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Comment by voisin | Hacker News Reader

My maternal grandparents were both born in Greece. I looked into getting Greek citizenship and it appeared like I could have done so, however I was turned off by the mandatory military service which does not have an age limit. Perhaps relaxing the military requirement and providing a path to citizenship would help reverse the population collapse?

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Maybe the opportunity to live and work in the European Union is worth about 12 months of military service? Do you realise what a huge opportunity that is?

If I was born in the US or Canada or, really, anywhere else, I would've gladly accepted the service for the chance to become a European citizen.

I do, and would happily start paying taxes and even invest a ton of money in the EU if I could move there. I can’t afford to take a year away from my family and business to do the military service. A few people have commented that I could pay a fine once I am 45 so I’ll plan to do that.

As a Greek guy, mandatory military service = doing various chores and jobs for the Greek army for a year for free, so maybe you chose well. Wait until you are 45, pay the fine and you will be fine.

I would happily pay a fine. When I was looking (7-8 years ago) I do not recall there being an option for this. I am 40 now so would happily look at doing this in 5 years. Thanks for the tip

It's a PITA but you can contact the consultae and pay a small fine if you can prove that you were never actually in greece and you've lived somewhere else the entire time.

That being said you probably want an immigration lawyer because they suck at this.

There might be a good argument for just, like, not having a draft. But giving immigrants a special exception seems a bit odd. Also I really doubt a draft is holding back a demographically significant number of people.

I was exempt from Brazilian military service due to permanently residing abroad. From a quick Google search, it seems Greece offers something similar.

Dealing with this is such a hassle. One of the reasons I left Greece was to avoid the mandatory military service. Now I have to provide seven years of evidence that I've been living abroad, and that proof has to be either university enrollment or employment. I can't cover the employment part because I've been contracting and freelancing for the past four years. There's no way I'm paying a fine of 6 to 12k euros, mostly out of principle.

Depending on your age and studies you might be able to skip it altogether and pay a small fine.

I thought it did have an age limit, I think 45 comes to mind for some reason?

You are correct. The mandatory military service is for males 18-45.

Thanks, another poster mentioned this. I am 40 and will plan this for when I am 45. I can’t take a full year out of my life to do military service and would happily pay the fine.

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