COPY LINK

For members

VISAS

How to apply for an Italian family visa

Applying for a visa to relocate your family to Italy can be a complex and sometimes lengthy process. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 21 February 2023 10:22 CET
Updated: 19 March 2023 09:20 CET

There are a number of hoops to jump through when applying for an Italian family visa. Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images/AFP.

There are many reasons why you might want your family members to join you in Italy.

Maybe you’re newlyweds, or maybe you’re a single parent who’s just been offered a great job. Maybe you’re the primary carer for your elderly dad, and don’t want to leave him alone back home.

But just like no two families are alike, no two family visa applications are exactly the same. Here’s what you need to know about the process of applying for a family visa in Italy.

What is a family visa?

Family visas allow immediate relatives — barring your brothers and sisters — to join a person already possessing legal residency in Italy for longer than 90 days and to receive long-term residency (the infamous permesso di soggiorno).

If you are the legal resident, remember that their stay in the country is conditional on yours — you will be asked to demonstrate that you can support them in an adequately spacious household.

There are two types of family visas: family reunification visas and family cohesion visas. Both are explained below, based on the latest official information available.

Who is eligible?

In Italy, family visas can be issued to spouses, children, and even parents — under the right circumstances.

Spouses or civil partners alike can apply for family visas, as long you have documentation attesting to the relationship.

Children can apply if they are still minors, or if they are disabled and require care. You need not be the biological parent — children of spouses are also eligible.

Minor-aged children can be included in family visa applications. Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP.

Lastly, parents can also enter Italy on family visas, provided they are unable to care for themselves and have no other capable children or dependents in their home country.

If you are the parent of an unaccompanied minor legally resident in Italy, you can also apply.

Siblings and more distant family, meanwhile, are not eligible.

Plan your arrival

When it comes to family visas, how you arrive in Italy is important. It’s here the two types of family visas become distinct.

Family cohesion visas are issued at the border when families arrive together. This is typically easiest for people arriving from visa-free countries, which receive an automatic 90-day tourist visa on arrival.

If you aren’t from one of these countries, you may be able to apply at your home embassy for a familiari al seguito visa, which will allow your relative to accompany you.

If you arrive together, you will be able to apply from within Italy, at your local Questura, which typically gives you more time to get your documents together.

You will still need to prepare some key documents in your home country, though — so read on.

If you arrive seperately, you will need to follow the more complicated route to apply for a family reunification visa. These are issued by the embassy in your home country and have some additional requirements spelled out below.

There are different rules in place depending on whether you arrive in the country together or separately. Photo by Ina FASSBENDER / AFP.

Prepare your documents at home

Many of the documents you will need to apply for a family visa must be arranged in advance while you are still in your home country.

For both categories, you will need proof of your relationship — like a marriage or birth certificate — that has been translated and certified by the local Italian embassy.

If you are traveling with a child but without one of their parents, you will also need a letter from the other parent or guardian that has been notarized by the embassy or consulate in their country of residence.

To receive a family visa for your child, partner, or parent, you will need to meet certain minimum residency, housing, and income requirements, and be able to demonstrate them.

First, you will need a residence permit (permesso di soggiorno) valid for at least one year (or, if you are arriving at the same time, proof of a long-term contract that will secure you that permit).

When you apply, you will also need to demonstrate you earn a certain minimum yearly income set annually by the government.

This amount is equal to the annual social allowance or assegno sociale plus 50 percent for each dependent.

In 2023, the assegno sociale jumped significantly due to rises in the cost of living. Now, it is equal to €6,542.51 per year.

That means, if you are bringing a single dependent, like a spouse, you need to earn €9,813.76 minimum per year. If you’re bringing two kids, a spouse and an elderly parent, that jumps to €19,627.27.

You will also need to demonstrate that you have adequate housing for all these dependents.

That means a housing contract for an apartment with a minimum of 45 square meters of space and one bedroom for two people. Or, in the second scenario above, an apartment of more than 110 square meters, and three bedrooms.

Lastly, if you are caring for an elderly relative over the age of 65, you will need to provide proof of health insurance that will cover them during their stay in Italy.

You’ll need to demonstrate you have adequate housing before you can bring family members to Italy. Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP.

How to apply

Once you have these key documents together, you will take a slightly different route depending on where you are coming from.

If you are married to an EU citizen or come from a visa-free country, you may enter the country on a 90-day tourist visa and begin your application at the local Questura (see below).

If, however, you typically do require a visa to visit the EU, and you are arriving separately, the person you are joining in Italy must first apply for something called a nulla osta, a pre-clearance issued by the local authorities, on your behalf.

The process of applying for a nulla osta has been simplified greatly over the years, but it can still take weeks to secure — and keep in mind the person living in Italy will need to already have their residency permit before they can apply.

The process begins by buying a €16 tax stamp at the local post office. Then, they will use an online form with the Ministry of the Interior to apply.

They will need a SPID (government services login) to use the form, which they can get at your local post office.

After uploading some info, they will usually receive an appointment to bring the key documents outlined above to your local Questura.

When the application is finished, they will be given an original copy of your nulla osta, and the embassy in your home country will be automatically notified.

This clearance is valid for only six months, and you will need the original when you apply for your family visa at the embassy — so get your family member in Italy to pop it in the mail as soon as you can.

To begin the application, you will usually need to make an appointment with the embassy to go through your documents — though double-check with your local consulate, as some countries, like Canada, prefer documents be mailed.

You’ll usually need to make an appointment with the Italian embassy in your home country in order to start your application. Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP.

If so, you’ll need a big envelope, because the documents you need are numerous.

These are:

A completed application form for a national long-stay visa (see an example from the Italian Consulate in London here);
A copy of your passport, valid for at least 3 months, which the embassy will take while considering your application;
The original and a photocopy of the residence card of the person you are joining in Italy;
A written declaration from that person requesting your presence and attesting to the fact that they meet the minimum requirements;
A copy of the housing contract showing adequate space;
An S1 form showing the homeowner’s consent (example here);
A copy of the nulla osta from the local Questura;
Proof of one-way travel, being either a plane ticket or, if driving, proof of license, insurance, registration, and rental documents, if applicable; and
Four passport photos.

For minors, you will additionally need:

Written consent from any parents or guardians not traveling with the child, notarized by the local embassy;
Photocopies of both parents’ passports

If a parent is joining you, you will need to provide proof of money transfers, rental receipts or other examples of their dependency, plus medical documentation showing that they cannot care for themselves.

Last but not least, you will need to pay a fee of €116 and enclose proof of payment with your application.

What next

If you arrive together or enter Italy on a tourist visa in the situations spelled out above, you will still need much of this documentation (aside from the nulla osta) when you apply at the local Questura for your residency.

Your residence permit will be valid for the same duration as the one held by the person you are staying with in Italy.

If you do arrive separately and apply at your local embassy, the whole process can take as long as six months or more. However, at the end of it, you will be able to work and access benefits immediately on arrival.

If not, you will need to wait until your application for a stay permit has been processed by the local Questura before you can take work or access benefits.

Please note that The Local cannot advise on visa applications. For further information, visit the Italian foreign ministry’s visa website.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

How easy is it to get Italy's new digital nomad visa?

The introduction of Italy’s long-awaited digital nomad visa, a full two years after parliament first approved the idea in principle, has generated significant buzz in international remote working circles.

Many questions remain, however, about how to access the visa.

We put some of those to Italian immigration law expert Nick Metta from Studio Legale Metta.

He told us that while in many respects the decree is surprisingly lenient, it also contains some clear hurdles, particularly for self-employed workers.

Besides those obstacles laid out in the text of the law itself, Italian consulates have the power to introduce their own rules, making the visa more difficult to obtain in practice.

We discussed the ways in which the law is more lenient than anticipated, as well as potential obstacles prospective applicants can expect to encounter.

Let’s start by looking at some of the ways in which the application criteria are relatively generous:

The skills threshold is low

The decree requires applicants to be “highly skilled”, which is defined as having a three-year degree with six months’ relevant experience, an accredited professional qualification, or equivalent experience – all of which, Metta says, is surprisingly lenient.

“We would have expected a high level of scrutiny over the “high skills”, but high skills can be really pretty much anything.

“They say if you have a college degree and six months work experience, that’s enough. Does that qualify you as having high skills? I don’t think so.”

As for equivalent professional experience, Metta notes that getting a professional qualification or licence is often easier abroad than in Italy.

Italy’s digital nomad visa allows you to work from anywhere in the country. Photo by David L. Espina Rincon on Unsplash

“Look at lawyers: lawyers could get a licence in Spain without any exam until a few years ago. So a lot of students used to go to Spain, take up their licence and go back to Italy to practice.

“There are still some situations like that, where licences in certain areas are granted with much less scrutiny than would be the case in Italy.”

Access to the Italian job market

In the past, Metta says, Italy’s laws have been staunchly protectionist when it comes accessing the Italian labour market.

“In the previous immigration law, if you wanted to hire someone from overseas you had to demonstrate that there was a lack of available candidates in the same industry for the same role in Italy,” he says – but in the new law, “there is zero about that”.

The decree also doesn’t say that remote workers most be employed by clients or companies based overseas, in theory opening up the domestic job market to non-EU nationals.

“It’s not direct in saying you can be employed by an Italian employer, but there are so many references that make it an obvious conclusion that one could be hired by an employer from Italy.”

Leniency around income and background checks

Metta observes that the law doesn’t specify that your income – which must be at least three times the minimum amount that would grant you free access to Italy’s national health service, or just under €28,000 – must come from work.

That means other income sources, such as rent, could count towards this amount.

The decree also doesn’t require you to undergo a criminal background check or personally sign an affidavit affirming that you don’t have a criminal record.

It’s only employers or clients based in Italy, Metta clarifies, who must self-certify that they’ve not been convicted within the last five years of specific crimes relating to migration, sex work, exploitation of minors or labour exploitation.

What’s involved in applying for Italy’s digital nomad visa? Photo by David L. Espina Rincon on Unsplash

He notes, however, that individual consulates may require the applicant to supply a criminal background check.

“The fact that the law doesn’t ask for a background check in your own country doesn’t mean the Italian consulate won’t ask for it, because for the elective residency visa and other visas the Italian consulates have thrown it in.”

Potential hurdles

While many of the requirements for the digital nomad visa are more relaxed than experts predicted, Metta notes that there are a number of potential hurdles.

Many of these relate to being self-employed – which a majority of remote workers are – as freelancers typically lack a steady income or proof of employment.

Here are some of the obstacles that would-be applicants for the digital nomad visa are likely to face:

Employment contracts and references

The decree requires that applications provide either an employment contract or a ‘letter of collaboration’.

Most freelancers don’t have the former, which means they’ll need to ask their clients to supply the latter.

“Hopefully they have simple engagement letters or letters of collaboration, a track record that they can demonstrate,” says Metta.

He notes that with Italy’s elective residency visa (ERV), consulates often request letters of reference from an accountant certifying your spending and annual income – so something similar might apply here.

“It is very possible that they might ask for a letter recommendation from a client you might have had for a while or evidence of signed engagement letters from other clients; something that would give the consulate similar peace of mind to a contract with an employer.”

Accommodation requirement

The law requires an applicant to prove they already have accommodation in Italy.

While it doesn’t say what kind of proof is required, in the case of the ERV, consulates have made it clear in the past that booking an airbnb doesn’t count: you must have either a rental lease agreement or a property ownership deed.

Metta says he gets usually approaches this rule by advising applicants who don’t own Italian property to sign a 12-month lease agreement, adding a clause that allows them to leave with two or three months’ notice.

Proof of income

For self-employed workers whose annual salary tends to fluctuate year on year, proving you meet the government’s minimum income threshold might be a challenge.

The consulate is likely to request tax returns and bank statements, “and once again, they might ask for a letter of reference from your financial advisor or accountant confirming what you’re saying,” says Metta.

“It’s almost like when you go to apply for a mortgage: if you’re self-employed it’s a little bit tougher.”

When it comes to the ERV, consulates have in the past sometimes raised the income threshold significantly above the government’s limit, and Metta suggests the same could happen here.

Can you make a living while travelling the world? Italy’s new digital nomad visa is expected to make this easier. Photo by Persnickety Prints on Unsplash

He compares two applicants: one “a person who has been working for Microsoft for ten years, wanting to go to Italy with a letter from HR saying it’s totally cool with us if this person moves to Italy”; another “self-employed with six months of experience just fresh out of college with a very very limited track record.”

In the latter case, he says, “the Italian consulate wants to be impressed. €28,000? Ehh…”

“What we recommend is, try to make your application as solid as possible,” he says.

“So if you are fresh out of college with only six months of experience, make sure you have, once again, a letter of recommendation, leads, people who are promising to engage you. Whatever you can, try to throw it in.”

The consulate has absolute power

As mentioned above, an Italian consulate has the power to arbitrarily raise the government’s minimum income threshold and tighten the application criteria – and if yours is strict, there’s not much you can do about it.

“The Italian consulates have discretion based on geography, socio-economic situation, and so many other factors,” says Metta.

While it’s still very early days for the digital nomad visa, some applicants have already reported being turned away by their local consulate.

A member of Facebook group Expats Living in Italy said they were recently informed by the Miami consulate that applicants “must have a masters degree or certification and have contacts with “a company like Apple” to be eligible.

SHOW COMMENTS

Url copied to clipboard!