Consulate General of Greece — Local services in New York

Ok where do I begin. I only write reviews unless it’s really Positive or a very Negative experience. I work in aviation so I fly all over the world and some countries requires Visa for me to enter freely and Greece is one of those countries and my company reimburse me (I’m a USA Resident green card holder with a foreign passport) Last year I applied and this lovely gentleman was really nice and helpful and eventually issued me a 1 year multi entry visa which was awesome because we fly there April -October. Fast forward to 2018 I when to the same embassy and same gentleman and he started out helpful then out of nowhere a older white lady with the gray blondish hair decided to drop in and said: Do you have all the required documentation and WHY YOU KEEP COMING HERE ? WHY HERE WHY DONT YOU GO TO SPAIN OR FRENCH EMBASSY WHY YOU KEEP COMING HERE! I replied in the softest tone informing her that Spain and France don’t require a visa for my passport only Greece and Germany. She replied saying : I don’t know about that don’t sound correct to me BUT I STILL DONT UNDERSTAND WHY ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU KIND OF PEOPLE WANT TO COME HERE FOR GREECE VISA LIKE THIS IS RIDICULOUS then she shakes her head and said something in Greek to her coworkers who uncomfortable laughed (which is just as bad). She said a lot of other rude thing with racist tones some I won’t even say on here. At this point I was in total shock and disgust of what she just said but I keep my cool although I was very annoyed at this point but I was representing my company. The gentleman continued to help and she keep butting in to the point of me having to tell her that she was a very very rude and disrespectful person and she should stop addressing me. I’m so surprised that she’s allowed to work in a place like that. I’m an african American and what she said was Extremely RACIST and Disrespectful, I informed my company about her actions and they were in disbelief and wanted to get involved but I told them no this is something I need to deal with on my own. I ending up getting a 3 month visa instead of a year which defeats the purpose also they started the new visa days after the old one which almost got me in trouble because I landed without an active visa. This experience was very bad. This my first time dealing with a racist person. I did further research to see which countries are the most racist and I was just shock at the result. I really hope this Post helps improve the way the workers deal with clients of All race and remember that they are representation of the country of Greece in Ever since Aspect of there JOB. A job is doing your best service for...

I have been trying to contact the consulate but no one answers the phones at any extension and when I try to leave a message the line disconnects. I submitted an application with supporting documents over 2 months ago to obtain greek citizenship and no one responded to my email. I sent another email 2 weeks ago asking for a response. Still no one answers.

I passed by the embassy in person to get the answers I am looking for. They refused me entry since I did not have an appointment. When I told them that they are non-responsive via email they told me I am the first one to have said this. I told them I have the emails to prove it and that on average it takes me 1 to 2 months to get replies from them. The person who answered the door claimed they return emails within 5 days which is obviously not the case and yes I checked my spam to ensure this. The also told me that they don't answer the phone there on purpose and they only communicate via email. This is an abysmal way to serve the Greek community, especially the largest one in the diaspora. I was forced to call a Greek embassy in another state, even though I live in NY, and they were much more friendly and helpful there. At a minimum they answer their phones there. I simply want to enjoy the right to Greek Citizenship to which I am entitled to. However, they do little to help me and put obstacles into place. I sometimes wonder why I even bother. I own property in Greece, I pay taxes there, and I visit Greece every year to see my family and friends there. Yet I am made to feel that I am ένας ξένος. Μου κάνει μεγάλη εντύπωση η συμπεριφορά τους και η έλλειψη εξυπηρέτησής τους. Πάντα στην ζωή μου προσπαθούσα να βοηθάω άλλους έλληνες λόγω της ανατροφής μου και της μεγάλης μου αγάπη για την...

I think it's important to recognize positive experiences as much as we are motivated to complain about negative ones, so i promised myself i would make the time to leave a good review in the aftermath of a pleasantly surprising experience I had renewing my passport Sept 4th, 2025. This experience was significantly better than any i have had at the Consulate General office in the past 20 years. I showed up 2 minutes before my appointment, was greeted at the door where i was expected, signed in, waited very briefly, and before i knew it the task was completed in under 30 minutes. I have to admit i was completely blown away by how quick and easy it was this time. I admit a passport renewal is routine and should not be as challenging as other work that needs to be done here, but something generally felt different in the flow and orchestration of the office that left me thinking that many process improvement have been made. And i sincerely hope this is now a trend that will continue.

The only room for improvement i can identify in my recent interaction with the consulate is the actual booking of the appointment on the website, as it was not clear what slots were open or how to go about booking one. And i feel this can be greatly improved with some basic modern UX web design. But the subsequent email reminders that were sent were very clear and had vital information about what materials would be needed to bring.

All in all I am left with a very positive feeling and comfort knowing the Hellenic state seems to have made significant improvements in how their consulate is run in New York. Things seem to be much,...