VERY TRICKY ONE! - EURO Citizen?
 

I currently live in Australia. I was born in South Africa. Planning 7 month trip to Western Europe.
I hold a valid Australian Passport and (obviously) citizenship.
I no longer possess South African Citizenship/Passport.
I have an expired Greek passport (due to my father and mother being of Greek descent).

I am leaving to travel Western Europe for 7 months in July. I have made an application for a new Greek passport. Due to the slow process and me leaving this last minute, the passport will not be ready before I leave.

My question therefore is:
Am I a citizen of the Euro if I have held a valid passport in the past?
If so, how can I prove my citizenship? Is there a specific document I should seek?
Are there any other recommendations?

Reason: I want to avoid paying and applying for a residency permit in the Netherlands. Every cent counts as a student.. so if I could avoid the 500 odd euro that it costs for a residency permit this could be fantastic. (60% of my trip will be on a Law exchange program with Tilburg University).

<< Am I a citizen of the Euro >>

I think you mean are you a Greek citizen. The Euro is a currency, not a country.

The only proof of your Greek, and therefore EU, citizenship is a valid passport. Expired passport won't do, esp if you don't live in an EU country. What you can do is to still apply for your new passport, get it delivered home and ask your family to send it to you in Europe by secure, tracked delivery. Or you may be able to get it issued more quickly in Greece, but I don't know.

You need a greek passport, you should better consult your nearest Greek consulate to find out how long they need to issue a new passport for you.
For your information it only takes 2-3 days in Greece.

A Greek national identity card would be sufficient to enter most European countries. You can perhaps get one of those faster than a passport. If not you might want to find out of you could get one issued easily at the Greek consulate in Amsterdam. If so, just go to Europe with your Australian passport and all of your Greek citizenship documents.

kerouac
The Greek identity card cannot be issued outside Greece,they are issued from the police dept. in Greece, and it only takes one visit and 15 minutes to get one.

"they are issued from the police dept. in Greece, and it only takes one visit and 15 minutes to get one."

Hmmmmm...are we talking about the same Greece?

It's very unwise to rely on advice from strangers on an Internet forum for advice like this. No-one here can tell you if you are a Greek citizen or not.

You need to find out from the relevant authorities in either Greece or Australia.

7thson are you Greek?
did you have a different experience from what i wrote?

French identity cards used to be issued on the spot, albeit not in 15 minutes (more like an hour). The new secure version has to be sent to Securityland and only comes back a week later.

i am sorry, but what have the french identity cards to do with the greek ones? I was talking about the greek ID's as OP is of greek origin and you said he could obtain a greek ID from a consulate in Australia.
The greek ID's btw have no secure version, they look the same way as they did 40 years ago.... and yes it takes only 15 min to get one.....and yes we are talking about the same Greece...

"It's very unwise to rely on advice from strangers on an Internet forum for advice like this"........as well-meaning as it may be.

Contact aGreek Embassy in Australia for the best information.

http://greece.visahq.com/embassy/Australia

One snag that I can see might be that by renouncing your South African citizenship to become Australian you might also have renounced your potential Greek citizenship. I don't know if Australia recognises dual citizenship - some countries don't.

As I said earlier this is not really a matter for a travel forum to give advice about.

There is no possibility to give away or to loose a greek citizenship !!!
The Hellenic Republic recognizes dual citizenship, you can get a Greek passport even if the country of your second citizenship doesn't recognize it.
BUT before you follow here the advice of people that know nothing about Greece and it's laws, you should better contact your nearest Greek consulate.. and there are many allover Australia