carry the booking confirmation/correspondence with your host — border police occasionally ask where you are staying.
Next step: driving to Greece — the route, borders and tolls in one place.