Golden Visa in Greece at a Discount: How Russian Millionaires Enter Fake Gay Marriages to Evade Sanctions

While real same-sex couples in Russia are still trying to obtain even the most basic recognition of their relationships, some affluent Russians have found in the civil partnership institute a more pragmatic use — as a way to cut residence permit costs for Europe by half.

What Happened

By given телеграм-канала «База», среди российских миллионеров набирает популярность схема получения греческой «золотой визы» через фиктивное однополое партнёрство. Механика простая: один россиянин покупает недвижимость в Греции, второй заключает с ним соглашение о сожительстве (σύμφωνο συμβίωσης) — и оба получают ВНЖ, хотя инвестицию оплатил только один. В результате каждый участник схемы платит примерно вдвое меньше, чем если бы оформлял визу самостоятельно.

We cannot independently verify the scale of the phenomenon — “Baza” does not disclose its sources, and other media have not yet published their own investigations on the topic. But the legal mechanism that makes such a scheme theoretically possible is quite real, and Doberman.media I looked into it.

How this works from a legal standpoint

The Greek investment residence program is indeed structured so that the investor’s spouse or partner receives a residence permit together with them — with no separate investment threshold. This rule is designed for real families, but the law does not formally state that the partnership must be “real” in any provable sense.

The second key element is the civil partnership institution, which at a certain point became available in Greece to same-sex couples, including foreigners. Notarized cohabitation registration is a relatively simple procedure: you do not need to prove that there is no marriage in your home country, and you do not have to go through a complicated process like registering an official marriage at the civil registry office. That very ease is what creates the loophole.

The third condition, reported by “Baza”, is — the need for second citizenship for at least one of the “partners". Since 2022, Greece has indeed stopped issuing golden visas to Russian citizens without a passport from a third country. It should be noted that the current investment threshold by 2026 has risen to €400,000–800,000 depending on the region, so the €250,000 amount mentioned in the original message (and, accordingly, €125,000 per person) is probably a relic of older program rules.How real and reliable is this as a scheme

The legal loophole looks plausible, but not risk-free:

Cancellation of residence permit.

• If the immigration authorities suspect a sham — for example, if they find no evidence of cohabitation or inconsistent statements in an interview — the status can be revoked retroactively. Given the growth in such schemes across EU countries, immigration services are increasingly attentive to “arrangements of convenience,” and same-sex couples have historically been scrutinized especially carefully — precisely because sham same-sex marriages/partnerships have already been used by migrants as a way to legalize their status. Fraud against the state.
• In most EU jurisdictions, entering into a partnership solely to obtain resident status is classified as fraud against the immigration authorities and may lead not only to cancellation of the visa, but also to criminal prosecution. Hidden status in Russia.
• The participants’ real spouses remain in the Russian Federation, and a certificate of no marriage in Greece is not required — meaning that, from a formal point of view, a person can be officially married at home and at the same time register a partnership abroad. This does not solve the problem for the person themself — during a later review (for example, when applying for citizenship after 5+ years), the inconsistency easily comes to light. The actual spouses of the scheme participants remain in the Russian Federation, while a certificate of no marriage in Greece is not required — that is, from a formal point of view, a person can be officially married at home and at the same time obtain a partnership abroad. This does not solve the problem for the person themselves — during a subsequent check (for example, when applying for citizenship after 5+ years), the inconsistency easily comes to light.
• The sanctions account has been suspended. Получение ВНЖ не отменяет банковский комплаенс: европейские банки всё равно проверяют происхождение средств и гражданство клиента отдельно от статуса резидентства. То есть ВНЖ облегчает передвижение по Шенгену, но не «обнуляет» санкционные риски автоматически.

And now for ethics

This is where the discussion becomes truly awkward, especially for the readers of our queer magazine.

An argument in favor of the scheme usually goes like this: it's a victimless crime, no one is harmed, and the participants are adults using a legal mechanism not according to the letter of the law, but not breaking it literally either.

The counterargument is more serious. The civil partnership institution in Greece exists because real same-sex couples were historically denied basic rights — inheritance, joint ownership, legalization of relationships. Every proven case of such a partnership being fictitious gives conservative politicians and media a reason to say: "See, these partnerships of yours are just a loophole for fraudsters.", undermining trust in the institution as a whole and creating a pretext for tighter scrutiny, which in the end falls on the very people who already have to prove the authenticity of their relationships to officials more often than heterosexual families.

In other words, a privilege that affluent people use as a convenient loophole is for many LGBTQ+ people the only accessible path to basic legal protection. Using it as a financial workaround — even without malicious intent — devalues the very category that people resort to for the sake of savings.

What is the result

The scheme described by «Baza» is technically plausible and is based on real features of Greek migration law. But from a legal standpoint it skirts the edge of fraud, and from an ethical standpoint it looks outright parasitic — using an instrument created to protect a vulnerable group in order to save on investments for wealthy people whose actual sexual orientation no one verifies.